Recently I happened to catch most of the movie “Big” with Tom Hanks. I hadn’t seen it in a long time and had forgotten its timeless marketing lesson. In the story, a toy company’s executive team has clearly lost touch with their true business identity, and Tom’s character – an eight year old in a 30 year old body if you never saw it – reminds them by simply being their target demographic. The company CEO appears to understand that they are off track, but the competitive executive team is obsessed with developing new toys without quality input from those that play with them or those that purchase them.

Every day this scenario is played out in business after business. From newly formed start-ups to decades-old establishments, leadership comes to believe that they are the experts when it comes to understanding what their consumers want. The painful lesson learned by many is that the consumers, not the business, are better equipped to understand their own needs.

Few companies really take the time to understand the actual business they are in. In the movie, the company is not in the toy business, but rather in the business of making children happy through toys. That means they must provide a toy that children will want and a parent will purchase at a price that will allow them to make enough money to continue the process. That means they must understand the wants and desires of both the children and their parents and react accordingly. When the company decides they know better, when they decide to generate facts and figures that mislead rather than lead, they fail to maximize their value to the marketplace and all parties lose.

Businesses reach their greatest success when they truly understand what they provide and for who, and deliver such at a price, place and manner that works for both. However, when businesses determine that what they provide is earnings for shareholders, they have completely missed the mark.

Take the time to understand your business. If you think you are in the newspaper business, consider that you are truly in the business of providing news when, where and how people want it. The word “paper” only defines a form of delivery that is clearly becoming obsolete. If you are in the up-scale restaurant business, consider that you are in the entertainment business, and your products must provide such at a time, place, and cost that appeals to the buyer.

Businesses get started because a founder is lucky enough to develop a product or service that a market segment will adopt. They didn’t take the time to understand a real market need, but assumed that due to their development brilliance someone, if not everyone, would want what they had. This method is a form of gambling that is executed on a regular basis, and like gambling, sometimes, but rarely, there are winners.

Other businesses take the time to truly understand a market need and continually develop their product or service around that need. Their odds of success are significantly better because they are not gambling – but rather working with a quality understanding of the value they provide.

“If innovation is tainted with the idea that a resulting commercial value is necessary – true innovation will not occur.” This sentiment is heard time and again from the “scientists” that are rooted in the thought that a commercialization goal simply distracts and distorts the very process of innovation.

The thought that mankind should benefit from research and development conducted at the expense of successful commercial enterprise should not only be acceptable, it should be at the core of the process. Clearly some of the world’s most successful inventions were a result of development projects that failed and / or changed thinking in a manner that provided outcomes not initially envisioned. But like the invention of Post-it® Notes, a 3M glue development project gone wrong, the initial development itself was focused on creating a product that provided commercial value thus providing the financial resources needed for continued innovation.

Looking at the many waves of national and global economic prosperity throughout time, all have come with commercially viable innovation at their core. War, revolution, depression, recession, inflation, and all other global-changing social, political, technological, environmental, and economic triggers drive new thinking. “Necessity is the mother of invention” (Plato) is at the foundation of innovation and at the core of all of those who invest lifetimes pursuing the next idea, thing, product, service, procedure, or process.

If we are to build a viable, secure, and sustainable future, arguably innovation that provides commercial value will be at its root. And whether that innovation comes from entrepreneurs, academic science, or corporate development, it is absolutely essential that we celebrate its value to the local, regional, national and global economy.

The average sales person deals with prospect leads as they come, working all that they can, leveraging their product or service to fit the need and get the order. Absent available leads, they prospect in much the same manner, looking for anyone willing to listen. Asked about their sales funnel, they explain all of the prospects they are working in an aggregate manner, in reality describing a sales “bucket.”

Sales professionals understand the difference between a sales funnel and a bucket of poorly-qualified prospects.

