Paper Prototyping

I want to share what may be the core innovation technique, Paper Prototyping.

This is a low-cost secret, appropriate when ideas hit, in bed, working flat out, sitting in boring meetings, traveling in a crowded Metro.

Ideas are slippery suckers. Take it from me, if you don’t write ’em down, they tend to get away, maybe never to return.

Seems to work equally well for technical solutions, logistics planning, words and music, and creating strategy.

Paper prototyping is economical. Almost any trade show is giving away writing sticks and pads of paper. I prefer notebooks for long tern concept storage (important stuff - URLs and phone numbers; books I want to find) and pads for quick concepts and immediate distribution. Paper is ready quickly and doesn’t require recharging pesky batteries.

Paper prototyping moves effortlessly from text, to lists, to graphics in the same documents. There are some sophisticated systems for adepts, I keep mine as simple as possible to concentrate my sophistication on each subject at hand.

Well, I generally carry colored pens to amuse myself. Red used to be for phone numbers, now red is for prospective blog topics.

I make an electronic record when I get to the point where I am going to share with more than one person.

What other advantages do you have for Paper Prototyping?

See other Tips 4 The Big Chair.

Please join us Tuesday September 10^th at 6:30 PM for the Capital Technology Management Hub (CTMH) meeting (it's FREE) at Teqcorner in McLean, VA. Sales Lab's Rainmaker 21 – Your Dealer Network, 300 seconds of enlightenment, preceding the headliner presentation, What is the New Game of Work? by Jack Gates, Sales Lab. How to Register - CLICK HERE

Downscaling

Startups often spend scarce time and resources trying to attract funding to upscale operations.

Recently, a veteran business builder pointed out that organizations that take money for operations usually end up losing the companies to their funders within three years. The funders have no clue how to operate their new company.

Rationalizing income to expense can go the other way. What if you planned your projects to match resources?

Perhaps prototypes with fewer features, or development delivered in fewer weeks?

Innovation is a sprint and even I get seriously winded in the second hundred yards. (sarcasm font)
Sroc famously said, “I’m as fast as I ever was...between two telephone poles.”

There are incredible bargains in newer technology resources. Just because you haven’t used them doesn’t justify wasting money.

Open source leadership greases a whole new speed of play.

If you haven’t got something customers want, how do you justify your salary?

It’s a different economy. Figuring out how to succeed requires hard study.

What can you deliver by Wednesday?

The Sales Model – Where To Focus

Innovation – A Precious Asset

The Smith School of Business just held it's Annual Business Summit, a forum about the pressing topics of the time.

A thread throughout the sessions was the hodge-podge innovative change, rigorous adherence to the 'traditional' ways, rapid technological change, shifting global market advantage, and irrational attempts to maintain existing market conditions. This yields an unstable and confusing business environment.

Evolving are the vastly differing approaches of open source (share the code – use it & make it better) and enterprise (lock down the code - prohibit unauthorized modifications) – such as the Android and iPhone operating systems, or the Open Office and Microsoft Office application suites.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Rajshree Agarwal applied these radically different models to the 'care and feeding' of the innovative employee. In simple terms, innovation is finding a way to get better results for less cost.

The innovative employee is regarded as a valuable resource on one level, but organizations tend to adopt three different approaches to managing innovations: Bully; Ostrich; Empowering:

• The Bully creates barriers and penalties around innovation – such as non-compete agreements and IP litigation for developed ideas and use of knowledge leading to the development of ideas – then pounds the trespassers;
• The Ostrich has a laissez fare attitude about innovation until a situation develops, then it shifts to attack mode to protect the investment in the innovative product or service;
• The Empowering approach encourages employees to come up with innovative approaches – even provides personal use of a portion of the workweek or access to company or department equipment to help development.

The unintended result for Bully and Ostrich organizations is less innovations and greater opportunistic turnover among innovative employees. Creativity is seen as not valued and a hassle, so even great ideas for innovative change or new development are not shared.

