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To checklist or
not to checklist
By Biff Matthews
CardWare International
The merchant level salesperson (MLS) community
has begun 2010 in disaster control mode. Few
businesses are considering changing credit card
processors or upgrading equipment. All noses
are to the grindstone; attention is focused on sales … and
self-preservation.
For MLSs, this is the ideal time to step back and regroup,
take a critical look at your professional and personal lives,
and get fully organized for the upswing of the business
cycle. (Yes, there will be one.)
Organize and educate
On the professional side, organization means reviewing
sales materials to make sure they're current and have a
consistent appearance and message. You'll make the best
impression with a look that is crisp and consistent. Now is
the time to get rid of mismatched fonts, misspellings and
other minor errors you're too busy to tackle when the pace
of business is more rigorous.
Sales material is often produced by large companies;
the task here is to use the most current information and
discard the rest. Also, Microsoft Inc. PowerPoint presentations
and flip folders are often personalized, and when
they become outdated, it reflects negatively on you. This
is a fast-evolving industry where regulatory and other
references change continuously. Make sure your support
materials communicate the latest developments.
And make sure the marketing tool over which you have
the most control – your Web site – sings from the same
hymnbook as your print and presentation materials.
While you're online, review your LinkedIn and Facebook
profiles, and make sure contacts are current and correct.
The next item on the checklist is your work space: Do you
have what you need to work efficiently? Are e-mails and
other correspondence organized within system files? If
so, are they backed up? The best information and greatest
intelligence is of little use if lost.
Next, ask yourself if you have the technology to accomplish
your work effectively. An excellent article from a
recent issue of The Green Sheet suggested that tools for the
mobile MLS usually include two cell phones, a laptop and
a remote printer – all in good condition and technologically
current. Does this describe your tool set?
Few business situations are more tragic than a salesperson
who spots the mastodon, reaches back to his quiver and
discovers … no arrow. (When did you last replace your
mobile device batteries?)
Factors critical to your work space include appropriate
and ergonomic lighting for day and evening.
You won't have the time or impetus to change it later, so
evaluate it now.
And while you're at it, now is the best time you will
have all year to catch up on reading and correspondence.
Writing thank-you notes for past events you attended, or
to new accounts, is a good place to start.
Also, do research on sources for new leads. Start planning
during the year's first and second quarters, and get
everything in place. The good (and bad) news is that there
will never be a better opportunity to do these vital, but
often-postponed, tasks.
Manage your slice
The business bestseller Who Moved My Cheese?: An
Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your
Life by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard suggests
that if you continue doing business on the same path, in
the same way, your outcomes will be static or will decline.
Who Moved My Cheese? is a parable that sums up, in
94 pages, the nature of our world: things change. They
always have changed and always will change. And while
there's no one way to manage change, the consequence
of pretending it won't happen is always the same: The
cheese runs out.
This is the seminal lesson for 2010. Circumstances beyond
our control have created a different climate that is