• They know they can’t handle “all that come.” They know how many qualified prospects they can handle effectively and they manage to that number.
• They know that not every lead is a qualified prospect. They establish key qualification criteria that identify the optimal prospects for their funnel. Intensity of need / urgency, size of the opportunity, stage of process, competition, type of buyer, optimal fit for their product or service, etc.
• They fill their funnel with diversification and flow in mind. They have a range of deal opportunity sizes and timeframes designed to build consistency and stability into their revenue and income generation.
• They manage the flow of their funnel weekly. They know what they need to add, when and how to move prospects from to stage to stage, and they get orders when planned.

Of the scores of sales people that I have interviewed or encountered in my career, very few of them understood how to build and manage a quality sales funnel. They fail to understand that selling is a strategic process that demands the satisfaction of the prospect, their own company, and themselves. They fail to understand true prospect needs and their ability to fill those needs. They fail to assess each opportunity for optimal fit and ability to win. And they fail to build and manage a quality process that would allow them to control their sales destiny.

Sales funnels are tools like any other. The ability to perfect the use of the tool in a way that maximizes performance is the key to great success. All professional golfers use quality golf clubs – but every golfer perfects his own personal swing to maximize the effect of the club on the ball. You can easily locate many variations of a sales funnel tool. It is up to you to perfect the use of that tool, maximize your selling success and kick the “bucket” goodbye!

Business after business is hampered, rather than supported, by dysfunctional boards. Board members are picked for all the wrong reasons; because they invested, they are a friend, or someone suggested them as a quality executive. Boards are then created out of balance when it comes to the help needed because there was no plan put in place before the selection process started. Egos become the order of the day, and in the end, businesses end up with boards that don’t add value and spend time in operational detail rather than strategic direction and support.

Boards should serve two main purposes. Primarily, your board should help you, the CEO or director, make better decisions and grow your business more effectively. Second, they must provide the fiduciary oversight needed to manage risk and support shareholder / stakeholder investments; holding the CEO / director accountable.

If you are setting up a board for the first time, you must build a plan for what you need, from talent to meeting structure and frequency. When it comes to the members selected, you should staff your board with a balanced set of talent needed to help you grow your business. From marketing to financial or development disciplines, it is critical that you staff your board like you would an executive team. Also essential is to get board talent that has the needed experience in your field of operation. If you build a board with significant experience in your field and a balanced set of professional disciplines, you will have a team that can and will help you succeed.

Yes, as you accept equity investments, you will need to allow specific board positions, so in these cases, select the best possible person from the investor group / fund and build the right talent around them to create balance. If you need to increase the size of your board to accommodate, get that done in the investment docs.

It is critical to understand that you, the CEO / director, need to be running your business, and your board needs to be helping you do so. Your board is not there to manage you (although they clearly have the right), and if you allow them to do so, you will create your own leadership nightmare. Select a meeting frequency that supports what you need. Build a meeting outline that provides the board the needed information to remain comfortable with your progress and when needed, provide strategic input. If you allow your board chair or board in general to get into tactical day-to-day operational issues, you will spend many frustrating hours defending your position to people who only engage in your business a few hours a year. If, on the other hand, you provide board leadership like you do your own executive team, you can create a relationship where you get the support you need, when you need it, without unnecessary projects or procedures.

You have a long-time successful business, but new dynamics have presented you with the opportunity to create significant growth. You are excited about the potential and you start to make changes and hire additional employees. If you hire more of the same, you find that the load on you, the chief decision maker, becomes overbearing and growth is diminished. If you hire more skilled people, you start to feel out of control; you see decisions being made without you, purchases you did not approve, etc. You dive back into the details, request explanations, and reassert your position as chief of all things.

And in this process, founders become the roadblock to growth. They hire people that cannot manage growth, or they hire talented people and give them responsibility without authority. They micro manage; inserting themselves and delaying actions to the point of demeaning and demoralizing their team. And while believing every step of the way that they are right, they themselves kill the ability to succeed.

