A lot of sales reps I work with have been caught in the time/money trap – what they make is DIRECTLY tied to how much they work. But the great thing about sales is you can create a “flywheel” system that SCALES UP your ability to earn without requiring more of your time.
And if you put in a bit of effort, your flywheel system will pay off BIG TIME.
What Is The Flywheel?
Let’s talk about what a flywheel is. Literally speaking, a flywheel is a heavy wheel that, when turned, continues revolving over and over again thanks to its size and momentum.
Think of the Price is Right. You know the big, heavy wheel at the end that keeps spinning and spinning? Like that.
Now what does this have to do with sales?
Well when you first start out in this job, it takes a LOT of effort to get things rolling. Making those first few sales, building up your network from scratch, getting into the groove with your processes—it’s a ton of work.
But once you DO start making progress, your flywheel starts spinning on its own momentum.
And that means:
- You can ask for referrals
- People in the industry already know you before you even reach out
- Your sales process gets refined and improved
- You can farm/upsell current customers rather than having to do lots of cold outreach
Simply put, everything gets easier.
You don’t have to work as hard to see results. And that means less effort for better outcomes.
The flywheel does all the work for you.
How Do You Get Your Flywheel Moving?
How do you get your flywheel moving? And just as importantly, how do you get it moving faster?
Well we’ve got three strategies covering just that. And we’ll start with…
1. Impetus
As the old saying goes…
“The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.”
Procrastination is wasted time. And the sooner you start doing something, anything for your future, the more that investment is going to pay off.
On top of that, it takes a LOT longer than you think to build a successful business or brand—7 to 15 years according to some experts. Do you want to be raking in the spoils of your success when you’re 35 or would you rather be on your way to 60?
If you’re looking for low-risk, high-reward things you can start doing TODAY to get things spinning, start spending more time with social selling. Interact with industry experts on LinkedIn. Connect with others you’ve met or talked to over email. Start building insightful, valuable content of your own.
But no matter WHAT you do, just do SOMETHING.
2. Focus
I’ve seen so many reps fall victim to having too many irons in the fire. It seems like a good idea at first, right? Diversify your approach. Casting a wider net yields more fish. Yada yada.
But what they don’t tell you is that you have a limit to the amount of energy you can spend. There are only so many hours in a day. You only have so much work you can do before you snap. And life, at least one worth living, isn’t just about the work.
So what you need to be doing is focusing your flywheel.
Stop spending time and energy on the tasks that don’t drive results. Don’t send in that RFP for a deal you’re never going to get. Cut out the in-person meetings that you’re always ditched on. Find what ISN’T WORKING. And get rid of it.
On the other side of that, double down on what IS working. Find the one channel that’s driving the most sales, whether it’s cold outreach, upselling current customers, targeting inbound leads—whatever.
And then hit that channel HARD. Get good at it. Like really good. And spend the majority of your efforts on knocking that channel out of the park.
Once you start seeing some really killer success here, only then should you think about getting your other flywheels going.
3. Scale
Your time is best spent on the activities that scale your earnings, that multiply your value without multiplying your work.
These are the activities that you can perform across your clients without having to deal with any guesswork.
For example, how are you following up with first-touch leads? Are you just emailing them randomly whenever they pop into your head? Or are you following a strategic cadence that’s proven effective?
The second option is of course going to be the best. When you follow a system, a framework, you don’t have to spend time guessing, hemming and hawing. Instead, you just follow the steps, 1…2…3…4… And because it’s so systematized, you can knock out MORE follow up work in LESS time than if you handled things randomly.
The hard part is knowing where to start with cadences. But not to worry, I’ve got you there too.
This is one of the starter cadences you’ll find in the Selling Made Simple Academy. Feel free to use it as a jumping off point for your leads too.
- Day 1 – Connect on LinkedIn
- Day 3 – Email – Case study for a related business using your product
- Day 10 – Email – Link to a “how-to” blog post that focuses on a common problem in their industry and how your product can help solve it
- Day 12 – Call > Voicemail to explain that you’ll send an email > Email link to another case study and reference your call in the email
- Day 14 – Email – Provide some hard data on the buyer’s problem that they might find useful
- Day 20 – Email – Straight forward ask for a meeting
- Day 25 – Call > Voicemail > Email asking for a meeting
No one ever said sales is easy, especially when you’re first starting out.
But when you create a flywheel sales system, you make selling 10X simpler by being able to earn referrals, build trust at a distance, refine your process, and upsell current customers.
