My company was recently hired to conduct a “mystery shop” campaign for an international company to identify where the breakdowns in the sales process were occurring. We were trying to collect information on where the franchises needed the most help. We visited more than 500 locations to see what percentage of time the sales force was able to position the client to even ask for an order on the product. To the company's amazement, 63 percent of the locations shopped never even presented the client with a proposal to purchase—much less ask our mystery shopper to buy! This company was about to spend millions on a product training program when in reality, this was not the problem. The franchises and their sales teams feared failure or rejection and never even played a hand—much less went all in.
If a client comes to you or you get a chance to get in front of a client and talk about your product but never present a proposal, I assure you that you will not get the business 100 percent of the time. Society has successfully taught most of us to play it safe rather than to go all in with every customer and every opportunity. This is perpetuated in the business world with things like closing ratios, which supposedly reflect the success rate of a salesperson. I'll tell you what I do: I am willing to go for it with every customer, every time, and have the lowest closing ratio of everyone but the highest production! All in. I don't care how many times I bust out, I will just reload my chips and play again!
Think about it: What's the worst thing that can happen to you if you just totally go for it? You may lose the customer, but so what? You still have unlimited resources to give it your all with the next client. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose; you simply have to rethink your approach.
This brings me to the topic of overcommitting, another “frowned-upon” and misunderstood issue in business today. How many times have you been told to “undercommit and overdeliver?” I have never heard anything so backward and ridiculous. Let's say you are putting on a Broadway show that you're advertising to the public. Should you announce that you have a mediocre cast with just “average” singing ability—and then wait until opening night to overdeliver? Of course not. This phrase suggests that overcommitting—or, at the very least, fully committing—somehow puts you in danger. If you're then not able to deliver as promised, you'll leave the other party dissatisfied. Why not overcommit in your promise—and then exceed by overdelivering as well? Tell everyone about your spectacular Broadway cast, and compel them to see the show for themselves. Overcommit and overdeliver!
I find that the greater the commitment I make to a client, the higher my level of delivery naturally becomes. It is as though I'm promising to both them and myself to reach new levels of what I'm able to do for them. The more energy I devote to the markets, my clients, or my family, the more intent I am upon delivering exactly what I said I was going to. This, of course, goes back to acting with 10X effort rather than 1X effort. It's easy for someone to claim to be giving “110 percent” but then fail to fully commit—either because that person is playing it safe or is afraid that he or she won't perform to the level necessary.
A common problem that almost every business faces is the tendency to increase appointments in order to present a product or idea. People who request an appointment aren't willing to overcommit to the person who has to give up his or her valuable time in order to see them. Grand claims, overcommitment, and extreme promises will immediately separate you from the masses—and therefore force you to deliver at 10X levels. The only way to increase appointments is to increase the number of people to whom you speak—and then amplify the reasons why they should make time for you.
The same goes for every step of the sales process, whether it involves follow up, fliers, regular mail, e-mails, social media, phone calls, personal visits, events, meetings, or any other action you take. Overcommit your energy, resources, creativity, and persistence. Know that you are all in on every activity, every time you take action, every day you're in business.
Now, you might worry—as so many people do—about not being able to deliver. And that is certainly a problem; however, as we discussed earlier, you need new problems. They're signs that you're making progress and heading in the right direction. Learn to commit first, and figure out how to show up later. Most people simply never bother to perform and instead spend their time trying to wrap their heads around things that may never happen for them. Anyone who doesn't face new problems but who instead grapples with the same old problems his or her whole life isn't moving forward. Simply put: If you are not creating new problems for yourself, then you aren't taking enough action.
You need to face new issues and dilemmas that will challenge you to keep finding and creating solutions. Wouldn't it be nice if you had too many people to see at 2 PM or if you had a line outside your restaurant because there were so many people waiting for a table? One of the major differences between successful and unsuccessful people is that the former look for problems to resolve, whereas the latter make every attempt to avoid them. So remember: Overcommit, be all in, and take massive levels of action followed up by massive amounts of more actions. You will create new problems and deliver at levels that will amaze even you.
Chapter 14
Expand—Never Contract
As of the writing of this book, our country is still experiencing very serious economic stress. Unemployment numbers and financial uncertainty are reaching heights not seen since the Great Depression. During major economic contractions like these, the world becomes convinced to reduce, save, be careful, and stay cautious. Although this mind-set focuses on self-preservation and protection of assets, it is the very kind of thinking that will guarantee you never get what you want. And although the majority of the world has entered a state of contraction, small percentages of people and companies are still capitalizing by expanding. These people understand that these times of tightening are unique opportunities to take from those who are taking a defensive posture by reducing spending.
