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An excerpt from a note sent to a business associate

by Rick Baker
On May 7, 2009

Spirited Investors helps businesses tackle their problems and opportunities. We do this by investing money, know-how, effort, and time. 

Spirited’s key investment focus, at this time, is smaller businesses. Smaller businesses: think in terms of private companies ranging from early-stage revenue to $10,000,000 in sales.  

Smaller-business success is influenced in a profound way by the presence or absence of good Marketing & Sales performance.

 

Unfortunately, the absence is more common than the presence Together, we can fix this.  

Marketing: Most small businesses do little marketing, aside from a very-limited set of things such as attending trade shows and having a printer do up some brochures to support sales. Websites exist but often they are neither compelling nor updated. When marketing activity does happen it is rarely measured or tested. Marketing work receives perhaps sporadic attention. There is little commitment to doing marketing. Some say it is not required. They are wrong. Many think they do it right or state ‘these things are under control’. Yet, most businesses struggle at identifying: [1] target markets, [2] value propositions, and [3] unique selling propositions. Meanwhile, the whole marketing & sales process, from strategic to tactical, must start with those 3 things.  

Sales: Often, small-business owners personally handle much of the sales activity at their company. They regularly choose to do sales work rather than delegate it. They have problems when they do try to delegate it. The recruiting of sales people is another real challenge. And, about 7 out of 10 sales people shouldn’t even be in sales jobs. The 80/20 Rule is confirmed, that is, if sales success is happening at all then ‘the few’ generate the lion’s share of the sales revenue. Within an industry, most competitors do sales work more or less the same way. Not much innovation, not much creativity. So, sales attitudes can be quite lackluster and even when sales performance is happening the work isn’t much fun.  

Most small businesses do not have a written Plan for their Marketing & Sales.  

Almost all smaller businesses need help with marketing & sales [not just sales work on its own]. Even those that are earning profit are leaving money on the table and leaving clients less than fully satisfied. They would do better if they had a Marketing & Sales Plan. Marketing & sales must start with Plan the Work [ie, Napoleon Hill – Plan the Work and Work the Plan].  

Planning offers at least 2 major benefits: (1) it forces folks to think through the issues and that ‘thinking through’ alone adds value and (2) the Plan serves as a guide and a reference…it is a map. Maps help. 

We will do the smaller businesses of our community a tremendous service if we can create together an education and training ‘tool’ for marketing & sales.

 

The marketing & sales training tool we create should have 3 overall components: [1] marketing, [2] sales management, and [3] sales.

 

The existing sales training programs can provide a good starting point for the work in the sales area. Most of the sales training I have purchased is too complicated…it needs to be simplified. We must make our marketing & sales training tool ingenious and simple - that is...we must make our marketing & sales training tool elegant. Many good books and tapes exist to help us create all 3 of the parts. These 3 parts must be integrated because sales work can only be excellent and resilient if it is meshed with the results of good sales management and marketing work. And, there will be no excellence [or peace of mind] if marketing & sales work is not handled in a Plan the Work and Work the Plan way…much strategic thought, much tactical thought, alignment, measuring and testing, training, etc. 

We can create a special ‘tool’ for Marketing & Sales education and training. 

And then, we can share it. 

Tags:

80/20 Rule | Entrepreneur Thinking | Investor Funding | Marketing | Sales

An Excerpt from a Message Sent to a Friend Today

by Rick Baker
On Apr 30, 2009

Commerce is changing.

Communication is changing. The 'old ways' do not work as well as they used to. We have seen rapid sales-marketing-and-purchasing changes creeping up and around us during the last 10 years. Now, things seem to have reached a new commercial zone.

[The pace of change is hastening: mail, fax, email, Web 2.0, etc.]

To grow business we need to know how to succeed in a new commercial zone.

 

The current economic climate presents an ideal time for growth. Many businesses are struggling to some degree and many are seeking better ways and solutions. This opens the doors for new forward-looking alliances.

Some competitors will fail and many will be distracted and doors will be opened to upbeat and strong businesses. Clients will be taken from the weak and the distracted businesses. And, these clients will be better served.

 

People have not changed.

