The UnStoppables: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial Power

Chapter 13

Everything You Need to Know about Creating Revenue, a.k.a. Selling (in about an Hour)

MARKETING WITHOUT SALES IS LIKE MOTHERHOOD WITHOUT SEX

Ask any businessperson whether marketing is important, and they’ll say yes, marketing is critical; a business needs marketing!

But why?

Because marketing is about bringing your products outside your own walls and into the world where customers live so you can offer them for sale. No sales, no revenue. No revenue, no business and no employees dressed in black in the marketing department.

So your business doesn’t need marketing per se; what it needs is revenue, the monetary result of sales. We believe that nothing is more vital to your success as an entrepreneur than your ability to sell. And since this book is about the essence of entrepreneurial power, this chapter’s going directly to the most important thing they don’t teach at the elite business schools: selling. If you understand how it works, you’ll get your marketing to do the work it’s supposed to: make it easier for sales to produce the revenue you need.

As a great mentor put it simply, “Everything is selling.” Beyond business, success in just about anything, from academia (winning those grants) to politics (attracting votes) or parenting (convincing your kids to do things your way) depends on it. When we pitch a new idea to our team, we are selling. When we try to persuade our children to do the right thing, we are selling. When we run for public office and speak to voters, ...