The root of the word leverage is lever. A lever is what helps you lift things that you could otherwise not lift on your own.
So when others are helping you, they’re like your lever. When you help others—for instance through mentorship—you’re their lever. Thus leverage means to provide a skill or ability you have to help yourself or another person. It also means to benefit from someone else’s skill or ability.
In our business, we studied our most successful team members and identified what practices they had in common. We then developed a system that would allow others to duplicate how they worked and repeat their solid performance. One key tool that all successful team members have in their toolbox is leverage. In this post, we’ll explore how leverage works in our business. Specifically, I’ll describe how two team members support each other by using leverage.
A Plumber’s Story
Before beginning in our business, Sam had been a plumber for 20 years, which meant that he currently had a large network of contacts and customers. He was eager to launch his new career by growing his team and building a client base.
On one hand, Sam knew lots of people. On the other, if Sam reached out to his contacts right away, most would probably not feel confident that Sam could serve their financial needs. After all, to them he’s “Sam the nice-guy plumber” not “Sam the financial guy.” Here’s a breakdown of Sam’s strengths and weaknesses:
- Strengths: Sam had a large network of contacts that had known him for years. Therefore, they trusted him.
- Weaknesses: Sam was known as a plumber, not an expert in meeting the financial needs of his contacts. Therefore, his contacts did not want to talk to him about their finances.
Leverage and Your Business?
Here is how the leverage solved Sam’s problems.
When he joined our business, Lisa mentored Sam to help him get started. She had years of product knowledge and sales skills. Lisa helped Sam set up his appointments with prospects and Lisa conducted presentations. Sam was able to overcome the doubts that his contacts had by telling them about Lisa’s expertise and professional reputation. As a result, Sam was able to address his prospects’ doubts and set appointments. By leveraging Lisa’s strengths, Sam was able to have successful appointments and quickly learn the most important skills by observing Lisa work.
In our business, we identified that leverage is one of the ways to bring about your success. If you want to reach your goals, you need your team members to help you because, in your prospect’s eyes, you don’t have credibility. Meanwhile, your established team members do. When you have faith and believe in the leverage, you’ll be following a system that has proven successful for people just like you.