The type of leadership and team required to succeed at one level of business may be significantly different than what is required to profitably scale to a much higher point. It is most certainly true that to take maximum advantage of new opportunity; old thinking must also be examined and modified. The number one killer of business opportunity is the inability of leadership to embrace the change needed in them. They must embrace the hard work needed to change, getting out of their comfort zone, or they must get out of the way altogether.

Not knowing what you don’t know and stifling input and action from others that do know is the surest path to failure – driving many once-successful businesses under. Goals and actions created for growth become the sword by which a business actually meets its demise; all at the hands of a founder that would not change or get out of the way. These same people believed they were right, and it was the new hires or market dynamics that caused their failure, when in fact the reason for their demise was looking at them in the mirror all along.

Exhibiting at industry trade shows / conventions can be one of the most effective marketing tools your business employs. At the same time, it can also be the most costly marketing tool (per impression) in which you invest. Most show exhibitors simply show up, stand in their exhibit, collect a few leads, party most nights, and go home.
If your business uses, or wants to use, trade shows and conventions as a tool to attract new business, there are some simple rules that will make the investment far more worthwhile.

Exhibition tips:
1. Don’t attend industry trade shows just because all your competition is attending. That “herd” mentality costs businesses million of dollars every year, and only puts money in the pockets of the organizers. Pick shows like you should be picking other advertising mediums, by selecting the ones that attract the type and number of people you want to meet.
2. Pick an exhibit location that maximizes traffic flow. Pay attention to main entrance, food, entertainment, and restroom locations and map out expected traffic patterns. In many cases you need to be a regular attendee, and publication advertiser, to work your way up to the best locations, but if you focus on it, you can improve your positioning.
3. Build an exhibit that works. The job of a trade-show exhibit is to quickly communicate who you are and why an attendee should stop and talk with you. Far too many exhibits try to do too many things, succeeding only in attracting no visitors or too many of the wrong ones. Think of your exhibit as a quality advertisement. Does it attract attention, does it represent my brand, and does it give the attendee a reason to stop?
4. Be very careful with gimmicks that draw crowds. From handing out free stuff to hiring performers or celebrities, keep your trade show goals firmly in mind. Are you there to bring home sales leads? Are you there to improve your overall brand exposure? What kind of show traffic do you want? Who do you want? How long will you need to spend with them? If you want a particular type of attendee, and once found will need to spend a good deal of time with them, then building high traffic with non-qualified attendees may work against you.
5. Take team members that are optimized for show performance. Tradeshows are not party events that your best sales people earn the right to attend. Seldom are your best field representatives also your best show personnel. At a show, staffers need to be able to quickly qualify prospects, moving unqualified folks along. They need to be able to handle one after another, and do so efficiently to maximize the number of quality leads collected. Determine who you have that will maximize your investment and take them.
6. Set up your exhibit to allow prospects to enter easily. Don’t set up barriers between you and your prospects, like a wall of tables or product displays. The most value gained from your attendance should be personal contact with qualified prospects, so make it easy to engage face-to-face.
7. Don’t intimidate the prospect by having a wall of staff ready to “pounce” on them. Would you get out of your car at a used car lot if you saw a row of sales people waiting for you to get out? Make is easy for attendees to view your product and information, watch them for interest and then engage them.
8. Don’t eat or drink while in the exhibit. Don’t have drink glasses or personal food on your tables. Would you bring a sandwich and drink with you to a sales call? Respect your attendees and treat them like you would a typical sales call – professionally. If you need to eat, take time away from your exhibit. If you are the only one working, eat enough before you start and tough it out. Remember that you make an immediate impression on every visitor – and eating and drinking is no the one you want.