But, the things that catch their attention and interest have…

 

The keys to marketing & sales success are still the 'old' basics:

Accurate identification and understanding of Market Niches/Target Markets/Clients

Real Value Propositions, confirmed and proven by the Clients who receive the Value

Real Differential Advantages (Unique Selling Propositions or whatever the currently-accepted descriptor is)… differences that ensure attractiveness to Clients vis-à-vis their choices to either do nothing or do business with one of our competitors

Quality Relationships

Effective Referrals and Other Routes to connect us to our Target Market Clients

 

The last bullet point contains most of the new stuff (ie, the stuff of the new commercial zone). Businesses can no longer rely on one or two routes to commerce. Old sales approaches are stale and yield lacklustre results. Sales training on its own does little to generate improvement of results.

So - how do we construct a multi-prong Marketing Plan that contains new & effective routes to commercial success?

That’s the interesting challenge testing our brainpower.

How do we construct a multi-prong Marketing Plan that contains new & effective routes to success?

But, let’s make sure we do not rush into this backwards.

Every day we see people ignore this crucial point: that last question is and must not be the first question.

The bullet points for the thinking process and the questions are presented above. The first question is at the 1st bullet point. The next question is at the 2nd bullet point...and so on. Yet, we see business people violate these steps. They assume or presume or conclude they have an accurate understanding of their Target Markets when they do not. Then they assume presume and conclude they understand the Value Proposition as seen from their Clients’ perspectives when they do not. Almost everything they do after that is a waste of time, effort, and money.

We must start by putting ourselves in our Clients’ shoes…and we must not free our feet from those shoes until we have finished the strategic-thinking process…and, of course, all of the implementation and tactics, the testing and measuring, and the feedback.

 

Tags:

Communication: Improving Communication | Marketing | Sales

Leading With Revenue

by Rick Baker
On Aug 4, 2008

Here is an excerpt from the Introduction of Ford Harding's book, 'Rain Making - Attract New Clients No Matter What Your Field': 

"Historically, training of professionals to win new clients has been haphazard. Law, accounting, engineering, medical, and architectural schools teach nothing about selling. This is also true of most business schools, surprisingly so, given that a sale is what defines the existence of a business." 

The Introduction goes on to explain how the author, while doing consulting work, experienced good times then bad and due to particularly bad times was called upon to 'sell'.   

About 'selling', the author reminisces: 

"Slowly, with a little mentoring and coaching and after my share of mistakes, I learned what to do. Knowing how to bring in business, and so build a practice, has helped ensure a good income and more control over my own destiny than many people have in this turbulent world. It has ensured a flow of interesting work with interesting people. It has allowed me to develop and maintain a team of professionals. It has earned me respect among my peers." 

(That excerpt contains a summary of many of the reasons why one might want to succeed in business.) 

  ***  

The Introduction to the book contains the following major headings: 

Sales mean survival. 

Lack of time is no excuse. 

You must take responsibility for your own development. 

You have to get over the hump before it starts to be fun.  

You must adopt new measures of productivity and success.  

Marketing is an emotional roller coaster.  

You can gain a sense of control in business development.  

It is always better to be doing some marketing than none.  

You need to get face-to-face with a prospect to make a sale.  

Everyone can make a contribution.  

When you win, celebrate.  

Now is the time to start.   

(Many good points)

***  

A couple of sentences in the Introduction also stood out and impressed me. 

 "Clients almost always return phone calls; prospects often don't." 

"Marketers market."  

***  

Harding says, "Most professionals who succeed as marketers begin by doing." and "Such people are doers first and planners second."

Harding doesn't just talk the talk on this, he also walks the walk. This is confirmed by the structure of his book, which begins with three parts action/tactics and ends with one part planning/strategy.  

To explain his belief he states, near the end of the Introduction, "Part IV shows how to build a marketing strategy that is appropriate for you and your firm. It comes last because you must understand something of the tactics at your disposal before you select a strategy." 

(This caused me to think about plans and action…and about Leading With Revenue.)  

***  

"Leading With Revenue" is a philosophy I coined in an effort to describe how successful entrepreneurs go about being successful.  

Leading With Revenue has particular impact during an entrepreneurial start-up.   

***  

I feel Napoleon Hill's advice "Plan your work and work your plan" is the essential framework for sustained success.   

***  

When asked to state the key ingredients of success, from start-up success to sustained success, I always include Napoleon Hill's "Plan your work and work your plan".  I also always include Leading With Revenue. 

Leading With Revenue is a philosophy containing about as much emotion as logical argument. Being that way, it is hard to learn it if you don't 'get it'.

