Todd Duncan's Sales Mistake #5: Muscling

Duncan defines "muscling" as: "Taking Lone Ranger Actions instead of using team-connected strategies." See pp. 83-102. The quote is from p. 83 of his great book, Killing the Sale; the 10 Fatal Mistakes Salespeople make and how to avoid them. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004).

For those not old enough to remember the lone ranger, he was a Texas Ranger, something like a state policeman in Texas who was the sole survivor of a massacre of Texas Rangers who, with his faithful Indian friend, Tonto, dedicated his life to finding the men who killed all his buddies and wears a mask so no one will recognize him. Come to think of it, why is he wearing that mask?

To overcome muscling, Duncan suggests that you analyze all the things you do in terms of production (Money, referrals, sales, etc., not just hours spent). Then make a priority of doing the first two things and either delegate or eliminate the remaining activities.Here are some strategies Duncan recommends to implement this:

1. Hire yourself for no more than 2 hours per day to take care of the less productive but necessary tasks.

2. Hire a responsible young person that you know. A college student or teenager might be willing to spend a few hours a day taking less productive tasks off your hand.

3. Hire a coach, for that fresh pair of eyes.

4. Share an assistant with a co-worker or colleague whose values you share.

5. Let your assistant hire an assistant.

6. Promote your assistant.

To get the whole scoop, check out his book.

What do you think about this? Have you ever been guilty of posing? I'm trying to create more skilled entrepreneurs. Do you think this helps?

This is some of the stuff that will go into my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.