241 Why Plus-Minus Works In Business (Maybe Better Than It Does In Hockey)

Plus-MinusHockey folks argue like any other sports fanatics. They second guess coaches and general managers. They fuss about who deserves to be called “the best” at any position. Even though they’re not as stat driven as baseball people, they do enjoy a good conversation about how some stats are determined. Plus-minus is one of the most hotly debated stats in professional hockey circles. Even though today’s show isn’t about hockey, I should help you better understand what plus-minus is and give you some sense of the debate.

Here’s how the NHL looks at it…

A player is awarded a “plus” each time he is on the ice when his Club scores an even-strength or shorthanded goal. He receives a “minus” if he is on the ice for an even-strength or shorthanded goal scored by the opposing Club. The difference in these numbers is considered the player’s “plus-minus” statistic.

Here’s the simple way to view it. If you’re on the ice when the other team scores, you’re minus 1. If you’re on the ice when your team scores, you’re plus 1. There are some other details, but they’re unimportant for our discussion.

Ice hockey players who have a poor plus-minus rating hate the stat. Understandably. At best it makes them look unimpressive. At worst, it makes them look detrimental. Is it fair? I suppose it depends on how much weight you give it. It’s just one barometer among many.

Players and even general managers in the NHL argue that line mates (the team mates you play with) have an enormous impact on that stat. A weak player surrounded by better players can have a higher plus-minus than a great player surrounded by lesser talent. North of the border (and I’m not talking about Oklahoma), the debate can grow quite intense. Stat freaks point out the problem with it and some have even suggested better alternatives.

Tyler_Seguin_-_Dallas_StarsWhy I Like It In Business

Ice hockey isn’t played in a vacuum argue the opponents of the plus-minus stat. Neither is business, but it may be a better stat in business than hockey.

Hockey makes the assumption that if a player is on the ice when his team scores then he’s doing better than if he’s on the ice when the opponent scores. So far so good. But hockey isn’t an individual sport. A hockey player has teammates playing along side him. And a crucial element of the game resides on the shoulders of a single player, the goaltender. If my goalie is a stud and your goalie can’t stop a beach ball…I’m gonna beat you in plus-minus every time.

Business is a team sport, too. But different.

Like hockey players you have individual responsibilities. Your performance may be affected – positively or negatively – by teammates. Tell that to your boss. Just make sure you’ve got a written resignation in your hand when you do. 😉

Almost 20 years ago I began thinking about how sales performance is measured for individual salespeople. It began with commission-based retail sales.

Since the late 70’s and early 80’s I had been accustomed to using a variety of meaningful measurements to lead sales teams. In retail there have long existed some telling stats.

Closing ratios may be among the most looked at stat among salespeople. It simply mean, how many prospects out of 10 did you sell? If you talked with 10 people and sold 3, then you’re closing ratio is 30%. Today you mostly hear people call it conversion. How many prospects did you convert into paying customers? In web terms, how many visitors to a website did you convert to take whatever action you wanted them to take?

Eyeballs on a web page matter, but not if we’re unable to convert them into something more meaningful – subscribers, email opt-in’s, buyers, or whatever else you’re trying to get them to do. In the television world, producers want to attract as many eyeballs as possible so they can sell advertising. The more eyeballs on a TV show, the higher premium they can charge for 30 second spots. The advertisers want more eyeballs on their ads so they can drive business. Maybe they want more diners to their restaurant, or more drinkers of their beverage, or more shoppers into their showrooms. Whatever it is, you can bet it being measured 8 ways to Sunday.

Conversion is king. We all need to convert shoppers into buyers. When we focus merely on attracting more prospects and we neglect looking closely at conversion, it’s like working to catch more fish when our holding tank as a hole in it causing us to lose the fish we’ve already caught. Conversion is a middle-of-the-funnel problem, not a top-of-funnel one.

Average ticket is another common retail stat. If we sell to 10 people and total their invoices, then divide by 10…we’ve got our average ticket amount. The higher the better. Sorta.

A higher average ticket assumes customers are buying more, or buying higher end stuff. It also assumes that profits will go up as ticket prices do. Of course, some assumptions can prove wrong. For example, I’ve seen some salespeople who had a high average tickets, but they weren’t making as many sales as their teammates because they were cherry picking shoppers. If a shopper was interested in something that wasn’t high end, they’d abandon them. Pathetic customer service resulted in a higher average ticket. All that glitters ain’t gold. Things aren’t always as they appear.

I like plus-minus in some situations because it assumes an equal opportunity for everybody. Leaders should do everything to make sure people have the best opportunity for success. They don’t always do that because they let their preference for some people override their sensibilities.

