Many, if not most, of the organizations reading this magazine are considered small businesses. Many are actually considered micro-businesses with less than $1 million in sales per year.
Now, we all know that a small business is a beautiful thing. After all, as the saying goes, "It is not what you make, it is what you keep." You can still make a very good living and "live the dream" by running a small secure information services company.
Unfortunately, there is one area where small destruction companies have traditionally set themselves up for limited growth: They generally give too low a priority to the need for an ongoing sales and/or marketing presence.
New entrepreneurs suddenly faced with the challenge of selling often give up on sales as soon as there is any alternative demand on their time. Good selling is hard work that requires savvy, product knowledge, intuition, tenacity, thick skin, optimism, resiliency and discipline. It is a lot easier to run across town to drop off a bin or to chase after a battery for the forklift than to have 18 people tell you they don’t want to talk to you (and then to send them a nice note).
The most successful franchise organization in the secure information industry has always required that franchisors, at minimum, have a full-time office manager and another person focused on, and accountable for, sales on a full-time basis. The company learned from early experience that if someone was not specifically accountable for sales, those sales would not happen.
Effective marketing and sales have to be priorities of every secure destruction company, second only to security (a.k.a. The Primary Directive).
Like any industry trade association, NAID has a responsibility to help its members with their sales and marketing. The 2007 NAID Conference, for instance, is packed with sessions designed specifically on sales and marketing. The list of NAID sales resources is always growing, but they only work if shredding professionals use them properly and diligently.
Entrepreneurs who wanted to be their own bosses have to remember that they are also their most motivated employees. I suggest they make sure those employees are using their time where it will ultimately be most productive—in sales.
Bob Johnson is the executive director of the National Association for Information Destruction. He can be reached at exedir@naidonline.org.