I suppose, like the 'secret' Napoleon Hill embedded in and talked about throughout his 1937 classic ‘Think and Grow Rich’...if you are ready to receive it then you will 'get it' 

The 3 words - Leading With Revenue - can and should be taken literally. But, that's where the understanding of the philosophy begins, not where it ends.  

Regardless, Ford Harding's words offer help....perhaps a good way to present some of the thinking behind the philosophy. 

Ford Harding said, "....you must understand something of the tactics at your disposal before you select a strategy."   

This aligns with the 'how' of Leading With Revenue  

***  

Here is a simplistic, theoretical and hypothetical example - an effort to explain Leading With Revenue: 

Assume you come up with an action-tactic for selling something to someone. Assume you do the selling action. Assume the someone buys your something. Assume you find a similar someone and repeat the process. Assume the second someone also buys your something. Assume this process is repeated at least one more time. After three successful actions proven by three sales, you have generated some revenue and you have reason to conclude you have come up with a successful something to sell and a successful way to sell it. Assume you decide to feed this result back to your plans/strategies and make adjustments to reduce all the other somethings you sell and reduce all the other somethings you do in sales while expanding the one combination of somethings that has proven to be successful in generating revenue. After that strategic change is made, assume your fourth sales effort succeeds, your fifth sales efforts succeeds, etc. Then, assume you feed that additional success back to your plan and assume, because you feel you are definitely on the track to success, you remove everything but the combination of somethings that has worked and you etch your plan in stone...at that point, your plan only contains instructions/guidance about the successful product/service and the action that leads to the successful sale of it and the generation of maximum (or at least optimum) revenue.  

Assume all that... 

The business-develoment stars have aligned. 

Not only have the stars aligned but they have aligned in about as efficient and simple a way as one could ever expect.  

That would be an ideal example of Leading With Revenue.  

·         Have at least one product or service

·         Have a plan, which contains at least one good sales tactic for action

·         Do that selling action

·         Succeed every time you sell (sales success means revenue)

·         Feed the results (successful product/service, sales tactic, and resulting generation of revenue) back to your plan

·         Revise your plan to remove things that don't work, leaving only the things that do work

·         With your revised and fully-precise (perfect) plan, do more selling

·         Grow your business rapidly and without any challenges whatsoever  

***

That's a picture of the ideal Leading With Revenue. 

That incorporates Ford Harding's points and Napoleon Hill's philosophy. The only problem is, being 'ideal' it is purely hypothetical and theoretical and it will never happen in the real world of business development.  But, the fact the example is 'impossible theory', does not reduce the need to understand Leading With Revenue 

The impossible example illustrates the iterative, back-and-forth relationship between plans and action, the foundation of Leading With Revenue.

While Ford Harding quite intentionally teaches tactics before planning, we must agree plans come first. We must agree with Napoleon Hill: one must Plan the Work before one Works the Plan. However, one must not expect to plan with perfection or completeness at the first try. (Actually, I would argue plans are never close to perfect, but that's another topic.) One must not underestimate the value of one good idea, backed by action. (Napoleon Hill repeated that message frequently.) And, one must not underestimate the danger of excessive planning, at the expense of action. 

The initial plan may be just an uncomplicated combination of an idea about a product and a process for selling it to a buyer. In fact, isn't that what's near or at the heart where invention meets entrepreneurship?

Or, the plan could be 50+ pages of verbiage, tables, graphs, and pictures. That's not an unusual thing at mature businesses and larger corporations.  

***

Regardless, whether it is applied to nascent plans or to mature plans, Leading With Revenue is the driver for initiating, expanding, and sustaining business.  

Have a plan... whether large or small, whether deeply personal or widespread corporate doctrine 

Take action in the field... whether in strict compliance with your marketing plan or due to leading-edge entrepreneurial spirit 

Monitor the results of your business-development actions....both the absolutely-essential failures and the to-be-celebrated successes   

Feedback those failure results and success results to your planning process 

Adjust your plans, to organize, guide, and optimize your action 

With optimized action, expand your sales…expand your revenue…grow and sustain your business  

***   

While that is not how I have done it in the past, that is another way to begin to describe the iterative, success-oriented processes around plans-action-results-plans....which I call Leading With Revenue.  

Tags:

Entrepreneur Thinking | Marketing | Sales

Courage

by Rick Baker
On Jul 9, 2008

Here's an excerpt from Jeffrey Gitomer's 'Little Black Book of Connections'.

