Most small business owners are under the impression that they cannot actively control the amount of business that comes in – rather, they feel that they are basically at the mercy of current market conditions. While it’s true that business flows in cycles which we cannot control, it is possible to create a certain amount of predictability by creating a system. What is a system? Simply put, a system is a planned way of doing things that always leads to predictable results.
For example, if I open the yellow pages and cold call 100 businesses, will my results be random? On any given day, they might be – but over a long period of time the results become predictable. If, over a span of several weeks, I record how many calls I make, how many “decision makers” I reach, how many of those I set appointments with, and then how many of those lead to a sale, I now have a system of predictable results.
After reviewing my results, let’s say I find out that in one hour I make 25 calls and speak to an average of 5 business owners (the rest are not in, unavailable, etc.), and out of those 5, I set 1 appointment. Then, according to my statistics, I make a sale every 4 appointments. Now, with this wealth of information based on the numbers, I can figure out exactly how many calls I would have to make to get a sale! There will be good days and bad days…but overall the statistics will be the same over a week or a month.
Keeping track of statistics is essential when developing a system. If you keep good stats over a long period of time, you should always achieve the desired results by simply duplicating your previous efforts.
The great thing is, systems can be applied to many aspects of your business – hiring employees, placing an ad in a newspaper, and sending out mailers. With your results recorded over a period of time, you can have a system which will predict future outcomes….and the more control you have over your business, the less you leave to luck or chance.