When things go wrong, (or not according to plan) how do you and other leaders in your organization react? (go ahead, be honest…it’s just the two of us…) Do you and other leaders look for “What ASS to Kick” or “What Throat to Choke”? Or do you focus on determining and defining the problem and setting out to develop a creative solution?
Your answer will determine if you are on a “market leading” team, or a “market Losing” team.
Predictably our President Obama used some hard talk, harsh rhetoric in a recent interview. I am not going to debate if he was too cool and calm to this point, and if he should have or shouldn’t have said he was looking for “What ASS to Kick”. What I want is for you to watch this You tube clip of the interview and ask yourself how it makes you feel if this was someone you reported to.
Before we judge the president too harshly… do you or your organization allow and practice this behavior of blame storming? You sure? When I saw this interview I first thought his language was predictable in the sense that the news media was challenging his calm demeanor during this crisis. So I expected some much stronger language. However when someone in a position of leadership takes this bully approach it quickly makes me feel like they are not a part of the problem or solution. It as if they are a leader trying to distance themselves from the problem as opposed to owning it and being a part of the solution.
When a business leader speaks like this to his or her team ( or me) , they are basically saying…”I don’t know what to do…I am frustrated…my assumption is you know the problem …the perfect solution, and you are choosing not to work,…you are not motivated( accountable) to execute what needs to be done for one reason or another…and I am tired of looking bad” It’s ok to admit a problem frustrates you. However it is not ok to take your frustration out on others.
Leaders who jump into blame storming mode are more concerned about how the current situation makes them look…”politically”. They are actually fear motivated as they are fearful of how the current situation may somehow attach and tarnish their personal reputation. Blame storming is about reducing their exposure, their fear, by becoming “above” the situation. The trouble is when you enter fear mode, your creatvity needed to solve the problem shuts down.
Do you feel you would be loyal to a leader so quick to look for someone to “Throw under the bus?”
Market leaders gather data and perform triage not to find a “Throat to Choke” ( hold people more accountable) but to establish truths versus relying on their gut and intuition.
Market leaders clearly define the problem and humbly seek the advice of experts that have solved problems like this in the past. They seek out advice and develop a plan, a roadmap to a solution based on the data gathered and they manage the process not the people.
Market leaders use problems and challenges to strengthen their teams, and their teams loyalty to them and the organization.
So again I ask….What kind of organization do you work for?
Is there ever a time “ASS Kicking” or Throat Choking” is the solution? (I don’t think so but hey…I may be wrong. so please share)
Should we seek out “who to blame”?
Or
Should we clearly define the problem and set out to solve it?
Or do you believe ( as one CEO said to his senior leadership team before a board meeting) : “We need to identify a fall guy for —– as I do not want it on my head”
Again, feel free to argue with me…but I believe people come to work with the desire to add value, the desire to make a difference. If you truly have an accountability problem then shame on you as the leader for allowing it to result in a problem ( disaster) like you are now facing. Accountability problems do not just show up one day, they fester over time.
As the leader, your job is to create a culture that focuses on the problem and not the person.
Your role is to rally your team to break through problems and roadblocks. ( not look for someone to run over)
One of the most difficult parts of serving entrepreneurial leaders is telling them a part or their entire baby (their business) is ugly. Some self proposed consulting experts say; “focus on the positives, build on successes” and not to risk their monthly retainers. I choose to ignore the obvious politically correct answers and add value by presenting market truths.
If your baby is ugly I prefer to tell you so we can develop a plan based on current truths to help lead you and your organization to a position of market leadership.
The quickest way for your baby to become ugly is to stop focusing on understanding your market, its buyers and their problems and start focusing on your growth objectives.
Last week I had dinner with my friend Graeme from the UK and he told me a joke that made me laugh, and also reflect on what it is often like to serve some organizations and their leaders.
