I was doing some training yesterday for a rapidly growing company in the real estate acquisition business. Their sales process, when done right, results in multiple multi-million dollar transactions on a monthly basis. In order for that to happen, however, a number of other things must be executed well.

I explained that in the rainforest there are a number of factors that combine to make it so abundant and fruitful. Three factors that stand out are specialization, cooperation and communication. Specialization as has been pointed out by Adam Smith in his book, “An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations” leads to highly increased productivity. Henry Ford understood this principle and in a time when there were hundreds of car manufacturers in the U.S. employing craftsmen to build cars from beginning to end, he was the first to introduce the assembly line where every man specialized in one task or another and the results revolutionized the world.

So the first question you might want to ask yourself is whether or not the process of your business, or even your very own sales process, can be broken down into steps and assigned to specialists. A significant determining factor has to do with the market potential. If one man by himself can build an automobile in a month, but a hundred men on an assembly line can build 100 per day, it makes sense to hire 100 men - if there is sufficient demand for the end product.

What we found with the folks I was working with yesterday is that specialization increases productivity exponentially and it can with you too. However, there is another catch that can derail the best laid plans… It has to do with three things: (1) Are the specialists suitable for the task they are specializing in, (2) Is there cooperation between the specialists and (3) Besides the spirit of cooperation, there needs to be a flow of information/communication to facilitate the cooperation or it will never occur and you will end up with a very high payroll with limited results.

Until next time… Be fruitful, then multiply!