Record Results within Six Months
In 1984 Doug Carter was recruited to be the regional manager for the oldest and largest adult training company in the world. He was responsible for 22 management areas covering all or part of 14 Western States and four Canadian Provinces. Even though most 20 of these 22 areas were operated by independent contractors, Carter was still accountable for all sales in the area plus the quality and consistency of all instruction.
One of the things he noticed was that there seemed to be a pattern of rapid growth followed by a leveling off of sales when a new independent contractor took over a new area. With further research, Doug recognized the cause of the problem and developed a solution.
With his newly researched discovery, Doug developed a system called the Rapid Development System. With the support of upper management, Doug carefully recruited seven independent contractors to work on the new Rapid Development Project. Three of the managers had been below 80% of their quota for each of the previous three years. The president of the company asked Doug to also include one additional manager. Only one of the eight areas had any sustained growth over the previous two years.
Carter not only developed the project, he developed each step of each part of the entire Rapid Development System. He then conducted training programs to teach the key managers how to use the system effectively.
Within six months of inception, 87.5% of the participating areas had record production. The lowest result from these seven was 117% of quota and the two fastest growing areas in North America were both in the project. San Diego, California reached 227% of quota and Long Beach, California reached 234% of quota.
The only area that didn’t achieve record results was the area that was included in the project by the president of the company.
What’s the moral of the story?
There is an effective system for nearly anything and everything—but the participants have to be committed to the results or they won’t use it regardless of how good it is.