Since I started out using sales as the example, let’s stick with that. In selling not all opportunities are equal. Talk to any outside sales force and you’ll quickly hear about Joe and his luck in having the best territory in the company. “He wins every year. I would too if I had his territory,” cry all his co-workers. And they may be right. But maybe Joe built the territory. Or maybe Bill retired 3 years ago after creating the number 1 territory in the company and Joe inherited it. Would plus-minus help in looking at Joe versus his co-workers? Not likely.

But there are lots of sales situations where it might work wonderfully. Ten guys are working in a car dealership’s new car sales department. They’re all working 6 days a week. They all put in about 50 hours a week. They’re all selling the same inventory. They’re all at the same location. But they have different experience, different skills and different client bases.

Plus-minus helps us examine and put the attention on contributions. That’s why I like it. On the downside (for the salesperson), it can also focus attention on deficiencies.

We can judge all 10 car salespeople equally with a plus-minus measurement. You can argue about whether we should judge them all equally if you’d like. I don’t like it because then we start getting into all that subjective nonsense. “I think you can do better,” a sales manager may say. If I’m the salesperson, I’m saying to myself, “You THINK…based on what?”

On the flip side, a less experienced car salesperson may argue, “Man, I’ve only been selling cars for 8 months. The top guy has been selling them for over a decade. I shouldn’t be measured by his standard.” My response would be, “Then how should you be judged?”

Maybe there are no perfect measurements or stats. In anything. But some clearly are more meaningful than others.

Sales organizations are notorious for establishing indiscriminate quotas based on feelings or thoughts. I’ve sat in too many meetings where leaders wanted to give one guy a higher quota because of his experience or skills. At the same meeting they want to give a lower quota to a person they feel is less capable, but may have been on the job just as long. Is that fair?

I don’t think so. I think it over burdens the more skillful and under burdens the less skilled.

Remember the old curve grading in school?

If you were on the bottom of the curve, you hated it. If you were on the top, you loved it. Of course, some brainiac would get a 100 and the rest of us suffered. If only we’d been assigned to a class of morons we could have had higher grades. It didn’t have anything to do with our lack of study or preparation. We were simply outmatched by geniuses. Story of my life!

Here’s what I think matters in our companies when it comes to measuring performance…who is performing above average and who is performing below average?

I’m not suggesting we focus solely on averages, however, we have to have some way of examining “typical.”

Suppose we’ve got 15 salespeople. Our total monthly sales are $2.43 million. If our sales team is performing identically, then each salesperson will have produced $162,000 in gross sales for the month. But no sales team is identical. Including ours.

We take a closer look at our 15 people and discover that 4 of them have brought in just under $2 million, leaving the other 11 to bring in only $440,000. It’s a disparity that blows our mind, but these things happen all the time in the world of selling.

The average (the total sales divided by the total number of salespeople) may not tell us the whole story, but the story it does tell is compelling…because 4 of our people are blowing the average away while the bulk of our team are performing dreadfully below the average. If $162,000 is the average, we’ve got 11 players who appear to be averaging only $40,000 ($440,000 total brought in by 11 of our 15 salespeople). They’re performing only at 25% of the average.

Four people on our team are producing $1,990,000. They’re averaging almost $500,000 each. That’s over 3 times the average. That’s about 210% over the average or over 8 times the productivity of the other 11.

Lots of costs associated with those 11. We’re probably not supporting the 4 superstars as well as we should because we’re carrying too much cost with those 11. But we’re not finished.

We really have to examine each player. Of the 11 we’ve got 1 who is performing better than the rest. Mary’s still not hitting the average, but she’s far and away doing better than her 10 other bottom feeder peers. She’s still a minus player, but she’s not as minus as most. On top of that, she’s the person with the least amount of experience or seniority. We think with a bit of help she could climb out of that pit so we invest in her. We pair her up with a mentor from among the top 4. We challenge her to learn all she can.

Another of the 11 was historically an above average performer, but recently he’s slipped. Luke was never top tier, but he was more consistently above the average line. We sense that he’s got it in him to do better, but we don’t know what’s happened to him over the last 60 days or so. We set out to find out.

Turns out he’s had some personal issues with aging parents. He’s had to devote more time to caring for a father whose health is failing. He and his wife took in his parents three months ago. Since then, life has drastically changed for him. It shows in his work.

Over time it becomes clear to us that we need to support the people with higher performance more. We decide it’s time to divide territory responsibility and get a better grasp of our own commitment to our customers.

