Management August 20, 2010, 2:46PM EST

Success Is Simple. Do the Math

Have good employees in place? Here's how to help them win profits for your business

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It is fashionable today to talk about the importance of having the right people "on the bus" to build a great company. Management consultant Jim Collins pushed the concept in his best-selling book Good to Great (HarperBusiness, 2001). Over the years, however, I have found that having the right people doesn't do much unless those people have the benefit of a good motor and a bus driver with a road map to get them someplace they want to be.

In working in the sales and leasing industry over past few years, I've found it obvious that once you have good people in place, all you need to do for them are four simple things.

1. Tell Them What To Do and How To Do It

In any organization, lots of people have led to its success. Those people have spent time developing approaches to the business that work and have fumbled through some things that didn't. It is important not to let the experiences of the past vanish and have the same mistakes made over and over again. I tell our people they will be successful if they just work the proven plan. It never fails. Sometimes managers feel they have a better way. Most times they find their "better" way was tried before and didn't work. The result is failure.

2. Give Them High But Achievable Goals

You've heard the story of Roger Bannister. No one had ever run a four-minute mile. Many felt it couldn't be done. Bannister started his running career at Oxford University in 1946, winning his first race with a time of about four and a half minutes. He kept improving, however. Finally, at Oxford University's Iffley Road Track on May 6, 1954, he broke the barrier of the four-minute mile. It was soon obvious that the physical barrier of running a sub-four-minute mile was a psychological barrier, too. Just two months later Bannister's record was broken, and that record was broken several more times in the next two years.

Competitive people respond to clear goals. At my company, our store managers are very competitive, high achievers. In 2000 the goal of $1.2 million in store revenue was the standard. Five years ago we set up a program to aim for $2 million in store revenue. We called it our Double Diamond program, and a handful of our stores broke that barrier. We now have more than 140 Double Diamond stores and another 20 that have reached Triple Diamond status ($3 million in revenue). We even have Quadruple Diamond stores and are about to have some Five Diamond ones, too. So many barriers in business are psychological, but once others see those barriers broken, there is no end to the level of success that can be achieved. We celebrate our people reaching their goals. It shows others that those goals are achievable and showcases what needs to be done to reach them. There is no amount of politicking or lobbying that will replace the good work that results in reaching high achievable goals.

3. Inspire Them To Feel Good About What They Are Doing

People are driven as much by emotion as by logic. I am always amazed when we celebrate the success of our high achievers. It is remarkable how their peers turn into their fans. When presenters call them up on stage to receive their awards, other store managers line up along the runway to the stage to slap their hands and even take photos as they walk to receive their trophies. These winners have earned that honor in our company's world. They feel great about themselves. All the long days and late nights suddenly seem worthwhile, and the accolades inspire them to make sure they find themselves called up on stage the next year. Accolades not only inspire those who receive them but motivate all who witness the celebrations. Everyone wants to be called up to the front next time around.

4. Listen to Them

I realized a long time ago that the best ideas don't come from someone sitting behind a desk in a corporate office. They come from those who are in the trenches doing the hard work it takes to please customers and make sure a store is operating the way it should. One good or great idea in one store can make it more successful. That same good or great idea applied to 1,732 other stores can make all of them more successful. Whatever we do right is usually a result of listening to our store managers or customers or sometimes even suppliers. There is no theory or strategic plan in their thinking; they just want to do things better, and their goals are making their individual stores operate better. Capturing their ideas and spreading the good news of what they have discovered is the real secret to success.

I used the phrase "Do the math" several years ago in a TV commercial. I have been pleased to see how it has caught on and become part of our everyday vernacular in this country. Success in business is a math formula. In our case, just one new customer a day adds up to $45,000 per month in new business for a store. Over a year's time, that is a total of $540,000 in new business for a store. The key is to hold on to existing customers and win new ones. Success is a very simple formula.

Do the math.

Ken Butler joined Atlanta-based Aaron's in 1974 and serves as the chief operating officer of Aaron's Sales & Lease Ownership (SALO). Aaron's sells and leases furniture, appliances, and electronics.