I know I’ve heard it a thousand times and you have too.
“If it is important, write it down!”
Usually, this advice is aimed at writing a business plan or managing task lists, but the advice is true in every critical area of business.
Why is the habit of putting the important stuff so difficult to adopt?
I can honestly say that I’ve been challenged with this since day one of my business life. I’m not naturally the kind of person who likes to make lists, write plans, etc. I like to have an idea and start working on it — it’s all about the excitement of creating something for me.
I think a lot of (most?) Infopreneurs are the same way. We are creative people. The act of creating a profitable business is one of the most impactful forms of creation that humans do.
That’s why we struggle and have to learn the habit of putting the important stuff down on paper.
I sometimes feel that I’m tilting at windmills, but this is one of the concepts that I’m bound and determined to help my audience understand and adopt.
Believe me, it’s a LOT easier to sell “make money fast” types of products, but they don’t work — at all — if you don’t develop many of the key business practices that will make you successful in the long term.
My business is about optimization — getting more out of what you already have — and I focus on sales system optimization.
Why focus here? Because it is the one place I can have the most impact.
Two specific reasons why I choose to focus on Sales System Optimization:
- Sales Systems are, without a doubt, the most important part of any functioning business. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in business until the sales transaction takes place — and sales systems are the processes and tools that make that transaction possible. What could be more important than the process that facilitates the exchange of money for goods?
- 99% of all sales systems (my personal, anecdotal estimate) are not optimized to anything near their full potential. This means that, without spending any more on advertising or getting any additional traffic, the vast majority of sales systems can produce significantly more profit. All it takes is consistent small improvements over time.
So, given all of this, you can see why I think it is important to put your sales system down on paper. It’s not only important, it’s critical. But putting a sales system onto paper requires a different format than business plans and task lists. That’s where flow charting comes in — actually, I’ve begun to call it “flow mapping” because that description is closer
Because if you can’t write it down, you don’t truly understand it, if you don’t understand it, you can’t measure your results properly, if you can’t measure your results, you don’t know where to optimize, and if you don’t optimize, you are leaving a TON of money on the table.
This is why I completely re-tooled my “iMOS Treasure Map and Video Tour” flow mapping package. It provides ready-to-go system map templates and video training in system mapping best practices.
I also shared a full hour’s worth of “mapping your sales system” training on Willie Crawford’s Blog Talk Radio show yesterday. Download it now for free, or listen online — I know you will get a lot out of it. We even talked about music and the art of business!
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