The company decides to restructure responsibilities and assign accounts. And to design a new way of working. Luke is promoted to a new position inside the company. He’ll be off the road now and he’s going to spearhead over 80% of the accounts previously handled by all 11 of the poorer performers. These are accounts that range from small to potentially large. There’s no arguing the history though and the company feels Luke may be able to provide better service and support virtually than a larger team wasting time and resources in travel. Besides, he’ll have 2 assistants and together this team of 3 will be able to really concentrate on helping develop these accounts (in some cases on getting these accounts built back up to a prior status). The two assistants are among some of the 11. They happily accept their new roles because their bonuses are going to be team based and they too are no longer on the road. Four of the 11 are now situated. Seven are on the block to be cut from the team or reassigned.

Now 5 superstars (4 really, plus 1 in training) are on the road responsible for the bulk of the monthly revenues. The accounts that have historically been bringing in the bulk of the revenue are divided among this team.

Three others are going to be at HQ handling the rest of the accounts.

We check in 6 months later and here’s what we see…

The 5 road warriors have found a new level of success. The company has poured resources into them fostering a greater degree of unparalleled service and support. Customers are responding very positively. Sales are up over 30%. This group of 5 are now responsible for monthly sales exceeding $2.7 million. The differences between the 5 fluctuates month to month as one person gets top honors one month, then somebody else the next. There’s no more than 15% difference among them, from top to bottom.

The inside team of 3, led by Luke, are doing exceptionally well. Luke has even hired a 4th person to join the team due to the success. Part of the 30% increase of the road warriors is due to Luke’s hard work to develop 2 critical accounts that had slipped in recent months. Luke nursed them back to a state where they were assigned to the road warrior team. His team was compensated for their success, not penalized. The company paid the entire team a nice quarterly bonus when it moved those 2 accounts. That fuels Luke and his team to see if they can do more of that in the future.

Last month the company gathered all the people in sales – Luke with his 3 employees and the five road warriors. Nine now in total. Nine doing more than 15 were doing before. The company is working out a plan to fairly compensate the entire team for the sales success. Luke drafted a plan to not just serve the accounts not being handled by the road team, but to support all the accounts. It’s in the 3rd stage of revisions, but everybody is excited about the prospect of more growth (and higher paychecks all the way around).

No, it doesn’t always go this way. And I’ve not talked about the bad news of 7 people whose jobs were at risk because they were performing woefully below average. But the truth is, people are either contributing to the success of an enterprise or they’re a negative influence, detracting from the enterprise’s ability to succeed. I’d argue that anybody who is neutral – they’re not draining nor contributing – is a drain. I’m not arguing that we should terminate all the players who are below average, but we’d better we figuring out why they’re not even average.

Soar with your strengths. It’s a philosophy I have led by for decades because it works. And I believe in it.

Give me those top tier performers. Let me pour resources to help them achieve 5% more per person and I’ll conquer the market.

Plus minus let’s us determine who is helping and who is costing us. But better than that it gives us a measurement we can use to manage the performance of our work. People want to contribute. People want to excel. Too often sales management is about arbitrary quotas that frustrate salespeople.

“You’re not supposed to hit it,” he said to me. I was a young road warrior busting my tail to hit quotas that seemed impossible because they were. The company had made sure of it. When the VP told me that I wasn’t supposed to hit them, you’d have thought relief would have come over me. It didn’t. Instead, I felt lost. Stupid and lost. Here I had been working feverishly to accomplish a goal I thought somebody smarter than me had devised. Surely they know something I don’t. So I went for it. And failed.

Now, I no longer trusted my employer. I found it difficult to work so hard for them any more. I had been betrayed by  a company playing a game they never let me in on. They lied to me.

Had I been allowed to see where I stood relative something measurable and fair, I’d have continued to bust my backside. But the truth was, in my circumstance there was only one way to know if you were doing a good job – contributing – or not. That was whether or not the VP told you you were. It was all far too subjective for me.

Plus Minus May Look Different For You. That’s Okay.

Don’t get too hung up in the details of all this. Rather, I’d encourage you to find ways to analyze the performance of your sales team so you can be certain about the contributions. My main point years ago in coming up with this and other tools, was so I could move away from the “I think you’re doing a good job” kind of leadership, which is really NO leadership at all. My innate belief that people want to contribute led me to devise tools and plans that would foster people to perform at higher levels than they might otherwise. We all need feedback. We all need positive reinforcement that what we’re doing is working, or is the right thing.

Leaders and managers who neglect to come up with or embrace anything available to accomplish that are letting their people down. Your people deserve to know if they’re making a positive difference. And they deserve to be supported so they can make an even bigger positive difference in the future.

