The CEO, owner or whomever is “in charge” must be involved in sales activities.

The old saying remains…”Nothing happens until something is sold.” Unfortunately, this is not altogether true as much happens whether or not anything is sold and it all costs money. Payroll, fixed overhead, work-in-process, advertising, marketing, debt service, etc. What is really meant by this saying is that nothing productive occurs until something is sold, or, in even more basic terms, no sales = no revenue. No revenue = no business.

That is the basic lesson: No sales = no revenue = no business.

There is nothing more important than the sales effort and yet I see many small business owners delegate the sales responsibility to another, preferring not to be involved in this aspect of the business, rather choosing to allocate it elsewhere. Here’s a simple rule: If you are destined to be a business owner, then you are destined to be a salesperson. This where the true action is. The success or failure of your business, while dependent upon many aspects, is certainly significantly determined by the success of your sales effort.

So much valuable information and feedback is gleaned from the sales process that it is fundamentally necessary for an owner (or CEO) to be actively involved in the process. There should be no better salesperson than the owner. After all, he should know more about his product or service than anyone, thus leading the way in both selling and training the sales force. The buying public wants to know who stands behind the business, whose guarantee is on the line, whose commitment to quality the product is bound to, whose word is behind this venture. The answer is always the owner, thus the owner must, and should, be on the front lines selling his product, putting his name on the deal and standing behind what he offers and delivers.

There is no better place for the owner to learn what the response is from the market firsthand. To be successful, this is mandatory and can only be accomplished by putting oneself in the front line. Reports from the front line are not adequate; firsthand experience is the best teacher of all. Having information filtered through sales people is unreliable. Firsthand experience works. If you engage in the sales process, you will learn more about what the customers want, what the barriers are, how pricing is working, how you stack up against competition and on and on it goes. Additionally, you will be better able to gauge what your sales force should be accomplishing and which excuses for lack of sales are valid and which are not.

There are many excuses given for not doing this and all of them spell disaster. If you are not willing to engage in the sales effort, do not open a business—it is highly unlikely you will succeed. There is no way an executive can be effective if he is not involved in the sales effort firsthand and significantly. But beware, you must also be training others as once the sales process is better understood, the sales effort then should be offloaded to trained sales people capable of delivering success using the information and tools you have learned.

I suggest that the CEO, manager and/or owner always remain in a sales capacity, but possibly be reduced to occasional involvement when appropriate once the sales effort has been debugged and launched once the CEO/manager has established an understanding of it from firsthand involvement. In addition, understand that personal goodwill with your most important customers is an effective and valuable strategy for protecting your business if/when your sales manager leaves to go elsewhere, presumably with your accounts in tow. This won’t be much of an issue if you have significant contact with your major accounts. In other words, you’ll be protecting your business through firsthand involvement.

Simply stated, among your many duties, sales is most important for an owner of a small business. Do it—it is not as hard as it may seem. Let your passion and knowledge carry you.