Ep.1/ The altar of quality
it is very easy to preach the “quality” approach and fall into easy traps of perfectionism, over-analysis, and procrastination in business.
A year or so before we started Atlas, I had a good agent-friend of mine in the office, and we were just chatting about her business and growth over the last couple of seasons. I was having a very “big think” kind of day, and I asked her about the next steps for her over the next year were. She said, “I want to work on better quantity over quality.” She misspoke. I would never see my business the same.
There is this wild idea out there that quality always takes precedence over quantity. In real estate, it is a dangerous misnomer. Practically speaking, for real estate agents, the first fifteen transactions you accomplish, if done right, will yield the next 100 transactions you see. We see agents that never make it past closing 4-5. Some of them are looking to niche too early. Some of them just arent’ ready to put the work in. Some of them are still working full time jobs and don’t ever plan to make a career out of it. You cannot get anywhere, though, without the quantity.
Looking at that from the wider context, I think it is very easy to preach the “quality” approach and fall into easy traps of perfectionism, over-analysis, and procrastination in business. Businesses that are not mobile, flexible, and constantly re-approaching their work are dying businesses.
Why can’t we have quantity without sacrificing quality. Is it not better to have 10 of something that is 90% great over 2 of something that is 100% great? In real estate, ten commissions with clients who are very happy will always trump two commissions with clients who are over-the-moon ecstatic. That is real money you are leaving on the table in the quality camp.
The discussion seems esoteric, but it has some very real consequences in business. If I am evaluating a business decision about taking on 50 new clients, and I do not yet have the staff to take on that work, the Altar of Quality would require that I leave those 50 clients to the side until I have all the necessary staff and systems in place to move forward. But what if, instead, I took the 50 clients on and hired a talented person to help me manage that work at the same time. Would there be some pains and mistakes and money lost? Would a few of those clients have a less-than-excellent experience? Yes. And the business leader’s ego has to be tough enough to endure that, because, in the meantime, you have made more money and you have expanded your capacity significantly, and you have fifty new clients who are ready to go out and spread the word about who you are and what your business is about.
Don’t sacrifice progress at the Altar of Quality. Do good work. But do good work again and again to make it good work. Planning something great rarely results in a better net outcome than doing many things good.
