---
title: "Process First: Write It Down Before You Buy The Software"
description: Write down your process before you buy the software. The rule The Sales Whisperer® has given every client since 2008, plus the four-column worksheet.
image: https://thesaleswhisperer.com/hubfs/tsw-process-first-share-1200x630.png
---

# Write Down Your Process Before You Buy The Software

**The whole rule, unchanged since 2008: whatever you do two or three times a day, or four or five times a week, write down how you do it. Then buy software that runs it.**

It costs nothing. It takes one afternoon. And it is the difference between a CRM that runs your business and a $400-a-month tab for software nobody opens.

## Buying software while you are frustrated is like grocery shopping while you are hungry

You end up with indigestion and a big credit card bill.

Before you do either, sit down and make a list. Document your CURRENT processes and your IDEAL processes, then RANK them in order of importance.

When you do, you will know where the real gaps are. That list, not a demo, is what picks your software.

## The real problem is wing-ittery

Most owners do not have a sales problem. They have a wing-ittery problem. Every call is a fresh start. Every follow-up depends on who remembered. Every quote gets written from scratch. Nothing is the same twice, so nothing can be measured, and nothing can be fixed.

Software does not fix that. It makes the mess faster and adds a bill.

> Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.
> 
> —Dwight D. Eisenhower, November 14, 1957

Ike was not telling anyone to skip the plan. He was saying the value sits in the work of thinking it through. The document matters less than the fact that you sat down and decided how this gets done. That is the part owners skip.

## Frequency is the whole test

Not is it important. Not is it strategic. How often do you do it?

A thing you do once a quarter can live in your head. A thing you do five times a week, done a different way every time, is costing you money—and you cannot see where, because there is nothing to compare it against.

### What that looks like on a Tuesday

- You answer the same three objections every day. Write down the best answer to each.
- You send the same follow-up four times a week. Write it once, then let the system send it.
- You quote the same job every week. Build the quote once and fill in the blanks.
- You onboard a new client twice a month. Make the checklist.

None of that needs software. All of it needs a decision.

## Do this before you open another demo

Four columns. A legal pad works. So does the back of an envelope. Here are the first three rows already filled in, because they are the same three in almost every business I walk into.

| What you do | How often | Who does it | Written down? |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Follow up on a quote | Daily | Whoever remembers | **No** |
| Answer the price objection | Daily | Every rep, differently | **No** |
| Onboard a new client | Twice a month | You | **No** |
| Your turn |  |  |  |

Every row you mark **No** is a leak. Rank them by how often you do them, most frequent at the top. The top three are your software requirements. Anything a salesperson demos that is not on that list is a feature you will pay for and never open.

![Clients at a The Sales Whisperer implementation workshop mapping their sales process on paper before logging in to any software](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blog-files/Denni-Process-Before-Login-Sales-and-Marketing-Automation-Coaching.jpg?width=960&height=960&name=Denni-Process-Before-Login-Sales-and-Marketing-Automation-Coaching.jpg)

Clients and my automation team going old school, documenting the process before login at one of my [Implementation Acceleration](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/48-hour-fix?hsLang=en) workshops. Paper first. Every time.

## Then, and only then, buy the software

Once the process is on paper, picking a tool gets easy. You stop asking what can this do and start asking can this run my process. That is a short conversation, and it ends most demos in ten minutes.

It also means the setup sticks. I have built sales and marketing automation for hundreds of small businesses since 2008—Infusionsoft, Keap, HubSpot, Ontraport, Salesforce, HighLevel. The builds that last are the ones where the owner knew what he wanted the machine to do before we turned it on. Every time.

## Infusionsoft is gone. The rule outlived it.

I was certified in Infusionsoft in the fall of 2008, wrote The Definitive Guide To Infusionsoft in 2012, and was named their Partner of the Year in 2013. That software does not exist under that name anymore.

The rule I gave those clients still works today, on tools that had not been invented yet when I wrote it. That is how you know it was never about the software. I have advised more than 3,500 companies since founding The Sales Whisperer® in 2006, and the ones who wrote it down first are the ones still running.

So I am not against software. I have made a living inside it for seventeen years. I am against buying it instead of thinking, because I have watched that bill come due more times than I can count.

Two ways to start

## Do it yourself, or have me do it

The worksheet above is free and it works. Eighteen questions and about four minutes tells you which of six areas—message, pipeline, CRM, follow-up, AI, or rep skill—is costing you the most.

If you would rather not spend the afternoon on it, that is what I am for.

[Take The Scorecard — Free](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/score?hsLang=en) [Have Me Do It In 48 Hours](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/48-hour-fix?hsLang=en)

Would rather just talk it through first? My calendar has free sessions from 15 minutes up to a full 90. [Start here](https://thesaleswhisperer.com/start?hsLang=en).

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