Defensive & Offensive Pandemic Recovery

July 30, 2020 by

As businesses reacted to the pandemic, most (and rightly so) reacted defensively at first; making sure to adjust operations and manage cash as required to get through to the new normal. The very next thing that needed to happen is that every business should have gone into the offensive strategic planning mode to identify required actions and new opportunities; both near and long-term with the understanding that the world as they knew it on March 1, was going to be forever changed. While some businesses will wait out the quarantine and reopen or ramp up with little apparent impact, the impact to their customers, employees and suppliers will be evident over time. Other businesses will be forever changed by immediate impact that ranges from closure to exponential growth. Opportunity is born from chaos and change, and 2020, for all of its idiosyncrasies, is going to be in the top 10 of historical global opportunity creators.

Actions to be taken:

Required near term (for the product or service currently provided) – take out instead of dine in, web sales instead of in-store, web meeting instead of in person, remote workforce instead of in office, i.e. how to keep the business operating as it has been, and doing so in a fiscally responsible manner.

Required long term (for the product or service currently provided) – remote workforce tools and processes, reduction in office or retail space, refinement of online presence, database of key contacts, updated insurance policies, new cleaning / sanitary guidelines, etc.

Strategic short term – new products or services in immediate need within your core competency – like distillery’s immediately producing hand sanitizer or others that started manufacturing PPE.

Strategic long term – will some of the strategic short-term decisions fit in the long term? What changes to current products and services will be required to be relevant long term? What new products or services could be added around new needs? What should be deleted as needs will diminish? What should be changed when it comes to sales and distribution channels? What can be done to increase market share while competitors remain in a defensive mode?

The lists above can certainly be expanded, but the critical takeaway is that success goes to those who seize opportunity. 2020 is likely to dwarf any previous year when it comes to opportunity and related innovation and the challenge for everyone in business is how to make sure they are taking maximum advantage.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

Effective Leadership Teams

June 27, 2018 by

Critical driving a successful business is the leadership team itself. Throwing a quality game plan in front of a group of players that don’t understand their role in the game is reasonably sure to end in failure. Quality execution comes from having the right talent in the right place at the right time. The sports world understands this concept as do those that excel in the business world. Those that do not grasp the idea fail to reach their potential or simply fail altogether. Quality business talent comes from a combination of the necessary disciplines, capabilities, experience, and proper balance. Whether you need hundreds of people or only a few, building the right talent will make the journey to success smoother and faster.

Disciplines: There are six key disciplines needed to perform optimally. They include marketing, development, sales, operations, information technology, and finance. Marketingis the process of planning and executing the creation, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services that mutually satisfy customer and organizational objectives. In other words, marketing provides the overall vision and direction of the business as well as the market awareness of your products or services. Development provides the actual design and creation of the product or service offering based on input from marketing. It transitions the design to the operation and support teams and provides ongoing input to marketing regarding new products or enhancement opportunities.

Sales provides prospect identification and management, executes the sales transaction, transmits the customer requirements to the business, forecasts sales revenue, and provides ongoing input to marketing for product enhancement and development. Operations is responsible for the delivery of the product or service to the customer on time, on margin and with the level of quality promised. And in many organizations, operations also supplies post sale customer support as well. Information Technology (IT) is responsible for providing data and communications services that allow a business to operate effectively and efficiently both internally and for your customers. Finance provides guidance in the areas of financial planning (capital, budgets, etc.), operations (COGS, PPV, etc.), banking, investor relationships, and risk management. It manages overall business accounting, and in many organizations, HR and employee benefits as well.

Capability and Experience is a summary of applicable experience, expertise, and the ability to engage effectively with other team members. Creating the title for a particular discipline without the proper capability or needed experience will cause your business more harm than not having the position to begin with. In my experience, people who are very talented in particular professional areas tend to believe that they can be equally successful in other areas with limited training. Hiring experienced and capable talent that can’t play well with others is also equally non-productive. Each one of the six disciplines outlined requires significant dedication to master, and if you want a successful business, make sure you fill those roles with capabilities and experience you can confirm through past performance.

Balance: If you balance your disciplines, experience and capabilities, and the amount of each, you will build teams that perform smoothly, and cause your business to excel. Do not let budgets hold you back. Raise more money, get advisers or board members with the required talent, but get what you need because balanced input maximizes output.

