What they usually mean is something like this: “I don’t have any real system to what I do, I don’t want any scrutiny, and I probably am not going to learn anything from you.”

How valid is this position? Does every salesperson have a unique style of selling? Are they just trying to hide from accountability under the cover of individual “style?” Or is there some other explanation?

More importantly, should your company allow every salesperson to have their own style, or should you have a system for selling to which everyone adheres?

I will let you answer that question yourself in a moment. For now, let’s consider the concept of a “selling system.”

Can selling be systematic?

McDonald’s did not grow its business by hiring people and challenging them to figure out how to do the job. Instead, McDonald’s works on the basis that there is a best way to take an order, greet a customer, fry potatoes, and assemble a cheeseburger.

Figure out the best way, get the necessary tools, document the most effective processes, and train everyone in doing it that way. As a result, people work the system — and the system works.

Because of the system, McDonald’s can make almost anyone, regardless of their capabilities, into productive, effective employees.

This truth — that good systems make people effective — operates in every area of work. Even highly skilled, highly educated professionals apply this concept.

There are, for example, better ways to try a case, perform a surgery, fly an airliner, and counsel a mentally disturbed patient. Talk to effective professionals in any of these areas, and they will verify that they use effective principles, processes, and tools to complete these complex tasks. They use a system.

In fact, the more important and complex the task, the more likely that the effective principles and processes for successfully completing that task have been defined and codified.

How would you feel if you buckled the seat belt on an airliner and listened as the captain announced that he has his own way of flying the plane?

This is not to say that there is not room for individual differences, say, for continuous process improvement, and for variations based on the specific intricacies of the situation. But those are more embellishments than structure — like the icing on the cake.

Without the cake underneath, the icing is meaningless. The system provides the structure on which the individual can spread personal embellishments.

You probably apply this principle in every other aspect of your business. Don’t you have a system for almost every important process in your business? Don’t your accountants follow a well-defined set of principles and procedures?

Aren’t your customer service reps expected to input an order in a certain way, and respond to a customer in a certain fashion? Don’t your purchasing people follow certain procedures, and aren’t they guided by certain principles and criteria to ensure that they make the best decisions? Don’t your warehouse employees ship, receive, stock and pick orders in a certain well-organized, duplicable fashion?

Why should sales be different?

It’s like a football game. No coach tells his team, “You guys go out and figure out how to be successful.” Rather, a coach develops a “best way” to tackle, block, pass, catch, etc. And then, the coach develops the system, creates a game plan, and teaches his players that system and that plan.

In a similar way, a selling system addresses the interaction between the salesperson and the customer, providing a “game plan” for success. Think of it as a template for the salesperson’s face-to-face tactical encounters. It is based on the principle that, when it comes to selling a specific product or service to a certain type of customer, there are “tried-and-true” methods that have proven more effective than others.

Study any successful company that fields a large number of salespeople, and you’ll discover that almost every one of those companies has evolved a well-defined, duplicable selling system. And, they teach that system to their salespeople.

The larger, older, and more successful a company is, the more likely it is to have a highly sophisticated and refined selling system. The large old life insurance companies are great illustrations.

A well-defined selling system is one of the essential components of an effective sales company. To be effective and productive in your sales efforts, sooner or later you need to develop a selling system.

Your own selling system

Typically, a selling system would define a sales process for each segment, then address the best ways to accomplish each step in that process.

Take truck lines for example. The most effective process may be to make an appointment with a purchasing person, collect information at the first face-to-face meeting, prepare a written proposal, personally deliver that proposal, and then make a personal follow-up call. That may be the process piece of the system.

The tools might consist of a script for making the appointment, a profile form to collect the information, a capability brochure to describe and introduce the company, a standard “proposal” form, and a set of carefully crafted questions to use throughout the process.

The tactics may be a series of techniques to facilitate each step of the process — to accomplish each step well. When all those pieces are put in place — the appropriate processes, tools, and tactics — you will have a selling system.

When you have a selling system, and when you have trained all your salespeople in that system, you will have taken a major step forward. You’ll be ready for the big leagues.