A true $15k Idea...
So enough about me, this is for you!
Basically the story goes like this...There was a CEO of a huge company and in the past hired (outsourced) several companies to make his company more efficient, profitable and assist him in going over the business to see how he could personally be more effective as well as his top managers.
Well, back then $50,000 was a lot of money, still is today. Basically, this company went through each part of his company and met with each of his top managers to go over their position and compare their output or effectiveness from the prior year and projection for the rest of the year.
They compiled enormous amounts of data and basically reviewed everything and they gave the owner a huge summary of where there company was and what he could expect for the rest of the year. Then they took that number and figured out exactly what the overall growth rate of the company had performed over the past 5 years and took that number to project into the future.
It took almost a week just for them to regurgitate all the data, numbers, projections, etc...
The owner was left with a $50,000 bill that gave him a detailed progress report on his company. Well, he said to himself, I just learned the hard way why he was a mega multi-millionaire and owned one of the largest printing company in the USA. He had become so overwhelmed with dealing with and fixing problems, that by the time the day was over he was exhausted but couldn't think of a single thing that he actually accomplished that added any value to the business and vowed never to fall for one of these companies to analyze his business!
It stirred him up to his former passion a bit, but after a few weeks he fell back into the same role of being overwhelmed by "very important" things that ate his time up and because of his personality he felt compelled to get involved, spends time delegating, negotiating deals, etc... All of which were important but they also already had someone assigned and paid for to do those jobs.
Eventually, the close staff around him and almost all of his managers would come to him on a daily basis with a problem or an issue and was always saying yes to their "Hey Boss, can you take a look at this or tell me what you think about...It was endless, and all of his time was nibbled on a daily basis to the point he was no longer running a company, but a nursery.
Well, this continued on for several more years and the company basically performed as the analyst several years prior told him to expect about a 10% annual growth FOREVER!
One day a middle aged man nicely dressed had set up an appointment through his secretary for a meeting with the owner, unbeknownst to him that he represented one of the best and most reputable companies in the country that would assess companies AND provide totally new ideas, think tanks with the employees, and was very effective in growing companies both large and small.
The salesman that was sent was the top earner in the company and had been shot down many times by the owner because of his $50K experience years before. This salesman did things a lot different than all the other reps did and in this case because the owner of the printing company had given his secretary a standing order to never allow even a 5 minute meeting with any such a company. The salesman set his appointment himself under the guise that if she would schedule a 15 minute meeting with the owner he would guarantee that the owner would make 15K in less than 15 minutes and that she would be a hero for setting up the appointment.
The salesman arrived early and greeted the secretary and patiently waited for over an hour as he watched people coming and going in and out of the Presidents office. The owner came out several times with a flush panicked look as he raced off somewhere as if there was a fire.
Finally, the secretary invited him to sit and wait in the office and said that as soon as the owner returns she would announce you and said that there was a man in his office that would guarantee him 15K for fifteen minutes of his time. Well, that stopped him in his tracks and raised an eyebrow and walked in to meet the salesman.
Before the salesman opened his mouth the owner figured out who he really was because the company name on his card, and said, I don't know how you made it in here, but trust me when I say this, I'm not buying! He then explained his experience and sat their and quietly listened until he was done venting and giving every reason under the sun why he would never again use a service like his.
The salesman agreed and said I wouldn't either that's why I'm here. He then continued and replied instantly, "If I can show you a way to at least double the size and productivity of your business in the next 15 minutes would you pay me $15K?"
There's just one catch, you have to take a few minutes everyday and commit to simply follow this one strategy everyday for the next 30 days.
The owner agreed a he asked him to pull out a sheet of paper and write down the day at the center top of the page, Tuesday.
Next, he said I want you to write down the side of the sheet of paper the numbers 1,2,3,4,5,6. Now I want you to take a moment and think of the 6 most important things that he needed to do that day. The owner sat back and then leaned forward and struggled to get to 4. He was thinking this was some kind of trick. The salesman saw him struggling and said, you own one of the largest print companies in the world and you can't come up with 6 priorities that need to be completed to grow your business, better your life, and make more sales? Then the floodgates opened to all the things he wanted to see in his business and personal life that he said 6 isn't enough!
The salesman said, nope, all you need to do today are those 6 things and complete each one before going on to #2. That was the key, to complete each one at a time beginning with the one that was most important. When it's done put an X through it and move on to the next one.
The salesman got up and said when you make it to day thirty you can call me and thank me however you see fit, left his card and walked away just with the one reminder that if you don't finish all 6 that day it's fine, just do as many as you can and let nothing distract you until you're done with your 6 things to do that day.
He asked the salesman what I do if I only get 2 done for that day. The salesman said, well every day is a new day and you get to put down whatever you want to on that list, you can throw away Tuesday's because on Wednesday you can put it back to #1 if it's still a priority for you. You get to choose!
Well, about 3 weeks later he got a call from the business owner to meet him at his office. When the salesman arrived the owner of the company just smiled and handed him an envelope with a check for $15,000. He said it was tough to do at first because of all the distractions.
He was experiencing a true sense of control and purpose personally and called all of his executives into a meeting and said from now on this is the way you will work as an employee of this company.
It spread like wildfire throughout the company as each manager became literally focused like laser beams and actually formed a whole new department to handle all the new business that was coming in.
He said, we've almost doubled our revenue in less than a month, not a year!
The End,
Give it a shot!
Scott
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