going out of business . When looking to invest in a company , Robert takes the business owner out to dinner and asks them questions to see how good their business is . “ One of the questions I always ask is how do you guys get customers ? How do you guys find new business ?” Robert said . “ And if the answer is anything along the line of word of mouth , I ’ m like , ‘ Yeah , these guys aren ’ t going anywhere .’ Because you know who uses word of mouth or thinks that ’ s how sales are done ? It ’ s people that don ’ t know sales . Word of mouth is very difficult to scale , and it ’ s not in your control . Sales is not a foreign object that controls you . Sales is an extension of what you do .”
6 .
Reject Mediocrity . To make a lasting impact in your field , the most important decision you can make , according to Robert , is to reject mediocrity . Robert says , “ The road of mediocrity leads to failure ,” and “ In the long run , ‘ good enough ’ is never good enough , whether in our personal lives or in our careers .”
7 .
Outsource What You ’ re Not Good At . If you ’ re not good at making phone calls , outsource someone to do that . If you ’ re not good at follow up , outsource it . Do the things you are good at and outsource the rest .
8 .
Get Sales Coaching .
As the owner or CEO of the company , you must understand sales so you don ’ t get taken advantage of by someone . The way to get better at sales is by getting a coach . “ I used to race cars , and I was an okay race car driver , but I never won a race ,” Robert said . “ I noticed that everybody who was winning races had a coach . How can you get somewhere if you don ’ t know what good looks like ? As soon as I got a coach , he got in the car with me and he said , ‘ Don ’ t do that . That ’ s bad .’ And I ’ m like , ‘ But it feels good .’ And he said , ‘ Well , do you want to feel good ? Or do you want to win races ? My job is not to make you comfortable . My job is to coach you .’ And I started winning races . You ’ ve got to have a coach . You must get better at it . You can never outsource the knowledge of sales . You can outsource salespeople , you can outsource calling or campaigns , but you ’ ve got to know it to the degree that somebody can ’ t con you .”
9 . Stay Hungry . As you become more successful , it ’ s easy to fall into the trap of feeling comfortable and becoming complacent . Always remember that there is another company looking to take business away from you . “ One of the hardest things about becoming more successful is success ,” Robert said . “ Because you know what happens when you have a little bit of success ? You ’ re not that hungry young person looking to take on the world . You get to a point where you look around , and say , ‘ I love my Tesla . I love my house . My significant other loves me most of the time . Life is really good .’ Don ’ t forget , there is somebody out there like you were many years ago who wants to take it away from you … The bigger you are , the bigger the bullseye is on your back .”
To remind him to stay hungry , Robert has a granite sign in his office that he sees every day that reads , “ Every day , somebody wakes up with the sole intention of kicking your ass .”
10 . Always Be Selling . One of the best ways to avoid becoming complacent is to make it a goal to sell
something every day . “ You can have the best accounting system ,” Robert said . “ You can have the best CRM . You can have the best tools , but nothing happens until you sell something … so if one of your top three tasks every day isn ’ t to sell something , you ’ re going to fail . You may not fail tomorrow . You may not fail next year . But inevitably , you will .”
11 .
Create A Sales Culture In Your Organization . While quality and customer service are important , too much emphasis on these and not enough emphasis on sales can be a problem . Robert tells his entire company that every employee is a salesperson and continually repeats this message to keep it top of mind . “ We seem to have permeated this culture where as long as we do a great job for our customers , it is just going to work out ,” Robert said . “ And I ’ m like , ‘ WHOA , it ’ s all about sales . Everybody in this room is a salesperson .’”
12 .
When Starting Out , Put All Your Energy Into Sales .
When Robert started his company , he made the rookie mistake of thinking his reputation would bring in business . If he were starting out today , his approach would be to make selling his No . 1 priority . “ Our first year forecast was $ 5 million in sales ,” Robert said . “ And that was because I had sold the biggest security company in Canada and was a big guy in the security business . My head was this big . I figured , ‘ I ’ ll put a shingle on the door and people will beat a path to us . We won ’ t have to sell because people know who I am . It will be easy .’ We sold $ 400,000 our first year . It took us five years to get to $ 6.2 million . In the next five years , we got to $ 100 million . In the next three years , we got to $ 200 million . If I was starting out today from zero , I would put all my energy on sales . I would try to really differentiate what I am and how I go to market . And I would have the confidence that once I got the customer , I ’ ll take care of them .”
13 .
Let Bad Experiences Be Your Inspiration , Not An Excuse . It ’ s not uncommon for people to shy away from something after having a bad experience . For example , some people say they hate sales or dislike selling because of a bad experience with salespeople . But Robert encourages you to use these experiences as your motivation rather than an excuse for why you don ’ t have a sales system in place or why sales isn ’ t a high priority . “ I had a very negative experience when I was 12 years old when this door-to-door salesman sold my mom a vacuum cleaner ,” Robert said . “ She didn ’ t speak any English . She couldn ’ t read English . So , she signed a contract for five years — a layaway plan . The layaway plan was more than our rent . It was really devastating for us .” Robert vowed that he would never let his family be in the position to be taken advantage of again . Today , realizing that you ’ ll be extremely limited on how successful you can be without a sales mindset , he uses it as a lesson about how people expect you to sell them something when you call on them . “ One of the things we ’ re trying to teach our people is when you call somebody , they know you ’ re there to sell them something ,” he said . “ It ’ s on a subconscious level , but that ’ s why you ’ re calling them .”
Don ’ t Lose Momentum . You must 14 . keep moving the ball forward and driving revenue . “ Only the road to success leads to greater success ,” Robert said . “ And you cannot go down that road without sales .” On the days where he is struggling with a lot to do and
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