Building a leadership team with the proper disciplines and the necessary capabilities in proper balance creates the opportunity to maximize your overall success. Think of your talent like a wheel on your car, the further it gets out of balance, the rougher the ride!

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Competing on Value

June 11, 2018 by

Knowing your competition means being aware of what offerings they provide that do or will compete with yours. It is critical to understand your competitors’ price versus benefit position, or value position, as it relates to your own.

A straight-forward exercise that you can do with your team is to plot the position of your business along with the competition on a “Fair Value Matrix”. Measure benefits along the X axis and price along the Y axis. Now plot your relative position, along with that of your competitors on this matrix. This will give you a visual representation of how you are positioned and the view your overall marketplace sees.

Critical to the success of this exercise is the use of quality data. When it comes to benefits, I do not mean features. Buyers pay for benefits, not features. Features are product attributes, like horsepower, number of channels, RPMs, color, size, and shape. Benefits are the meaningful outcomes produced by such attributes like speed, flexibility, durability, efficiency, and appearance. Many products have features that provide no benefit because the buyer does not need or want them. How many of you, remembering VCRs, had a need, or more importantly, the capability, to record twenty different shows over thirty days on twenty different channels? How many of you found it a benefit to turn on your television so you could read the menu of the VCR when programming?

When you compare your product to the competition, be very careful to look from a buyer’s perspective and only compare benefits people will buy. Do not give yourself credit for additional features that buyers do not want, or worse yet, see as a distraction. Be aware that it is possible to add features that actually reduce the benefit of your offerings.

When plotting your position, and that of the competition, you can use different sizes of circles to indicate the relative size of each competitor. When complete, you should have a good view of your competitive position in the market. Now, the questions to answer are:

  • Does your position match what you thought it was?
  • Is your position where you want to be?
  • Can you be successful in this position?

If you are one of the smaller circles inside or overlapping a major competitor (big circle), should you be re-thinking your position? Is there an opportunity in another position? Be aware that just because there is a hole in the matrix does not mean it is a viable position to be filled. You need to conduct research to make the right determination.

Filed Under: Marketing

Leadership

June 6, 2018 by

LEADERSHIP: Leader & Manager are titles often used to describe common positions, although the difference between the two is significant in definition, as well as performance. Managers administer and maintain, where leaders innovate and develop. Managers rely on systems and controls, where leaders rely on people and trust. Managers seek compliance, while leaders seek results. Leaders understand that their success is in the hands of a team that will follow and perform out of respect and desire, not fear of retribution. And they know that such respect must be earned, and that it is never a byproduct of job title.

By definition, leadership is the ability to build, develop, and motivate a team of diverse, talented individuals to effectively attain goals / objectives. And although it sounds simple, there are many traits that separate true leaders from everyday managers.

Leaders provide vision and focus. They see where they want to go and they set the direction confidently. They communicate it clearly, consistently (in both word and action), and they do it often. Leaders keep their team focused and on track.  They reduce roadblocks and resist creating ones of their own. They focus on long-term strategy, not micromanagement.

Leaders know that people are their most important resource. They understand that people are their most defendable asset and their best form of market differentiation. They know that daily work enjoyment and company performance are closely linked. They embrace the fact that people are individuals and treat them accordingly. They abhor politics at any level. And most importantly, they put their trust in people over processes.

 Leaders know that customers are the company’s lifeblood. They listen to their customers often. They support their customers with every available resource. And they create a corporate culture that rewards unwavering support of customers at every level in the organization.

Leaders surround themselves with talent. They understand and acknowledge their own weaknesses and they build teams accordingly. (NOTE: Managers see little weakness in themselves and build their teams with people who will comply accordingly.) Leaders listen to and seek challenge from their teams, understanding that better decisions are made accordingly. They understand the dynamics of leading high performance individuals, and they produce significant results accordingly.

Leaders cause decision to be made. They gather and trust facts. They seek consensus because they know that buy-in maximizes performance. In the absence of consensus, leaders act timely and confidently in the best interest of the organization. And they understand that “no decision”, is always the wrong decision!

Leaders know that corporate culture means everything. They provide passion and the guiding principles on which their company is driven. And they lead by those principles daily without exception.

