Can you run a marathon? Can you swallow a golf ball? That depends.

Over the last few weeks, Mike and I have been promoting our new ARMS Marketing System, and we received a number of questions.

One of them was, "Can I outsource 90% of the work and the only thing I do is talk to the client once with telling them how I can help them after my processor/assistant loan officer does most of the work?"

And the answer to this is very straight-forward:

"How the hell do I know?"

That's like asking me, "Can I run a marathon?" Or, "Can I swallow a golf ball?"

There's no way anyone would be able to answer that question, and here's why: there are loads of issues to consider here, like...

Are you a competent teacher?

Are you comfortable selling and interacting with people?

Are you capable of confidently moving people along a process in a systematic manner?

Has your marketing and your subsequent personal follow-up meeting been thorough enough so that the client now understands what happens next?

Is your processor or assistant sharp, or are they like most employees - lazy and preoccupied with who won on American Idol last night?

Is the carpet in your office one of the three colors that absolutely KILLS sales?

See, there are so many issues and moving parts here, you're asking the wrong question. The ONLY questions you should be asking about any marketing system are:

* Is it an integrated system that attracts prospects? (Ours is.) There's no marketing system in the world that can control how you handle someone once they are a qualified lead. Outside of having me or Mike inside your office with you, closing people for you (which isn't going to happen in this lifetime), reality is, you've got to take some responsibility for what happens at this point.

The good news is, there is some specific sales training you can get for this process, (which we may be providing next year) if you need help here, but no marketing system is going to provide that for you.

* Will it work for MY clients in MY town? I say this in jest, because reality is, the people who ask this question are more looking for reasons for something not to work, or for them to not have to make any kind of commitment to, than anything else. These are usually the same people who say, "Direct mail doesn't work," and they've never even so much as licked a stamp, let alone mailed out a marketing campaign.

Or, they've mailed out one campaign which was so poorly written or so poorly designed that even their mother wouldn't respond to it, and then they write direct mail off.

Systems work and people buy, when you're able to effectively tap into their emotional buy-buttons, period. Doesn't matter where you are -- if you're dealing with a human being, that's the way it works, without exception. And since human nature hasn't changed since the dawning of time, you're gonna be O.K. working with our system.

Even if you live in The Bronx, where I grew up, you're still gonna be O.K.

If you want to check out the origins of the system we've created, start here and listen to all the teleseminars and watch all the videos: http://www.loturnaround.com/replay

To check out the "guts" of the system itself, go here: http://www.loturnaround.com/arms

Now go close some deals, Craig Garber & Mike Miget

P.S. Don't freak out, I was just kidding about the carpet. I have no idea what color carpet boosts or suppresses sales, or whether you should even have carpet over tile or wood. Although... about 30 years ago, I read something that said when the inside rim of professional baseball players caps are red, they behave more erratically.

If you enjoyed this, pass it on to a few of your friends and business associates, and if you have any comments about this message, PLEASE -- leave them here on our blog -- we want to know what you're thinking: