Month: July 2015

15 Jul 2015
Sticky Post By Posted in Sales, Strategy With No Comments Permalink

If you don’t understand your success, you are going to fail

Sticky Post By On July 15, 2015 With No Comments

You just got the email—you lost that deal to a competitor… again. This was the big one. The contract that was going to set your future success and allow your firm to grow its revenue and reputation.

Meetings are called immediately to review why the deal was lost, where it potentially fell apart and how you will take steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again. The sales management team, senior leadership and even the salesperson trying to consummate the deal are all in the room to pour over each detail.

This, of course, is both a reasonable and effective strategy to push improvement in your business and work toward losing fewer deals in the future.

But let’s flip the scenario.

The call comes in letting you know you won that deal you have been working 6 months to close. This was a big one. The contract that is going to set your future success and allow your firm to grow its revenue and reputation.

Immediately after, congratulatory emails and calls are received and maybe your team goes to happy hour to celebrate.

There is something missing here.

Why was there no meeting called to review the win? Why did you win it, where did the deal all come together, who stepped up? Most importantly, how will you make sure it DOES happen again?

We are quick to find faults and critique failures in our business efforts—it’s what business schools, mentors and continuous improvement experts have taught us to do. We are really good at it. Why, then, do we not apply that same discipline to positive outcomes?

Having spent quite a few years in sales, this hypocritical scenario played itself out with the reliability of a Swiss watch. Losses are examined, dissected and even used as political fodder among conniving managers bucking for the next promotion. Wins are usually recognized, briefly celebrated and then fade quickly among the competing business priorities.

Not understanding your success is a direct route to failure. Assuming your business wants more successes, it only makes sense that you should understand what made you successful in tremendous detail. Simply looking at where you failed provides a “Don’t do” list. Wins provide part of the road map for your organization.

Start looking at your wins and go back, where possible, and look at previous successes. This is not just an exercise for sales. Organizational successes happen every day in your HR, finance, recruiting and IT departments. Understanding WHY and HOW you won are as important as why you may have failed so treat those wins with the same scrutiny. You should know how to replicate your success as much as avoiding failure.

15 Jul 2015
Sticky Post By Posted in Strategy With No Comments Permalink

The “Best Practice” Bandwagon is Costing Your Business

Sticky Post By On July 15, 2015 With No Comments

In the mid-1800’s, P.T. Barnum and his Flying Circus used to parade through towns on something he coined the “bandwagon.” It was gaudy, hard to miss, and a great marketing tool to let people know the circus was in town. Later, politicians used the same method to gain attention for their message, and it worked. People are drawn to the latest and greatest spectacle, even if it’s not strategic for them.

People jump on these bandwagons because something bad or unwanted has not happened to those driving the bandwagon and as such, they are protected from harm. This creates a false sense of security when your business is doing well in well established markets and market conditions for your product is good. To state the obvious, many businesses get on the bandwagon after the parade has passed.

One bandwagon phrase that is particularly troubling is “best practices.” The term is generic, overused and does not consider your business’s specific circumstances. Many times, best practices do not fit a small company’s strategy because they require extensive resources to implement and maintain. Best practices are a by-product of a good strategic plan. If implemented correctly, your strategic plan will continually adapt to the best practice that meets your company’s goals for sales, operations, and customer service.

In the small business world, it is often rare to have a published strategic plan that actually drives what everyone in the company does. If the strategic plan in not well-defined, there will likely be counter acting forces within the company working against each other that will prevent your success. The key is to develop the following as part of your strategic plan:

  • A measurement system to monitor results toward the plan’s goal
  • A recruitment system that will not only hire but keep good employees to drive the plan
  • An incentive system to drive the plan
  • A cohesive team that works together to achieve the goals of the plan
  • A culture that continually adapts and adjusts to drive the plan
  • Continuous training to support your strategic goals

Last but not least, it is important to get someone from outside of your company to give input periodically. An objective third party who has experience creating and executing against complex strategic plans can help a company set the goals and strategy necessary to win. Outsiders also won’t be protecting turf or acting in their own department’s self-interest so they are much more likely to provide unbiased input.

With the right strategy and employing the right resources, I believe that small businesses can lead instead of getting on the latest bandwagon—and driving new and innovative ways of doing business that will help them reach their goals.

03 Jul 2015
Sticky Post By Posted in Entrepreneurship With No Comments Permalink

Founders: If you can’t do this one thing, quit

Sticky Post By On July 3, 2015 With No Comments

The first time I sit down with company founders to start a project, I ask a lot of questions. Most of the questions are about their business, products, people, structure and goals. But there is one “fill in the blank” type question I usually ask them to answer that generates a lot of value:

“If I can’t do this, I’m not interested in the business continuing: __________”

This question serves multiple purposes but it cuts directly to the core of WHY.

Asking this question, I can start to understand why they work all the hours they do, why they haven’t taken a vacation in 3 years, why they are taking Ambien to fall asleep at least three night a week, why they are willing to constantly fight the battle waging between their professional success and they personal happiness.

Something really interesting happens right after I ask this question. I either get an almost instant response that comes from a sacred and principled place inside that founder or… a blank stare.

Not surprisingly, those who provide that concise and guttural answer have a strong compass to reference as they strive to build something great. They are also, not coincidently, the founders who are killing it.

Those with the blank stare look like someone just stole their lunch money.

If you are a founder, you probably have this answer in some stage of resolution- it may be iron clad, it may me a bit fuzzy or it doesn’t exist at all. If your answer is something less than resolute, you need to fill in that blank sooner than later.

Founders often start companies with a whole series of goals, hypotheses and intended outcomes. Those usually get trashed within the first 30 days. That’s what is supposed to happen but having this core question answered helps navigate the near constant uncertainty that creeps into your business every day.

If there is truly no answer for this question, quit. Quit and start something else. It really is that core to who you are as a founder and, by extension, the motivating principle of your business.

I love what I do. For so many reasons, starting my own company was the best thing I could do to grow as a professional and as a person. After 15 years of working for others, I found a way to take the pieces and parts of what really motivated me and turn it into my own business. I decided, pretty early on, that I would have some “rules” which is the genesis of me asking others the question above.

My answer to this question is simple: If I can’t build a company that delivers significant value and is considered best-of-breed, I will shut it down.

I also vowed I wouldn’t work with a-holes. But hey, that’s just me…

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