Franchising your market is a way to systematize your sales and marketing processes so that it's easy to understand, implement, and train your people. You need to create sales tools that capture your passion and expertise, such as audio tapes, videos, CDs, reports, etc. With powerful sales tools, even the weakest link in your sales staff will be far more productive.

"Franchise Your Sales System" By Capturing The Essence Of Your ASA In Sales Tools That Can Easily Be Used By Your Salespeople

Obviously, every business has some type of sales department, whether you actually have "salespeople" or not. Some businesses have order takers or counter clerks or customer service reps or whatever you want to call them. For our purposes, I'll just call them all salespeople because the concepts are the same no matter what kind of sales setup you have.

We've found that most businesses have the usual 80/20 rule when it comes to sales...20% of the sales people are superstars and the other 80% are average to below average. Now I'm not trying to kid you and say that this system will make everyone a superstar, but it will do this: It will make the guys who are bad, decent. It will make the guys who are decent, pretty good. It will make the guys who are pretty good, just plain "good." And it will make the guys who are good, great. And as a guy moves up that ladder, he always has the opportunity...and even the likelihood...of becoming great at some point. It's all dependent on how you set up your sales system.

Think about the way a McDonald's is set up and you'll begin to understand the great power of systemization. I mean there's a reason that McDonald's is the biggest and the best in their industry. And it's not because they have the best food. It's because they have, by far, the best systems for doing everything from operations to sales. When you go into any McDonald's, anywhere in the world, what's the first thing you do? You look up. Why? Because the menu's up there. Then they've got pictures of the food so you don't even have to be able to read. You just look at the picture and tell them you want a number three with a Sprite. It's idiot proof. The system sells the food. You don't have to rely on the clerk to tell you all about the food. Heck, he just points to the picture himself if you do ask. Then he asks you the magic question, "May I take your order?" and then adds the ever-present, "Would you like anything else with that?" It's all predetermined. They don't leave it up to people to figure things out.

Now I'm not saying you have to be as systematized as Mickey Dees and I realize that they're talking mostly about a system of operations and we're talking about marketing and sales. But we can learn from the example about the power of the system.

Let The Tools Do The Selling For The Salesperson, Especially If He's Not A Superstar

For instance, you can create brochures, audio tapes, videos, newsletters, and things your salespeople can use as a crutch. We operate from the "even a blind dog with a broken leg can deliver a video, tape or CD" mentality. Now, what's key is saying something on that tape or that brochure or that video that is compelling, ASA oriented, and so forth.

If you can create the sales tools that will make the salesperson's job easier, the next thing you need to do is generate leads, provide scripts, and standardized follow-ups that the people can use. Just like the martial arts master, you've got to figure out all of the prospect's situations BEFORE you start the sales process.

Years ago, we owned an office supply company and we had certain sales advantages over each of the 4 main competitors...but the advantages were different depending on who we were competing against. So, for instance, if we generated a lead and the prospect said he was currently using Miller Business Systems, the salesperson would go to the secretary, who would then pull the follow-up letter up on the computer that gave specific advantages that we held over Miller Business Systems. She'd print it out, with some customization if necessary, and give it to the salesperson for a signature and she'd mail it out.

Now what do you think would happen if we left it up to the salesperson to try to a) figure out what to say in that letter and b) actually take the time to type up and mail out the letter himself? The chance is approximately zero. See, that's what I mean by "Franchise Your Sales System." In my sales system, the guy has the same opportunity to send the same well-written, perfectly articulated letter, regardless of how good of a salesperson he is. We elevate the performance of everyone...because everyone gets the same results when they're using the same tools. Of course, there are variables that affect the overall performance of your sales staff. But systematizing lifts everyone's performance.

What Can Be Systematized In Your Business? Just About Everything!

You can systematize the follow up letters and procedures, the phone scripts, the element of "surprising" your customers, the 'thank yous', how you handle problems, lead generation, everything. Even the passion can be systematized and duplicated. Hey, you're the superstar. You've got to find a way to get your people to deliver the passion that you have for the business.

We created a video brochure for a large roofing company that talked about an innovative program we created for them called the "Code of Ethics & Competency Consumer Protection Act." Now keep in mind roofing is an industry with a bad reputation and a lot of screwy operators. So it's an uphill battle to gain the confidence of the homeowners. The video set up specific standards that roofing contractors should adhere to and told the prospect how to tell if a given roofing company complied. Well, we set it up so that only one roofing company had the ability to comply with all the standards-our client. The video did a very good job of forming an outside perception that accurately reflected the inside reality, which was that this company really was peerless in the roofing industry. The video was extremely well articulated…it built a tremendous case.

Even A Blind Dog With A Broken Leg Can Hand A Guy A Video