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It’s Still The Wrong Question
I’m excited to hear the story of growth everyday in the CEO and salesperson lexicon. I’m beginning to see more and more companies looking to invigorate the marketing and sales initiatives grow their markets. The danger is that people are still asking the wrong question regarding these initiatives.
I originally wrote this post four years ago and it’s still on point. I thought I’d share it with you again:
I recently had a conversation about some marketing initiatives. As we were outlining our objectives, I was asked the question, “How much are you comfortable spending on this initiative?” While this is a very common question – it is the wrong one. This is the kind of question that leads to poor execution. It is also one of the reasons people who are not sales and marketing people look at marketing with disdain.
The right question is actually a series of four or five questions. As you are planning your 2007 marketing program, I encourage you to ask them.
- Question 1: What do we want to accomplish? Or, what is the result we want?
- Question 2: What will it take and/or what we will have to do to accomplish our intention?
- Question 3: What resources (time, money and energy) will be required to complete the actions that you determined by answering question 2?
- Question 4: Are we comfortable and/or capable of expending these resources (time, money and energy)?
If the answer to this question is ‘no’, then you must go through the following additional decision tree:
- Sub-question: Are we comfortable accepting a result below our initial desires?
- If the answer is yes, then repeat questions 1 – 4.
- If the answer is no, then you must consider whether the effort should be taken at all.
While this approach requires both marketers and executives to think more; it is the only process that has any chance of working over the long term.
As I’ve discussed previously (here and here), one of the underlying requirements is to allocate your limited resources (time, money and energy) effectively against those activities that have the best chance of advancing the organization towards its critical objectives.
I’ve seen too many organizations work extraordinarily hard without achieving their desired fast-growth results. One of the major causes is that they under-invest in too many initiatives. Under-investing is the result of focusing on a desired budget instead of focusing on the desired result. Don’t make that mistake.
The Key to Differentiating
“That’s not how we do it in our industry.”
“I’m not sure I’m comfortable doing that, I’ve never done that before.”
“I’ve been working with my customer for several years, and I’ve never asked those types of questions.”
“Salespeople aren’t expected to do that in our industry.”
“We’ve never done that before. How will I know it will work?”
These are just some of the most common statements that I hear every day from people who claim that they want to differentiate their companies from their competitors.
Let me remind everyone that differentiation is an ends – it’s not a means. The critical component to [...] Continue Reading…
The Chief Reason Businesses Fail
I came across this on John Moore’s blog Brand Autopsy, I thought is was simply too good not to share:
“The single biggest reason companies fail is they overinvest in what is, as opposed to what might be.” – Gary Hamel
Spend a few minutes thinking about the implication of that! What are you doing to ensure you invest in what might be?
Freedom & Capability
I first learned of this concept from Dan Sullivan and The Strategic Coach. They taught it as a way for entrepreneurs to look at their business, and I’ve since applied it to how salespeople can position their products and services.
I have a question for you – does your product or service represent either:
A freedom for your customer, and/or
A capability for them?
Stop and answer these questions:
What are my customers currently doing that my product or service frees them from doing? What impact would that have on my customer’s business/life?
What does my product or service enable my customer to do that [...] Continue Reading…
Why You Should Have Your Hip Replaced Now
Studies show that the healthier and stronger you are the faster you recover from major, reconstructive surgery. Additionally with average lifetimes increasing to record lengths, and the fact that people live more active life styles to a far, far older age than previously; it’s really not a question of “if you will need to get your hip replaced,” but rather “when will you get it replaced?”
With such evidence – clearly you should have your hip replaced today when you are young, strong and healthy.
Of course, I’m kidding. The above rationale is silly and moronic. Unfortunately, it mirrors the way [...] Continue Reading…
Do You Know Your Customers?
Anyone who’s ever heard me speak or been exposed to our training programs knows just how much importance I put on knowing your customer – better than they know themselves!
So I ask you – Do you know your customers?
Now before you answer, I’m not asking if you know what they like in their coffee, who their favorite team is, or what part their daughter is playing in the school play. I’m not even talking about knowing what their preferences are when buying your products.
I’m talking about knowing what drives the results your customers are seeking. I’m asking [...] Continue Reading…
Five Years From Now
Think about your typical customer using your typical product/service. And I mean typical – the customer and the offering that is at the center of the commodity part of your business. What is it that they’re getting? Why are they buying it?
