To this day I still cringe at the mistake I made that cost me $100,000 of actual cash.
Not like on a game show where you say “ah I got the question wrong so I didn’t win $100,000”.
This was money I physically had to pay 4 people because of a stupid, ignorant mistake I made.
When I was selling high ticket coaching, I had a small sales team whose job was to close clients.
I’d generate the leads, I had an email list of tens of thousands of agency owners (all organic, none of it bought).
Whenever I sent emails, I’d get people on calls and close them.
I saw this as easy money.
So did two of my sales team.
However, one of them was costing me as much money as he was making.
In fact, looking back, I probably lost money on him.
It’s no secret that sales people are motivated by commission.
That’s ok, I don’t mind that.
But this guy…he was hard work.
Late to calls, tons of excuses.
He even got me kicked out of a few long term communities.
All because I basically didn’t manage him.
What I should have done, is listen to my wife.
And my friend Dawn.
And my Mum.
And my friend Mark.
When I complained about this guy (who was a member of my team), they told me to drop him.
I have no idea why, but I didn’t.
It was tough to let him go.
But I should have bitten the bullet earlier.
Because I was having to pay THOUSANDS in refunds to people he’d essentially mis-sold to.
Years later I’ve still had people message me with comments, emails and messages this guy has sent, claiming to be my partner.
The lesson?
Lots of people would think the lesson is “hiring people is bad”.
That’s not what I took away.
The lesson I learned was “hire the right people and get rid of the wrong ones”.
My current team are absolute rock stars. They’re fast, smart, hard working.
I wouldn’t trade them in for anything.
