Did the headline get your attention, especially coming from a human resources company? It’s one of my favorite English expressions. And, if you’re having trouble conjuring up exactly what it means, well, it means that a person is all show and no substance. Which is exactly the case when business owners make the misguided decision that growing the top line revenue and selling more, more, more is going to fix any business woes. It won’t.
A company’s top line revenue doesn’t really mean a thing. If all the business owner is doing is throwing money at problems, it’s pretty much like owning a boat. (Those of you who own or have owned a boat understand.) It doesn’t fix problems, yet many business owners find themselves falling into the trap of most “paycheck to paycheck” employees. You’ve seen the statistics, haven’t you? That virtually all lottery winners eventually go bankrupt, and they usually do it pretty quickly. Same deal.
Growing a business is about more than growing the top line, which is why I cringe when business owners tell me that they’re going to invest all of their funds into their sales efforts versus investing in their people. You see, you can sell the crap out of whatever you sell, but it will all be short lived gains if customers have to deal with a dysfunctional, toxic company with disengaged, miserable employees. Misery shows. It’s not fooling anyone.
Why do you think that most people have a sour taste in their mouths when dealing with traditional salespeople? It’s because they feel sold, then invariably don’t receive what they thought they paid for thanks to disengaged, toxic employees. Right? Fur coat and no knickers.
There’s a reason that great companies are great companies. They decided to put their underwear on before they strapped on the trappings of a fur coat. You don’t think those companies with great cultures that you admire managed to pull that off without putting investment and effort into their people did you? Human resources is an investment in your people, your foundation… your underwear.
The thing is, measuring the return on your investment is really difficult when it comes to people (human resources) programs because the results aren’t about top line. Instead they’re about all the intangibles that indirectly affect the bottom line, which is what helps you move past the underwear stage. But, if you haven’t tried it, then how in the heck are you ever going to measure how the results shape up?
There’s nothing wrong with focusing on sales of course. In fact, you hope your competitors do that because if they’re focused on something other than their people, you’ll be able to blow them out of the water by better supporting those. Let the competition wander around like emperors with no clothes, while you’re touting your nice ensemble of foundation garments, with people delivering on your brand promise every day.