Randy

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240 Higher Human Performance, The Podcast ReBranded

240 Higher Human Performance, The Podcast ReBranded

I’m 1583 miles away from Madison Avenue in New York City, but I’m only 9 minutes from Madison Avenue in Hurst, Texas. If I were closer to NYC I’d have handled up on this rebranding long ago. But that’s not how I roll.

I’m a street fighter and hustler. Sometimes more the former than the later. So this rebranding has taken longer.

There’s no excuse really. It’s not like I had some major heavy lifting to rebrand. Bula Network, LLC has never really had much of a brand. It’s been more of a word game I suppose…all based on falling in love with a Fiji term that entered my life through who-knows-where many years ago. One thing led to another and bam, I needed a company name so why not? I’m keeping the company, but changing the brand.

Higher Human Performance

Sit down in front of me, throw me your business challenge and I promise you it won’t take me 10 minutes to come up with some insightful ideas. More than a few people have told me, “You’re a good strategic thinker.” It’s a gift. 😀

Except when I need to help myself. I can wrestle with the seemingly smallest challenge in my own business and feel like I’m trying to bench press three times my body weight. Just impossible to lift.

Such was the case when I challenged myself to rebrand the podcast. I asked all the right questions. Or thought so.

But no answers came back. It was just the sound of crickets. (I bet you don’t have a single YouTube video with over 144K views)

I wanted the new name to more properly tell people what the podcast was about. That presented me with my first challenge. I had to actually narrow down to a focus and have a subject. What a novel idea for a podcast.

Listen, I have freely admitted that I didn’t start this podcast with you in mind. Shoot, I didn’t have myself in mind. Well, not directly. I only had two people in mind back years ago when I started all this (no, this podcast wasn’t the first online audio I did; that was back in 1999 when it was really hard to do). My son. And my daughter. Nobody else was on my radar. Because it never dawned on me that anybody else would ever discover what I was up to.

Truthfully, I didn’t think my kids would even figure it out until I was dead. That was then. This is now. And I’m still alive. Barely.

To this day I couldn’t tell you if either of my kids has ever listened to a single episode of anything I’ve recorded. And I’m cool with that because I know one day they will. Which was precisely the plan all along. To lay down some audio tracks of stuff – that’s right, STUFF – to pass onto my kids. And now that they’re here, maybe my grandkids. My son and daughter weren’t even married when I started all this years ago.

Over time things have changed mightily. Along the way I made a major career change. My professional identity – wait a minute, I went through a period without much of an identity – was a meandering mess. I’d head in one direction, then get bored and change direction a bit. But it was all okay with me because again, I was hitting record basically with 2 people in mind.

The podcast grew one listener at a time. At a snail’s pace. But that was okay ’cause I never expected ANYBODY to listen. Not during my lifetime.

Then I connected with a few key people years ago. Some through Skype calls. Others through email. A few in person. Many of them have been loitering the Interwebs with me for years. Probably better said, I’ve been loitering it with them.

These are just a few of the people who have been part of the online journey…some of them going back almost 10 years, but almost all of them going back at least 4 years. Knowing that I was making connections with real people was a happy surprise. I said I was a strategic thinker. I never said I was smart. I certainly wasn’t smart enough to figure out the power of online connections…and the impact knowing other people were listening in, if only occasionally, might have.

I’d tell you that it instantly changed everything, but it didn’t. Again, I was slow on the uptake. But over time it began to dawn on me that no matter how many were listening – and I was NEVER working to build a community or an audience – I really had to get focused. Well, maybe I didn’t have to, but I knew I needed to. I knew the podcast deserved that. After all, if the content was going to be good enough for my now grown kids, then why wouldn’t it be good enough for others, too? It could be. I just needed to do some things to improve it.

I confess that this epiphany hit me a few years ago, but I didn’t act on it. I was too busy chasing my tail. I kept delaying it. Putting it off for another day.

I was devoted to the craft of podcasting. I was taking an oddball approach. Jon Buscall even wanted to talk to me about it for his podcast. Keith Davis even asked me to do a video for his public speaking site. Across the pond I was a freak of nature. Here in Texas, I was simply another freak. 😉

My responsibilities to other people was growing. Internally I was feeling it. I needed to morph. I needed to provide more value. I needed to provide a more predictable resource. After all, one of my biggest skill sets is helping businesses deliver more predictable success. It was high time to apply that to an art that was near to my heart, podcasting. This podcast.

Erik K. Johnson is the Podcast Talent Coach. About a month ago he did an episode on 3 Steps To Create Your Avatar. Erik’s objective with that episode – and he done a few others like it before – is to help podcasters figure out who their ideal listener is. Or who they’d like it to be.

