Sales.

It is not marketing. It is not branding. It is not social media.

Sales is what happens when you do those things effectively but in all honesty you can sell even if you do none of the above.

Is it more difficult? Most definitely?

Is it possible? Once again, most definitely.

The best strategy is to engage in an effective marketing program, deploy content marketing, use social media, do some networking, and use all of the tools that can help you get visibility, recognition and credibility.

After that, well, you have to sell and that means explaining the benefits, showing improvement, being persuasive and staying in contact even if the sales cycle is long.

It also means, that you must know how to probe effectively, overcome obstacles, and ask for the next action step.

You need a sales process and you must stick to the process if it is working and re-engineer if it is not.

It’s not necessarily easy but it’s what gives you the ROI you must have from your branding and marketing endeavors.

A sale….where the revenue starts to flow.