Leaders have a strong sense of self and are not easily influenced by popularity. They are not “born that way” and the skills are not innate. Leaders are made of hard work, unbiased self-analysis and daily dedication to results through the performance of those around them.

As a final note remember that you can’t be promoted to “leadership”, but you can be promoted because of leadership capabilities. And while someone else can make you a manager, only you can make you a leader.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Sales and the Practitioner

June 5, 2018 by

If you were to ask a group of 100 health care practitioners how much sales experience they have, the overwhelming majority would say little or none. Yet health care practitioners have been trained more than any sales representatives I know in the most essential component of a successful sales transaction – diagnosing the problem before writing a prescription.

People invest in products or services to solve a need and in many cases, to resolve a specific problem. The average sales representative never bothers to determine their prospect’s problem. Instead, they simply launch into their “pitch,” outlining the many wonderful features (and benefits) of their product or service, in the hope that the prospect will see something in the presentation that will compel them to buy. Unfortunately, most sales representatives rarely take the time to diagnose the prospect’s problem/need before they start prescribing their solution. This approach results in low close rates and a tremendous waste of personal and company resources.

Practitioners, on the other hand, never prescribe a solution without understanding as much as they can about the patient/client need. They accomplish this task by asking questions designed to elicit answers that can lead them to a proper diagnosis. Then, they can confidently prescribe a course of action to solve the problem.

This process is precisely what professional sales representatives do every day. They ask questions that allow them to uncover the prospect’s problems/needs before they prescribe their product or service as a solution. In many cases, professional sales people learn through the questioning process that their product/service cannot solve the prospect’s needs, saving both of them valuable time and money.

The true science of selling is based upon solving real needs through effective solutions, allowing both the client and the seller to “win.” The key to creating this win/win situation is based on the ability to diagnose the need before starting the prescription process.

So, the next time you have the opportunity to make a sales call, make sure you take the time to properly diagnose your prospect’s needs. Ask pertinent questions that will allow you to determine whether your prospect is a qualified candidate, and if so, how your product/service might benefit or solve your client’s needs. If you master this process, your close rate and income will improve – along with a more efficient use of your time and company resources.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Motivation – What Works and Why

January 21, 2018 by

“Scotty, if we don’t have full power in the next 10 seconds, we are all dead!” – James T. Kirk in more than one episode of Star Trek. When it comes to motivation, how many of us would have performed better in Scotty’s position after hearing those words?

I was recently watching Dan Pink, a TED event speaker address the subject of motivation and rewards and their actual impact on performance. He outlines multiple studies in which groups were challenged to conduct specific problem-solving tasks – some with rewards attached as motivation and some without. He notes that the studies showed an unexpected outcome – being the larger the reward, the poorer the performance. He goes on to note in more detail that the type of problem is at the root, with less complex mechanical problems being positively impacted by rewards and more complex problems actually taking a greater amount of time if rewarded. One of his closing statements leaves the viewer with the thought that truly complex problems are best solved by people whose motivation for such solution is the solution itself, and that by adding rewards we may very well be slowing down the rate at which success is achieved.

And while I can agree with much of what he said, I would like to add an additional component; that being individual personality / performance profiles. It is well understood that when it comes to “performance on the job” there are personal profiles that are more and less suited to maximum output. From sales people to downhill ski racers, there are specific profiles (mental / physical) that define the optimal performers or those who could become such. And once defined, one can then determine the motivational components needed to maximize performance – from internal to external – but all focused on success as defined by the participant.

In defense of Mr. Pink’s hypothesis, most people can relate to either being or watching someone perform a task at which they were very skilled but then needed to do so under the pressure of a reward. Take for example a good amateur golfer playing in a team event where others are counting on them to win money. All of a sudden this highly skilled person absolutely collapses because the pressure of the reward added a negative rather than positive component to the task. There are, however, people who actually perform tasks better under pressure. “When the going gets tough the tough get going,” right? These folks are defined by personal profile and can be found in all walks of life.

I would add to Mr. Pink’s conclusions that the definition of incentive or reward needs to be tailored to the personal profile and the problem at hand. In all cases, there is an incentive to perform and in many cases, that incentive is internal to the performer. But do not believe that “incentives” in the generic reduce performance. When matched improperly, they certainly can induce the opposite of what is desired, and when employed correctly, no matter the complexity, the results are improved.