So this guy is walking through the park and comes upon a woman with a baby stroller and she is crying. Trying to console her asks what is wrong… The young mother goes on to say that everyone says her baby is ugly and it really hurts her feelings. The stranger goes on to assure her that babies are cute and he was sure her baby was no different. The woman stopped crying and thanked him for his kind words. As he started to leave he said “Once again, I am sure your baby is not ugly…and oh, here’s a banana for your monkey”.
Having served a number of teams over the past 26 years I have experienced these integrity moments when I must share market driven truths with aggressive, entrepreneurial leaders. Often discovered truths are ugly. If the leader and his or her team is truly focused on authentically, passionately serving their market and increasing shareholder value they hear the market truths and ask me to guide them in developing a corrective roadmap.
If the leader and or their team however lack the emotional intelligence to hear constructive market driven feedback…I loose a client, and once again I am labeled a Heretic ( the person who stands up against group-think) as Art Petty discusses in his recent blog post.
I am curious…if your baby needs a banana do you want me to tell you?
Are you sure?
Do members of your team have the moral courage to give you a banana when they need to?
Have you fostered a culture that welcomes bananas?
What goal is more important to you…your ego or becoming a market leader and increasing shareholder value?
Does this describe your senior leadership team? Your owner?
When asked to serve a team that is struggling or just suck, I prefer to gather current market driven data and present the current reality. My clients pay me to help get them back on course and I must be a good steward of their investment and present market truths.
Would this approach work with your senior leadership team? Why or why not?
Being diagnosed as an entrepreneur does not have to be terminal. Far too many entrepreneurs launch with unrealistic expectations, and if they are members of the 1/3 of companies that do survive more than 18 months, they fall prey to “the entrepreneurs’ dilemma”.
As an entrepreneur you probably were working for someone else and found a market opportunity, a need, and a problem that needed to be solved. Chances are you brought the opportunity to your company and they quickly dismissed your idea. So what are you to do? Do you keep trying to convince your “hippos” the size of this opportunity or do you break out on your own on a quest to solve this problem so obvious to you?
If you are wired to be an entrepreneur you set out to solve the problem, and if you truly understood the problem and designed something that solved it completely, you start experiencing sales. This is a fun time because if you did your research before launch, your marketing message clearly explains what your product or service does and buyers instantly get it.
At first your biggest challenge is how to make more…quicker. The next thing you know you are hiring others and you now have a “team”. You now have a CFO instead of your wife paying the bills. You are hiring others from the industry and training them to meet with the customers you once served personally.
Then it happens one evening, usually after 7:00 pm on the drive home (late for dinner again) you do a gut check; “Am I having fun anymore?” If you are honest with yourself the answer is often “no” as you is now “running “a company. Your days of meeting with customers and potential customers are replaced with meetings, planning, and holding your team members accountable. (You became a hippo) You begin noticing a decrease in the incremental sales growth per new employee hired.
The days of you jumping out of bed at 4:30 am long before your alarm goes off are replaced with the ring of an alarm at 6:30 a.m. and …dread, another day of work. If it sounds like I have been there I have…”been there… done that….have the t-shirt”.
The good news is being an entrepreneur does not have to be terminal. There is a great book I finished not long ago titled: Energize Growth Now, the marketing guide to a wealthy company by Lisa Nirell. If you find yourself in the entrepreneurs’ dilemma or want to avoid it, I recommend you buy this book for yourself and all your leaders within your organization.
I found the book provided high level strategies for plugging back into your market as well as tools and rules that are applicable the day after you read this book.
It is not too late to energize growth in your company.
I particularly liked her chapter on increasing your company’s wealth quotient and seven principles to position your company for higher valuation.
It is time we rethink how we “do “business and break the entrepreneur’s dilemma. This book reminds us how critical it is to stay focused on creating value for your buyers and market , and in so doing your wealth quotient as an organization will continue to climb.
Are you in the beginning to experience the entrepreneur’s dilemma?
Do you find yourself needing the alarm in the morning, longing for the days you did not need an alarm?
Are you looking for a road map on how to increase your organizations’ wealth quotient?
