Twenty years ago, as a rookie consultant, I met a small business owner who seemed to have a great business philosophy.

He said, Gary, there are very few problems that Ive encountered in business that havent been cured by a few more sales!

Of course, its an over-generalization. When my consultancy peaks, and Im pressed to find a few hours to myself, the last thing I feel I can do is to add more clients, and more time responsibilities to my already impacted calendar.

Still, with more sales, you can justify a lot of things, and finally, you can afford to put systems into place that will enable you to accept and even to promote growth.

Since when, is an embarrassment of clients, like riches, something to be avoided?

Only business school professors, and people with a clerks mentality, whose professional lives are neatly ordered for them by external forces, can construe growing sales as a problem.

Ive heard customer service managers complain that they cant handle the number of issues and complaints that crop up from existing clients. Well, isnt that a signal that its time to implement breakthroughs in productivity?

One of my mutual fund clients was in this situation, and I designed a training program that enabled CSRs to handle 25% higher call volumes with even better customer satisfaction.

Of course, I was paid for my efforts, and the money that funded my innovations came from, guess where?

From sales, of course.

There is an expression, well known to sales managers: Nothing in business can happen without a sale. Sales are the fuel that makes the entire engine run.

So, the next time you seem to be facing a business problem, instead of attacking the symptom, pause briefly to ask yourself, how could this be ameliorated with a few more sales?