Most drainage pipes, over time, accumulate layers of gunk that clog up the system. So, too, most sales systems, over time, accumulate layers of habit and practice that erode the time the sales person spends in front of the
customer.
Here are some examples of sales system gunk.
1. Samples. In the example above, not only did the sales person detract from the purity of the inventory, cause needless stress for the warehouse manager, and potentially short ship a customer, he also spent time doing something that took him out of his territory.
In a gunk-less sales system, the sales person would call or e-mail the person who was responsible for maintaining samples, and ask for the
appropriate sample to be sent. It should have taken two minutes to send an e-mail instead of an hour driving back and forth to the office.
2. Sales literature. In a gunked-up system, the sales people drive into the office regularly and collect the literature they need from a variety of sources.
In
a gunkless system, they maintain literature inventories in their cars or home offices, and regularly replace their inventory by e-mailed or faxed requests.
3. Emergency shipments. I was recently scheduled to interview a number of sales people for one of my clients. We had sessions scheduled every hour.
One of the sales people didn’t make the appointment. The reason? He had to drive home, change cars with his wife, use the larger car to drive to the warehouse, pick up an emergency shipment, and deliver it to a customer.