Historically, at any given time six out of ten US adults is thinking about starting their own business. A number of new entrepreneurs are emerging that I refer to as “necessity-preneurs “who were downsized and can not find new employment, are deciding to launch their own businesses as they want a much more active role in the security of their careers. The last group are cashing in their 401k and or borrowing from friends or family to buy an existing business and in a short amount of time realize they really just bought a job and they are quickly running out of cash.
One thing I have learned over the past 25 years of identifying roadblocks impeding businesses profitable growth is there really is not any new creations in terms of problems and strategies to grow a profitable business. Peter Drucker simplified it even further; there are only two considerations; innovation or marketing.
Just as I shared 12 mentor moments that I have used personally over the years to help businesses grow profitably, I have the Top 20 entrepreneur best practices that I have observed and lived over the years.
The above are by no means an all inclusive list of every entrepreneur best practice but they are some of my favorites. The post that seemed to resonate the most and create the greatest number of discussions was the difference between creating “more” sales versus “creating sales velocity” ( entrepreneur best practice #1).
How about you….do you have an Entrepreneurial Best Practice you use regularly and would like to share?
Of the above which best practice(s) resonate most with you?
Which of the above do most entrepreneurs struggle the most with based on your observations?
Is there a Key best practice not identified? (If so please add to the discussion)
As we move into 2010 which of the above Best practices do you feel will resonate most? Why?
Thanks for hanging with me in this series of posts and I want to particularly thank those who have reached out to me personally to discuss this series of posts. As I have discussed, I enjoy helping entrepreneurs realize profitable growth and the strategies discussed are not new. One of my goals in blogging is to help business owners who may not be able to afford outside help at this time and I hope this blog adds value.
If you are wired to take on the 50 Ugly truths of starting and owning your own business and you have intentionally chosen to do it anyway I hope the above best practices were of value to you and your team.
Entrepreneurs will lead our country to economic recovery and I am proud to serve this innovative group of passionate problem solvers along with my other clients.
Market leading entrepreneurs value data and feedback. They seek and are constantly sensing the changing needs of their internal and external customers. When an account or employee exits your team, make the time for an exit interview with the mission of identifying roadblocks that are standing in the way of your team’s performance execution and success.
I shouldn’t be surprised, as it happens so often… a key account leaves an organization and very quickly the team moves into “good ridden mode” with comments like; well they were slow pay anyway. Or “they were a pain since the day we signed them” …or “they were not all that profitable anyway”…and so on. Team members assume they know why the customer left and often quickly close the file, and or arrogantly say …” they will be back, our competitor sucks and is not as good as us…”
Market leading organizations understand the value in interviewing customers who chose to leave to improve the overall experience of the customers that stay and future targeted new clients.
When you contact a client that has chosen to leave your organization the key thing to remember is the goal of your call; gain insights into why they left and not try to sell them or win them back. I have often been the one to make those calls as the salesperson who served the account can not help but try to win them back. Your mission is to understand, from the client’s perspective why they chose to leave, take detailed notes without “defending the fort” and reflect on that information. As you review what you learn look for roadblocks and “no-see-ums” in the overall customer service experience. Your team will be “assuming” it was price. However I have found price is rarely the true wedge that drove the relationship apart.
Just as you interview clients that leave, you must also conduct exit interviews with your team members that voluntarily or involuntarily leave. In this interview you are trying to gain insights into roadblocks and or disconnects in initiatives in relation to your teams flight plan or roadmap. You will need the emotional intelligence to handle the often harsh criticism particularly if the separation was not voluntary. However the leaving team member has no incentive to play politics and their raw feedback is actually something market leaders value as it is can be acted upon once verified. For example you may learn you have dysfunctional “kingdoms”, silos within your organization that are more about the silo than achieving the strategic plan. You may learn that a perception senior management has is a significant disconnect with the market reality of today.
Team members who leave have information that others who may be busy blame storming are not articulating.
Interview team members who are leaving before they leave and you may be shocked that a key assumption or two the senior management team has is a significant disconnect with the reality of the market today.
How about your organization…..
