“Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.”

Henry Ford (1863-1947)
American industrialist, inventor

Why a System?

            Once I was in the field training a new sales rep, and we didn’t get the sale. As we were driving back to the office, I asked him what, if anything, he would have done differently. He gave me a blow-by-blow account of how he would have done this first, this last and changed the way I did this. I asked him why, and he was proud to inform me that he was good at reading his customers and in his opinion, they would have responded better to the changes. I just looked at him and smiled. Maybe your right, I said, but I do the same thing the same way every time.

Why not just wing it? Over the years, sales reps have told me how they just treat each potential customer as they come. They “play it by ear.”

I compare doing a sales presentation with starring in a Broadway play. I have my lines, I’ve memorized them and I do them the same way every night. By doing it this way, I get better and better at my craft. If something is not working, I can figure out the problem easier this way, too.

Plus, a system assures that you’re covering all of the bases, all of the time. A good system is designed to walk you through the sales process, with every step specifically designed to cover individual selling points.