As a seasoned business guy with oodles of marketing experience, I’ve spent lots of time figuring out ideal customers and how to attract them. The problem was, I never viewed my podcast like a business. That was probably a mistake. Not because the podcast was a business and I was being neglectful, but because I never viewed the podcast “like” a business! As a result, I never much thought about an ideal listener…because I already knew my ideal or target listener, my adult kids. It’s all reminiscent of the movie, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. Except I wasn’t on my way to the Forum, or anywhere else really. I was just doing what I was doing for reasons all my own, until I realized I wasn’t alone. Not entirely.

But that’s not the only reason. In fact, it’s not even the real reason. Sorry. I wanted to get more targeted in the content and in trying to connect with more people.

My career has involved pretty much every aspect of business building. It started in sales, but quickly migrated to management. Marketing, operations, inventory, purchasing, merchandising and anything else you care to name…they were all part of my career. Building an organization was always a central focal point in the past few decades. That meant developing and leading people. Sitting alone one day, writing notes, doodling and thinking I wrote down, “higher human performance.”

Higher human performance.

That’s precisely where my focus has been for years. Because business involves people serving people. Because our businesses hinge on higher human performance. But it’s not about having super humans working for us. It’s not about us being super human. It’s about ordinary people consistently doing extraordinary things. Sure, it’s about systems, processes and workflows. But it’s also about skills, habits and expectations. It’s all the stuff that business building demands.

So today begins a new chapter. Along with a new name, Higher Human Performance. It’s not about sports. It’s not about running faster, or further. It’s about people. It’s about you, but it’s bigger than that. It’s about US. All of us out here working hard to launch a project. Or working to gain traction for an idea. Or trying to get our endeavor to soar a little bit higher. Or a lot higher.

I need your feedback. Use the contact page or just use your built in microphone on your computer and click that “send voicemail” button to the side.

Randy

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239 Strategic Partnerships: The Key To Effective Business Development

239 Strategic Partnerships: The Key To Effective Business Development

239 Strategic Partnerships: The Key To Effective Business Development

A local dentist advertises for a marketing person who will develop “referral partners.” Financial planners, attorneys, chiropractors and many other service professionals do the same thing. They chase referral partners.

Many geographically dependent businesses think it’s an effective way to build business. Connect with another business, let them know what you do, then ask them, “If you run across anybody who needs what I do, please tell them about me.”

It’s a weak strategy. Worse than that, it’s lame.

Why would I send you business just because you’ve introduced yourself and told me what you do? Why would I even remember you?

I’m busy doing my own thing. I’ve got my own clients to serve. And my own prospects to chase. I’m hustling my own business. I’m not gonna hustle yours.

I encounter people all the time who have no clue what business development really is. They confuse marketing and advertising with biz dev. Others confuse it with sales. Truth is biz dev is all of those things, but none of those things.

Business development is mutually beneficial. 

But that’s not the whole of it. I could argue that if I pay a finder’s fee – in some businesses it’s perfectly legal and ethical (in others, it’s neither) – then it’s mutually beneficial. And it is. But it’s not biz dev.

Some business people are so intense in their hustling that they fearlessly approach anybody and everybody to hawk their products or services. Maybe that’s a smart thing to do, but handing out business cards to everybody at a local MeetUp isn’t strategic enough to be biz dev. Many will find it annoying. Nothing more.

Business development is a phrase that’s no more than 20 years old. Yet you’d think it would be better understand after 2 decades. Not so much.

Digital agencies claim to provide it as a service. Traditional agencies do, too.

Even managers who sometimes wear the title, “Business Development Manager,” don’t fully know what they’re supposed to be doing. They go on sales calls. They take important clients to lunch. They play in charity golf tournaments.

Again, these may all be worthwhile activities. I just don’t consider them the primary activities of business development.

So what are the main components of business development? What should a biz dev manager be doing?

First of all, the Internet has changed everything, including biz dev. One word you may hear in biz dev conversations is the word “promote.” The world has never seen a promotional tool as effective (and as universal) as the Internet. Affiliate marketing is a central activity of online promotion. Lots of people promote the products and services of others because they earn a hefty commission. Sharp car salespeople have used finder’s fees for decades, paying people cash money if they send them a customer who ends up buying a car. There’s nothing new about affiliate marketing. It’s just gone by other names for years.

Yes, we all want people willing to promote us. It’s an outcome every biz dev professional wants. While business development could include things like affiliate marketing, that’s not really the thrust of it.

Can you find strategic partners? Companies, businesses, organizations and people who can benefit when they promote your business? Not because you’re paying them. Not because they’re outsourced commission salespeople. Because when they promote you it affords them an opportunity for business they might not otherwise be able to land.

