Leverage!
Archimedes famously said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”
Ultimately, leverage is about increasing efficiency across the board. Something
every commercially smart business leader should strive for.
Which is why when working with clients we constantly look for leverage points to increase efficiency, resulting in increased revenue and profit.
On a broad scale, you can leverage your time, money, knowledge and even status. Let’s look at how.
You leverage your time by doing something once and using it multiple times, possibly in different areas.
Here are some to get you thinking:
Marketing & Sales:
Aligning marketing and sales provides leverage as marketing brings in leads, educates them, warming and pre-qualifying them.
Which makes the sales process far more efficient as your sales team now spend time with qualified prospects closing business.
Celebrities leverage their status and recognition to get paid more.
We and our clients increase our recognition and authority positioning by publishing valuable content including articles, videos, whitepapers and interviews.
All our material gets re-purposed (the work gets done once and used multiple times) which is one level of leverage.
Potential clients recognise you as the expert, go to organisation, which makes the sale significantly easier. (Someone who’s done their homework and called you is twice as likely to buy as someone you cold call – which is leverage)
Improve communication:
Miscommunication is one of the major causes of failure, rework and loss of efficiency.
We teach our clients the 4MAT system of communication which ensures recipients know why they need to accomplish a task, what they need to do, how they need to do it and the outcomes expected.
And yes, this system is used in all our marketing and sales communications – leverage!
People & Systems:
There are two major ways to increase productivity.
- Have the right people in the right roles. People who fully understand the role. Want to do it. And have the capacity/skills to deliver.One of our mantras is to hire people better than yourself. Doing so frees up your time and these people get far more done without your constant intervention.
- Delegate effectively, empower your people, give responsibility and authority.
Our clients report significant benefits from putting in place a formal accountability chart (where everyone know exactly what they were responsible for) and a process of keeping score (accountability).
Doing this frees the leadership up to concentrate on business building activities rather than the constant firefighting which is so prevalent.
Systems & Processes:
If a task regularly re-occurs, systemise it. People are more efficient as they don’t have to work out how to do the task each time. And bringing a new person into a systemised and documented role takes less training and they’ll make less mistakes.
We use our Impact/Ease methodology and the Theory of Constraints to focus on what to systemise first. Systems which give the most leverage as they save time, effort or money, or increase productivity.
Strategy vs Tactics:
We’re all faced with myriad tasks in our businesses. It’s often hard to see the forest for the trees.
Using the 80/20 rule and the Impact/Ease methodology allows us and our clients to quickly determine where to focus for maximum impact.
Ultimately, leverage makes your business sustainable – especially in difficult times. You do more with less. Raising your profitability.
If you’d like help gaining leverage in your business, reach out. We’ll have a confidential discussion, diagnose where the greatest impact will be and put a plan into place.
Call Rashid on 0414 913 334 to get started.