Bill Myers

Back when I was in college, I signed up for a summer job selling books door-to-door.

Before the company put me to work, they required me to go through an intensive 'sales boot camp' with 500 other people.

For a week, we learned how to make sales. How to talk to people. How to recognize and handle objections. How to know when a sale was going to happen, and when one wasn't.

Their goal - to teach us how to do 30 sales presentations a day, and turn at least ten of those into sales.

Because doing 30 sales presentations day after day after day can be so draining, the company taught us to write down our goals on a 3 X 5 index cards and tape them in places where we would see throughout the day.

Their belief was that seeing our goals, especially when we became discouraged, would keep us motivated to get the job done.

As it turned out, the constant reinforcement of seeing our goals proved to be a very effective technique. At least for me.

I was thinking about this as I looked at the sign my wife Sonya painted for me and hung on the wall opposite my desk.

The small sign reads . . . "Simplify".

That has become our business goal. Simplify.

Simplify the products. Simplify the order taking. Simplify the shipping. Make it easy on the customer and easy on the business owner.

Simplify.

I think it is a worthwhile goal. One that more business should undertake.