IS IT VALID OR RELEVANT?
Shave Tavaar whispers, “Attention is Best” and a hooligan throws a punch at him! So begins the book The Journey: The Evolution of a Financial Advisor. The art of directing attention is the key to success. Attention this case is the art if discernment or focus. In any given day all that you are working on is valid but is it relevant to what you are trying to achieve? Relevancy is predetermined on what the target is. The lack of a specific target clouds what is relevant with the valid. So how can one discern what is relevant? I submit for something to be relevant it needs to be measured or tracked. Not only is the measurement recorded or checked but it is available for immediate feedback i.e. you can see it or someone can tell you about it. An interesting thing about measuring is that measurement creates motivation because the measurement itself creates an instantaneous feedback loop. The feedback loop allows you to course correct. No loop, no correction. Which equals no improvement, which causes frustration. If nothing is being measured we get swamped with the valid which, of course, we are not measuring so the business stagnates. When any business stagnates, the producer makes one of two choices: they either accept mediocrity or they get angry and work harder! The dangerous thing about working harder is that one looks to the past to see what worked; be it cold calls, seminars or direct mail. Then they anxiously dive back into that pool again and get even more frustrated. The challenging thing about going back to the past to create your future is that what worked in the past may not work today. You are not the same person! Your business has evolved and the market has changed. So if working harder is not the answer, what is? Work smarter!
How does one work smarter? Distinguishing between what is relevant and what is valid. What is relevant in your business that needs to be tracked? Most of you will say,
‘let’s track production!’ This is a good start but I am a little leery of just tracking production. This is not to say that you should not pay attention to it but production is a past-based number and a producer does not have direct control over production. They can influence it but they do not have direct control. For example, a producer cannot control when a client is going to send in his check or an insurance company will process a 1035 exchange. What a producer does have direct control of are the activities that lead to production. To optimize results track the activities that lead to production. Set a target. Shoot at the target. Analyze the results, then shoot again and repeat the process. What is the best stuff to track? It depends what kind of business you are in. If you are a comprehensive wealth manager and you go deep into relationships I suggest you track face time. If you are a transactional broker, then track outbound calls. You can track as many activities as you want, but the simpler your system the greater the compliance. Compliance to your tracking system equals success. Noncompliance equals failure so make your tracking is as simple as possible to ensure compliance.
Now here is what gets really interesting about tracking: roughly 90% of your life happens on the unconscious level. We are directed unconsciously by what our predominate beliefs and concepts are. If we direct the conscious mind to pay attention to “something” it will drive that “something” into our unconscious and our everyday actions will call that “something” into our everyday experience. Quick proof of this is go out and buy a “unique” car as soon as you make the buying decision to buy that “unique” car you will begin to see it everywhere! That is an example of your unconscious mind directing your vision and raising your level of awareness. You may soon notice that your “unique” car is not really that unique once you start noticing them. Funny thing, those cars were always around your conscious mind was simply not paying attention until you directed its attention. What you begin to track you will get more of but you need to track consistently. Warning: we all have a natural resistance to accountability so this is an exercise that can be easily avoided or forgotten about. Forget at your own peril! It’s like not stepping on a scale for 3 months until one day you accidently weigh yourself and you discover to your surprise that you have found 20lbs. Free yourself from a prison of inadvertence!
In summary: Set an activity target and track it! Then analyze why you are under or over target. Analyze the results. Repeat the process. Attention is best, especially attention on the relevant.
