Hidden Costs and Long-term Effects of Shortcuts | Ep 44

Justin: 00:00:00

No one's checking the top guys. You know, if we're saying this needs to be done and we don't have our own goals, our own like performance plan.

Brian: 00:00:08

Yeah.

Justin: 00:00:08

And metrics to hit, there's no one holding us accountable and there's no consequences for us.

Brian: 00:00:12

Right.

Justin: 00:00:13

Then how are they going to trust us to get things done and hold them accountable and help them get to their goals?

Justin: 00:00:27

Got it.

Justin: 00:00:34

On today's episode, we are going to take a little bit of a deep dive into how cutting corners impacts you negatively financially, you name it. Brian, when I mentioned cutting corners and the negative impact of that, what comes to mind?

Justin: 00:00:50

Yeah. Looking at it from a leadership perspective or a sales leadership perspective, I think there's a handful of things.

I think there are some leaders out there that cut corners or they choose the path of least resistance and they don't want to have some of these conversations or meet with their people to truly understand the business at its whole.

I think one example of cutting corners could be if you have a one on one on a calendar with an employee or a sales rep and you just kind of blow that off. To me, that's cutting a corner and you lose out on learning more about that employee's pipeline or their book of business or ways to help them.

What are some ways like from a leadership perspective that you can think about that? I don't know. That might not be the most common.

Justin: 00:01:38

Yeah.

I would even say in the interview process, really, if you're interviewing candidates and let's say you're in a rush or you're not really being thorough in the interview process and you take a couple risks, whether you know it or not, and you invite this person into your company where. Well, that person could, you know, let's say you didn't do a background check, they could come in here and completely wreck your culture.

And it takes a lot of damage control to repair that.

But yeah, you mentioned leadership and you know, coaching, grooming, understanding your people, understanding their book of business struggles, whatever it may be, if you don't make that a priority and you kind of push that off because you and your mind have higher priority items, that's going to impact your culture long term.

Brian: 00:02:26

Yeah.

Justin: 00:02:27

And whether that's financially or, you know, you're trying to replace a top employee because you didn't make time for them, those types of things will snowball and make a bigger and bigger impact with time.

Justin: 00:02:38

Yeah, I think, I mean, to me it's like a stair step approach or it's kind of like a pyramid or whatever you want to call it where, you know, even on the hiring front, maybe a couple. You cut a couple corners there and you didn't get a reference or you didn't get a couple of, I don't know, client or previous. Yeah, a reference.

You didn't get a reference from a previous employer or whoever. You know, they put on the resume and you felt pretty good in the interview. They spoke really well. They seemed motivated to do well.

Then you go to now they're a part of your team. They're in a sales role. They're not really performing. Maybe there's a one on one that they blow off. Maybe there's a conflict with a next one.

You haven't met with this person in a couple months. They're underperforming. Now it's like, okay, well is it the one on ones where I'm cutting these corners or you going back to it?

Like you said, on the hiring front, did we hire the wrong person?

And I think there are areas with that or, you know, with cutting corners that you can have certain processes in place to, you know, help avoid some of those things, even from a sales side.

And when you're, you know, for the coaches and managers out there, what, what are some other areas or other things that they need to make sure that they're, you know, checking the box or doing as far as part of the process.

Justin: 00:03:56

Yeah, I think, I think with any sales company you have goals.

Brian: 00:03:59

Yeah.

Justin: 00:03:59

You have expectations. You know, people have to produce in order for the company to grow. You know, it sounds very basic, but I mean, it's true.

If you don't have goals and you're not holding people accountable to hit those goals and we've been a little flexible with it.

Justin: 00:04:13

Sure.

Justin: 00:04:13

We've seen the repercussions of not doing that.

So I would say we've kind of cut the corner or just turn a blind eye to some of our performance because we didn't really have strong goals and we didn't really hold people accountable.

Brian: 00:04:27

Yeah.

Justin: 00:04:27

So what's the long term impact of that? Well, you lose business here and there.

Brian: 00:04:31

Yeah.

Justin: 00:04:32

You're not doing the small fundamental pieces that are required to continue to grow.

And now we're having to backtrack and start to rebuild a pipeline because we weren't doing the fundamentals from the get go and throughout that we should have been doing. So we cut a corner and now we're dealing with the consequences.

Justin: 00:04:50

I think assumptions a lot of times, like we assume that, you know, and that to me, that's like a perfect example of cutting a corner where, oh, we assume that this broker that's been in the industry for several years, they're gonna come in and they're gonna get after it and they're gonna be as motivated as they were a couple years ago. Or maybe that's somebody from the outside that we don't know. They come in, they have a lot of experience and they have a great track record.

But we come to find out we didn't, we cut a corner on the hiring front. We didn't know that they didn't have any client facing experience.

And now here we are, we put them in a client facing role and there's lack of production. Now we're pissed off, we're frustrated. Hey, why aren't we generating any new business? Right?

Well, we cut a corner on the back end and we assumed that, you know, they could do it or they could go out and generate that revenue. I think that's for us as sales leaders. And like what putting people in the right seat for the right, you know, characteristics that each person has.

I think that's a huge piece of it.

And you know, really focusing on that as far as, you know, not taking any shortcuts or having to figure out that okay, where is this person fit best and how do we put them in the right seat for the betterment of the company?

Justin: 00:06:10

I think the big glaring question is how do you prevent it? How do you prevent cutting corners within your culture?

Justin: 00:06:17

Yeah, I think the process is in place where we just use this for an example. But okay, here's the hiring process or the interview process.

You come in, you shadow, you sit with myself or you for the hiring manager for a 30 minute interview and then asking for those references or making sure that you're hitting on the two or three questions that have been, have burned us in the past. And I think it can be like ever changing or it can change over time.

