David Masover Process Selling Blog

What my friend and I learned about (sales) process by doing the dishes.

Lessons in life can come from funny places. Sometimes, we don’t even realize the point of the lesson until years – even decades later.

I was doing the dishes last week, and I was reminded of just this – a lesson that a college roommate and I shared about process that we learned by doing the dishes, some 23 years ago! So here is that short story, the lesson we learned, and how it applies to your potential for success in sales.

When friends live together in college, doing the dishes can often become a source of tension (especially when they don’t get done). When it was my turn to do the dishes, I had a style that was different than that of my friend, so of course, he gave me a hard time about it.

His method was to fill the sink with all of the dirty dishes, pour in some soap and water, and fish around for dishes in the grungy water while struggling to find room between the top of the dish pile and the faucet to rinse each dish after washing it.

My method was to first rinse off all of the gunk, then put all of the dishes on the counter, and fill the sink with a small amount of clean, soapy water. I then gave each gunk-free dish a quick swoosh through the “bath”, and rinse it.

So my friend teased me about this multi-step process of mine until one day, he came up to me out of the blue, and said, “hey, I tried that rinse first method of yours, and it was a lot faster than my way”.

Wow. That kind of admission just doesn’t happen too often between 20-something college guys! Now this blog post isn’t really about the dishes, so let’s not get hung up on what might be the best way to do the dishes. It is about process and preparation, so let’s move things along in that direction!

Much like my college friend before his dish-process enlightenment, my co-workers used to often tease me about the time I took to map out a task list at the end of each day so that my work was organized for the next day. In spite of the teasing, I typically sold more than most of them, and went home earlier each day.

Hmmmmmmm.

Sense a patter here? Let’s try a few more:

• When I train and consult, I suggest that an introduction call script be prepared, printed and practiced before the first introduction call is made.
• When I consult around negotiations, I spend more time than my client expects fleshing out the position of OUR side: what we really want (interests); what we are willing to do without; and where we will walk away (BATNA).
• When I do the dishes, as you now know, I first get the gunk off of the plates before I break out the soap.

The point is the same in all of these cases

The point is that the execution of your work (an introduction call, a negotiation, the dishes) can be made more efficient and effective if you take the time to properly set up the work before you start doing it (working on a script; identifying the position of your own side; scrapping the gunk).

Lessons in life come from funny places. Many of the best lessons wind up being the kind of thing your grandmother would say – simple, effective, non-sexy, non-glamorous – but they work.

• The nutrition community cites expensive studies that suggest you should eat more vegetables.
• The health community commissions expensive studies and declares that a few drinks a day is not so bad, and might even be helpful (everything in moderation, says Grandma).
• Old expressions like “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” make us roll our eyes when we hear it from the older generation. But by golly, they just turn out to be true nonetheless.

So scrape your gunk: work out an effective selling system before you go out to sell, sell more effectively, and then go tell grandma that she was right all along.

Author: David Masover

David Masover has over twenty years of business-to-business sales experience, including more than eight years in sales management, training, and consulting. He has consulted and negotiated in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Masover is co-founder of Branders.com, the world's largest online seller of promotional products, and is currently engaged in private sales consulting in Budapest, Hungary.