Does your team have a procedure to interview clients who chose to leave you?
Do you interview employees who are leaving your team?
When you conduct those interviews do you have the emotional intelligence to listen and later validate or do you defend the fort?
Market leaders value feedback. Market losers believe the only view that matters are theirs…what kind of a team do you serve?
There is an old Native American saying; “the wolf you feed is the one that grows”. Simply put, the behaviors we reward are those that are repeated. With that understanding it is critical market leaders intentionally reward customer behaviors they want and make customers pay for those that are not in alignment with your overall flight plan.
I flew back to Ohio last weekend on Delta/ Northwest to work with one of my new clients just outside of Columbus. At one point in my career I flew 3-4 days per week, every week, for just over 15 years so I guess I could wear the “road warrior” title. Back then air travel was not perfect, but it was at least predictable. I felt like the airlines and their employees valued my patronage.
On this trip I was greeted at check-in with a $20 fee to check my bag. Although I was aware Delta still charged a fee, it was an interruption for me as most of my flights this year have been with Southwest Airlines who does not charge for a checked bag. When I fly Southwest I feel valued, and the attendants and all their employees make me feel like a valued customer. When I flew Delta / Northwest this week I felt like a number, and I felt like I was being nickel and dimed.
So we board the flight and I noticed the amount of carryon baggage other people were trying to fit in overheads and under their seats. When I used to travel on British Airlines in Europe I was conditioned to check my bags and have a small carry on. As I watched people with panicked looks trying to stow their bags it dawned on me; the customers are responding to the charge for checked bags. Not only did we miss our departure time and take a considerable amount of time to board because some of the passengers bags had to be checked after all, but when we landed it also took a great deal of time to get off the plane. I noticed how slow things seemed to be moving so I timed how long from when the cabin door opened it would take for me, in row 23 to get off the plane. It took 13 minutes for me to walk through the cabin door.
Contrast the above experience with my flights on Southwest. People still have carryon bags but not nearly the amount I experienced on Delta / Northwest. Southwest is one of the most profitable airlines and interestingly they do not nickel and dime their customers. From what I understand one of the reasons Southwest is more profitable is their fast turnaround time at the gate.
As I walked to my connecting flight I thought about what I just experienced and was reminded how we teach our customers how to behave by the rules and rewards we offer them.
The key is market leaders understand to intentionally reward those behaviors that are in alignment with their team’s overall vision and flight plan for their business.
Market losers like Delta/ Northwest charge their clients because they can and not because they should with little regard for the overall big picture of profitability driven by turnaround at the gate due to quick boarding and unloading of passengers.
What about your organization….
What behaviors are you rewarding?
Are those behaviors in alignment with your overall vision and flight plan for your business?
What wolf are you feeding? And is that the wolf you really want to grow?
Do you have other examples of corporate led initiatives that feel like tripping over dollars to pick up pennies? If so please share…
For those in leadership positions at Delta / Northwest you have an opportunity to be seen as a market leading partner by your customers, or a market loser…it truly is your choice. You must focus on the flight plan you have developed to drive shareholder value and I hope overall customer experience is high on your intentional initiatives.
At any given time 6 out of 10 US adults are thinking about starting their own business. Half of those will attempt to launch their own business. As I discuss in my eBook;50 Ugly truths about starting your own business …and why you should do it anyway, they often enter into their own business with a false set of expectations. One of these false expectations is their “idea” is a product and even more disturbing is when they start investing to support their idea as a business. Recognizing the majority of those who launch a new business will fail within 18 months, one of the common contributors to their demise is not asking the right questions.
Before you ask friends and family for start up money, before you tap into your home equity and 401k, and definitely before you quit your day job…you need to play “20 questions”.
You must verify your “idea” can be monetized into a viable business before you launch.
20 questions to ask before you invest;
#1 what problem does your product or service solve?
#2 how big of a market is there for this problem? This pain and or need?
#3 how are those who have this problem solving it now?
#4 clearly articulates your secret sauce, other words what is your unique selling proposition?
