I want to tell you about a mistake that almost every business owner learns the hard way, sooner rather than later, and it’s - accepting the worst number in business. I agree, that sounds like a weird statement, but it’s really not. When I talk about the worst number in business - I’m talking about number 1. Basically, if there’s only 1 pillar holding you up in the Colosseum, you’re essentially asking the world to make you lay in bits and ruins, struggling to get your business organs back into your business body. And then one day, they’ll finally kick away your 1 pillar and the whole building collapses. I know it doesn’t feel like that, but it is going to happen. Picture this. You’re the owner of an advertising agency, and there’s one salesman who always stands out from the rest, that isn’t just good, he is exceptional, 1 in a million, signs a deal almost every time he gets on the phone. If that salesman gets sick, dies, quits, becomes rogue, goes to serve for the competitor, or gets different priorities - you’re screwed, and it’s going to take a tone of time to find someone even a little bit close to him in this clutter, without scratching your head like a lottery ticket. So if your top salesman or any method of getting customers in the door is floating your company - they’re irreplaceable, you need to fix that quickly. So how do you do that? You could offer a salesman a massive salary increase to keep him motivated, but that doesn’t guarantee long-term commitment and doesn’t make him less irreplaceable at all. You could make him a partner or a stakeholder, but this can complicate business operations, and also doesn’t fix the problem of his irreplaceability, so that’s not practical. The best way to fix this?
Take what he knows.
Now, I don’t mean beating him up for information until he can no longer resist, like Batman.
However, what we should do, is convince him to share his knowledge with the team, to make the others more like him so he’s less irreplaceable.
This solves all of our problems for three reasons:
1) It’s very hard for him to say no to
2) He gets something either way, whether it’s materialistic things, or a boost in his ego, if we decide to do it for free. Because people love to be recognized. If I’m the best I’d love to show others what I’m doing.
3) All of our other salesmen now know all of his secrets.
How do you implement this into your business?
Since this is fully within your control - I want you to find out that 1 crevice in your armor where the dagger can slip in, and immediately start finding ways around it, if the worst-case scenario does, come to life.
Whether it's cross-training, getting inside their methodology, inserting the passwords, taking inspiration from the example with the salesman, etc.
Don’t do what most people do, which is just pretending they are “busy” with other stuff which seems to be much more important because they’re “doing fine anyway”
So, the next time you’re at the end of your workday, and you’re looking back - think about:
“What is the worst thing that can happen?”
or…
“What is the one person (or thing) I couldn’t survive without?”
Look at your business that way for a moment, no matter how big or small it is, identify where the weaknesses are, and get to the point where you know if any of them leave or break - you can find someone or something else. P.S. If you want to know how I’d ensure you have enough pillars to withstand a lead drought, fill out the form here.
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