When I read it, I thought of our Values - Courage and Confidence coupled with our discussion of the importance of Connections.

***

Per Jeffrey Gitomer...

"Courage is a self-inflicted quality that gains momentum every time you try it. Think about learning to swim. At first you're scared, then you jump in the pool, then you flail your arms, then eventually you begin to swim. And by the end of the day, or by then end of the week, you're diving off the diving board, head first into a pool of self-confidence. It's the same when you learn to ride a bike.

Transfer those lessons (learning to swim or ride a bike) into your world of making connections. And begin to build your own momentum by stroking and pedalling your way to the first one, and then the next, and then the next."


***


Jeffrey Gitomer presents things in a straightforward, common-sense way. 
Courage » Confidence » Connections

...with Courage defined as a self-inflicted quality.

I like that analogy or metaphor or whatever it is...

Self-inflicting Courage.

That is an excellent way to think about the way one builds the character attribute known as Courage. In fact, I think we could argue it is the only way to build the attribute, Courage.

I've called Courage 'the great enabler' because it enables other major character attributes such as Confidence...(particularly, Confidence). And, I've talked about the fact one can (rather easily) build self-Confidence...the mechanisms for building self-Confidence have been presented by many, with one of the best presented by Napoleon Hill 70 years ago.

Some have said, 'Confidence drives Courage', which is the opposite of the way I see it. I agree that's not flawed logic because it makes sense that Courage will tend to grow as self-Confidence grows. However, even if the logic works most/all the time the cause-effect thinking does not. 

Courage can exist in the absence of Confidence.

I'd argue Courage has its base in instinct while Confidence has its base in logical thought. Courage is a fight-or-flight phenomenon while self-Confidence is a thing of ongoing process.
Courage is of the heart, confidence is of the  brain.

Borrowing from Jeffrey Gitomer...we can self-inflict the quality of Courage.

We can also self-inflict the quality of self-Confidence, but, I don't think many of us would describe the process that way. If we do like the analogy/metaphor of self-inflicting self-Confidence then we must accept it is a methodical process of 'a thousand cuts'. 

Regardless, 'self-inflicting the quality of Courage'...what a great way to help us understand what it takes if one wants to maximize the success embedded in our Values: Courage, Confidence, Conviction, & Creativity. 
 

Tags:

Marketing | Values: Personal Values

Courage - The Key Business Value

by Rick Baker
On May 10, 2008

Courage is our company’s Key Value.

In summary, we have chosen Courage for our Key Value because:

  1. Courage enables Self-Knowledge and

  2. When it is backed by Courage, Self-Knowledge can be the foundation of most, if not all, other major values, traits, qualities, and attributes that contribute to character.

If our personal value systems are like dominoes then Courage must be the first domino of desirable character. When it comes to personal character, no other domino can take the place of Courage.

 

Dominoes fall in sequence…

 

 Courage

Self-Knowledge

Self-Confidence

 

That domino sequence was simplified…in practice, it would be a more complicated sequence:

 

 Courage

Self-Knowledge

Self-Education

Self-Confidence

Here I mean ‘Self-Education’ in its broadest sense. It includes other dominoes like introspection and [if we want it to] autosuggestion [self-talk]. The main point is, when Courage is present Self-Confidence can grow. If we remove Courage then Self-Confidence cannot grow. Courage enables Self-Confidence. With dedication, Self-Confidence can be self-taught. Coaches can help us understand the dominoes but they cannot give them to us. We have to create our own dominoes and we have to use them regularly.

The process of developing Self-Confidence only works if it is backed by Courage.

 

***

Self-Confidence is a ‘great enabler’.

 

Courage is the ‘great enabler’. 

 

***

 

We may have different views about the routes the dominoes of personal character take.

But, we should agree Courage enables some very-positive things…

 

Action

 

Decisiveness

 

Enthusiasm

 

Faith

 

Hope

 

Inspiration

 

Leadership*

 

Optimism

 

Persistence

 

Self-Confidence

 

Self-Knowledge

 

 

 

*** 

 

Considering all these dominoes linked to Courage, it is easy to see...

Courage enables positive Change  

***

 

Footnote:  In his 1937 classic, ‘Think and Grow Rich’, Napoleon Hill selected ‘Unwavering Courage” as the #1 attribute of Leadership. 

