Do you know the 10% rule?
It's simple. 10% of people are the ones destined to succeed. They are the ones who are like you, looking for ways to improve their businesses, and are willing to take action to make it happen.
How about you? Are you ready to move beyond stagnant sales or a few percentage points of growth?
Enough! There's no reason to put up with minimal results or to be stuck waiting for something big to happen someday. Especially when the solution is a simple mental trick that anyone can master.
No, I'm not a magician, but let me explain how you can perform magic with your sales and your profits just by regularly tracking some key numbers.
The Power of Numbers
In the 1950s KitchenAid, the maker of "high-quality" mixers, was having a problem in their manufacturing plant. A huge percentage of the mixers that were coming off the line didn't work or had defects. Repairing all the defective machines was adding unnecessary costs. The plant manager talked to every employee telling them how important quality was, but it hardly made a difference.
Then a highly paid industrial psychologist came up with a simple idea. He hung a big banner on the wall of the shop and each week posted the number of machines with defects and the number without. That was it. Within a few months, the defect rate plummeted and almost every machine was coming off the manufacturing line ready to be shipped.
Amazing! It worked like magic!
It didn't take bonuses, raises, threats, or training to get the employees to do better work. The simple act of putting up the number for all to see motivated the plant workers to get it right and increase the plant's profitability.
Measuring performance is a powerful tool. It's one magic trick anyone can use to get better results.
Take losing weight. Studies show that people who weigh themselves weekly, versus those who don't, are 11 times more likely to lose a minimum of 5% of their body weight in six months.
Think how much money could be saved and weight lost, if people just used a scale, even if they did nothing else! Of course, creating a chart of their weekly weight would help even more.
How about your profits? Which numbers can help you grow your profits?
Most people already keep track of their monthly revenue, which is useful, but it's not the number you need to focus on to grow your business. The numbers you need to track are the precursors to the sale.
For example: The number one indicator of a sales person's success (all else being equal) is the number of phone calls they make. That's it!
Want to increase your sales by 47% or more?
Set up a spreadsheet for the sales team (or yourself), and have them note how many sales calls they made each week and how many sales. Spend a few minutes reviewing this with the team each week, not to scold or praise them, but to get them to focus on the key numbers that determine their sales.
What other numbers are helpful to track?
99% of all business owners I talk to love getting referrals, but they rarely, if ever, ask their happy clients for them. So what could they -- and you -- do to get more referrals?
Remind yourself and your sales staff to ask for referrals and then track how many you get each week. You'll be amazed how the simple act of reviewing the numbers will motivate you and your staff to get into the habit of asking for - and getting -- referrals.
If you're marketing online there are a couple of additional numbers you'll want to track, including:
- The number of visitors your site gets each month
- The number of leads your site generates
- The number of sales you generate
- The dollar volume of sales
If you want more sales, you'll need more visitors and prospects contacting you. Are you catching on? Numbers are motivators!
Tracking a few key indicators can "trick" your mind and the minds of people on your team into focusing their efforts -- and you'll see the results in increased revenue.Record your key numbers, keep them "public" and review them weekly or at least monthly with your entire team.
And while the above performance measures are good ones, they're nothing in comparison to the power of the one I am about to share with you. This number alone can increase your income by up to 100 times.
No, I'm not making this up!
In 1979, the Harvard Business School did a study of its incoming students and here's what they found:
- 84% had no specific goals
- 13% had goals but hadn't written them down
- 3% had clear, written goals and plans to accomplish their goals
Ten years later they checked back with the students they'd interviewed and discovered:
- The 13% that had identifiable goals were making twice as much as the other 84% who didn't had any goals when they entered the program
- The 3% who had clear, written goals were making, on average, 10 times as much as the remaining 97% put together or HUNDREDS of times more than the average graduate.
Incredible!
Just by writing down your financial goal and creating a plan for reaching it, in 10 years you could be making literally hundreds of times more than your colleagues and competitors!
So what are you going to do next?
How about this:
1. Open up a document and write down your ten-year goals.
2. Map out your plan for reaching your goals in one page or less.
3. Create a spreadsheet to track the number of:
- sales calls made
- referrals received
- online and offline sales
It's simple. 10% of people are the ones destined to succeed. They are the ones who are like you, looking for ways to improve their businesses, and are willing to take action to make it happen.
