Step 3: Leverage

Short Version:

Step 3 is about making sure your business truly does work.

There's plenty of great stuff below-soak it up like a sponge! We'll teach you about:

5 Tell-Tale Signs You are Bogged Down at this Step:

1. You can't explain to your team members what specific results are expected of them in under 60 seconds
2. Your output or efficiency is frustratingly low- or worse- not known at all
3. The business is too dependent on the owner
4. The owner cannot take a full 4 weeks off without the business imploding
5. You shudder at the thought of replacing that one team member because she's the only one who knows how to fix the copier

8 Things That Must be Glued in Place Before Moving onto The Next Step:

1. Hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly checklists for all 5 areas of your business
2. An orientation and training system you can pull off the shelf to welcome new team members
3. Your entire Marketing Cycle and the separate Sales Cycle is indentified, documented and used 99% of the time
4. You have a Policy and Procedures Manual for each department that is at least 75% complete
5. Every person on your team has a Position Description (very different from a Job Description) with corresponding Key Performance Indicators.
6. S.M.A.R.T. Goals are in place for the business, each department and each team member
7. An Organizational Chart is in place that applies to the present and can be used for the future with little or no changes
8. A Vision and a Mission Statement that an outsider could easily indentify if they walked into your business unannounced.

Case Study: Impatient Paul. We tried to get "Paul" to use his real name but he didn't want to – you'll understand in just a second. Coach Jeff was working with "Paul" and successfully moved him through Steps 1 and Steps 2. With his improved cash flows, and profits, Paul couldn't wait to expand the business by hiring some more producers. Coach Jeff- one of our tougher coaches- told Paul that it was a big mistake- and he must work on the infrastructure of the business –or the systems- before he added more team. "We all know the statistics about 70% of small business failing- and after cash flow, the #2 reason is they grow too fast. Our Leverage Step is about creating a concrete framework that will make future growth sustainable and easier to manage. Without it- you're building your heavy house on straw", explains Coach Jeff. And just like the National Football League, the Quarterback can do anything he wants- once he's out on the field- leaving the Coach on the side lines frustrated and dismayed. Paul went against Coach Jeff's advice and within 3 days of hiring another sales person, he and Coach Jeff were discussing the mess that it created in their weekly coaching session. It was then that Paul realized he should have worked on the systems first, then hire additional team members. It makes growing the business much easier. And Profitable.

Long Version

Step 3 of the 6 steps is Leverage and the key to the Leverage is Systems

At ActionCoach, we have a real simple way of remembering Systems:

The goal of Step 3 is have to have systems in place so you can do ever more-with ever less. You should write a system one time and get everyone on the team to follow it to get better results




Important Note: The Systems Step is not designed to replace people- but rather get GREAT results from AVERAGE performers. Give an AVERAGE team member a GREAT system, and they’ll get GREAT results.

A business that completed this step has solid systems in place for the people in the business. Step 3 is where you move your business from people dependency to system dependency. You want to get your business to the point where the systems run the business, and the people run the systems.

Coach Thom's first system "About 40 pounds ago, I was leaving my hotel one night and I overhead one of my front desk clerks, Sam on the phone. I stopped dead in my tracks and was amazed at how skillfully he was "closing a sale"- artfully persuading a caller why she should book her reservation at our hotel. He was using the classic "Problem Solver" technique and I was stunned when I heard him up sell the caller to a higher rated room. With my raincoat still on, I went to the Front Desk, and pulled Sam back to my office. "Sam, I want you to write down exactly what you said just now. Every word. I don't care if takes you the rest of your shift. Then photocopy this script 11 times and put it in every other desk clerk's in box, with a note saying "Thom wants us to use this script every time someone calls about reservations." No kidding- within 12 days, my conversion rate went up by 20% and my average dollar sale went up a stunning 14%. And it was so simple- take a great procedure that just one person was using, document it, then make it policy for everyone else."

ActionCoach's Exclusive 9 Step Process to Systemizing Your Business

1. Vision Statement – but done in a way that truly means something
2. Mission Statement – and not a piece of paper shoved in your desk
3. Culture Statement – crafting a long lasting (and invaluable) explanation of what things are like at your business. Get a good real life example of a culture statement-that you can use for your own business- for free-by sending an email with "Culture Statement" in the subject line
4. Goals – using the 5 point checklist to make sure they are really goals
5. Organizational Chart – created in the correct sequence so you can use it immediately and in the future
6. Positional Contracts – and why they have a stronger impact than regular job descriptions
7. KPIs – that are well rounded, cover the 5 basic areas, and are implemented for Step 4
8. How To Manuals – and done in the systematic way so they are finished faster and easier to use
9. Management Milestones - the specific way to review your systems to measure performance

During a Team Alignment Day-where every single employee was invited- the ActionCoach led this team (A large restaurant and catering company) to create over 70 systems in one afternoon, including, the correct positioning of the condiments back in the kitchen. The station was set up perfectly- Coach had the team member take a picture, and it was put up above the station so it was set up like this every single time.

Q: "Is this possible in my business?"
A: "Yes, once you have worked through Steps 1 & 2, your business CAN run with far less dependency on you."
Q: "What systems should I start with?"
A: "Too hard to tell- read more about the No Strings Free Advice Session and then we can tell you."

"I hired an Action Coach because my sales were flat, and I was already too busy to take on any more work. We've developed systems that have helped the business run more efficiently, and have improved our performance and therefore our customer service. All of this has resulted in a 65% increase in my sales from the previous year with no money spent on marketing and advertising my business." -Julie (Harrisburg, PA)

Want to learn more? Find our next workshop on Systemizing Your Business by going to our Workshop Section.
Don't want to wait? Buy the recorded DVD for $149.

Action Coaches return your investment on this step by:

• In some cases, the coach will make sure this habit sticks-because you'll use it long after your graduate from coaching- by reviewing it with you every single session
• "ActionCoaching is Cookie Cutter- They treat all their clients the same" is a pot shot some of the $65 an hour consultants take at us. Sit through one Free Coaching Session with us and you'll believe for yourself that is is not true. BUT YES- WE DO TAKE SYSTEMS PREVIOUSLY CREATED and bring them to our clients. In our own Lancaster-Harrisburg office, we have a treasure chest of about 130 different systems- already created and ready to be used. Add to that the other 30 Coaches in Pennsylvania, another 350 in the Country, plus another 700+ international… and when it's all said and done- you have access to nearly 1,700 systems from the worldwide ActionCoach team. We practice Leverage- if a system for curbing employee tardiness worked for a coach/client in Ireland, why can't it work for a client in Lancaster?
• Work with you to follow a patterned approach to Position Descriptions-not job descriptions. As Coach Tim explains "Job Descriptions don't cut it anymore because they don't address the 2 key parts needed today: Expectations and Outcomes." ActionCoaches use Position Descriptions we've developed to make sure you and your team are on the same page when it comes to what you expect and what the outcome should be.
• Using our 80-20 method, we'll ensure that you don't systemize your business to the point where it's lost its human touch by systemizing the routine and humanizing the experience.

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