Archive for April, 2010

Ensuring you have a stable business is the advantage you need for sweet success.

There’s no doubt the current economy has created an environment where people and organizations are working harder with fewer results. It’s easy to get caught up in the “doing” instead of focusing on the right activities that generate results and promote stability.

Three ways to restore balance and improve efficiency:

1.  Spend time reviewing your strategy to make sure it’s in alignment with your purpose, goals and vision. By doing so, you bring the team together and avoid competing priorities. A plan with measurable metrics is a valuable tool that will help keep you and your business on track.

2.  Focus on high payoff activities to maximize your time, efforts and increase your results. If you feel stretched it’s a good indication your plan is insufficient and lacks focus.

3.  Evaluate your expenses and cash conversion cycle to optimize cash flow and redirect towards growth catalyst such as sales and marketing activities which will produce new business.

A crystal clear plan will create alignment with your team, allow you to execute effectively and ultimately restore balance in your organization.

For more Success Tips, visit www.FastBizGrowth.net

There was a tremendous amount of hype surrounding the Red Sox-Yankees opening day game. Two ace pitchers were to take the mound when Josh Beckett, pitching for the Sox, would face CC Sabathia, hurling for the Yankees. Two of the best pitchers going head to head against two of the best offenses in baseball. What a pitching duel this could be!

Well the opportunity to watch a pitching duel never materialized as both teams hit better than they pitched. The game itself was fun, but the pitching matchup failed to meet expectations.

Yesterday must have been an incredibly slow news day. The 11 PM News had a brush fire in Boston (a brush fire?), Josh Beckett’s contract extension, Tiger Woods’ first day back to the PGA, The President throwing out the first ball at the Washington Nationals’ Opening Day Game, and two women who, while walking in their neighborhood, were struck by pellets fired by bicycle riding teenagers. I kid you not. For the Beckett, Woods and Obama stories to be included as part of the news instead of the sports shows just how slow a news day it was. Yesterday’s news really failed to meet expectations.

Yesterday, one of your salespeople learned that their opportunity with that nice large account is not going to develop. While they were simply out kicking tires, your salesperson got excited about the potential. In the end, the prospect decided to stay with their incumbent vendor. This opportunity failed to meet expectations.

What’s the difference between a baseball game or the news failing to meet expectations versus one of your salespeople’s opportunities failing to meet expectations? (Rick was writing about the same thing this morning!)

The game and the news are quickly forgotten and don’t impact your life unless you bet on the outcome of the game or happen to be the leading story on the news. When your salespeople focus too much of their time and resources on a large opportunity and it doesn’t materialize, you can lose 6-12 months of productivity from them. Not only that, your forecasts fall short, your budget goes to hell, and you could have a frustrated, demotivated salesperson on your hands. The worst part is if you have a long sales cycle, say 8-12 months, and the salesperson devoted most of his time and energy to this opportunity for 8-12 months, it will take an additional 8-12 months before the pipeline will produce new, meaningful revenue.

Has this ever happened to you?

Dave Kurlan