#5 is there replacement products in existence that could solve the problem?
#6 who is the market leader in the space you plan to enter?
#7 how many other competitors are there in this space?
#8 what is your level of understanding of this market?
#9 is your idea a product or IP that can be patented?
#10 what stage is this market in terms of its lifecycle? Infancy, growth, mature..?
#11 what level of support will be required to serve this market? Do you personally have expertise in running a business?
#12 what are the distribution channels of this market?
#13 what is the buying cycle?
#14 what is the common payment terms for this market?
#15 Do the potential buyers of your new product have the ability to pay for it?
#16 is there any legal and or compliance issues this product must pass prior to launch?
#17 what do you estimate is the total costs per unit of sale, transaction
#18 what is the anticipated number of units sold in year one? What % of the market opportunity does this represent?
#19 what is the number of units needed to break even with your upfront investment?
#20 How much cash will you need, based on the buying cycle, the costs, payment terms and distribution channels to launch this product or service?
Once you have answers to the above we can start to have a good discussion about your new idea and how you may be able to monetize it. Unfortunately however far too often entrepreneurs get that rush, that “buck fever” and they stop asking rational , needed , questions and they attach their focus on the days when…
When they become millionaires…
When they are recognized in their community…
When they sell their business for millions and retire without a care in the world
All of these When’s can become a reality if you spend the time upfront understanding the market, its buyers and their needs.
Although this idea you have may be so obvious to you, you can not assume nor extrapolate that assumption across the market without real market data.
If you have an idea, that may be the next iPod, do yourself a favor and play 20 questions before you invest one dime in making your idea a product or service.
How about your organization….
Do you launch new products or services because one of your Hippo’s says so, without market data?
Have you launched products that failed to meet ROI targets?
If you are in sales, how did it make you feel when you were given a goal, and told to make it happen …only to find out your marketing needed to “create a need for it”?
If you are the president or CEO, what processes and procedures do you have in place to insure your teams are asking at least 20 questions?
Market leaders understand the importance of building new products and services from the market need up, versus the ivory tower down.
Market losers have a; ready – fire – aim launch process.
Market leaders act different. They understand it’s about more than taking your customer’s money. They go out of their way to teach their clients about their products and they show their clients creative new ways to use their products or services .
Market leaders focus on the buying experience.
The net result is they deepen the bond, the trust, with their clients and their sales increase.
I needed some chlorine tablets for my pool floater so I went to Paddock Pools. I have tried a number of pool supply stores over the last eight years, but I always come back to Paddock. I could buy my tablets at Home Depot, or even Big Lots if I time running out correctly, but I prefer to pay a little more and buy my chemicals from someone who knows pools.
As I entered the store I could not help but notice a mini Haunted house to my right. I thought how cool…just like they create amazing Christmas tree displays to offset their down season sales, they also have Halloween decorations.
How smart…they created a merchandising customer experience.
As I checked out with my new bucket of chorine tablets I was asked …” Did you go inside?” I admitted the young boy still inside me wanted to, and she encouraged me to go inside and check it out. So I ducked my head and went through the cray paper streamers and went inside.
Inside there where all kinds of products merchandised to illustrate how to use them, even a spooky fireplace in the back of the room. Everything in this mini Haunted house were product’s the store sells and they showed how to use them with a little creativity.
I just had to ask the cashier how long this took to build and the cost. She said with a smile…” well we argues about how to do it for an hour, …we planned it for another, then it took two hours do when the store was slow.” I asked; “was it expensive?” …she said “no, not really.. I think we spent about $75”, (and my gut said they spent their own money and did not expense it.) I asked if I could take pictures of their handiwork and their faces just lit up with smiles.
When business is tough you must be creative. As I discussed in my post about leveraging what you have, you must assess what you have instead of doing what most struggling entrepreneurs do and that is make a list of what they need to be successful…”if we only had….we could hit our revenue numbers”.