On the other hand, the Empowering approach produces innovation from simple changes to major new product/service lines, which are conceived, developed, and implemented to 'do it better'. Google's 20% Time has spawned G-mail, AdSense, and Google News among the Google products.

In an environment where computing power is doubling every 18 months or less, and technology is rapidly eliminating repetitive process 'paper-moving' tasks, innovation takes on a critical role of seeding the reinvention of operations and upgrading processes within the organization. How can the new be integrated with the old to improve the result at less cost. What can be eliminated completely and how can the newly freed time be spent for employees to master new skills and gain additional experience to help them remain a viable resource and contributor for the organization (and remain employed).

Instead of rusting-out or fighting for a piece of a shrinking pie, both the individual and the organization can morph as a viable provider of wanted/needed services and products. Creating and nurturing an atmosphere in which employees can create change which is welcomed by the organization or department is the modern version of the continuous improvement cycle and opens up the space for employees to get new experience and skills, thus remaining valuable in a changing world.

What's not to love about 'better for less' while developing the next new role?

Entertaining experience – watch the Sales Lab Video Channel

Tips 4 The Big Chair

Looking for quick new ideas?

Here are some short insights on how business is changing. 

Might make you feel better. Fresh insights for new energy, increased resolve, and motivation. 

Joy’s Law

Tactical Compass

Excellent

Boomerang Management

Pirate, Executive, or Administrator?

Event Marketing - Why See People One-At-A-Time When You Can Sell Groups of Twenty?

Loyalty Up, Loyalty Down

Encouraging Is Courageous

Truth and Time

How Right Comes From Wrong 
 

The Myth of Nuvo Quo

The Difference Between Promised and Produced

Moments of Truth - New Strategies for Today's Customer-Driven Economy

Where Solutions Are Created

...And there is more at http://www.saleslabdc.com/big-chair

Kick off the New Year Right at Talk Your Business - How to make more and better sales right away! Wednesday Jan 30, 11:45 - 1:00 at the Arlington Chamber Small Business Roundtable

Tactical Compass

I was called in to officiate at a funeral yesterday. A long time client had created a core program to outperform the one I had developed with them almost a decade ago.

The old program had been delivering decreasing results every year, but the results of the new one made my program look inspired.

The owner invited me to come by to explain what was happening.

That was pretty easy. Yup, he’s dead, Jim.

What was entertaining was how they had developed their new program by massive internal discussions, like the boys in Animal House cranking up Belushi with, “Toga, Toga, Toga...”

From the story they told, their customers never had a chance to participate...so they never did.

Our old program had evolved, from looking at what was working, begging and pleading with the customers to take a minute to tell us what they might want that was better, and then finding a cost-effective way to provide it.

We took a middle-of-the-pack performer and made them the segment leader in less than a year.

In the 1800’s, if you were a cotton broker, you could develop a business model and leave it unchanged for four or more generations.

Today, serious tweaks are usually required in less than a year.

It’s less expensive to leave the buyers out of the planning, but it’s also less valuable.

I’ve read how Steve Jobs could create many new product categories all by himself, but I find that getting tactical data from customers points the direction to effective strategy, and at the same time develops the customer base for when the new offering is available.

How much are you hobbled by your prior opinion?

Kick off the New Year Right at Talk Your Business - How to make more and better sales right away! Wednesday Jan 30, 11:45 - 1:00 at the Arlington Chamber Small Business Roundtable

Innovation – Big and Small

When in 6^th grade, on the walk home with friends, we would stop at a local store and buy a soda (for 5¢) - I'd often think how nice it would be to have an ice cold bottle of water instead of the sweet soda.

With the popularity of bottled water today, was mine an innovative idea? No – it was just a thought, because there was no action to bring it to reality.

When Alexander Bell (and others) perfected the telephone – that was innovative because the idea was developed and something new was introduced. When the rotary dial gave way to push buttons it was a feature change – just a now 'tool' to do the same job of dialing the phone – but when the wireless phone was developed, it dramatically changed how (and where) we used the telephone.

