Auto Repair Shop Owner's Daily Dose 58: Are You Doing or Getting?

Doing or Getting by Rick White, President 180BIZ

Today I want to ask you a question. Are you DOING or are you GETTING?  You might ask, “Rick, what do you mean by that?” That is a great question. Are you doing all the things on your to-do list or are you stepping back enough to understand what it is you want from those actions? What are the outcomes that you want from taking those actions? What do you want from doing those actions? If you're focused on doing, you are task-oriented and it's just something to check off a checklist.  That is the wrong focus. A better approach is to do nothing until you have a clear outcome. Then figure out what tasks are going to help you get that outcome.  Work those tasks to make sure you're getting the outcome.

I was talking to a shop owner yesterday who is doing all kinds of different things. I asked the owner what the results he was getting from doing those things.  He didn’t know. Let me tell you something. The days of throwing a whole bunch of spaghetti up against the wall to see sticks are over. You must identify the outcome that you want to determine the tasks.  This is doing business with intention. This is really important.

I'll give you an example. I asked a shop owner if he was calling customers for appointments? He told me he was making 10 to 20 calls per day.  I loved hearing that.  When I asked him how many appointments her was getting because of those calls, he didn’t know. He thought that just making the calls would result in appointments.  But to make sure he was getting the amount of business he needed by making the calls is a big deal.  He was focusing on doing and not focusing on the outcome.

So here is my message for you today. Please and share this with people.  There are some great things that result on being more focused on outcomes. The to-do list gets a whole lot smaller. I don't want to be a to-do guy. I want to be an outcome guy. I want to have impact. It's not about doing a whole bunch of stuff. It's the difference between getting on a rocking horse and a regular horse.  In both, you're going to have lots of action, lots of motion.  But only one will get you somewhere, okay? And that's focused on GETTING.

In the scenario,

1. Identify what you want.  The shop owner wants to get more customers into his shop. 
2. Identify a measurable outcome. The shop owner wants appointments for 50% of the calls made. Now we've got an outcome. Now he can make the calls and see how effective he is. If he is not getting the results he wants, then he can do something about it, such as listen to the phone calls, see if there's something he can do better.  He can do something different engage the customer or present to the customer to get them in.

So that's my message for today. Are you DOING or are you GETTING? It’s a big difference? And it's going to make huge impact in your business. Take care. Be safe and go make a difference today. God bless.