Michael Gerber, author of The E Myth Revisited, states that in a well run business, “systems run the business and people run the systems.” Most of the time, we think of this in terms of a production system, or a human resources system, or an accounting system.
But what about a sales system? Do you have a duplicatable and trainable sales system that can be taught? Or have you simply hired salespeople who seemed to have experience and their own system and told them, in essence, “OK – go out and sell!” Worse, are you the only salesperson in your business, mainly because, “I’m the only one who can sell effectively…”
Time for a reality check: You’ll never grow your company until you have a documented sales system that can be taught to salespeople who can take your company to the next level.
SOLUTION:
Matthew realized that his software company had no sales system. They generated leads for their salespeople, had a proposal template, and, indeed, just told their salespeople, “go out and sell.” They cycled through ten salespeople
in 3 years! At present, they only have one.
I sold Matthew on the idea of a documented sales system. He simply wrote down all the steps he could see in how they sold. Then we created actual scripts for each step. Then we used Integrity Selling In the 21st Century as
a basis to create the six steps his sales system would follow. Done! It wasn’t even that time consuming.
Now, Matthew is ready to hire and train his new sales team. What’s more, he can TRACK what they’re doing each day against the system and its daily targets – before, he had very little idea what his salespeople were doing.
Leave a comment below as to what you’ve experience with how documenting, teaching and tracking a sales system – or the lack thereof – has affected your company’s sales results. And, if you know a small business person who might benefit from this little piece, could you send it along to them.
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Henri Schauffler is the CEO Focus Facilitator in Washington, DC and suburban Maryland. He has dedicated the last 20 years to helping small businesses like yours to “Outmanage, Outhire, Outsell and Outprofit All the Competition.” For a FREE business assessment and tune up to see exactly how you are doing in all Eight Essential Areas for Business Success, go to:
