I was speaking with a coaching client that is looking to grow his business. I was reminded how some people measure success that clearly puts them at odds with what they can control.
The point of this story is to measure success in ways that you can control.
After 30 minutes of deliberation, we decided that calling some business owners and salespeople he knew or knew of would be the best course of action. He was going to call these people to find key referral partners. People that would send him tons of business and people he could send tons of business.
One major problem with this plan was his personal call reluctance. Keep in mind, these are not cold calls asking for direct sales. These are mutually beneficial calls that include a sales element and open the door for the callee to include a sales element of their own. The issue was not with the content of the call. The issue was with the call itself.
How many people do you know that seem to be afraid of their phone? Answering it, dialing out from it and even hearing it ring sends tremors through their body.
You cannot control the results of each call, outside of being trained in sales and influence. You will receive calls of all varieties, many not being that great. So goes the risk of the business owner that needs customers to survive.
The point of course is that the phone is your friend. It is a means of communication. You need communication to survive in business, however your business communicates. It is in your best interest to communicate in the same manner that your customers want to communicate with you.
So for the call reluctant man that needed to make some calls and had some underlying fear that was preventing him, he needed to roll up his sleeves and hit the phones. Chat away. And measure success by nothing more than asking himself if he made X number of calls today.
Regardless of the outcome.
When you choose to measure success by a variable that you have complete control over, it is easy to be successful.
No attaining millions of dollars, expensive cars, losing so many pounds or lifting so many pounds or some other measurement that is not in your direct control. You can take actions towards their achievement, but you cannot directly create those outcomes. Measuring success by those outcomes is therefore extremely tough. It can often be misleading as well.
My suggestion is to measure your success based on a variable that you can control and something that is just outside of your comfort zone.
For example, many people measure steps taken per day. If they reach 10,000 steps they feel successful. Fantastic for them, they have reached success. They could control the number of steps they took and the steps worked them towards some larger goal. If they get near their desired measurement they may just decide to take a much needed walk.
That is the way to measure success, successfully.
James is a Business Coach and Mentor for Draw In Customers Business Coaching in Madison, Wisconsin. When he isn’t measuring success for himself, he helps others measure their own success in business and beyond. He blogs successfully to the world at www.drawincustomers.com. If you are considering hiring a business coach, take a moment to call James at (608)210-2221. No call reluctance needed.
