Mediocre Employees Don’t Build Great Companies

 

Written July 26, 2015  

 

“Greatness” is a goal of every driven leader.

 

Though greatness can be defined many different ways.

Here are some examples:

• Becoming your market’s most respected business or organization

• Double (or triple) productivity from one year to the next

• Touch and improve the lives of more clients than your counterparts

• Dominate the marketplace to the point that competitors are forced to close their businesses

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Whatever your vision of greatness is, here’s how to build a great company as you accomplish all of your important professional (& personal) goals.

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YOUR Business Success Formula

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Here is a formula I realized early in business:  Great People make Great Companies!

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Through helping business leaders attract, hire and develop the most productive people in their industries for the last 14 years, I’ve seen many organizations become great.

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Organizations that at one time were mediocre.  Not only would I classify them as mediocre, that is how they described themselves.

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They were not reaching their productivity, sales or profit potential and their leaders were not accomplishing their dreams… which is why they were referred to us in the first place.

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Unfortunately, many small business owners have tried about everything to improve productivity.  This includes: new software, moving locations, teamwork and motivation consultants, creating “infrastructure” and reorganizations.  All of these strategies were not only time consuming but very costly.

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Here’s the easiest and quickest way to improve productivity (& profitability)…

 

♥  Put the right people in every one of your positions.  That’s it.

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This will take your organization to the next level of success faster than anything else you can do (in 2014).  No matter how little organization or infrastructure you have in place, Top Performing Employees will naturally succeed and grow your business.

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What is YOUR Sales Potential?

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Studies have shown, top performing employees are 5 to 8 times more productive than average, mediocre employees.  So if you don’t have anyone that is producing 5 times more than their counterparts… this probably means you don’t attract, know how to hire or develop TOP Performers.

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The quickest and easiest way to double or triple your profits is to replace all non-performers with TOP Performers.

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To prove this point, complete the following exercise to realize what your sales potential is with TOP Performers in every Sales position:

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1. Write down your number of Salespeople: _____

2. What is the monthly average sales of your top 20%? $______________

3. What is the monthly average sales of your “Workplace Survivors” $______________
   (Your Workplace Survivors are what I call the other 80%)

4. What is the gap between the two? $_____________ (#2 minus #3)

5. Gap $___________ X #____ of “Workplace Survivors” = $____________
   The total in #5 is your Monthly Sales Losses (to your competitors)

6. #5____________ X 12 (for months in the year) = $__________________

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The total in #6 is your Annual Sales Loss (from hiring mediocre salespeople)

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To realize YOUR Sales Potential with top performers in every position, add the total in #6 to your 2013 sales.  This is what your 2014 sales would be if you employed only TOP Performing salespeople.

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5 Keys to a Successful “People” Process

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Without a Successful “People” Process of recruiting, hiring and developing TOP Performing Employees, the odds are you’ll never become a Great Company.  To accomplish your goals, it is important to follow these 5 Keys:

 

1. There’s No Luck Involved in Hiring Top performers

Great companies are dominating their markets because they have created and follow strict hiring standards and benchmarks and don’t leave hiring decisions up to instinct, chance or luck.  National studies prove, only 1 in 7 of those hired with just a resume, interview & “gut feel” (AKA: luck) are with a company a year later, performing as expected.

 

2. Realize the Importance of the “Right” People in Your Business

The exercise you just completed should show you how important your people are to your bottom line.  You must realize, nothing has more of an affect on your success than your people.  Top performers will make you great.  Mediocre people will cause you to struggle.

 

3. Every Position…

There is no unimportant position in your company.  When you have an employee that can’t show up for work on time, perform as expected, get along with others, etc., you must replace them before they start affecting your company morale, customer service, productivity and profitability.  Usually your lowest paid employees have the greatest affect on your bottom line, due to their continual interaction with your clients…

 

4. …At Every Level

…Your managers have the greatest affect on the prerequisites for greatness: retention, motivation & productivity.  It has been proven that 80 percent of employees claim they quit because of their managers, not because of the job.  Proving although it’s important to hire the right people, it’s just as important to develop your leaders.

 

5. Use a Proven Process

If you don’t have a process for recruiting and hiring the best people in your industry, you’ll never become as successful as your market’s leaders.  If you have a selection process that doesn’t seem to be hiring productive people, improve it today.  The most successful leaders have adopted and then customized processes to staff their teams with only TOP Performers.  To build a great company, you need to do the same.