26 August 2008
by Martin Aranovitch

In this article, I want to look at the question "why build a sales system?" Why not just seek out and recruit experienced sales people to do the job of making sales for our organization and then pay them or fire them based on their performance and their results?

Most small business owners opt for the latter. They look for experienced sales people, give them a few product training sessions and then throw them in the deep end, the general assumption being that they'll learn whatever is required as they go.

In my experience, this is a short term solution for a long-term problem which will only perpetuate itself if not properly addressed and resolved.

I take my children to school every morning. On the way to school, there's a company that supplies outdoor paving and tiles to home builders. Their notice board often displays a sign that says "Experienced Full-Time Sales Person Wanted. Apply Within!"

This is a company that has no sales system. If they did, they would not be advertising for an "experienced" sales person. They would look for people with no sales experience, train them using a proven sales methodology that they would have developed, documented and implemented as their own business developed and grew and everything would operate differently, because systems-driven enterprises are significantly different than people-dependent businesses.

So, as part of the process of answering the question "why build a sales system?", let's begin by first looking at the perceived benefits of using a sales system vs. relying on "experienced" sales people to do the job:

1) A standardized, documented sales system protects a business from suffering liabilities and experiencing costly setbacks.

We are all familiar with businesses where business owners, managers and key personnel carry the bulk of the business knowledge and vital business information inside their heads.

This can pose a serious threat for the organization as a whole, especially if the information isn't properly documented or made readily accessible to people in the business that may need to access this information in certain circumstances.

For example, think what would happen to a business with no documented systems if something unexpected were to happen to a top sales person? What if a sales person who is responsible for bringing in a significant portion of the business sales revenue gets hired by a competitor and leaves? What if this person's sales approach relied heavily on their charismatic personality, their ability to make cold calls persuasively, their agressive closing skills, etc ...?

Which of these "assets" would the business without a standardized, documented sales process retain when their super sales person left? None! They are not assets for the business, they are assets for the sales person who just left.

Any skills or attributes that are the subjective property of the sales person can, in fact, be a liability for the business in the long run. A business that depends on hiring "experienced" sales people is operating on dangerous grounds and more likely than not will suffer a significant setback should that "experienced" sales person leave.

An "experienced" sales person, by definition, joins a new business employer with their own internal sales system. And because their internal sales system is often their only source of leverage and bargaining power when it comes to negotiating their terms of employment, no employer should expect them to hand over their knowledge and skills to the company. This means that, if a business employs, say, two or three "experienced" sales people, then each member of the sales team most likely will follow a different internal system for selling the company's products and services. This is all fine and good on the front end (i.e. generating leads, making sales appointments and closing new business deals), but it usually translates into an administrative nightmare on the backend, as processes and procedures are not followed, and the required paperwork that need to be filled in along the way gets submitted with incorrect details and missing information.

Having a standardized, documented sales system means that all information follows the same processes and procedures throughout the entire sales workflow, and that all sales data, pending deals, customer records, etc ... are centralized and stored by the company. This approach does not require "experienced" sales people ... it does require, however, a great deal of planning and knowledge of systems building beforehand, but it will eliminate the costly setbacks and liabilities discussed above.

2) A selling system allows you to build trust and loyalty with your customers.

A great business is one that is able to consistently keep its promise to its customers. Businesses that lack systems often "drop the ball" when it comes to delivering on their promise to customers. A typical situation, is where the sales department promises one thing to the customer, which the sales fulfilment team is then unable to deliver on, because both departments lack integrated systems for communicating with each other and making sure that what one promises, the other can deliver.

When you have a specific, objective and quantifiable way of doing things in a systematic way throughout your entire business, you create the kind of consistency that builds customer trust, loyalty and repeat business. Once again, to achieve this requires a great deal of planning beforehand, which is why many small businesses -- especially those that lack planning skills, find themselves in difficult situations with customers later.

3) A sales system allows you to manage processes not other people.

we can manage processes, but we can't manage other people. A great sales system allows you to train a team of people to manage sales processes that have been carefully designed and orchestrated to create superior results. Contrary to popular myth and beliefs, this approach does not turn people into robots, or robs them of their unique individuality ... it actually frees them up to express their uniqueness and allows them to truly listen to their prospects' needs and to engage with other people more fully.

The focus then, is on learning how to put together a great sales system that we can get other people to successfully manage, not on looking for ways to get people to conform to our ideas of how they should perform.

4) A sales system allows you to improve your results.

A well-designed and carefully thought-out sales system allows you to quickly identify areas of weakness and inefficiency in the sales workflow and administration, test new ideas for improvement and measure results.

A great sales system, therefore, shows people how they are performing and how they can improve their performance and their results.

5) A sales system allows you to significantly reduce costs.

