Mel,
In February a few years back I fled frigid Chicago to meet with Roundtable members in Fort Myers Beach, Florida. (Minus 5 degrees F to 70 and sunny? Yes, please!)
One member took the hot seat and explained that he'd grown his business more than 10X in the last year and was looking for a breakthrough to take it to the next level.
At the time he was spending much of his time interacting directly with customers and talking to them on the phone. I asked him how much he thought he was making, per hour, selling to those customers.
"$1,500 an hour, I think."
Not bad for an hour's work, eh?
I said, "OK, now you spent a lot of time last year improving your marketing so you'd have these people to talk to. How much do you think that time earned you—doing marketing instead of talking to customers?"
He thought awhile and said, "Maybe $2,500 per hour."
$2,500 an hour is definitely better than $1,500 per hour, isn't it?
But it doesn't stop there.
If you spend an hour on the phone and make $1,500, you've got a high hourly rate but no leverage, no scalability.
The time he spends on marketing will continue to become more and more valuable because it pays dividends month after month.
If I asked him the question next year he might find the marketing efforts paid $4,000 an hour not $2,500.
I asked him if there was any way he could get somebody else to do that phone selling so he could spend his time on marketing instead.
He was concerned they wouldn't be as effective as he was, which is probably going to be true.
But we tossed around some numbers and figured out that no matter how he slices it, he can make a lot more money if he stops selling on the phone and works on his marketing.
He went home and did it. He implemented this with total dedication, hiring a company to take the calls and spending more and more time on marketing development.
Income Doubles, Again
Oh, and it turns out the other team is selling better than he was. (Not that this is normal, but it's always nice when it happens that way!)
I asked him how he felt about this new role. He said, "It's weird! I'm not yakking on the phone all day anymore, in fact the phone isn't even ringing. It's quiet in here and I have time to study, plan and implement all these new strategies I'm learning."
Then he told me how he and his son both had a serious case of bronchitis the previous week and had to spend some time in the hospital. Because he had put these things in place, his business ran uninterrupted with record sales the whole time.
It doesn't make the bronchitis go away, but it sure is nice to not be worried about the biz when you have to be away, isn't it?
Carpe Diem,
Perry Marshall
P.S. Roundtable is full for 2016, but I've decided to open a second group this year. This is serious help and accountability for established businesses. If you feel you may be qualified to participate, email josh@perrymarshall.com and he'll get your application started.
***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email:
support@perrymarshall.com
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