If you happen to be in our local grocery store when it’s my turn to do the shopping, you’ll see me walking up and down the aisles, looking at everything and grabbing the various items that I remember running out of as I cooked. You see, I’m the cook around here, so as the “expert,” I have the attitude that, “I’ll know what I need when I see it.” (Sounds like a typical guy, doesn’t it? ;-)

If you happen to be there when it’s Cindy’s (my wife’s) turn to shop, you’ll see her checking her list and heading straight to those items listed, because, before going to the store, she spends 15 minutes opening the cabinets, fridge and pantry to see what items I depleted.

Each of us has a process for accomplishing our objective:

• I go to the store and look at the shelves, hoping to remember what is no longer in our house. My process is based on my knowledge of the subject and my confidence that I’ll remember every step in the recipes I prepare and every item needed for those steps.  
• Cindy looks at the house itself, makes her list based on what is actually missing, and then follows that list.

It’s probably no surprise to you that even with little knowledge of the subject of cooking, Cindy is much better at the process of shopping than I am – she virtually never misses a thing.

Sales and marketing processes are just like a shopping process – no matter how much knowledge of the subject I have, if I were to go on a sales call, for instance, without a written process, the odds are I’d miss a step or forget an important question. So I take the time to write the important questions I need answered beforehand. I also take along a proposal outline that has all the major headings of my proposals listed, to ensure that I get the information I’ll need to complete the proposal once I’ve left the meeting.

As for marketing, if you write an article, for example, without a clear idea of the steps you’ll use to leverage the article when it gets published (or when it doesn’t), your marketing efforts will be less productive. But if you have clearly defined steps for either scenario, then whichever occurs you’ll be prepared.

Once you record the process, be it about marketing activities or a sales conversation, you can then begin to accurately track the effectiveness of the process and make improvements based on real-world results, instead of your vague perception of those results.

It’s all about the process! So if you don’t have your processes recorded, do so now, and you’ll improve your results.

One of these days when I’m dashing to the grocery store to pick up that item I forgot to buy while shopping, this idea will finally penetrate my thick skull.

Until then, I guess I’ll have to be happy being inept at shopping!

Have a great week!

Gill