One of the main benefits of implementing a sales system, is a reduction in costs to the business, especially salary costs. As discussed earlier, once you have a great sales system in place, you no longer need to recruit an "experienced" sales person to do the job. You can hire someone with no prior experience in sales or knowledge of your particular industry and then provide them with all the required training and skills they will need to "sell" your products or services.

In one of the video tutorials we created for customers of our Sales Scripts Pro product (a sales scripts tool builder training program), I explain how one of my clients - the owner of an electrical services company, was able to replace himself and be free of the task of answering phone calls to book jobs with a young, inexperienced person, using a sales scripts tool I created by flowcharting all of the processes and business "formulas" he carried around in his head, and turning them into a tool that anyone could then use to provide the same level of service he was providing.

Because my client's time was worth three times the salary he was now paying for someone else to do the task of booking jobs and handling inbound sales calls, he was able to hire two additional young and inexperienced sales people to do the same job as the first person he hired, which then allowed him to grow his business by employing new electricians to work more areas and complete more jobs and the business tripled its profits in a very short time.

6) A sales system allows you to quickly and adequately train new members of your sales team.

A great sales system not only helps a person through the entire selling process, it also trains them while they are doing it. We are currently working on a complete 'step-by-step' professional sales development system and sales training system product called "Sales System Pro", which will show business owners and sales managers how to create a sales training system that new members of their sales team can simply plug into. This product is not available yet, but we will keep you informed of its progress.

7) A sales system allows you to expand your business very quickly and to identify new business and sales opportunities.

When you have a great sales and sales training system in place, you not only have the means to quickly replace anyone who leaves your team and train new team members, but you also have the essential prerequisites for expanding your business quickly, either by hiring new personnel, adding a new business branch, or even franchising your entire operation.

You also have the means to identify new business and sales opportunities, since one of the most important components of a great sales system are the information and reporting systems that allow you to study and analyze your sales data and see new trends and areas of customer needs.

Selling - It's All About Systems ...

Hopefully, after reading the above you can see that the SYSTEM takes priority in a sales environment. The focus must be first on developing a sound and well-orchestrated system, then documenting the system, managing the system, following the system, reporting on the system, repairing the system, improving the system ... always thinking system, system, system.

Contrary to what many people think, when you place the emphasis on systems and make that the focus of your business, something truly extraordinary will start to happen in your business - something that most people dream about and wish for, but have no hope of experiencing without proper systems in place ... a feeling of personal FREEDOM!

When you "objectify" your business by flowcharting processes, documenting procedures, creating checklists, sales operation manuals, scripted presentations, etc ..., you clear away the clutter of information that was previously being held in your head and free up your mind for other, more important things!

Who wants to leave the office at 5:00pm and go home carrying a ton of business information in their head? Stuff like who needs to be sent what in order to make a decision, what to present tomorrow to which prospect, which follow-up calls haven't yet been made, who has or hasn't signed this or that, which issues and problems in what accounts need to be resolved this week, next week, next month, etc ??? Wouldn't you rather just drive home serenely with a good day's work behind you and a clutter-free mind, and think about your partner, your kids, your next vacation, your personal goals and your own life?

The only way you can free your mind, is to assign all of the handling, organizing, managing and processing of details to systems. Let your systems tell you what to do next with your information. By outsourcing the operational aspects of the business to systems-driven and systems-managed elements, business owners, sales managers and sales professionals can focus on more important areas, such as "listening" to customers needs, problem-solving "with" the customer and expanding the business to new horizons.

As you can hopefully appreciate by now, to do this properly, requires a truly well thought out system. And very few business owners, sales managers and sales professionals can afford to take the time out of their business day-to-day responsibilities to create a truly well thought out sales system.

It All Begins With A "Systems" Mindset ...

A mindset that recognizes and understands the importance of prioritizing systems is a pre-requisite for building a systems-driven business.

You will often hear me mention Michael E. Gerber's classic book, "The E-Myth (Revisited) - Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work And What To Do About It." If you are not familiar with this book, I highly recommend you get it and begin reading it. It will help you understand the "systems" mindset.

Although I am not an E-Myth consultant, I have spent the past 10 years of my life applying the E-Myth principles to the businesses I have helped to build, and I have seen phenomenal results happen in the businesses of those who follow these principles.

If you have not yet read Michael E. Gerber's "The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work And What To Do About It", then I highly recommend that you get yourself a copy of this important book. If you would like to save time and order the book online, you can order a physical copy of the book here:

http://www.internetadworks.com/review/emyth-book.html

Or, if you would prefer to listen to the unabridged version of "The E-Myth" in audio book format, you can visit this online audio book store here (get 20% off by entering coupon code "AUDIOBK1" when you check out!):

http://www.audiobookone.net/title.aspx?titleId=7160

I hope you found this article informative. If you have any questions about any of our products, please contact me, or post them on our company blog.

At Sales-Are-Up.com we are committed to helping small business owners sell more products and services through the development of effective and affordable sales systems, sales tools and sales training education materials.