The KISS principle is a modern acronym for “Keep it Simple Stupid.” KISS states that simplicity should be a key goal and that unnecessary complexity should be avoided. Almost every night we hear reports on the news about a struggling economy, but how can we survive? In times of uncertainty, flux, or crisis a return to fundamentals is important. Now is not the time to pull out the trick plays. We need to simplify our playbooks.

A football coach who is working with a shell-shocked second string quarterback forced into duty is likely to shorten the playbook to select plays that are highly successful and have low risk. In a recent blog, Grant Cardone explained what organizations can do to survive selling in a recession.

“The only solution is to get back to basics. . . . Companies have to get back to training their sales and management team on how to rely less on gimmicks and more on sales skills and sales effectiveness in order for them to generate the activity levels that were created artificially.”

This is a brilliant observation by Mr. Cardone. Getting back to the basics will help you maintain focus on getting the close instead of worrying about surrounding circumstances.

An illustration of how quickly complexity can arise is looking at the factorial principle of mathematics. Let’s say you have three trees and three holes. What are the most different combinations you can come up with? The answer is 6. Now if you add 8 more trees and 8 more holes for a total of 11 that number jumps to 39,916,800 different possibilities. When you add just one more tree and hole for a total of 12 you’re now looking at 479,001,600 different combinations.

The same can be said in sales. By making your sales process more complex you leave yourself more vulnerable to things going wrong. That can create friction in the sales process because you will be forced to deal with the problems created by making your process more complex.

This is how the Griffin Hill Integrity Sales System can help. Our Process and Plays give you a framework to follow that takes the complexity out of sales. Just as Mr. Cardone said in his blog, by getting back to the basics, and not worrying about gimmicks, our 6-Step Sales process will help you rely more on your sales skills.

Another way to simplify is to take time before each sales call to go over 6-Steps to a Successful Sales Call. This exercise will help you be better prepared for your appointment. Early preparation will help sharpen your skills so that you can be more effective in every sales call. Keeping it simple will help you focus on the task at hand, whereas making it more complicated will add confusion and friction to your sales process.