May
28
What Is The One Thing Business People Want, That Is Often Overlooked?
Filed Under Year Of Original Content, fundamentals, informed decision, learning, resources, sales, strategy | Leave a Comment
Predictability!
What I’m talking about here is forecasts that are accurate.
Accurate enough to base key decisions on, such as whether to order more materials now, in order to be able to meet potential future orders within your stated delivery or lead times.
Accurate enough to be able to decide if you are going to avoid some short-term cash flow issues, or if you need some short term injection of cash – really critical in the smaller business.
Accurate enough to be able to decide when to let employees – or yourself – have time off for vacation.
Many production and operational processes are predictable enough – you, as the business owner or manager, have sufficient control over what’s going on, under normal circumstances.
But what about the sales operation? I mean, customers are in control, ultimately. You can’t force somebody to buy something – not legally or ethically (these 2 aren’t always the same thing!).
Well, you can reduce the degree of uncertainty, ambiguity and complexity that often reduces the accuracy of forecasts, by employing a solid, proven process-based approach to every aspect of your sales operation, not just to what happens once you’ve closed the order…
It won’t guarantee you sales success, but it will increase your chances of sales success overall. You’ll still lose some. But you should win more – partly because you’re better at selecting opportunities with a better chance of success for you, and partly because you’re better at ‘working’ those opportunities to a successful conclusion. You’ll also more likely be winning business at higher rates of margin or profit. And none of this needs you to have additional sales resources – such as sales people – or having to work extra hours – quite the opposite, potentially.
In future posts I’ll be exploring what these processes look like and how you can implement them.
For the moment, let me leave you with a couple of useful hints…!
- Identifying the key players in a purchase decision, and understanding their position – how they see the need (or not) for the purchase in the first place, and what business results and personal wins they are looking for…
- Connecting your products, services and/or solutions, in the minds of each key player (especially the very influential ones in this sale), to their individual required business results and personal wins.
- Being very aware of what gaps you have in your knowledge (especially relating to points 1 & 2 above), what assumptions you’ve made, and taking steps, by way of an explicit strategy and plan, to reduce the negative impacts of these gaps and other knowledge, and maximise the positive impacts…
That’s a hint at some of the ‘what’ that is to come in future posts. The ‘how’ also comes later!
May
16
Trying To Solve Current Sales & Business Problems Can Only Make Things Worse…
Filed Under challenge, fundamentals, informed decision, learning, mindset, sales | 1 Comment
I’ve just been reflecting on a couple of conversations I’ve been having with a number of business owners and potential business owners about learning from the mistakes of the past, and the mistakes of others.
It’s an interesting debate, as you’ll soon see.
On one hand there are those who feel that every effort should be made to uncover the root causes of what went wrong, analyse what happened and why, and use this as the basis for a strong, robust strategy and plan to avoid these problems in the future. I must admit, as a former engineer, this position has a lot of merit.
On the other hand there are those who feel that looking to uncover the root causes and do the analysis runs the risk of focusing on the past, of taking valuable and limited time that could be spent on more useful or value-adding activities. This too is a position that has merit!
So, what to do, which one to choose?
Before choosing, let’s just stop and think for a moment.
Some of you will know I trained and practiced as an engineer (OK, it was a while ago, but still…!). You’ll also know I have a solid background in continuous improvement too, with a heavy emphasis on analysis and data.
So you’d be forgiven for thinking this is an easy choice to make.
Well, it isn’t!
And here’s why.
I know from the experiences I have had, and countless others have had, that where processes dominate a situation in terms of performance, or lack of performance, then performing a root cause analysis – finding out the most fundamental reasons for failure to perform – is the right thing to do.
And selling is a process, right?
So, do the root cause analysis…
EXCEPT…
Sales is not just about process. It’s also about buying, and it’s also about emotion.
I’ve also learned (the hard way, initially…) that when people and emotions play a big, even dominant role, a root cause analysis is often largely a wasted effort in terms of actually contributing to and enabling a better approach and outcome in the future.
Why?
Well, root causes that are, to pardon the pun, rooted in people, are incredibly difficult to find, verify and measure. The analysis becomes too subjective, and this can add to existing tensions in relationships, or more often, create these tensions in the first place.
And because there is limited credibility and agreement about the actual list of root causes and their relative contributions to the overall problem, and plan based on eliminating these root causes is similarly lacking in credibility and buy in – and that leads to problems in implanting any fix, no matter how brilliant the fix actually is.
So, back to the original dilemma – do the root cause analysis, or not… learn from the mistakes of the past & others, or press on, perhaps blindly?
Well, a dilemma in my book, occurs when I’m faced with just 2 choices, neither of which is particularly attractive.
What I try to do in these situations is create a third (or fourth…) option that is more attractive.
And I do the same here.
Option 3 is to do a little of both! Learn from the mistakes while ALSO focusing on how you want your future success to be.
OK, I know what you’re thinking now – you’re thinking that I’m cheating, or fudging the issue somehow.
Well, I beg to differ!
Based on the underlying principles of “Solutions Focus” (see http://www.sfwork.com) I suggest the following to enable you to quickly make some progress:
- Take a look at the problem situation, and get clear (or clearer…) about what the desired outcome was.
- Look for what worked, even just a little bit, even just once, that got things just a little bit closer to the desired outcome.
- Consider doing more of these things that worked. And stopping doing things that didn’t work – this helps you manage your workload too.
The theory (and practice!) goes something like this: when you focus on the problem and why it might have happened, you’re focused on the past and also what you don’t want. Your success lies in the future and what you do want, so focus there!
Sure, acknowledge and pay some heed to past problems and experiences, but don’t over do it. You can avoid this by working through steps 1-3 above. This buys you some progress and this is really valuable in building momentum, motivation, and… hope!