For those of you who remember Star Trek, the Series – you can probably still hear Captain Kirk saying to Scotty through the intercom – “if we don’t have full power in the next ten seconds we are all dead” – he said it softly but with meaning. I would like to think that he knew Scotty’s persona well enough to know that the kind of life saving motivation he gave him would work. We can all picture someone for whom those same words would have had the opposite outcome – oops, all dead.

Filed Under: Leadership

Founder Employees & Teamwork

November 8, 2017 by

You founded a company, you raised some private equity, you now have a board of directors, and you may even have brought in a CEO to help commercialize your business. So now you have an employee role in the business – could be CEO, could be VP of Development, CFO, etc. This is the critical point in time where you need to build a team with which to execute optimally. And in order to do so, this is also the point where you must shed the founder mentality.

For teams to work optimally they must be established based upon skillset and the ability to work together, and each person’s skills must be respected to maximize the value offered. This means that as the founder, you have to suppress the desire to make all decisions and you must figure out how to create working relationships that cause the maximum value to be generated by each team member. I have watched founders hire the talent they desperately need to move the business forward and then ruin any chance of that relationship lasting by continually playing the founder card and not listening or constantly challenging the talent hired in ways that drive the talent away. In the end the founders simply say – “they were the wrong person.” Wrong person because they didn’t do things the founder’s way even though the founders had no or little applicable experience or skillset.

Founders tend to be commanders. “It is my company therefore we are going to do it my way” typifies the foundation of a dysfunctional culture. If you found a baseball team and insist on playing shortstop and setting the batting order even though you have never played baseball before – your team is going to lose no matter how good the talent you hire. The better players cannot perform well enough to make up for your lack of capabilities and the environment / culture will cause the best talent to look for other teams on which to play. Team owners that really want to win hire great coaches and top quality players and stay out of their way.

If you are going to work in the company you founded or co-founded, aside from the passion you need to check the founder status at the door and engage with the rest of the team (that you need to be successful) in a manner the maximizes their ability to execute as a team. If you are going to be the CEO, then you need to learn what it takes to be a quality CEO and not just assume you can be such because you are the founder. If you are the CFO – then you need to understand the role of CFO and respect the other leadership in your organization, etc.

If you are leading and do it poorly, the entire company suffers. If you have hired a CEO and now have a particular role and yet you constantly play the founder card and disrupt the CEO’s ability to lead – then you may find yourself an unemployed founder. And yes, unless you created protection otherwise, if you do not hold a controlling interest in your business, you can be terminated.

Filed Under: Leadership, Teamwork

What Investors Will Ask

February 8, 2017 by

What is the problem (need) you are solving?

Who has this problem (target buyer)?

How many have this problem?

How will you solve the problem?

How is the problem being solved now – who is your competition?

Why is your solution better – in the eyes of your target user?

Do you have independent user validation regarding your solution’s effectiveness?

Is your solution defendable / protectable (patent, trade secret, etc.)?

What percent of the target market is likely to adopt your solution and how often are they likely to repurchase?

Are you clear about the actual cost to produce your solution?

Can you price your solution so that it differentiates you from competitors?

Can you price your solution so that your target audience will purchase it and still provide you a reasonable profit?

How will you produce, deliver, and support your solution?

What market influences (economy, politics, technology, etc.) will help or harm your efforts to be successful?

How will potential customers learn about your solution?

What is the average purchase cycle – the length of time it will take to secure a purchase decision?

Where / how will users be able to purchase your solution?

Do you have a business, marketing, and financial plan that outlines how you will be successful and what success looks like over time?

Who will lead your company?

Who are the other key members of the company team?

What experience does the leader (you) have building a new company?

What experience does your team have doing what you have planned?

Who are your advisors / mentors?

How much money do you need and do you have a financial plan that supports that number?

How will you employ the money – what will you spend it on?

What goals will you achieve with that money?

ü  Will you need additional money in the future?

How much money will I make if I invest?

When will I make this money and what event will trigger such?

Filed Under: Raising Capital

Maximizing Trade Show Exhibit Investments

October 31, 2010 by

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 environmentsWalk 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.
  15. 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.

Filed Under: Marketing, Sales