This store, this organization, did a number of things right…
Created an experience and not just a floor display
They “showed” their clients how to use their products
They “taught”their clients
They empowered their associates to be a part of the solution
They recommended I check it out
Once inside they had a create Halloween Christmas tree, reinforcing their other seasonal products
If I had young children, I promise you this display would spread in their network of friends and parents would be visiting this store, or junior would make their lives miserable until they did.
Market leaders act differently.
They understand it’s about more than taking your customer’s money. They go out of their way to teach and show ( versus tell and sell) their clients creative new ways to use their products or services and they focus on the buying experience. The net result is they deepen the bond, the trust, with their clients and their sales increase.
How about your business….
What can you do today that is creative, but is not expensive?
How can you create a customer experience instead?
When sales are scary you must leverage what you have and get creative to; “create sales velocity”.
I plan to circle back with this Paddock store and hopefully their manager will share with me the sales this year compared to last year as a % as my guess is their seasonal Halloween merchandise sales will see an increase AND their other products will as well.
Great Job to those at Paddock Pools who built this display in the store on Shea near the 101 freeway,… if you live nearby , bring the kids and check it out!
Entrepreneurs are an amazing breed. There is nothing like the thrill of launching a new product, service, and or business that perfectly solves a market need. Entrepreneurs are wired differently. It’s as if we have radar for problems and an inner passion to connect and solve them…we can’t turn it off. I share this in my recent pod cast on the struggling entrepreneur.(Episode 101A)
Market leading entrepreneurs understand how to harness and focus this gift, this blessing.
As the biblical prophet Jimmy Buffet says…” a blessing becomes a curse if you keep it to yourself”. So it literally drives us nuts to see problems and solutions so crystal clear that it interrupts our drives home at night, our work outs at the gym, and worst of all time with our loved ones. We just can’t seem to shake it.
However this blessing left unchecked can also become a curse with out a filter. Since entrepreneurs see market needs and create solutions, they often can not turn off the opportunity identification gene. At a recent Tie meeting the entrepreneur who had the vision and launched Kaboodle, said it best;
“One area entrepreneurs must learn to manage is YAFO’S”.
Yet
Another
Frickin (edited)
Opportunity
One way entrepreneurs can build that ever so needed filter is ;” Buy a Map” as I discussed in a previous post. When you create your road map, or your “flight plan” as I have always called it, it helps you identify opportunities that are along your flight plan and accelerate your sales velocity to your desired destination. Your flight plan also helps you see that the YAFO you have just identified is too far off the current flight plan (would delay your arrival at your goal location) and helps pull your focus back to the current opportunity.
So what do you do with YAFO’s?
learn to dismiss them…quickly
create a new company to serve the opportunity if its large enough
Distribute (sell) your idea to a current leader in that space and get back to your flight plan quickly.
As I said, entrepreneurs are wired, deep in our DNA, differently. We see problems and opportunities everywhere we go. We just can’t help it. For example my wife and I were out on date night and we went to see a great date night movie; The Ugly Truth. As we were driving home, and having many discussions about the movie, it hit me; someone ought to share the “Ugly Truths “about starting and owning your own business.
Far too often the people that come to me have been sold a false, get rich quick, a four hour work week , expectation. Some accomplish this but for most of the entrepreneurs I have worked with over the past 25 years it is hard work and long hours. So I wrote the eBook you can download on my blog; 50 Ugly Truths About Owning and Running Your Own Business, and why you should do it anyway. (I literally could not sleep until I set this idea free)
Market leading Entrepreneurs implement clear flight plans, and they quickly identify YAFO’s for what they are.
How about your organization…..
Do you need a filter? Are you chasing multiple opportunities and not getting anywhere fast?
Are your efforts building sales velocity? Or chasing YAFO’s that are taking you off course?
What do you do when you find a YAFO?
A blessing can become a curse if we keep it to ourselves. However we must develop a filter, a flight plan that helps us quickly dismiss or distribute opportunities that are not in alignment with our flight plan.
A lack of focus stalls or decimates sales velocity….if you let it.
Not dealing with YAFO’s correctly delays and often derails your flight plan to your goal.