I once had a client who created terrific tracking software. From enterprise applications to more plug-in type of installations, this company specialized in solving simple or complex tracking challenges. Enter the biz dev mindset.

Who else might benefit from promoting this software? And how might it help the company promoting tracking software they didn’t create or sell?

Enter a product that was an ideal fit: bar-code guns. Those hand held devices that are used in countless applications to track all sorts of things.

Well, those guns have software. Indeed they do, but not all the software on them will solve every tracking problem. What do you do if you sell bar-code guns and the software that comes on them, but your prospect has a special application that the software won’t handle? You lose the sale. You have nothing to offer. It’s a problem you can’t solve.

Wait a minute. Yes, you can. Enter my client’s software. With a staff of custom programmers he could build a system to track specifically whatever was needed. He didn’t offer an “out of the box” solution where one-size-fits-all. He could make just what you needed.

He didn’t sell bar-code guns. He was a software guy.

Software guy meet bar-code gun guy. I think you guys can help each other.

The bar-code guy has his own stuff to sell. If his solutions would fit the prospect, no problem. He sold them. Or tried to.

But if his prospect needed bar-code guns with a funky solution that he didn’t sell…well, now he had a solution. And this solution afforded him an opportunity to make a sale he’d otherwise lose. Better yet, it often gave him the chance to sell a quantity of guns that he would never be able to sell because he could promote a customized solution. His competitors couldn’t offer that solution. It narrowed the competition. In some cases, it eliminated it entirely.

The software guy made sales he’d have never made. To customers he’d have never had without this strategic partnership. Both firms benefited by working together. Clients who came to the software guy sometimes found themselves needing bar-code guns. Guess who he promoted? Sure, his strategic partner who specialized in bar-code guns. Clients who came to the bar-code gun guy needing customized software solutions were steered toward my client. Each company was selling their own unique solutions, working together to get business that each would never land otherwise.

That’s about as good as it gets in the world of biz dev. And that’s possible in almost any space if people look hard enough and work smart enough.

Here are some things you should consider as you try to build your own prowess in business development.

1. Identify your ideal client.

If you can’t do this, you’re doomed. I’m not saying that every biz dev action will result in bringing you your ideal client, but you have to know who your ideal is.

Fish for a specific fish. If you and I decide we’re going to get up early one morning and go fishing, what are we fishing for? And don’t say, “It doesn’t matter. Any fish will do.” Then how are we going to know where to go, or what equipment to use?

Different kinds of fish occupy different water. Here in north central Texas we’ve got lakes known for crappie. We’ve got other lakes known for large mouth bass. Still others are known for catfish. Different fish sometimes found more prominently in different lakes.

Lures are different, too. The lures that attract one kind of fish are ineffective on others.

Who are you most trying to attract? Who do you most want to do business with? Take precise, specific aim at your ideal.

You and I are sitting in a boat at a nearby lake. We’re fishing for large mouth bass. That’s what we’re aiming to catch. And we’re catching them, too. All of a sudden you get a strong pull on your line. You wrestle with the gear thinking you’re about to land the biggest large mouth bass of the day. Ten minutes of wrestling and maneuvering end when you pull up an enormous catfish. It’s a happy accident. You weren’t trying to catch a big catfish, but you did. And you decide to keep him. He’ll be supper tonight.

That’s how it goes with business. We aim for our ideal. Sometimes we land a client who isn’t our ideal. They’re still a worthwhile client. We keep them, happily.

2. Identify others who also serve your ideal client.

None of us are singular in our purchases or needs. BMW drivers are diverse, but you could narrow them down if you considered BMW drivers who own their own house, attend Tom Petty concerts and drink Dr. Pepper. BMW serves them. So do realtors. And Tom Petty. And Dr. Pepper. Hold that thought.

Think about what you do. And what you offer.

Let’s say you offer professional video production. Who is your ideal client? You likely have a few.  Companies who need a marketing video or a corporate video. Bands or artists who need a music video. Any business needing a commercial or broadcast production.

Who else serves those ideal clients? That’s who you need to partner with, strategic partnerships.

Let’s just target clients who may need a music video, artists. Venues that book bands, musical gear retailers, pro sound providers, recording studios – they’re all candidates. They serve artists.

Just because you’ve identified them doesn’t mean their suitable as strategic partners, but it they don’t serve your ideal clients it means they’re not likely suitable at all. Don’t waste your time making companies a target of your biz dev activities if they don’t serve your ideal clients.

3. Identify others who also serve your ideal client and provide something valuable that you don’t. 

Let’s stick with that video production company example. What if we approached the busiest recording studio around? We don’t offer what they do. They don’t offer what we do.

