A lot of sales reps I work with have been caught in the time/money trap – what they make is DIRECTLY tied to how much they work. But the great thing about sales is you can create a “flywheel” system that SCALES UP your ability to earn without requiring more of your time. And if you put in a bit of effort, your flywheel system will pay off BIG TIME. What Is The Flywheel? Let’s talk about what a flywheel is. Literally speaking, a flywheel is a heavy wheel that, when turned, continues revolving over and over again thanks to its size and momentum. Think of the Price is Right. You know the big, heavy wheel at the end that keeps spinning and spinning? Like that. Now what does this have to do with sales? Well when you first start out in this job, it takes a LOT of effort to get things rolling. Making those first few sales, building up your network from scratch, getting into the groove with your processes—it’s a ton of work. But once you DO start making progress, your flywheel starts spinning on its own momentum. And that means: * You can ask for referrals * People in the industry already know you before you even reach out * Your sales process gets refined and improved * You can farm/upsell current customers rather than having to do lots of cold outreach Simply put, everything gets easier. You don’t have to work as hard to see results. And that means less effort for better outcomes. The flywheel does all the work for you. How Do You Get Your Flywheel Moving? How do you get your flywheel moving? And just as importantly, how do you get it moving faster? Well we’ve got three strategies covering just that. And we’ll start with… 1. Impetus As the old saying goes… “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today.”  Procrastination is wasted time. And the sooner you start doing something, anything for your future, the more that investment is going to pay off. On top of that, it takes a LOT longer than you think to build a successful business or brand—7 to 15 years according to some experts. Do you want to be raking in the spoils of your success when you’re 35 or would you rather be on your way to 60? If you’re looking for low-risk, high-reward things you can start doing TODAY to get things spinning, start spending more time with social selling. Interact with industry experts on LinkedIn. Connect with others you’ve met or talked to over email. Start building insightful, valuable content of your own. But no matter WHAT you do, just do SOMETHING. 2. Focus I’ve seen so many reps fall victim to having too many irons in the fire. It seems like a good idea at first, right? Diversify your approach. Casting a wider net yields more fish. Yada yada. But what they don’t tell you is that you have a limit to the amount of energy you can spend. There are only so many hours in a day. You only have so much work you can do before you snap. And life, at least one worth living, isn’t just about the work. So what you need to be doing is focusing your flywheel. Stop spending time and energy on the tasks that don’t drive results. Don’t send in that RFP for a deal you’re never going to get. Cut out the in-person meetings that you’re always ditched on. Find what ISN’T WORKING. And get rid of it. On the other side of that, double down on what IS working. Find the one channel that’s driving the most sales, whether it’s cold outreach, upselling current customers, targeting inbound leads—whatever. And then hit that channel HARD. Get good at it. Like really good. And spend the majority of your efforts on knocking that channel out of the park. Once you start seeing some really killer success here, only then should you think about getting your other flywheels going. 3. Scale Your time is best spent on the activities that ...