Likewise, making a mobile phone smaller or introducing the flip phone were simply changes in features, but the smartphone was a creative development that added something new – pocket-size access to email, text messages, and internet. - Innovative.

Sticky notes, non-stick frying pans, digital recordings and personal players, and Google search are all innovative. Each was a creative idea that was developed, introduced as something new, and permitted us to do something differently. Innovation 2.0 (further updates and changes) is often just adding features, not renewing or altering the original.

The formula for innovation is: Idea + Development + Introduction = Something New and Useful. Although successful market penetration is not specifically part of the formula (e.g., the Ford Edsel was quite innovative but was a dud in the market); innovation does offer the possibility for rewards ($$) to the innovator.

Today there is an additional – radical – kind of innovation which also has three elements:

• Take something now existing and eliminate all but the core functionality
• Chop the price dramatically
• Expand the market reach by 100X, or 1000X or more.

This is Disruptive Innovation.

Currently, we see this happening in cellular communications – new entrants into the crowded market are offering unlimited calls, text messaging, and data/internet, you buy your own phone, and no contract for $20-$30 per month. These carriers are selling via the internet, at Wal-Mart and similar places – not at free standing storefronts in malls and urban centers. The trade-off for giving up some 'cool' features and putting up with some limitation of coverage areas is deemed worth the user saving up to $1,000 per year in mobile phone bills.

Disruptive innovation has the potential to completely alter established markets and create new leaders at high volumes, lower prices, and profitable margins. The former leaders are forced to 'change or perish' – once begun, disruptive innovation eliminates “business as usual”. Later, as innovation 2.0 feature creep sets in for the new leaders, another opportunity may develop to do it all over again by another disruptive innovator.

Although I have used product illustrations, the concept applies whether product-based or service-based, for profit, non-profit, or government entities that can remove features to get to important core elements, reduce cost/barriers to access, and expand the user base.

As we are struggling with flagging sales, disappearing budgets, pressure from customers, users, and the public, and lack of desired results with past tactical changes, perhaps a disruptive innovation approach is a valid path to take. Get less frills, pay less for the result, and more will benefit through increased access.

Welcome to the New Normal!

What innovative approach could offer a solution for that vexing problem?

Stages of Innovation

Innovation is not “out there,” it’s a process. Looking at it historically, technologically, geographically, and developmentally can make innovation familiar and straightforward.

Innovation in the United States in the 1700’s, was often British mechanics emigrating to make their fortune, building other people’s inventions they had learned in Britain. The work was often pirated tools for production, built by immigrant craftsmen.

Recent waves of innovation include agricultural innovation, mechanical innovation, electric innovation, distribution innovation, retail innovation, electronic innovation, software innovation, and digital innovation.

Clayton Christensen has defined disruptive innovation, where fewer features and lower price create a much larger user base. Disruptive innovation is currently seen in enough industries to be observable, measurable, and predictable. As a disruptive innovation matures, it adds features and costs, becoming vulnerable to subsequent disruptive innovators.

Fred Wilson wrote Darwinian Evolution of Startup Hubs charting innovation cycles through time and space to predict when and where innovation will show up.

Jay Deragon shows unsuspected entry points and several unique strategies for innovation with New Business Models In The Middle.

Cory Doctorow demonstrates organizational models for current innovation in Makers.

Wondering where to start your innovation? Some observations:

• My innovations are the result of focusing on something I know. Innovation is making.

• Innovation is starting up where the last person stopped, and

• James Patterson made more money from moveable type than Gutenberg did. (Innovation is not just about new technology. Historically, greater gains come from better application of an existing technology.)

Looking at it that way, there is an unlimited amount of meaningful innovation just waiting to be hacked.

What’s next for you? 

June 12 is the next Capital Technology Management Hub featuring Sales Lab'sRainmaker 14 – The Myth of Full Capacity - 300 seconds of pure profit. The featured speaker will be Cory Lebson of Lebsontech LLC, presenting User Experience: What it Means & Why a Technology Manager Should Care!