We find out that the best bands in the area use this recording studio. Suppose we approach the owners of the studio and tell them we’d like to produce a professional video extolling their prowess. It could be a video they could embed on the home page of their website. We’d make it broadcast quality, too. That way they could use it for anything they wanted. We’d like to offer it to them free of charge for 2 reasons: a) we want to prove to them how good we are and b) we want them to promote us to the bands who record there. By working with us, the studio owners will better understand our process. We’ll use that opportunity to impress them. We’ll ask them to provide a testimonial for us, too. And why not? They’re going to get our world-class service and product in exchange for promoting us to bands looking to create a music video.

Because the recording studio is going to be working intimately with more bands than we’re likely to see in a given month, we’ve opened one door and gained potential exposure to many prospects. That’s a key to effective business development. Good strategic partners can generate more clients consistently. That’s what we want.

But who else might be in our wheelhouse? What about national groups or associations?

Again, if we’re the video production house, we’re looking for clients who need a marketing video, a corporate video or a commercial. Or all three. Are there groups out there comprised of companies that need all those? Yes.

They offer their group members things we don’t. And we provide things the group doesn’t.

4. Open one door and gain access to many prospects. 

As I’ve illustrated with the video production example, we’re looking for strategic partners – one partner at a time – who have access to multiple clients. The recording studio may work with dozens of bands or artists every year. By opening one door to the recording studio, we’ve gained access to all their clients who may be interested in creating a music video.

We partner with the national group or association. Let’s say they have 300 members scattered all across the country. Suppose they’re all furniture retailers. Could they use in-store videos promoting all their services? Could they use online videos doing the same thing? Or maybe they need TV spots. By opening one door – with the association – we’ve potentially opened the door to 300 prospects who may need exactly what we offer.

Conclusion

There’s lots more to full-blown business development, but that gives you a taste…and hopefully some ideas.

Email, direct mail and many other vehicles are vital components to solid business development, but at the end of the business day it’s about one thing.

A meaningful relationship

You want to partner with people like you. It’s not always possible, but it’s probable if you work at it. You can find like-minded people.

You want to provide value, too. It’s not a one-way street where you’re doing all the asking. No, you’ve got to provide a unique compelling value for your partner. Why else would they promote you?

Service must be remarkable. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a major component of strategic partnerships – you must both take proper care of the client. If either of you drops the ball with a client, you both lose. That’s why like-mindedness is key. Just because the business can give you access to potential clients doesn’t mean he’s a good fit. His churn ratio (the rate at which he loses customers) may be high. You may value loyalty and work hard to earn it. Your churn rate may be exceptionally low. Marry him and you’ll quickly regret it.

Be smart. Hustle. Make good on your promises. Do outstanding work. Be remarkable.

Be promotable.

Randy

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New Technology Explained By An Old Hippie - Kevin Kelly

New Technology Explained By An Old Hippie

Kevin Kelly is among the brighter people on the planet. Google his name you’ll find tons of presentations. I’m exposing you to just a snippet of him today because I’ve found quite a few business people who’ve never heard of him. Proof that people we think are widely known all over the world by all kinds of groups…may not be so well known. For the past few months I have purposefully asked some business people if they know who Gary Vaynerchuk is. Or Chris Brogan? Nope.

So today, I want to expose you to Kevin Kelly, a name you may not know or recognize.

Here are a few more links to Kevin Kelly you may find interesting:

Enjoy.

Randy

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Marketing Like Nachos

What You Can Learn About Marketing From Nachos

Marketing Like NachosAbout 9 o’clock and I got hungry, again. I sprint to the kitchen, catch my breath – and begin the quest. A hunt really. It didn’t last long. One glance in the pantry and I immediately knew what I wanted. NACHOS.

Simple. Tasty. Memorable. What’s not to like? Start with a great chip. Here in Texas, that ain’t hard. Grab the shredded cheddar out of the refrigerator. Snag that jar of jalapenos and let the culinary crafting begin.

In less than 10 minutes I was swilling down water like a man who’d been in the desert for 3 days straight. I love jalapenos, but I made the mistake of scarfing down more than a handful as I prepared the nachos. They have a cumulative power that almost forced me to connect my mouth to the faucet. Good though. Very good.

I could have gone with the ever famous mac ‘n cheese, but by the time I thought about it – I was already in full blown nacho commitment. The ring was already in place and I had already said, “I do.” Too late to turn back now. Full throttle forward. It was a decision I didn’t regret. I never do.

During that late night kitchen creativity session I thought about marketing.

Good. Simple.

Hot dogs. Hamburgers. Corn dogs. Mac ‘n cheese. Nachos. French fries.

