I get lots of calls (or emails) from folks that start off with “I want to sell more.”

Sounds simple, right—I want more business!

If only it were so.

I want more business, I want to sell more, seems to be a universal refrain. Sounds easy yet difficult to accomplish but let’s see here if I can help lead the way.

So you want more business:

• What kind of business do you want? Do you want more of the same types of clients that you have or do you want to diversify and bring in new types of business?
• Are you charging enough for the business that you do have or is your desire to get more new business driven by revenue needs prompted by a poor pricing model?
• Are you getting the “lion’s share” of your existing clients’ business or are you leaving business on the table?
• Can you actually fulfill on new business or is there a possibility that you will go into overload and not be able to do a great job with the new customers?
• Is your product / service in sync with the new types of customers that you want to get?
• Have you developed an excellent sales and marketing plan to bring in these new customers?
• Do you have a sales process in place? (This is super important so that you don’t wind up losing leads that you bring in.)

See, it sounds simple but is hardly that. My advice is to assess your situation carefully BEFORE you go out and attempt to get more new business. If necessary bring is resources to help you with any or all of the above (after all just because you might be fabulous at YOUR business, sales and marketing might not be in your bag of tricks.)