Because contracting is a form of retreating, it violates the concept of the 10X Rule, which demands that you continue to act, produce, and create in massive quantities regardless of the situation or circumstances. I will admit that it can be very difficult and counterintuitive to expand while others are taking protective measures. However, it's an approach you must adopt in order to take advantage of opportunity. Remember: Regardless of what is happening in the world at any given time, most people are not taking massive action. Although there are, of course, times when you must defend, retreat, and conserve, you should only do so for short periods of time—in order to prepare yourself to reinforce and attack again. You would never contract as a continued business effort. Although we frequently seem to hear reports of companies that failed because they expanded too fast, the case for many of them probably wasn't so simple. Most companies fail not because they stay on the offensive but because they don't properly prepare themselves for expansion and cannot dominate the sector.
The idea of constant, unwavering expansion is counterintuitive and even unpopular; however, it will separate you from the rest of the pack more than any other single activity. The task of expanding when others are contracting should not be reduced to some simplistic concept. This is a very difficult discipline to apply in the real world. Yet once you get into the groove of making it your innate method of responding, the ability to continuously, relentlessly attack any activity will give way to forward movement. Any disagreement with this comes because most people only attack to the point where they meet resistance—and then back off. It's kind of like challenging the schoolyard bully and then running away; it always turns out badly. If you approach trials in this way, the market, your clients, and your competition will not believe that you're committed to a persistent attack. Therefore, they will threaten or criticize you—and you will back off. You'll figure that it didn't work—but the only reason why it didn't work is because you didn't stick with it long enough for the market, your clients, and your competition to finally submit to your efforts. Repe
ated attacks over extended periods of time will always be successful.
You must implement the tactic of expansion regardless of whether the economy and those surrounding you encourage you to do so. I say this because we live in a society that promotes contraction most of the time, and when it does support expansion, it is typically too late in the cycle—hence the recent meltdown. News of contraction should serve as an indicator for you to do the contrary. You never want to blindly follow the masses; they are almost always wrong. Instead of following the pack, lead them! The way out is to expand, push, and take action—regardless of what others are saying and doing.
I watched others in my sector cut staff and promotion dollars during this recent recession—which served as a green light for me to augment my own forces. I didn't cut employees or promotional spending. Instead, I increased both. Even though I saw our revenue shrink with the rest of the world's, I opted to cut my own salary as an alternative. I redirected those monies to promote the business, which helped to increase my footprint and take market share from other organizations that were retreating. In fact, I spent more money on advertising, marketing, and promotion in the course of those 18 months than I had in 18 years! I realize how counterintuitive this was. I fully admit that it was scary and that I often second-guessed my actions. Yet I knew that if I could continue to keep pushing forward, I would gain tremendous ground.
Even more important than the money I spent were the demands I made on my staff and myself to repeatedly expand the use of our most valuable resources: energy, creativity, persistence, and contact with our clients. By doing so, we immediately increased production in every area: phone calls, e-mails, e-newsletters, social media posts, personal visits, speaking engagements, teleconferences, webinars, Skype conferences, and the like. Over that year and a half, I published three books, introduced four new sales programs, produced more than 700 segments of training material for a virtual training site, did 600 radio interviews, wrote more than 150 articles or blog entries, and made thousands of personal phone calls. While the rest of the world withdrew, we expanded on every front possible.
Pretty much everyone in the world was convinced that their only saving grace was to save—so they did. It's always intriguing to me that when people start saving money, they immediately begin saving everything else—almost automatically. It is as though the mind is unable to distinguish between saving paper bills or numbers in a bank and conserving energy, creativity, and effort. The whole world held back in its expenditure of both dollars and effort while just a few people expanded. Who do you think came out on top?
People have asked me how—and why—I decided to expand when things were so uncertain. My answer to them was, “I would rather die in expansion than die in contraction. I would rather fail pushing forward than in retreat.” Consider this yourself: At which of the four degrees of action introduced in Chapter 7 do you choose to operate? If you allow the economy to determine your choice, you will never be in control of your own economy.
The solution? Get off the sofa, get out of your home, and make your way into the market! Get in front of clients, seek out opportunities, and show that you are advancing in the market. Only retreat for brief moments, if necessary, in order to shore up resources so that you can prepare to expand with even more action. Your energy, efforts, creativity, and personality are worth more than the dollars that men create and machines print. And although spending money is the most common way for businesses to expand, it is certainly not the only way—and is not nearly as valuable as taking 10X actions consistently and persistently.
Remember 10X, baby. You want to expand with the goal of dominating your sector and getting attention by taking massive action. Only then will you be able to expand your contacts, influences, connections, and visibility with the goal of creating new problems. You will then continue to expand until everyone—including your supposed competitors—knows you are the dominant 10X player and always associates your name with what you do.