How commoditized was that part of your business five years ago? My bet is that that your commodity today was an absolute home run five years ago – if it even existed back then.
Now think about your home run today. Where will it be on the commoditization spectrum five years from now? [...] Continue Reading…
Where Did The Risk-Taking Go?
For the first time in my life, I’m actually concerned about the future competitiveness of America. It has nothing (at least directly) to do with the recession we are either in or just completing. It has everything to do with the USA going against type.
I just finished reading a research report discussing why and how banks are under extreme margin pressure. The report states:
“Conventional wisdom holds that a steep yield curve is good for banks — borrow short, lend long. With a Fed Funds rate of essentially zero and banks paying almost nothing for deposits as well, bank-funding costs [...] Continue Reading…
The Demand Creator Minute – You Are The Best
In 20+ years working with more than 1,000 small and mid-sized businesses and about 5,000 salespeople, my most surprising discovery has been just how difficult it is for people – from CEO’s to salespeople – to firmly, completely and totally believe that they are the best. Whether it’s the market beating you down or a false sense of humility – get over it! The first – and most important – sale that needs to be made to succeed in selling is with yourself. You have to believe, to the core of your being, that you are THE BEST!
RSS Readers [...] Continue Reading…
Tiger Woods Needs a Coach
While Tiger Woods is dealing with a myriad of challenges, I am more convinced than ever that Tiger needs to get a coach who:
He’ll listen to, and
By extension, won’t tell him what he wants to hear.
Coming off of his worst round of golf since (at least) he turned pro, one has to wonder just what has to happen to get him back on track.
No one can question Tiger’s talent, or his determination. This is precisely why Tiger needs a good coach. There is simply no replacement for the value that an intelligent person who both understands the person and [...] Continue Reading…
Play In The Fear
I’ve always thought of fear as something to be managed, or even better, to be conquered. I’ve prided myself on my ability to leave my comfort zone and do the things I know I should be doing, not just the things that are easy for me.
And, I’ve lived by quotes such as, “Success is becoming increasingly comfortable with increasing levels of discomfort.”
While this mindset has allowed me to grow and do things that I could have only dreamed of many years ago, I still found it limiting. I never knew why, but I still found myself struggling [...] Continue Reading…
New Times Call For New Thinking
This book review originally appeared in Baltimore and Washington SmartCEO Magazine August 2010 issue.
Running a business used to be about analyzing options, determining a path and solving the problems that presented themselves along that path. This approach is no longer enough, as more and more, successfully leading a business means that you must continuously manage what have become known as “wicked problems.”
Wicked problems, as defined by brand strategist Marty Neumeier, are “problems so persistent that they seem insoluble. Unlike the relatively tame problems found in math, chess or cost accounting, wicked problems tend to shift disconcertingly with every [...] Continue Reading…
What’s A Service Worth
There’s an interesting blog series at Brad Farris’ blog about different pricing strategies for service providers. There is probably no other topic that lights a fire or starts a debate amongst service providers than the questions about charging by the hour, retainers or hybrids.
This is a question of increasing importance as more and more “product” providers are “moving up the value chain” by providing services.
Here’s my thought – I think it’s the wrong question. The question is steeped in industrial age thinking, and by looking at it that way, you’re forced to choose the least bad approach.
The [...] Continue Reading…
10,000 Times
I’ve been fascinated with the feedback I’ve gotten from my post last Thursday, “In Pursuit of the ‘Ah-ha!’” The opening quote has received the most attention, and as I was talking about it with a friend and client of mine, I gained an insight that I’d like to share.
In case you haven’t seen the post, here’s the quote I’m referring to:
Don’t fear the man who has tried 10,000 kicks,
Fear the man who has tried 1 kick 10,000 times. – Bruce Lee
Here’s what happens after the proverbial 1,000th kick — you stop making progress. You stop learning things. If you’re [...] Continue Reading…
Go Deep & Shorten The Sales Cycle
The importance asking questions in selling is, well, unquestionable. Much (some may say too much) has been written about the what’s, how’s and why’s of asking questions in sales. What has not received much attention, however, is the importance of assessing what level of information salespeople learn from the questions they ask.
In my experience there are three levels of information (or knowledge) that salespeople get from asking their questions. The deeper you get, the more valuable the knowledge and the greater your selling advantage. To make The Shift to selling results it is necessary that you get to Level [...] Continue Reading…