9. When eating at event venues or nearby restaurants, keep your conversation low and non-strategic. Remember that you are sitting next to or near your competition and your prospects. Assume they can all hear everything you are saying. If you are regaling your co-worker with drunken exploits of the previous night, company strategy, or information on a customer or prospect, just expect that you are sharing that information with those around you. I had breakfast one morning at a table next to one of my competitors and listened to them discuss their entire marketing strategy for the upcoming year, including new product information. Not smart on their part, but a clear opportunity for you if you simply take the time to listen to what is going on around you.
10. Dress appropriately. Understand the dress code for the event and take the time to make sure you and your team could win the most professionally dressed award. That doesn’t mean overdressing – it means dressing professionally. If the event is more casual and most will be wearing golf shirts, then ratchet it up a notch and wear matching dress shirts with company logo’s, etc… If the event is more formal, then dark suits and white shirts are a must. But in all cases, exhibit halls are not a place for flamboyant expression. No loud ties, shirts, or jackets. Your product or service needs to stand out – no you!
11. Take regular breaks so that you stay fresh. If you see the next person entering your exhibit and you think to yourself – oh no, not another one – you need a break. Trying to solo staff an exhibit for a multi-day event is bound to wear even the best exhibit talent thin. Provide for help and share the load so that you maximize your ability to secure the leads you really want.
12. Qualify leads while you are there. Most exhibitors spend multiple days securing dozens or hundreds of leads. Then they go back to the office and mail an expensive package of post-show materials to them with a thank you letter. Then a week or two later you start making telephone calls to start the true qualification process – only to find out that most of the leads you were so happy to gather were not qualified. You can save yourself significant time and expense by simply qualifying the leads while you have them face-to-face – taking home only those qualified. You can ask attendees the same questions you would over the phone while they are standing in front of you. If you master this process, you will become far more efficient and effective.
13. Make it a habit to conduct pre-show and post –show meetings with your team. Pre show it is important to agree upon the goals of the day. How many do we want to qualify? Specific accounts we want to be sure to engage? Specific competition we want to scope out? Dinner meetings we want to arrange? Information we want to learn from attendees? Etc. Then when the day is done, get together with your team and review the day. Did we meet the goals established? What did we learn? What will we need to think about for the next day? If you establish this process, results will be reflective. If you just show up and “staff” you exhibit – results will also be reflective.
14. Minimize the partying at night. Companies will spends tens of thousands of dollars to provide a quality exhibit, only to be staffed by a sales person that partied all night and showed up so hung over they can barely stand up. I don’t care if you partied with prospects or staff – there is no excuse for working in anything but optimal condition. If you need to stay out late with prospects, don’t drink past a pre-dinner cocktail. Limiting your drinking with prospects is a good rule anyway – and no quality business ever came out of a drunken stupor. And if you are not engaging with prospects at night, go to bed early and prepare for the next day. Conventions are not party venues – they are expensive selling environments.
15. Walk the hall and learn about your competition or new industry trends. Take the time to engage people you recognize in conversation. Identify prospects you want to make sure you engage when they come by your exhibit. Take advantage of the entire exhibit hall experience. If you show up, work the exhibit and go home – you are missing many opportunities.
16. Post show follow-up must be fast. If you come home with quality sales prospects, don’t let time pass without follow-up. Coming home with hundreds of non-qualified leads means it is likely it will be months before they are all contacted – with the most qualified leads growing cold in the process. Bring home qualified leads and contact them all in the first two weeks after the event. Plan the follow-up process in advance of the event so you can begin immediately upon return. Or, send home the leads daily so that your office staff can begin the process before the event is over. Nothing impresses an attendee more than returning home from and event and finding the information they asked for already on their desk.

Overall, the convention exhibit world is poorly managed and executed. But in every isle of every event you can pick out the company that took the job seriously. The staff is well dressed and fresh, the exhibit is clean and professionally constructed, and the messaging is well positioned to attract the attention of the right attendees. These are the companies that took the opportunity seriously and will make the most of their investment. The challenge for you is to do be “that” exhibitor at every event you attend.

