What Is Dollarization?
Jeffrey Fox, in his book, Never Send a Résumé, describes dollarization as putting a price tag on the value you have created elsewhere.
How can I do that? You may be wondering.
If you recall I told you that all companies, their management and ownership are interested in only one thing, making a profit. If you can’t dollarize the contribution you have made elsewhere how can you present the value in your idea? But, if you can, and you MUST, then, depending on your level of dollarization, you have a great door opener.
Time for me to digress a bit.
In my seminars and workshops I have been challenged by people who say something like this: “I just want to get a job. This process sounds like it only applies to upper-management and executives.” Or, “How can this help me get a job as a secretary or office manager?”
Let me tell you about Dorothy.
I met Dorothy at a business networking event. She was one of the Chamber of Commerce board members and, by all appearances everything was going well for her. No one knew that her life was in a shambles. Like so many people, she left her office manager position with a small dental practice, (It wasn’t really that small. Three dentists, 2 offices, 12 assistants and well over a $1,500,000 in annual billables.) in order to help her boyfriend get his business off the ground. She moved in with him and became his office manager, cook, housekeeper, and gal Friday.
It was quite a step down for her. But, out of love, she did everything to help him succeed. And, he did. His business grew. He was away more an more. And one day, he left her for another woman, taking the job and the business with him.
Now, at age 50, out of work and out of her field for over 5 years, Dorothy is looking for a job. The first thing she does is have her résumé professionally done. Then, she scans the want ads. Then seeks help through the state unemployment service. Weeks later with money nearly gone and not even a nibble on her résumé, she and I meet again. This time she asks if I can help.
I look at her $500 résumé and nearly scream. It’s SO bad that it’s no wonder no one is interested in her.
We interview. She takes a strengths test and we begin talking about her history of successes. She was so discouraged (in tears) that all she could think of was her failures. We pressed forward. It seems that right out of secretarial school Dorothy went to work for a dentist as his secretary/office manager. She worked with him for 30 years, building his practice, doing all the community relations, all the personnel work, learning how to be a dental assistant (earning a certificate), and training/leading the staff. The practice grew from nothing to over $1,500,000 billables during her tenure.
In addition to presiding over his growth, the staff grew and stayed with her. Only 2 or three of the 13 employees left in the entire thirty years. Once they were hired, they stayed. This was an exceptional testament to her office leadership.
On the other hand, once she left, within two years the staff began leaving, the practice split, and the partners joined other firms.
None of these great accomplishments were listed in her résumé. On the contrary, all the emphasis was on schooling (which she had too little of to be a great selling point) and experience, so much experience that you could easily tell her age, even though it was carefully avoided elsewhere.
I was not the only one to point out the problems with her résumé. The state unemployment office gave her this advice about her background and qualifications: LIE! “Everybody does it”, the State Government Official said.
Since Dorothy had only had the one job (excluding the indentured servitude to her recent boyfriend) she was in résumé trouble. But not with the New Résumé. All Dorothy had to do was believe in herself.
She had to learn to dollarize. How much value did Dorothy contribute to the success of the dental practice she led during the 30 years she worked there?
Unless the doctors had done an exceptional job of marketing, sales, and promotion, (which very few professionals do or do well) the success of the practice came through word of mouth. People had to be saying that Doctor Jones is a good dentist and you ought to go to him.
What makes a good dentist?
A clean office, modern equipment, pleasant staff, good work, reasonable prices, handling all the medical/dental billing without a hassle, scheduling and keeping appointments, after appointment follow up calls, avoiding prescription problem. As all of us know who have ever spent time in the dentist’s chair, his/her proficiency rises or falls on all the non-in-your-mouth support things. A dirty office, unruly/unpleasant staff, billing errors, lack of follow up, an over-booked calendar (and long in-office wait times) and prescription problems were all support staff things. To the degree that all these non-in-your-mouth times worked, so did the practice.
They worked exceptionally well in Dr. Jones (and Smith, and Johnson) offices that Dorothy managed. Her efficiency enabled them to generate business by word of mouth. And, in addition, Dorothy attended Chamber of Commerce meetings on the doctors’ behalf and was their goodwill ambassador. People in the business thought of Dorothy whenever they needed dental work, not Drs. Jones, Smith, and Johnson.
