Chapter 5 Cut business worries in half

We often spend an hour or two in a meeting discussing a problem without knowing what the real problem is.Only by analyzing the problem clearly can we effectively solve the problem and embark on the road to success. If you're a businessman, maybe you're saying to yourself right now: "This topic is ridiculous. I've been in this business for more than ten years. If anyone knows the answer to this, it's me. Someone It's ludicrous to try to tell me how to halve my business worries." That's not bad at all.I would have felt the same way if I had seen a headline like this years ago.This topic seems to help you solve a lot of things, but this kind of empty talk is worthless at all.

Let's talk open and honest.Maybe I really can't help you reduce half of your worries in business, because from the results of my previous analysis, no one can do this except yourself.But what I can do is let you see how other people do it, and the rest is up to you. As I mentioned earlier, the world-famous Dr. Ulysses Corell said: "A businessman who does not know how to resist worry will pay the price of a short life." Since worry is so serious, if I can help Wouldn't you be satisfied if you relieved your worry, even if it was only 10% of your worry?Will do?Well, I'm going to tell you how a businessman eliminated his worries and saved 70% of the time he used to spend in meetings and solving business problems.

Of course, I won't tell you stories that you can't check.The protagonist of this story is Leon, who for many years was a senior executive at Simon Publishing and is now the chairman of Rockefeller Center Pocket Books, New York, NY. The following is Leon's experience: “For 15 years, I have spent almost half of my day in meetings and discussing issues. Discussing whether we should be this way or that or nothing. We would be very nervous at this time, we would fidget in our chairs, or walk around the office. Walking around, arguing with each other, going around in circles. At night, I'd be exhausted. I thought that was probably all I could do for the rest of my life. And I've been doing it for 15 years, and I don't think There should be a better way. If someone told me that I could cut 3/4 of my meeting time and 3/4 of my nervous tension, I would think he was delusional. However, I can now actually come up with a A program that does exactly that. I've been using it for 8 years and it's had incredible benefits for my productivity, my health, and my happiness.

"It sounds like magic - but like all magic tricks, once you figure out how it's done, it's pretty simple. Here's my recipe: "First, I immediately stopped the procedure that had been used in our meetings for 15 years. In the past, my colleagues would report the details of the problem before asking: 'What should we do?' "Second, I made a new rule that anyone who wants to ask me a question must prepare a written report in advance and answer the following four questions in the report: "One, what went wrong? “We used to have meetings like this for an hour or two before people could figure out what the real problem was. We often started talking about our problems without writing clearly in advance what the problems we were having were .

"Second, what is the cause of the problem? "I looked back and was surprised to find that I wasted a lot of time in these meetings without clearly identifying what the basic elements of the problem were. "Third, what solutions can be found to solve this problem? "In the previous meetings, as long as one person proposed a solution, another person would argue with him, and everyone would argue, often getting off topic. And when the meeting ended, no solution had been found effective method. "Fourth, which method do you suggest? "People I've been in meetings with before tend to worry about a situation for hours and keep going in circles, never thinking about all the possible solutions.

"Now, my people seldom come to me with their questions. Why? Because they find that to answer the above four questions, they have to gather all the facts and think carefully. When they do After this, they will find that most of the problems do not need to come to me to discuss, because the most reasonable solutions will continue to emerge like bread from the toaster. Even those problems that must be discussed with me, so The time spent is only 1/3 of the previous time, because the discussion process is very orderly and logical, and it often leads to very sensible conclusions in the end.

“Now, in our offices at Pocket Books, no one spends so much time worrying, talking about what went wrong, and more action to fix it.” Frank Biegel was the greatest insurance magnate in America.He once told me that he not only reduced his worries in business, but multiplied his income, using a similar method. "Many years ago," said Frank Bjerr, "when I first started selling insurance, I had a passion and love for what I did. Then something happened that discouraged me so much that I began to despise I even thought about quitting my job. I was about to quit when something suddenly occurred to me. I sat down one Saturday morning trying to figure out the source of my anxiety.

"Number one, I start by asking myself: 'What's the problem?' My problem is this: I've interviewed so many people, but the results are not good enough. I seem to be talking to those potential customers very well, but when I Finally, when the deal was about to close, the customer would say to me: "Ah! I want to think about it again. Mr. Bijier, let's talk about it when you come again." So I have to go to him again, wasting a lot time, makes me feel very depressed. "Secondly, I asked myself: 'What are the possible solutions?' But to find out, I had to look at the facts. I took the records from the past 12 months and looked at the numbers. .

"As a result, I made a very surprising discovery. It was clearly written in black and white in this book. I found that 70% of the insurance I sold was closed at the first meeting, and the other 23% was The deal was done on the second meeting, and another 7% was closed on the third, fourth, fifth... It is these things that make me feel very sad and a waste of time. In other words, I Almost half of working time is wasted on what is actually only 7% of the business. "Third, 'What's the answer?' The answer was so obvious that I immediately stopped all visits after the second and used the free time to find new customers. The results were unbelievable: in a very short time In this case, I increased the average performance of earning $2.80 per time to $4.27.”

Frank Birgil is the most famous life insurance salesman in the United States, and the insurance business he receives every year is more than 1 million US dollars.But at one point he contemplated giving up what he was doing, almost admitting failure.The results of it?Analyzing problems put him on the road to success. Should you also apply these questions to your problem?Let me repeat these questions again: 1. What is the problem? 2. What is the cause of the problem? 3. What are the possible solutions to the problem? 4. Which solution do you suggest?