Does your business run on a sales engine or a sales effort? A sales effort is something that has to be done every time you want to make a sale. But, a sales engine is something that, once put into place, can bring you sale after sale without added effort. Here are a couple of examples …

A photographer gets to know a handful of bridal consultants that refer every new bride they meet to him. Each time they get a new client, he has opportunity to get a phone call from that bride without having lifted a finger.

A home cleaning company establishes a relationship with organizations that provide temporary corporate housing for companies with newly relocated employees. The temporary housing companies contact cleaning company each time they have a person vacate one of their units so they can prepare it for next resident. Since nature of residences is temporary, they have a continual need for cleaning services.

In both of these examples, instead of spending valuable (potentially billable) work time on marketing, these companies are earning money. And during time they do spend on marketing, they are focused on developing long-term relationships with sources of continual referral instead of tracking down each individual purchaser.

In cleaning company example, they could be running classified ads, taking calls, visiting individual homes to provide cleaning estimates, etc. But all that effort only results in one job. There is an opportunity to clean each temporary residence 3-4 times per year. Multiply that figure by number of units temporary housing company manages, and you've got some regular business rolling in. And all from one relationship. Now, that's a sales engine!

Consider:

The managers of two department stores frantically scrambled to do damage control following employee-actions that sparked public outrage.

In first scenario, a sales person refused to call 911 when a mother requested help for her child who was experiencing a seizure. "It's not our policy to make phone calls for customers," said staffer.

In second incident, a sales person walked away wordlessly when a pregnant woman reported dizziness and asked for help. Other shoppers assisted after she collapsed. "An unfortunate incident," manger told local journalists.

The media coverage of these two incidents could not have been good for business. That old saying "No such thing as bad publicity" isn't always true.

Meanwhile, in another department store in a different city, a shopper suffered an injury to her arm when a heavy box fell from a high-up shelf. The woman pointed out to a supervisor that boxes were unstable in their present position. She suggested they be moved elsewhere before someone was seriously hurt. Several weeks later, supervisor merely shrugged when shopper returned and pointed out that boxes had not been moved.

The above incidents all involved large, international chains. Is situation any better with medium or small businesses?

We'd like to think so, but answer is "Not always." In one example, a diner at a small mom-and-pop restaurant was dumped unceremoniously on floor when a chair collapsed. The waiter snickered and walked away, leaving it to other customers to ask if person was hurt.

Undoubtedly, it was not store policy to refuse assistance to customers experiencing medical emergencies. Undoubtedly, it was not company policy to stack merchandise in such a way that shoppers are at risk of injury, or to laugh at customers who are victims of damaged restaurant chairs.

The problems occurred when employees were faced with situations that called for good judgment and independent decision making. In other words, they failed to display what most of us call "common sense."