For the past 25 years I have helped entrepreneurs realize what I refer to as Explosive Sales Growth, or said another way;
I help organizations Create sales velocity.
Sales velocity occurs when you connect your product or service to a market need, and create messages that clearly tells them how you solve those needs for your buyers.
Sales Velocity is Sales Acceleration, with Direction and creates Momentum.
Creating Sales Velocity is one common need every business has, particularly in 2009.
A few nights ago I attended the local TIE event here in Phoenix. As I mingled with entrepreneurs before our guest speaker I heard a constant need;
I have an amazing product (service) but we need “more” sales…now!
I met with a number of entrepreneurs and their passion for creating something bigger than themselves seemed dampened by the immediate need for sales. I shared some “quick win” techniques that always work for me, but I went on to explain that what they really want is to create Sales Velocity.
Sales Acceleration
I have helped entrepreneurs and their teams grow businesses and what they often need first is sales acceleration. What I mean by this is a number of quick wins in new accounts or new products placed in existing accounts. A big part of sales acceleration is intentionally driving the sales you want to grow. When entrepreneurs mistakenly say they want “more” sales, by default they are saying “any sale will do”.
Not all sales are good sales if they strain your team to “slightly” change your product or service.
These “slight “changes slowly pull you form the core of your business and distract focus.
I have served a variety of industries and the best way to create intentional sales acceleration is always they same; talk to your customers and others in your market. In doing so you must determine “current truths” because your gut and intuition alone will not drive the growth you desire.
Direction
I think we have all seen the monthly sales charts that resemble a heart rate versus a market leading organization. Sales are up, and then off, up, plateau, then drop.
As an entrepreneur you need sustainable, repeatable sales or your personal heart rate will fluctuate as you try to plan cash flow.
When you implement a ; creation of sales velocity mind set, you have specific targets that support your overall vision, road map and serve market needs.
Momentum
One of my favorite classes in high school was Math and Physics. (odd for a sales guy huh?) The concept of momentum always fascinated me. How a body of mass moving with direction creates an energy of its own, and that energy can be transferred to other things that the mass bumps into.
Sales momentum occurs when your sales pick up in a positive, intentional direction with velocity.
Now the fun part, if you have two particles ( sales) , with masses and and velocities and , the total momentum of these particles , is
However, if you have one particle (sale) going to the right, the other to the left they cancel each other out. ( how sales and marketing often act) Once you pay commission you have a net negative effect on your bottom line for the energy produced. If you sum the two momenta together, you get a total momentum of zero. ( this is what often occurs when sales teams are asked to …”hit your numbers and make it happen” …because that is what we “sales guys” are wired to do. However if not directionally focused and aligned with your road map the net result over time is zero added value to your bottom line( and often reduces the value of your business).
The real fun begins when you have a number of particles (sales) bouncing around in the right direction. The equation gets a little sophisticated and the total momentum of N particles (sales), of masses and velocities as
The net result is increased sales and the valuation of your business increases if done correctly.
(Thanks to Joshua Deutsch for the above equations.)
As an entrepreneur and future market leader you do not want “more “sales you want “sales velocity”. When you realize sales velocity you experience sales acceleration with direction that builds a sustainable momentum over time.
Sustainable momentum provides predictable cash flows and helps you find willing investors for future expansion.
How about your team?
Do your sales look more like a heart rate monitor?
Do you have salespeople “making it happen” but the way they are making it happens seems to cancel each other out?
Are you or your salespeople running in many directions, getting your organization exhausted …without building momentum?
Over my next series of posts I will be discussing entrepreneurial best practices. I will be sharing personal experiences of what worked as well as did not produce in hopes of helping entrepreneurs shorten their sales cycle and accelerate their revenues and profits, and most importantly the value of their business. I am always looking for thought leaders to contribute as it is my goal to add value to the entrepreneur community.
If you have thought leadership for entrepreneurs, please contact me.
![](http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/HXBSotezfc4/default.jpg "President Obama wants to know "whose ass to kick"")
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