And to get more focus on the future and what steps to take in getting there, work through the steps below:
- Get a very clear picture or description of how you want & need things to be in the future. If part of a team, build this picture together – it’s great for buy-in, team building and motivation!
- Find resources that can help you achieve even just a little of this in the very near future – look to the past, present and future for ideas, examples of what has worked that you can copy and/or adapt. Look to your experiences and imagination, as well as that of others – this can be great for getting buy-in!
- Focus on taking small next steps in the general direction of the desired outcome. Focus on what can be achieved in the next 24-48 hours. Don’t worry too much about a detailed and long-term plan – life has a way of making these pretty useless after a few days or weeks! Once you’ve taken 1 or 2 small steps, take stock – where are you in relation to the desired outcome… And from here, identify the next 1 or 2 small steps you can take to get you headed in roughly the right direction!
Let me know how you get on!
Cheers
Martin
May
13
How To Overcome Your Biggest Challenge as a Small Business Owner
Filed Under challenge, fundamentals, learning | 1 Comment
I get to see ‘both sides of the tracks’ working with small owner-managed businesses as well as large corporate organisations. You’d think the people doing the selling in these two very different kinds of organisations would have different challenges in many cases, wouldn’t you.
Well, they don’t, at least, not from where I’m standing!
The number 1 biggest challenge they have is the same ting, and it’s personal:
How do I find time to market my business or myself?
For sales people in large corporates, doing administration, servicing existing opportunities and customers – there never seems to be enough hours in the day.
For the small business owner or salesperson in the small businesses, it’s the same, perhaps more so, as there’s less people to spread the workload across…
And if you happen to be the one-person business, often operating from home, you often have the bigger challenge of balancing the needs of the business and the needs of the family.
In working with such diverse situations I get to see some fantastic strategies and techniques where people really make it work.
And I also see some real nightmares! I’ll just focus on the good stuff here!
Clarity of purpose: consider the implications and consequences of not doing any marketing. There’s some simple maths here: zero marketing = zero clients = zero sales.
The trick is to do just the right amount of marketing in terms of time and resource (money!) and also the right kind of marketing, to the right selection of prospective clients. This suggests some kind of sales and marketing strategy is needed – there are so many permutations and options for the kind of marketing and who you market to. Having this clarity of purpose will stop you wasting time (and money) on marketing activities which are misdirected, even if very good.
Focus on who: it’s not just which companies for example that you may want to market to, but what kind of people to market to – job titles and areas of responsibilities – in short, those who influence and/or take the final decision on what & when to buy, and who to buy from…
When you focus on the key influencers and decision makers you avoid wasting time, effort and money on those who have little or no influence in the final decision. This is as true when selling to private individuals (including retail) as it is when selling to other businesses. Again, this suggests some kind of sales and marketing strategy is needed…
Perspective: I don’t agree with those who say that marketing is the number 1 priority task you have. I believe it’s the number 2 priority. The trick is to make sure it doesn’t become #1 or #3, #4 etc.
Here’s why I think this, based on real experiences:
Priority number 1 is to close or bring home business that’s about ready to close, and then deliver it. You can’t assume this will happen by itself – continue to work the opportunity until the cash is in the bank. You wouldn’t believe the number of people who tell me how they lost business at the 11th hour because they ‘took their eyes off the ball’ – or how many tell me how they won business away from a rival at the 11th hour…
If you make marketing the number 1 priority you risk failing to deliver on existing commitments and you lay yourself open to having somebody steal some business off you at that crucial 11th hour.
If you make marketing a lower priority than number 2, you run the risk of reduced or even stalled growth because your competition will be out there, making themselves known, when you aren’t. You can miss out on the chance to win business at the 11th hour too…
But don’t confuse the priority level with level of effort and involvement. Bringing home that almost-won business should need relatively little time at this stage of the sales process, but it does need to be top priority.
Avoid Overkill: so many people I work with have made the mistake of spending whole days doing this. How boring can that get?! Plus, if you’ve read any of Jon Medina’s stuff on how the brain works, you’ll know that you can have too much of a good thing, and you can do too much of a good thing too! You will achieve greater impact when you do smaller bursts of good quality marketing, say 1 or 2 hours at a time…
In short, do it ‘little and often’ – continuously, not just 2 or 3 days a month, mostly clumped together. After all, potential customers don’t confine their buying and searching for their next purchase to just the odd day here and there each month, do they!?
Reframe: replace the question “How do I find time to market my business or myself?” with a more useful and constructive one, like “what can I do to market my business or myself today/now?”
Call to action:
Consider each of these items I’ve described here, and take action on each. The following will help:
- What is the purpose of your marketing activities? In retail, it will be to get customers in to your shop, real or virtual, hopefully to make a ‘buy’ decision quickly. In more complex sales situations several people may be involved, and may need to talk things over with you on more than 1 occasion. Each situation requires a different marketing approach in order to achieve the different outcomes. What outcome do you need at each stage? Base your marketing plan on that.
- Who are your customers likely to be? Who do you want them to be? Who would you rather not sell to? (seriously!)
- Based on your personal and business circumstances, identify ways you can ensure marketing becomes and remains always your number 2 priority. What signs can tell you that it’s not your number 2 priority? How will you look out for these? What actions could you take to put things right if your priorities do get skewed?
- Plan to spread your marketing activities throughout the month, especially if you have (or plan to have…) very busy weeks when you may get little or no marketing done…
- Find a way to easily, conveniently ask yourself frequently: “what can I do to market me/my business right now?”
- Take a look at Dave Allen’s stuff on “Getting Things Done” – especially if traditional time management techniques don’t seem to work well for you!
Let me know how you get on!
Cheers
Martin