Dorothy had contributed dramatically to the doctors’ bottom line by increased sales and public relations. And, through her excellence in office management, she controlled expenses and turnover, enabling her employers to have an excellent lifestyle.
Her salary grew, so did her responsibility. She never realized how much her contribution was until we began to put it all together.
She had the numbers. She worked with the accountant on the books for 30 years. So, she called the accountant and they went to lunch. She picked his brains and he gave her some real numbers. Since he worked with a number of dental practices he understood their averages and their performances. He agreed, Dorothy’s work made loads of profit for Jones, Smith, and Johnson.
The accountant couldn’t give her any number about the cost of turnover. It’s just that he knew it cost a firm about $5,000 every time they hired and trained a raw recruit. And, it cost them a lot more, initially to hire someone with Dorothy’s experience. So most companies thought that by saving the price of a Dorothy the $5,000 expense was worth it.
Dorothy checked for employee turnover articles in dental and medical journals and found some interesting figures.
She was ready to dollarize:
She calculated that her former employer earned an additional $10,000,000 over 30 years because of her efforts. And, using the turnover figures she obtained, she estimated that her control of employee turnover saved them another $2,000,000. Over 30 years that amounted to $12,000,000 or $400,000 per year.
She now had something to talk about.
I wish I could complete the story with how she used the results to get a perfect job. But, I can’t. The accountant, who had not known that Dorothy was looking for a position prior to their lunch, contacted one of his clients, a medical practice, that had just lost its office manager.
Dorothy began working for them that week.
Sidebar:
Not every person who uses the system gets the job they want at the end of the system. This is not magic. It does not cast spells and divine results. It is a process that works for most who are stuck and need to take control of their job situation.
And, a great number of people without ever having to use the steps that we are explaining here get jobs simply because they are looking in different places and in different ways than the traditional résumé system.
So, what I am saying is that you may not have to use all the steps. But, you cannot afford to skip any of them. Success may come early in the process. And success may not come at the end of the process.
Some people will take the process very seriously (as it is meant to be taken) and some people will go through the motions. Effort = Results.
Some people, even after expending maximum effort will still have troubles and may need coaching. Some people will want to accelerate the process and will attend our seminars.
Whatever your situation, work the system and the system will work for your.
Let’s review the dollarization process. It is not the same for everybody.
If executives, managers, and owners are only interested in profits then it is your primary responsibility to convert your successes into dollars. This is not as difficult as it may sound. Here are some examples:
Jeff worked as a manager for a major retailer. During a one-year period his department increased sales by 52%, or $365,000. During the same period the unit he worked for increased sales by 4% and comparable divisions in the same company located in different geographic areas increased sales by 3%-11%. Jeff’s division moved itself up in rank from #133 out of 400 to #27. His gross profit was about .5% less than company average, however. Still, Jeff calculated he generated an additional $118,000 in profit to the company.
Jeff used this data during his annual review to get a nice bonus and a promotion 6 months later.
He also filed this dollarized performance for future job searching.
Tom had been involved in many ventures before being drafted into public life. At first he hated it. Tom was a business man, a man of action, decisive, and innovative. Government bureaucrats hated people like Tom. So he planned on being a caretaker. In and out for a one year un-expired term. Then Tom began to view things differently. What if, since I don’t plan on running for office, what if I challenge everything and apply business principles? How much could I save the people of my town.
So, Tom did just that. He challenged contracts. Questioned side deals. And recommended changes to bids and different approaches to handling government problems. The bureaucrats and his “colleagues” on the governing body hated him. They wouldn’t even speak to him. He wasn’t invited to the parties and fund raisers. But, the local newspapers took notice. They began interviewing him, and not the mayor, after town meetings. The people in town began calling him at home for help and advice.
To make a long story short, Tom did run for one more term. He won. And in his total five years he saved his town of 5,000 people over $4,000,000.
Can Tom use this dollarization in his résumé?
Bill worked as a project manager for XYZ corp., a global behemoth. He was the guy they called in to work on projects that were stalled, not living up to their time line or running over budget.
Repeatedly Bill would reign in expenses and get the results desired on time. He always worked in a team. But everyone knew it was Bill to the rescue.
Do you think he can dollarize this?
