Recently I saw the movie American Sniper. While watching it, I heard a quote I have used for some time. However, in the movie they put a different spin on it.
In the movie, the sniper instructor told Chris Kyle, the main character, "Aim small, miss small. Aim big, miss big."
As you can imagine I was shocked and surprised in a very good way. They took an analogy I had used for some time and made it famous!
So how does this quote about shooting at a target pertain to business?
One of the greatest things that gets wasted in business is time. Much of that wasted time is spent with people that time should not be spent on, often prospective clients or existing clients.
In most businesses, the owners, leaders, and salespeople either have no ideal prospect profile, or it is way too vague to be of good use.
Without this key business resource it is very likely you and your people will jump at the chance to spend time with the wrong people!
When the phone rings or someone walks in, if you don't know how to figure this out quickly, you can easily end up wasting your time and theirs.
I was recently visiting with a successful financial advisor who has been in business nearly 20 years. He shared one of his greatest frustrations was not having enough time.
As we talked and I asked him questions about where all of his time went, we quickly uncovered that 40%-50% of his time each week was spent with people who were not a good fit for him or his services.
He shared that his mentor and his coach told him to take appointments with basically anyone, especially if they were referred by an existing client! He also shared that his marketing consultant had created an advertising campaign that was drawing great response, but with the wrong people!
He was taking any appointment he could get, and spending money to market to a broad, integrated audience.
Unfortunately, that's a common problem.
When we aim too big, at too broad or generic of a prospect and group, we will miss big. Just like when we aim at too big of a target in shooting.
The way to fix this issue is to have a super detailed ideal prospect / client profile that allows you to aim at a much smaller target. Once you have that, only two things can happen:
- You hit it.
- You miss by a little instead of a lot.
How often do you and your team spend time, energy, or money with people who are not a good fit for your business? Get a detailed ideal prospect profile to stop wasting resources.
Crandall is the Principal of Sandler in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He works with business owners and motivated individuals to create and implement Professional Development Strategies to foster the growth of individuals, teams, and organizations.
