You will never reach a Million
(c) Martin Richards
The words that made the biggest difference to my company were said in the year 2000.
Until then I had been running on a Business Plan that basically said "The aim is to make enough money, and a little bit more".
From the start in 1990 to 2000 I had been training people one by one, in the noble art of speaking English. The turnover in 2000 was about 400 000. I felt that I could do better, but wasn't sure what that was, nor how to do it.
I met with a business development consultant and described for him the kind of work I was doing. The consultant told me his opinion of my company's turnover. "You will never reach a million" he said.
And those were the words that made me think again about my goals for my company.
Did I want to earn "enough and a little bit more", or "a million"?
A million please!
So, I redesigned the sales process of the company. For the first time since the company started in 1990 I clearly described what I was going to sell, to whom I would sell it, and for how much money
I described the sales activities that would bring enough of the right kind of people to me so that I could sell to them, and get my turnover up to a million.
By 2002 I had managed to raise the turnover to 800 000.
I could see that a million was not too far away. All I needed to do was more cleverly structure my sales process, more clearly define what I was selling, to whom and for how much and I'd be there.
In 2004 I set the target turnover to 1,2 million.
In February of that year I came home with a single contract worth 600 000 for the year.
I was devastated.
I realised that I was going to reach my goal way too early, and would have nothiong to do for the rest of the year. So I changed my goal to 2.1 million turnover.
That year I made 1.4 million.
I would like to tell you how you can do that too.
The words that made the biggest difference to my company were said in the year 2000.
Until then I had been running on a Business Plan that basically said "The aim is to make enough money, and a little bit more".
From the start in 1990 to 2000 I had been training people one by one, in the noble art of speaking English. The turnover in 2000 was about 400 000. I felt that I could do better, but wasn't sure what that was, nor how to do it.
I met with a business development consultant and described for him the kind of work I was doing. The consultant told me his opinion of my company's turnover. "You will never reach a million" he said.
And those were the words that made me think again about my goals for my company.
Did I want to earn "enough and a little bit more", or "a million"?
A million please!
So, I redesigned the sales process of the company. For the first time since the company started in 1990 I clearly described what I was going to sell, to whom I would sell it, and for how much money
I described the sales activities that would bring enough of the right kind of people to me so that I could sell to them, and get my turnover up to a million.
By 2002 I had managed to raise the turnover to 800 000.
I could see that a million was not too far away. All I needed to do was more cleverly structure my sales process, more clearly define what I was selling, to whom and for how much and I'd be there.
In 2004 I set the target turnover to 1,2 million.
In February of that year I came home with a single contract worth 600 000 for the year.
I was devastated.
I realised that I was going to reach my goal way too early, and would have nothiong to do for the rest of the year. So I changed my goal to 2.1 million turnover.
That year I made 1.4 million.
I would like to tell you how you can do that too.