The ability to type and send messages, any time of day, in an array of methods, while arguably timesaving, creates significant communication gaffs. From email to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and phone-text messaging, bright, eloquent people are reduced to tabloid columnists with the stroke of key. Would-be leaders create irreparable damage to client and team relationships. Friendships are damaged. And the ability to save time ultimately works in reverse.
With the invention of the telephone, the world’s population was forced to learn to communicate without the benefit of facial expression. Early efforts were undoubtedly problematic, and still today, over a century later, misunderstandings occur daily. Advancements in communication technology require similar advancements in education, training, and discipline when it comes to the use of that technology. If it is your goal to be a quality leader (or friend) in today’s environment, then it is essential that you master the communication tools you employ.
Listed below are simple rules for all forms of non-verbal communication. Whenever you find yourself typing, or speech-to-text communicating, if you follow these guidelines, your leadership qualities will be elevated and your friendships improved.
Rules of text-based communication:
1. Do not type or attach anything that you would be embarrased to see on the front page of your local newspaper.
2. Never send text-media when you are mad. You can type it, even store it for review later, but if you hit the last period or exclamation point hard enough to damage your keypad, wait until a cooler head prevails to hit send.
3. Always add the recipient(s) last – in this way you cannot accidently send without truly wanting to do so.
4. Don’t type content you wouldn’t deliver in person. If you can’t say it face-to-face – don’t type it.
5. Never use text-media to communicate on personal issues such as employee reprimands, terminations, or any interpersonal issues.
6. Remember that when you hit send, share or post – you have sent your message into the world for any and all to see – assume this is what will occur and create the content accordingly.
7. Always spell / grammar-check your copy. Regardless of whether your kids talk in text-speak, your written content speaks volumes about your professional capabilities. If you are sloppy here – you are sloppy period.
8. Never use text-media while operating a vehicle. There is no message more important than a human life. And if you take or damage a life while breaking this rule, no amount of messaging will ever set you free.

When it comes to communication technology, just because you can use it at this very minute, with this very thought – doesn’t mean that you should. Tools require skill to create the desired outcome – improve your communication skills and feel the results.

Different sales techniques, based upon the product or service and the prospective “user,” are required to maximize selling success. Selling commodity, easily-purchased products is significantly different than selling expensive, considered-purchase products. But in all cases, sales occur when the benefits received equals or exceeds the price required to obtain it – when “value” is created.

When value is not created, the purchase does not take place, or if it does, “buyer’s remorse” sets in. Value decisions are made daily by real people on a personal basis, at every level of every organization. Making the assumption that business buyers do not make personal decisions is a mistake. All purchase decisions have personal components that must be understood and accommodated as part of the value-building process.

Typically the higher the value (cost/benefit) of the purchase, the more “considered” the purchase will become, because the risk of making a bad decision – for the company or the purchaser themselves – increases. With this increased need for value, the amount of “selling” required to cause the decision to be made in your favor will also increase. As the investment becomes more expensive, more technical, and more competitive;
• The higher in the organization the decision is likely to be made / approved
• The longer the sales cycle is likely to be
• The greater the value required to cause a purchase to take place
• The larger the number of players involved is likely to be
• The more important it is to build relationships early in the process with the right people

Early relationship building allows both seller and buyer to clearly establish reasons to move forward. The seller quickly validates that there is an opportunity to make a sale over time and identifies the needs and person(s) involved. The buyer validates that the seller can meet their needs. Relationships built correctly, at the right time with the right people create the highest mutually satisfactory outcomes – where both purchaser and seller get what they want.

Most high-value RFPs, for example, are awarded to the firm that built the relationship ahead of the RFP being generated – wisely ensuring that the RFP itself was written around their offering. Rarely does an RFP get generated for high-value products or services without such an end-offering in mind. And businesses that simply answer RFP’s as their first contact with prospective buyers close a very small portion of what could be attained.

