If you ever have trouble getting things done, here’s a RADD approach to making it happen. And with this approach, actually doing it is the final option.
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This week, I’m headed to the Lone Star State to conduct four different training sessions on topics like Total Market Domination, How to Manage the Customer Cycle, The Lead Generation Machine and How to Simplify for Success – Getting More Done by Doing Fewer Things.
This is an approach I’ve been cultivating a lot over the past few years, but in the last twelve months or so, I’ve been able to see some significant changes as a result of this approach and all of them are positive.
One of the things I realized is that the true power of our work is not in doing it, it’s in getting it done. The money (the cash!) is in the completion of the task, not in the doing of it.
Many people in our industry, even those who earn a good living, don’t realize how little they’re being paid when you divide it out by the number of hours they’re working.
If a salesperson earns $75,000 a year working 35 hours a week, with four weeks of vacation per year, that’s an average of $44.64 an hour.
If a salesperson earns $75,000 a year working 60 hours a week, with ZERO weeks vacation per year, that’s an average of $24.04 an hour.
They’re both getting paid the same amount on an annualized basis, but one is earning a little more than half as much as the other one on an hourly basis. Does that mean that his or her time is worth half as much? If you go by the results, you would have to say yes.
So it’s a good idea to calculate your actual hourly rate to see how you’re doing. It doesn’t matter if your hourly, or salaried, or commissioned or any mix of those.
You just divide what you actually got paid for the year by the number of weeks you actually worked, then divide that number by the number of hours you worked each week. That’s your actual hourly rate.
If you want to increase it, you can either sell more in the same amount of time or you can reduce or eliminate the amount of time you’re putting in, by eliminating the things you’re doing that need not be done at all.
We each have our own strengths — the things we’re great at — that no one else can do as well as we do. At least, we’d better have some strengths. Otherwise, it will be hard to remain employed, either for ourselves or for someone else.
If you haven’t already done so, take a look inside and ask yourself, what is my superpower? What is it that I’m best at? Once you’ve identified it, you’ll want to spend as much time there as possible, and then take a RADD approach to the rest of it.
RADD: Removing, Automating or Delegating the Task, rather than Doing it.
A RADD approach means that before I engage in any activity, I ask myself, “can this task simply be Removed? That’s the R. Can I just not do it?
If you can remove the task without a significant negative impact, then by all means do so. If you can’t, then move onto the A.
Ask, “can I automate this task?”
Am I able to use a technological solution to get this job done? If the task can’t be automated, then we move onto the D and ask:
“Can this task be Delegated?” Can I pass it off to someone else who can do it better than I can? Or as well as I can? Or nearly as well as I can? If the answer is yes, then delegate it. If someone can do it 80% as well as you can, it might be fine like that. And even if it’s not, it will take you a lot less time to help out with the remaining 20% than it would be to start out at zero and do the whole thing.
Finally, if it can’t be removed or automated or delegated, it’s time to actually Do it. That’s the final D. And the reason it’s last, is that you’ll want to explore each of the previous options thoroughly before deciding that you’re going to do actually it yourself.
There’s a lot of help available these days. Virtual assistants can help with nearly any task requiring assistance. Sites like Upwork, Guru and even Fiverr can help you find people who specialize in things you don’t like doing, don’t have time for and probably hate to do. In those cases, it’s worth it to get help.
Seek out people whose strengths differ from yours. The things that drain your energy and leave you feeling exhausted may excite them! As a result, they’ll do a better job and so will you. And you’ll very likely find yourself making a lot more money on an hourly basis every day.
If you’re new to the industry and need to get grounded in the essentials of promotional products sales, visit us online at topsecrets.com/gettingstarted. If you need to get clients now with no distractions and no excuses, visit topsecrets.com/tsca. Or, if you’re a smart, focused, independent distributor doing a reasonable volume of sales, join the AIM SmartEQP community today at SmartEQP.com that’s SmartEQP.com.