Chapter 15
Burn the Place Down
Once you take 10X actions and start getting traction, you must continue to add wood to your fire until you either start a brushfire or a bonfire—or burn the place down. Don't rest, and don't stop—ever. I learned this the hard way after achieving a lot of success and then resting on my laurels. This is a commonly made mistake. Do not do it! Keep stacking wood until the fire is so hot and burns so brightly that not even competitors or market changes can put your fire out. Your fire has to continue to be stoked, and that means more wood, more fuel, and in your case, more actions. Once you start operating like this, it will become almost second nature to continue—because you are going to be winning. It's easiest and most natural to continue taking massive actions when you are winning—and winning is only possible with massive actions.
When you begin to “heat things up,” you'll quickly become aware—even obsessed—with the possibilities before you and will start to see new levels of positive results. Your actions will start to perpetuate themselves like a flywheel that, once it gets going, continues going. Newton talked about the law of inertia: An object in motion continues in motion. Keep taking action until you can't stop your forward momentum. You might even find yourself operating on less sleep and food because you are literally subsisting on your adrenaline generated by your victories. It will be about this time that people start offering you admiration—and then advice. Be particularly wary of those who suggest you have “done enough” or who advise you to take a rest or vacation. Now is not the time for rest and celebration; it's time for more action. Andy Grove, one of Intel Corporation's first employees, coined the saying, “Only the paranoid survive.” Although I'm not recommending that you spend your entire career in a state of paranoia, I do believe that you must stay committed to taking action. Even after achieving successes along the way, continue to take more actions in order to exceed your goals. The time to celebrate or take vacations will come. Right now, you must keep adding wood until the fire is burning so hot that no one—and nothing—can put out your successes.
One of the problems with success is that it demands continuous attention. Success tends to bless those who are most committed to giving it the most attention. It's somewhat like a lawn or garden; no matter how green it gets or beautiful the flowers, you must continue to tend to it. You have to keep mowing, trimming, edging, watering, and planting; otherwise, your grass will turn brown and your flowers will die. That is the case for success as well. There is no retreating for those who want to create and keep it. It is a myth to believe that the successful get to “kick back” and stop making the very efforts that have brought them fulfillment in the first place.
Always keep the four actions—doing nothing, retreating, taking an average amount of action, and taking massive action—in mind. The 10X Rule means you are going to create success in quantities great enough that you are constantly in total control. The wannabes and people who get close are the ones who quit adding wood and then backed off. Massive action is designed to move you past your peers and off the “treadmill.” The best way to quit worrying about competition and uncertainty is to build a fire so large and so hot that everyone in the world—even your competition—comes to sit by your fire for warmth. Keep in mind that most competition is created by those who are unwilling to operate at the higher levels of action, who merely imitate others' efforts. There can never be enough wood on your fire. You can never take too much action or accumulate too much success. There is no such thing as being talked or written about excessively, being covered too frequently, receiving too much authority, or working too much. These are simply claims that mediocre people make in order to justify their own decisions to be happy with the status quo.
How can you ever take too much action when you have an endless ability to create new actions? Look at the big players on this planet. None of them ever “runs out” of energy, efforts, people, ideas, or resources. They enjoy the gifts of abundance because they create abundance in their
enterprises. So instead of resenting them, admire and emulate them. If you do, you'll find that the more you commit to new actions, the more creative you will become. It is as though your imagination opens up, and new possibilities just pour from it. It's not even necessarily the creativity that is so brilliant but the ability to take massive action that it prompts.
I recently met with a very high-profile PR firm in Los Angeles whose members suggested that I was in danger of being “overexposed”—something I thought was an extremely strange concept. The notion of overexposure—the idea that you can see or hear too much about someone—is based on the concept that a person doesn't continue to generate new ideas and products. The underlying belief is that an overexposed person or product will somehow lose its value. But consider the following: Coca-Cola is known by almost everyone on planet Earth. You can find the company's products in almost every store, bar, airplane, and hotel in the world. Is it overexposed? Should it hide its products? Should the company hold back in fear that Coca-Cola will lose its value because too many people are hearing about and using it? This seems to be a fairly ridiculous way of thinking. And there are countless other examples of products and companies that prove this point—Microsoft, Starbucks, McDonald's, Wells Fargo, Google, Fox TV, Marlboro, Walgreens, Exxon, Apple, Toyota—and even some athletic and celebrity personalities. Although overexposure is usually not the problem, obscurity certainly can be. Remember: If you don't know (or know about) me, then it doesn't matter how good my product is or how low my price is. And even if this were the case, I would rather be overexposed than face obscurity.
The Ten Times Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure Page 10