Tags:

Marketing | Spirited Leaders | Values: Personal Values

Innovation

by Rick Baker
On Apr 14, 2008

In one of my dictionaries, a Gage Canadian Dictionary, the word 'innovation' is defined as:

  1. A change made in the established way of doing things
  2. The making of changes; act of bringing in new things or new ways of doing things: He is strongly opposed to innovation of any kind.

At the front cover of his book 'Innovation', Tom Gorman uses the following Peter Drucker quote:

"Innovation is the specific instrument...that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth."

At Chapter 1, Gorman uses the title, 'Innovation = Problem Solving'. And, in a caption that appears to be a dictionary excerpt, Gorman provides the following definition:

in • no • va • tion

  1. A new product, service, process, or approach to a problem
  2. A new way of thinking about something
  3. The act of innovating, as in "Innovation occurs in every culture"

I know from recent experience, the discussion of innovation can very quickly get deeply philosophical. Here are some questions, which capture some of the differences in the ways people think about innovation:

  • Must innovation, by definition, be a physical/tangible thing? 
  • Must innovation, by definition, be linked to change?
  • Should innovation, by definition, be linked to problem solving?
  • What's the difference between creativity and innovation?

Perhaps, creativity describes new things that can be enjoyed for their own sake rather than for any change they may bring about? If that is the case then change may be an important facet of the definition of innovation but of little or no importance when considering a definition of creativity?

In other words - perhaps we should acknowledge utility is less tangible for creativity and more tangible for innovation?

Perhaps, for creativity utility can be so nebulous it should not even be a facet of definition?

Are creativity and innovation mutually exclusive? Or, is one a subset of the other? If so then which one is the broader thing...which is closer to concept?

***

Business and Innovation:

Overall, I'm wondering if one of the largest rifts between our thoughts about innovation is around technology. Must a business innovation contain some aspect of technology or can a business innovation exist independent of technology?

For business purposes, would it make sense to define innovation as 'a thing or action that solves a business problem'?

Maybe we should state innovation - a thing or action - must have the effect of creating a change...or, should we be more specific and state innovation must create a change of commercial value?

The 'change' part of that sort of definition is consistent with my Gage Canadian Dictionary. And change is simple and it is a broad enough thing (say, a concept) so it should not generate any confusion or controversy. However, the 'adding commercial value' part isn't so simple...it is a qualification but it is a subjective one. My Gage Canadian Dictionary does not express the nature of change it expresses in its definition of innovation. While we may want to assume Gage Canadian Dictionary intends the change to be positive rather than negative or of value rather than valueless, that isn't stated in my Gage Canadian Dictionary. In fact, the sample italicized in my dictionary definition - "He is strongly opposed to innovation of any kind" - provides a clear message that some people are opposed to innovation...presumably, that's the case because those people do not see innovation as either positive or value-adding. Or, perhaps the opposition is simply a resistance to change.

 

For business, could we start by considering the following type of definition:

          Business Innovation (def'n):

          A thing done or provided to add value by solving a customer's problem or satisfying a customer's need.

 

Embedded in this definition are:

  1. A business innovation must be tangible...a thought or an idea isn't enough to be considered a business innovation. Only when that thought or idea is converted into physical reality - a product, a service of action, etc - can it be considered an innovation. 
  2. An innovation in business begins with a customer need or problem...all business innovations should be traced to a specific, identified customer need or problem. 
  3. An innovation in business will cause and be a change. That change will be measured in terms of value added from the customer's perspective...as a specific, identified customer need is satisfied or as a specific, identified customer problem is solved. 
  4. So, to qualify as a business innovation the thing must be customer-centric. 
  5. A business innovation need not be tied to technology. Technological innovations in business would be a subset of business innovations. 
  6. Potential questions about 'direct' and 'indirect' value, as seen from the customer's perspective, questions about the ability to discover with precision customer's needs, and questions about the ability to measure the value added from the customer's perspective, etc. (Such is the essence and challenge of Marketing).

***

If we can agree on a definition of Innovation then we will have a solid footing upon which we can build as we answer other important questions, such as:

  • how do we want to define the relationship between innovation and entrepreneurship?
  • how do we want to nurture and promote business-innovation processes in our workplaces?
  • how do we place ourselves in our customers' shoes and with precision understand their needs and problems then deliver measurable value through innovation?

Tags:

Definitions - Spirited Words Defined | Entrepreneur Thinking | Marketing

Copyright © 2012. W.F.C (Rick) Baker. All Rights Reserved.