But having that piece in place, it could be as simple as have you ever stolen computers from an office laptops? Right. Cam Newton deal going on. But yeah. So even with that, have you ever been in a client facing role before? And tell us more about that.

Even from the interview side, that could be a question and we add that to our list of interview questions during the process.

Justin: 00:07:16

I also think there's a lot to be said with. We've rolled out different things here and there, tried different things, but I think there's a lot to be said with.

When you look at, you know, logistics company from, from a thousand Foot view, what's most important? You know, culture is obviously important, but from a production side, what is important? And those goals and metrics have got to be in place.

You know, the role, clarity has got to be in place. People have to understand the expectations. And then if we're driving, let's say phone activity or CRM utilization.

Justin: 00:07:49

Sure.

Justin: 00:07:49

How are we holding people accountable?

Brian: 00:07:51

Yeah.

Justin: 00:07:51

Because I think the mistake we've made in the past, and I hope some people can relate or learn from this, is, you know, we've had these goals, but, like, we weren't that transparent about them. And it's just. We just expect people to go out and hit those goals, but that's not reality.

Brian: 00:08:05

Yeah.

Justin: 00:08:05

So when we're not consistently having those conversations and bringing these things up. Well, why would people do it? Because it doesn't seem that important. Brian and Justin don't talk about it. Leadership doesn't talk about it.

Why would I use a CRM?

Justin: 00:08:19

Yeah, I mean, we're learning a lot.

Brian: 00:08:21

Right.

Justin: 00:08:21

I think that's, you know, this whole process has been a learning experience. And, you know, we will roll it out. And I can relate pretty much everything back to sports because we're both.

Justin: 00:08:30

Are you going to do a sports analogy?

Justin: 00:08:33

Yeah. You haven't heard one of these yet.

Justin: 00:08:34

Yeah, no. Go, fire away.

Justin: 00:08:36

So I even think, like, you know, when you're talking about assumption or expectations and goals, like, how do you want the play executed in the game? Well, you have to practice that. And I think a lot of times we do the practice and we roll it out. Do we. Do we practice it every day? No, not really.

But I know that we've, you know, we've practiced it, we brought it up. We've tried to empower our team with some scenarios.

And I think, you know, for us, like a learning experience for us is okay, we've learned that we can't just have that conversation once and it'll stick. We need to have that, like, continuing education or that repetitive nature of.

Okay, every Monday we're going to go over, you know, plays one, two and three and this is how we're going to, you know, help the company or help people with objection handlers from a sales perspective.

Justin: 00:09:25

And also would add to that. And this is more so in terms of, like, goals.

Brian: 00:09:29

Yeah.

Justin: 00:09:29

But what are the consequences of not being those huge, you know, you have to. Now then you have to let a head roll.

Brian: 00:09:36

Yeah.

Justin: 00:09:36

And you have to make tough decisions, have hard conversations. Otherwise, hell, Brian and Justin and leadership said, I gotta do this, this and this. But I haven't done it in six months.

Justin: 00:09:46

Yeah, well, I think, yeah, the expectations, the accountability side of it, you know, I think something like, yeah, we're pretty lenient for the most part, but at the same time having to hold your salespeople accountable for those metrics and for that production at the end of the game, at the end of the day, it's, that's what matters the most. We, I think we try to help people practice the right way as much as humanly possible, but at the end of the day that's like productivity is huge.

Justin: 00:10:16

Yeah.

I would also back up from a leadership perspective because it's, it's easy to lose or it's easy to lose buy in from, from employees when, you know, no one's checking the top guys. You know, if we're saying this needs to be done and we don't have our own goals.

Brian: 00:11:06

Yeah.

Justin: 00:11:07

Our own like performance plan.

Brian: 00:11:08

Yeah.

Justin: 00:11:09

And metrics to hit, there's no one holding us accountable and there's no consequences for us.

Brian: 00:11:13

Right.

Justin: 00:11:14

Then how, how are they going to trust us to get things done and hold them accountable and help them get to their goals as well?

So, you know, every so often, and you know, I think you and I do a good job of this, but you know, sitting down and having those tough conversations, you know, even sometimes with each other.

Brian: 00:11:28

Yeah.

Justin: 00:11:28

And we've had those in the past. But you know, you gotta, you gotta be honest with each other and I think with yourself.

Brian: 00:11:34

Yeah.

Justin: 00:11:34

Where you say a lot of things, you do a lot of things, but at the end of the day, like you and I both have to look in the mirror and decide, you know, am I living up to my expectations?

Justin: 00:11:43

Yeah, I think, I mean there's, there's also, I think me and you think of it this way, right? Like, okay, I'm a leader of a team and you know, I still want to be someone in the trenches. And I think there's part, like, I enjoy that.

I think you do as well. But there are also some pieces that we need to take care of, some higher level stuff.

And I think our teams, I think they do a pretty good job of this.

But understanding that and even though we're not sitting there like crushing the phone calls or crushing the phones every single day, there is more of a strategic approach around that sales piece. And I think that's like exactly what you're talking about.

Like, okay, what are your goals and how do you even if you can carve out 20 dials or 20 touches in the marketplace every day. That's our form of keeping ourselves accountable and doing similar work to the people that are in the trenches and being.

Justin: 00:12:37

Transparent, which I do feel like we do a pretty good job of. We keep some things that obviously don't need to share, but transparent of what our day looks like, especially with leadership.

Justin: 00:12:47

Yeah, there's a lot of hidden costs about cutting corners. Sometimes they'll smack you right in the face. Sometimes you don't learn about them until 12, 24 months later.

Let us know if you have any feedback for us or, you know, any type of corners that you've cut that you wish you hadn't in the past.