How about you? Are you ready to move beyond stagnant sales or a few percentage points of growth?
Enough! There's no reason to put up with minimal results or to be stuck waiting for something big to happen someday. Especially when the solution is a simple mental trick that anyone can master.
No, I'm not a magician, but let me explain how you can perform magic with your sales and your profits just by regularly tracking some key numbers.
The Power of Numbers
In the 1950s KitchenAid, the maker of "high-quality" mixers, was having a problem in their manufacturing plant. A huge percentage of the mixers that were coming off the line didn't work or had defects. Repairing all the defective machines was adding unnecessary costs. The plant manager talked to every employee telling them how important quality was, but it hardly made a difference.
Then a highly paid industrial psychologist came up with a simple idea. He hung a big banner on the wall of the shop and each week posted the number of machines with defects and the number without. That was it. Within a few months, the defect rate plummeted and almost every machine was coming off the manufacturing line ready to be shipped.
Amazing! It worked like magic!
It didn't take bonuses, raises, threats, or training to get the employees to do better work. The simple act of putting up the number for all to see motivated the plant workers to get it right and increase the plant's profitability.
Measuring performance is a powerful tool. It's one magic trick anyone can use to get better results.
Take losing weight. Studies show that people who weigh themselves weekly, versus those who don't, are 11 times more likely to lose a minimum of 5% of their body weight in six months.
Think how much money could be saved and weight lost, if people just used a scale, even if they did nothing else! Of course, creating a chart of their weekly weight would help even more.
How about your profits? Which numbers can help you grow your profits?
Most people already keep track of their monthly revenue, which is useful, but it's not the number you need to focus on to grow your business. The numbers you need to track are the precursors to the sale.
For example: The number one indicator of a sales person's success (all else being equal) is the number of phone calls they make. That's it!
Want to increase your sales by 47% or more?
Set up a spreadsheet for the sales team (or yourself), and have them note how many sales calls they made each week and how many sales. Spend a few minutes reviewing this with the team each week, not to scold or praise them, but to get them to focus on the key numbers that determine their sales.
What other numbers are helpful to track?
99% of all business owners I talk to love getting referrals, but they rarely, if ever, ask their happy clients for them. So what could they -- and you -- do to get more referrals?
Remind yourself and your sales staff to ask for referrals and then track how many you get each week. You'll be amazed how the simple act of reviewing the numbers will motivate you and your staff to get into the habit of asking for - and getting -- referrals.
If you're marketing online there are a couple of additional numbers you'll want to track, including:
- The number of visitors your site gets each month
- The number of leads your site generates
- The number of sales you generate
- The dollar volume of sales
If you want more sales, you'll need more visitors and prospects contacting you. Are you catching on? Numbers are motivators!
Tracking a few key indicators can "trick" your mind and the minds of people on your team into focusing their efforts -- and you'll see the results in increased revenue.Record your key numbers, keep them "public" and review them weekly or at least monthly with your entire team.
And while the above performance measures are good ones, they're nothing in comparison to the power of the one I am about to share with you. This number alone can increase your income by up to 100 times.
No, I'm not making this up!
In 1979, the Harvard Business School did a study of its incoming students and here's what they found:
- 84% had no specific goals
- 13% had goals but hadn't written them down
- 3% had clear, written goals and plans to accomplish their goals
Ten years later they checked back with the students they'd interviewed and discovered:
- The 13% that had identifiable goals were making twice as much as the other 84% who didn't had any goals when they entered the program
- The 3% who had clear, written goals were making, on average, 10 times as much as the remaining 97% put together or HUNDREDS of times more than the average graduate.
Incredible!
Just by writing down your financial goal and creating a plan for reaching it, in 10 years you could be making literally hundreds of times more than your colleagues and competitors!
So what are you going to do next?
How about this:
1. Open up a document and write down your ten-year goals.
2. Map out your plan for reaching your goals in one page or less.
3. Create a spreadsheet to track the number of:
- sales calls made
- referrals received
- website visitors
- web leads generated
- online and offline sales
4. Print it out. Tape it to the wall. Update it each week.
To your success,
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