The Keys to the Kingdom

In the business world, it all boils down to 2 things.

Whatever your business may be, it contains a system made up of best practices to get the best results. We call that our process. It may be the process of setting a lead, the process of running a service call, the process of running a sales lead, the process of running your business, or the process of creating a financial statement. In every sustainable business of a certain size, you’ll find these processes and more.

And secondly, there’s the outcome, the result.

This may be the most important lesson in business (and life) I’ve ever learned: I have 100% control over the process, and I have 0% control over the outcome.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Because all too often in business, we solely look at the results, which set our tone for the day, week, or quarter. We measure revenue, gross profit, close rates, and average ticket revenue per lead. We use all these metrics because, as they say, “What gets measured gets done.” But… no matter what the numbers say, the outcome does not tell the entire story. It does not really give me the measure of a man or a woman.

For example, let’s say I have a rookie salesperson who goes on his first call, and he butchers the lead. He blows the whole conversation and forgets all of his training. But it turns out to be a lay-down, and he writes the deal. After all his mistakes, he still enjoys a nice outcome.

Does that mean he did a good job with the processes taught to him? Hell no.

What I’m saying is that the outcome does not automatically give us the true measure of performance. You can take a very experienced salesperson, for example, who runs a lead beautifully, professionally. Everything’s done by the book, and yet that person doesn’t get the deal.

Does that poor outcome reflect the performance he gave? Absolutely not.

So we have to be very careful when we measure business outcomes. It does not give us the complete measure of a person or a situation. It doesn’t show us how well they did their job. It doesn’t tell us how well they executed their process.

And so that’s why it’s so dangerous to look solely at outcomes; they don’t tell the whole story.

If It Is to Be, It’s Up to Me

In the line of business like HVAC or plumbing, like almost every business, there is the process of sales and the outcome of sales. The process of sales is every step I take in preparing to receive customers, convincing them to do business with me, and then the follow-through of installing and backing up my products and services.

My ability to build relationships, educate my homeowner, investigate the problems, solve the problems, and my attempts to close the deal are all processes. I have complete control over how good I am at those. I have zero control over my homeowner’s final decision.

There are no shortcuts to take or cheat codes to enter in order to make them say yes. But there is a process I control that gives me the best odds of closing the deal. Every process I’m taught, every trick I pick up on, every success I have starts between my ears.

The Rain Dance

In sales and in service, you have to stay focused on what you can control, which is your mindset. That’s what Viktor Frankl said. When you realize you get to a point in your life where you control nothing around you (in the concentration camps where he was held, he controlled nothing), you realize the only choice is to control one’s thoughts.

Viktor’s writings had a lot of significance on me 27 years ago, and that’s a large reason why I focused on controlling my thoughts. Thoughts can get away from you if you let them. This reminds me of a question I was asked not too long ago.

“Why do you think you’ve been successful?”

Keep in mind they didn’t ask why I thought I had a successful career specifically, so I answered the question from a personal and professional standpoint. A key contribution to my success is that I’ve let go of something that can hold others back. I’ve stopped stressing over what people think of me, which has been liberating.

I have a past, and people tend to dwell on it, but I’ve moved on. I’ve grown from my mistakes, as we all have the right to do, and I’ve learned and matured. I long ago decided that when I come to the crossroads of doing the right thing or doing the wrong thing, I will choose right. That wasn’t the case when I was a kid. But I’m no longer a kid. And my actions are now guided by my commitment to my family, friends, and my community.

If I had let others’ opinions shape my future, I don’t know where I’d be. But it sure wouldn’t be pleasant, and it wouldn’t have hope. So I wrote my own future, one where I allowed my mindset to take me where I could only dream. Mindset plus a lot of hard work, that is.

That’s what I chose to control, the process. My outcome as a person and as a professional is still being written, but my focus is on my process. That’s where success is born.

Consistent process = consistent results. Random process = random results.