Learning to Say No Opens the Door to Yes
By nature, I like to help people. I enjoy diving into exciting projects. And I relish variety. As a result, I tend to say “yes” to opportunities that come my way. And the more I say “yes,” the busier I get. Eventually, my commitments overwhelm me and keep me from what’s most important.
Because of this, I’m learning to say “no.” This opens the time to focus on what matters most. I encourage you to do the same.
In the answering service industry, we’re beset with continuous interruptions that demand our attention. We want to keep the staff happy and retain clients. We handle the day-to-day fires but neglect the year-over-year needs of our business.
We need to say “no” more often. Then we’ll have room to say “yes.” Here are some ideas of what we might need to say “yes” to.
Maximize Profit
Regardless of why you’re in the answering service industry, you need to earn a profit to stay in business. There are two ways to increase profit. One is to reduce costs, and the other is to increase revenue. Though you can increase revenue by selling more, the faster way is to make sure each client is profitable. That means selective rate increases. Do it every month.
Improve Quality
As a service business, quality is essential. If quality is poor—or even average—it’s harder to retain clients and to land new ones. This makes it difficult to turn a profit, as well as develop staff and grow the business. It’s hard to say if you should pursue quality first and then profit or profit and then quality. They’re interdependent.
Develop Staff
Having a reliable team to run your business and optimize it is key. Too often we hope a great team will just come about, but that seldom happens. Most of the time we need to groom staff, preparing them for the roles we envision. Therefore, be proactive in employee development.
Grow Your Business
A benefit of the telephone answering service industry is the monthly reoccurring revenue. However, no client stays on service forever. Clients eventually cancel. This happens every month. That means replacing departing clients with new ones, which means sales and marketing. At a minimum, you need to keep even. Ideally, you should grow. A shrinking client base is a symptom of a much greater problem, one that should have been addressed earlier.
Saying “no” to things that aren’t critical provides the space and time to say “yes” to those things that are. Pick the essential items your answering service needs most to survive, and say “yes” to them before agreeing to any other opportunities.
Want an answering service that grows without burning out your team or your margins? In The Profitable Answering Service, Peter Lyle DeHaan draws on three decades of owning, running, and advising answering services.
Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, has spent his career in and around the answering service industry. He’s owned, managed, bought, sold, and merged answering service businesses as well as consulted, written, and programmed for the answering service industry. Learn more at PeterLyleDeHaan.com.
Get your copy of The Profitable Answering Service today!