Against the wind and up you fly...
I decided to give my son’s 20th birthday gift a parachute jump. It took us 2x to the airfield and they could not take off due to heavy unstable wind conditions. I am not a airplane instructor, so it was rather new experience to me as well. But I noticed something peculiar.
To take off – you need:
- strong wind,
- the runway does not to be long,
- skilled people steering the process.
So it is pretty much like in every business where wind is the market with it size and demand; runway is your cash from investors or friends/family/optimists; you are expert of some field yourself and you hire expertise in fields you don’t have any knowledge or willingness to operate.
Know your reasons for finding your milkyway
It is clear and obvious when we look back. Not so straight once starting out. Eventhough it’s cloudy and unsure we have to define criterias and guidelines how & why we choose in the way we do, based on culture, principles, beliefs, ultimate goal.
You might wonder – why? Because humans do something all the time. They position themselves in contexts. And you must create a context that generates value delivery or understanding that triggers the need to change something. In any case new knowledge might or might not have reactions. These reactions raise questions whether recipeint needs to reposition her-/himself and think/act differently, call for a change or not.
I’ve experienced too many times that ego and principles are very expensive passengers of mine. Yet again, who are you without clear understanding of yourself and your journey? Wise you get, more you notices how yo u operate, how you think. Understanding these whys you get to the core of so obvious, yet sometimes unreachable.
Majority of my time I’ve been selling services to companies and their representatives, management, owners. But delivering these promised services might even be more challenging.
Aligning yourself, your offering and your clients to a journey to your mutual milkyway must be the ultimate goal, right? And if the destination is unreachable then perhaps the journey is on what you should concentrate.
Who's right for my business
What happens if we pick wrong clients to sell to or to support later on? What happens if we know who to address and what is the reason they like to buy from us? Yes, for sure it might be complicated as people hide very well their true nature. It might be hidden under the role of “buying persona” and working for “ideal client profile” type of company. So what we have to do is pay attention to little details and differ natural behaviours from working contextual behaviours. Said in simple way – put yourself into other person’s shoes and try to understand her/his needs and expectations. Not always is the person fit for our service or product as they might carry out a role expected by company they work for.
We should draw us a very clear picture of which businesses we go after and why these are the best possible choices for us. Also identifying a buying personas in the company is relevant, as their personal agendas may not be aligned with company’s. Yet we know – money moves between companies, but deals are made among people.
How to attract someone to make a deal with you? Or how to find a person attracted to solution you are offering. And perhaps it’s your job to tell the difference before you aim your cannon to a wrong target. Or how to let them define if they are interested or not? In a way that disturbs them as less possible? Lead generation brings the money – the fuel for your plane that is taking off. Having your nosa against the wind makes your plane go up faster with less fuel than chasing the wind and trying to find the lifting power.
Role of the Boss
Some argue about the name, the form, the color, the context. I’d say the responsibility is who’s who understands the context and is able to make compelling decisions adequately. I couldn’t care less of strong voice, beautiful outlooks or past success. All I care is who is capable of making what changes in the future.
I’ve been lucky I went to Estonian Business School. I was truly annoyed not to pass my bachelor’s thesis at first time. I had to rewrite it within 7 days. But what it taught me was the core principles of hight quality management importance in success. I implemented all these learnings into my work at these days and these became part of me. It took me years, after implementing tens of CRM solutions, after seeing how people behave, analyzing why some companies managed it better and other worse, when I started to see who is making a better boss and why.
At least I always tried to follow these guidelines myself. Only my colleagues can tell how well did I do ;). Using the First Principle while solving puzzles, asking for expert knowhow if needed, delegating tasks if these made sense and allowed growth, engaging all key people in decision making processes, supporting them in their professional growth, making sure they are well aware of what they have to do how in order to get best results, being open about things where their action was crucial, having clear transparent communication to all stakeholders and letting them make their decisions how to perform at their best, constantly monitoring how well they are doing and letting them to present their worries and ideas.
Takeaway
- Understand “why” you can sell “what” to “whom” by “how”.
- Define “who” are your ideal clients.
- Addressing only right clients is a business decision, yet marketing and sales execution.
- Following the pattern of acquiring right clients makes any business successful itself.
- Find out “how” your “whos” want to be reached and served.
- Remember “what” is the value your “whos” are buying.
- Re-communicate from time to time “who”, “why”, “what” & “how” to yourself and all people working for achieving your goal.
- Developing guidelines and making sure everyone knows why and what, then how – is the role of the boss.
- Unless everything is clear to all employees – it’s pretty hard to achieve good enough results in today’s competitive market conditions.
