Suffice to say that we’ve gone through some tough times. Owners of small business, as facile as we are, have felt the pain pretty deeply and we have bopped and weaved, reinvented and restructured to weather the proverbial storm. And many of us (myself included) have managed to survive, and in some cases, to even thrive in the face of economic adversity.

Although in years gone by most of my work was conducted in large companies, I am now working with many solopreneurs and small businesses (defined as 1-20 employees) and with these clients I am almost always working closely with the owner of the firm. It’s their name that is on the door and on the check that I receive as well.

And while business has improved from the dead zone of 2009 it’s still an uphill climb to bring in new business. By now I have adjusted to the climb and I can handle it pretty well thank you BUT I must say that I am a tad aghast when sales training and consulting are considered discretionary, especially when sales are flat and the client’s business isn’t growing the way that it should. In these circumstances I would think that sales initiatives would be considered mission critical and not to be passed over for other endeavors.

But sadly that’s the case.

Time and money are spent on all sorts of initiatives and many of them are pretty important. But here’s the thing, no matter how terrific your new logo or impactful your video or marketing materials, nothing will happen unless you have a well defined sales process and sales competencies to BRING IN THE BUSINESS.

So when you’re looking at your budget don’t ignore or eliminate making an investment in sales (aka REVENUE). Frankly, we are the last thing you should cut regardless of the economy.