Farming

There is a concept in Marketing that is also found in farming. People who make their living in “sales” understand that you have to:

send out 10 sales quotes to close 1 deal;
you can’t get discouraged when you hear the 9 “no”s before you get the 1 yes;
the most important thing is to get the quotes in the “pipeline” because nothing in the pipeline means that there will be nothing at the end of the day;
recurring business is the icing on the cake because you can count on that revenue and that revenue is not dependent on new sales.

Farmers likewise under stand that:

When planting you have to sow seeds liberally;
The more a farmer sows the more he will reap;
You can’t harvest what you haven’t planted;
Once a harvest occurs you then have to put resources back into the land to get ready for the next season; and
Although you may have land if you don’t plant you don’t eat.

Success in anyone’s life follows both the farmer and the sales person. A lot of folk stop investing in their future when they have set backs. My belief is that if you provide a vision for folk that allows them to understand that set backs are very common when you are pursuing goals so celebrate the setbacks because they are the compose for future earnings. The time not to stop is when you hit an obstacle; that’s the time to forge ahead.

You may not know where you’re forging or what other obstacles you may encounter, however the act of forging is the same act of “sowing seeds” or making those 10 sales calls. One thing is certain, the sales person who doesn’t make quotes or the farmer that doesn’t sow seeds will never reap a harvest. Just like the farmer and sales person, don’t focus on the individual seeds sowed or the sales quote provided but look ahead and make sure that the seeds sowed and the sales quotes provided are nurtured, watered and freed from the weeds of doubt so that you can prepare to reap what you have sowed. The harvest always comes; those of us that sow positive energy will surely reap our rewards.