Last week I met with a sales professional who was pretty darn good. At sales. She told me “last year I made 88 thousand. But in November, things got slow, and now in February, I have nothing left. I have been eating off of credit cards, and I don’t know where all that money went. I have over $12,000 in credit card debt.”
It’s not an uncommon scenario among people who make a living off of sales commissions. Real estate agents, car sales people, insurance agents – all of them are able to “sell” their way out of a financial hole. So how did she get in this financial hole? For starters, she was focused on one goal. Sell as much as possible. Generate lots of income. Period. Strong sales compensates for weak financial management skills, and when the sales dry up for whatever reason, the crash is hard and fast.
The solution?
First step: Change your focus. From sales, to net worth. Choosing the right metric makes all the difference in the world. Set realistic financial, sales, and personal goals.
Second step: Find out where you spent all the money. Download your check book register to QuickBooks, Excel, or any other program that lets you sift through the data easily and find out where you spent your money.
Third step: Create a budget. Replenish your cash reserves, plan not only your income and expense, but also your assets and liabilities. Make the budget robust enough to handle the variability in your income stream while adding to your net worth.
Fourth step: Develop processes that support your goals. Formalize your sales process to fill your sales funnel from prospects to sales. By keeping your sales funnel filled at the top and following your process, sales droughts are leveled out and financial stresses are reduced. Follow the sales processes religiously! Develop financial processes that alert you well before any financial issue becomes a business threatening disaster. Build in automation to make sales and finance functions efficient.
Fifth step: Breath. Control your thoughts and don’t panic. Decisions made in the heat of the moment are rarely good decisions. Gather data, develop a solid plan, and implement.
That’s the path out.