Think about these things, not for their nutritional value, but for their simplicity. And their goodness.

Don’t mistake their success with speed. Mac ‘n cheese may not be fast. Or french fries.

They’re good, simple and memorable. We crave them.

I started thinking about how complicated people make their offers…and their marketing. We think that if we keep stacking on the value, then we’ll make our offers more compelling. That ain’t necessarily true.

TV Guide

I’m old enough to remember a time when we had only 3 channels on our TV. ABC. NBC. CBS.

My grandparents subscribed to the TV Guide. There were always a few feature articles, but they didn’t subscribe for the articles. They got it for the schedule. To know when shows would be airing. Simple. Good.

Fact is, there was a time when TV Guide was more valuable than all 3 major networks combined!

Keep It Simple, Stupid

The other day I happened across some cooking show. Well, the guy whipped up a dish claiming it was super easy. Sure enough, within 10 minutes he whipped up a terrific looking recipe. But right off the bat, he’s got a tray of ingredients. Lots of them. And 10 of them were things I’d never heard of. Now, I’m not a chef, but I had NEVER heard of 10 of these items. You could turn me loose in a grocery store and I’d have no clue where to go find those items.

Of course, I did just confess that I raced to the kitchen and whipped up a plate of nachos!

People want simple. They want easy. And even if easy isn’t really easy, we can at least make it easy to grasp. Easy to understand.

Give me a brick of Velvetta, a can of Rotel, a bowl big enough to hold it all, a microwave and a bag of chips. Then give me about 30 minutes to get miserable. 😀

It’s great. Simple. Easy. Effective for filling a hungry stomach.

The next time you’re crafting an offer, think about it. Don’t be tempted to stack on the value. We don’t always have to offer a BONUS. Just offer me a great big order of crispy french fries and I’m good to go.

Randy

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On Being Extraordinary: Get My Name Right

On Being Extraordinary: Get My Name RightIt’s a new feature, On Being Extraordinary. Today’s installment is fundamental. Then again, most acts of being extraordinary are actually quite simple. This story proves the point.

A lady from Europe reaches out to a North American prospect in hopes of selling her services. She’s had some email communication with the prospect through her assistant. The prospect has forwarded a PDF of some critical information about himself and the company. He’s included all of his contact information, including his name, in the PDF.

A Skype call is scheduled by the professional services firm. The time and Skype ID are included. The email says nothing about whether this Skype call will be video or audio only.

The prospect submits a connection request to the seller. She never asked for the prospects Skype ID.

At the appointed time the prospect is on Skype awaiting the call. Three minutes past the appointed time the seller calls. Immediately, she’s on video. The prospect greets her in a friendly manner, but he hasn’t got his webcam set up so he’s only on audio.

The seller immediately asks him if he’s got video ability. He tells her he wasn’t told this would be a video call. “Well, then can we reschedule?” she asks. She also calls him “William” even though all his prior correspondence says, “Bill.” His name isn’t William. It’s Bill. He decides not to correct her, wondering how long she’ll continue to call him by the wrong name.

She insists he be on video. Irked he accommodates her asking her to stand by while he plugs in a webcam to his desktop computer. Within less than 2 minutes he’s on video.

She doesn’t thank him for the effort, but does continue to call him “William.” She begins asking him questions, including some that are answered in his PDF. More than twice, he prefaces answers with, “As it says in my PDF…”

Do you think it’s going to go well for her?

You’re right. It doesn’t.

Briefly, these are the things she did terribly wrong:

  1. She neglected to give the prospect clear instructions on how the Skype call would go. Rather than asking him to send the Skype connection request, she should have sent him one, proving that she was willing to do the heavy lifting here. Additionally, she never said that it needed to be a video call. Turns out Bill never figured out why it had to be video. She never shared a screen. It was simply the two of them talking to each other. He’d have happily obliged if he had known she wanted a video call.
  2. She was curt, telling him she’d have to reschedule if he couldn’t get video working. Talk about pressure of the moment. Bill should have disconnected the call right then and there, but Bill’s more polite than the seller.
  3. She called him “William” throughout the call, never once calling him by the only name appearing on prior correspondence. Bill was most unhappy about that. “It’s clear she’s not even looked at the documents I’ve sent her,” he said. “She got my name wrong and asked me questions that my document answered.”
  4. Bill hangs up after 20 minutes wondering how the selling company has any business. He’s not buying anything they’re selling.

Now, you wanna know the irony of the whole thing?

The seller’s business is in helping companies build cultures that deliver superior customer experiences.

Yeah, Bill found that pretty funny. I found it…sad.

Randy

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