This is an easy topic to quickly glance over with some surface discussion on marketing and sales strategy, but being that I'm typically unsatisfied with surface-level discussion, I've dug deeper and consistently found these three problems:
1. Expectations of employees are too high. The story often goes like this: you started the company because you were working for another and thought you could whatever they were doing better and weren’t opposed to taking on some risk -- after all, you fear nothing.
Related: 5 Questions Great Managers Need to Ask Themselves Daily
So you quit your job, opened up shop and after a few months realize that you can, in fact, do it better, resulting in some great early success. Next thing you know you’re a couple years in -- or maybe more -- and have a number of people working for you, some of which are responsible for growing the business through sales.
The problem comes when you realize that no matter how great they appeared at the point of hire, they just don’t seem to want to work as hard as you. You expected to put the processes in place, give them all the necessary tools and just sit back and relax while they grow your business, right? Wrong.
Finding salespeople that are naturally wired to treat your business like it’s their own are like unicorns -- impossible to find. In fact, if you think you have one please hold it captive, as the scientific and business communities are highly interested in studying this creature.
Do not make the mistake of creating an expectation that your employees are going to work like you work or think like you think, because if they did, they’d own their own businesses and wouldn’t be working for you. Instead, you must provide them with the proper leadership and structure to help them grow and be more successful. Read More