If your product or service requires value to be built over time, start early in the process, work at all the right levels, and help prospective users make quality investments. Don’t wait for prospects to send you an RFP written around someone else’s specifications. Don’t make the assumption that the person that contacted you is the decision maker. Don’t mistake continued communications as a sign that you are likely to get the sale. And don’t assume that “presenting” your offering is “selling.”

Showing up and throwing up

“Showing up and throwing up” is a selling technique used by rookie sales personnel daily. In this process, it is assumed that if you “tell” a prospect everything about your product, the sheer brilliance of the product itself will cause the decision to made in your favor. Great “presenters” are not by themselves great sales people, they are simply great showmen.

Most technical product or service businesses build technical sales presentation teams as their sales force. These presenters work exclusively at the technical decision-maker level because that is the level that engaged with them to start. The only way to win at this level is to convince the “technical” decision makers that they have the best widget and cause them to sell upward or laterally in their organizations to other unknown decision makers. This process tends to be a “show up and throw up” agenda – whereby the technical selling team inundates the technical buying team with all the data they believe is needed to win the order – without understanding any unique customer needs around which to build required value.

Successful high-value sales people spend their professional life learning to build great relationships with the right people and the right value – at the right time – to win the greatest percent of deals. They know how to employ valued company resources and how to choreograph the use of those resources at the right times.

If you need to build a great value to maximize sales, you need to build high-value selling teams – not just presentation teams.

In Lou Gerstner’s book, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance, Mr. Gerstner is quoted as saying “I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game – it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.” Businesses with great internal culture project the same outward. They are more productive as a business because their people are more productive individually and as a team. Leadership understands that happy and engaged people are more productive.

Most everyone has worked in a business where the culture was bad. Where mistakes were punished, poor company performance is blamed on staff, and where dictatorship was confused with leadership. In these organizations, the average employee provides less than eight hours of productivity; taking advantage of every break, commiserating with other employees over e-mail or water-cooler encounters, arriving and leaving at precise times; putting in time for money.

In businesses with a great culture, where everyone’s ideas are respected, work enjoyment and creativity is fostered, mistakes are valued as learning experiences, and success and failure is owned as a team, employees regularly provide more than eight hours of productivity. They work thru breaks, come in early, stay late, eat lunch at their desk, all because they want to. All because they enjoy what they do and are thrilled to be a part of a winning team.
If your culture is great, results will be great. If your culture is poor or worse, your results are likely to follow. Culture and the resulting morale mean everything to your business. If you adopt the “beatings will continue until morale improves” style of management, you have missed the point.

Mistakenly, many people believe that their company brand is their logo. When they think about brand development, they think about logos, colors, creative, and advertising. In reality, your company “brand” is the mind impression generated by someone when they are confronted with your logo, name, product, or service. And the mind impression generated by any individual is a culmination of all experiences that person has had related to your company, product, or service. This includes what they have heard or read as well as actual personal experiences.

Your brand is impacted by all you do and say as well as all that others say about you. From media to word of mouth, there is an independent brand generation engine running 24/7, working in your favor or not. Your ability to build a strong brand, and to make it the brand you want is directly related to everything you do to, or for, every employee, customer, or any other person that becomes informed about you.

When you think of strong brands like Mercedes® or Coca-Cola®, you get an immediate mind impression, including a taste impression in the case of Coke®. Some generate a good mind impression because they have had good experiences and / or heard positive things regarding those brands. Others, who have not had such good experiences or have heard less than positive things about those brands, have a completely different mind impression. Some impressions are very strong because there is a significant amount of experience, while some impressions are much less intense.

If you want to build a strong brand for your company, and you want it to be the brand that helps you achieve your Vision, Mission, and Goals, then you need to build that brand into everything you do, say, and cause to be said about you. From your logo to your advertising, products and services, treatment of customers and employees, commitment to your community and country, and overall business vitality, you must be diligent and consistent. If you don’t build your brand proactively, it will be built for you – good or bad.

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