Years ago, Jerry Ballinger said something to me that I’ve never forgotten:
“People don’t do what they could do.”
At the time, I was creating elaborate marketing systems for real estate agents.
I’d show them exactly what I had done.
Take these pictures.
Create this guide.
Run this ad.
Send this package.
Follow up this way.
Everything was laid out step by step.
They could do it.
But mostly…
They didn’t.
Jerry explained that if you’re trying to get results through other people, there are three levels you have to understand:
What they COULD do.
What they’re LIKELY to do.
And, most importantly…
What they WILL do.
That distinction has influenced almost everything I’ve created since.
Thirty years later, Dan Sullivan has a three-question test he uses whenever he wants a result.
First:
Is there any way I can get this result without doing anything?
If not…
What’s the least I could do to get this result?
And finally…
Is there a WHO who can do my least?
:)
That’s really what we all want.
The result without the work.
And I think that’s an important thing to recognize when you’re creating something for other people.
We have a tendency to think:
Look at everything they could do!
But a better question might be:
What’s the least they would have to do?
I’ve seen this with our World’s Most Interesting Postcard.
There are all kinds of things someone could do to nurture the 150 people who already know them, like them, and trust them.
Or…
They could give us the names of those 150 people once.
Then we create the postcard, write it, print it, address it, and mail it every month.
They make one decision.
We do everything else.
That’s a much better design.
After 30 years, I’ve come to realize that the biggest opportunity when you’re trying to get results through other people may not be figuring out how to get them to do more.
It may be figuring out…
How little can they do and still get the result?
That’s a very different question.
And it can lead to some very different businesses.