 

Back to the Frontier and Expansive Growth?

When I think of the frontier, I picture Westward-Ho wagon trains with settlers and supplies, or prospectors in the gold fields of California. However, the domestic frontier has been 'closed' for about a century.

The frontier offered an environment of unlimited opportunity, participants with a variety of viewpoints and backgrounds, and plenty of raw materials or other assets for the taking. For those willing to take the risk the reward could be outstanding – exploiting the frontier led to robust markets between traders and merchants back in the civilized East. The frontier resulted in the dramatic expansion of the USA footprint and an explosive growth in commerce rich with a wide variety of goods

Is a new frontier era possible? Consider this:

David Miller, at the recent Democratization of Innovation program, listed the three elements of frontierism (citing Frederick Jackson Turner's book) as:

• Abundance of assets – e.g., pelts, farmland, gold, wood, minerals
• Diversity of people – people from all over Europe, Russia, and elsewhere
• Lack of control – west of the Alleghenies, no one could tell you what to do.

Miller's contention is that the frontier has returned - the university is the modern-day frontier and hotbed of innovation. Here's why:

There is an abundance of assets available at universities in the form of materials, equipment, and a knowledge pool of the top minds in the technical and scientific fields.

There is a diversity of people with students and professors from a wide variety of countries, viewpoints, and cultures.

There is a great deal of freedom within the university environment - freedom of inquiry and laxity oversight.

What has contributed to this environment?

• Communications and computing power has evolved to be more powerful and less costly, to accommodate changing needs
• Global resources combined with the hacker's mentality of trust and collaboration for talent and materials
• Project or work groups of 1-2-3 individuals is the source of innovation – an 'I don't accept that this can't be done' attitude – working without the larger organization constraints of assignment and reporting.

Google, which grew from the ideas by a couple of students at Stanford and Facebook, the brainchild of a several Harvard students, are successful examples of what can come from this frontier setting. In addition, a growing portion of universities are encouraging entrepreneurship through courses, incubators, and start-up competitions. Innovation is aided by a favorable environment, but come from the individual, as in the examples above.

Miller raised the question – with this activity in the university environment of rich assets, diversity of participants, and unbounded exploratory freedom – does this predict a new expansive period of innovation and economic growth?

Looking beyond the university setting, we see a Makers Economy evolving. This is also powered by inexpensive communications, global resources and markets, availability of powerful computing equipment and tools, and an additional element: hacker mentality.

The hacker mentality is a combination of the challenge of doing something new or improving something now existing, collaboration with others, sharing what's been learned, and trusting others not to hijack their work. Hackers use social media, blogs, and hackerspace message boards to research reputations and reliability to determine who is trustworthy. The final element of the hacker mentality is – nothing is impossible, it is limited only by the span of interest – keep pushing on while interest is glowing (set it aside when it wanes).

Cory Doctorow wrote Makers, a futuristic novel describing a similar environment, absent the university element, where individuals would come together to create a solution for an issue by repurposing parts and components readily available. A non-traditional market developed with sales directly to the end user, often from a table in an outdoor bazaar, or by word of mouth. While the story may have been fiction as written, this is a comprehensive blueprint for the growing DIY (do-it-yourself) movement and the Makers Economy.

Today individuals and small clusters of individuals are collaborating to develop innovative solutions for existing issues or improving functionality for open source software, or creating entirely new uses. Projects are imagined not assigned, and the market is primarily the Direct Economy with sales directly to the end user via the internet and other direct sources.

Apps for the iPhone and Android phone are examples of the Makers Economy, as is the Android operating system which is open source with a multitude of independent coders constantly improving and expanding its functionality.

This is a good example of a new frontier opening up – Angry Birds was not a project assignment by Apple, it was an idea by a developer for a new game and it went viral when released. Philippe Kahn was the innovator behind making a camera for the mobile phone – which changed how people record and share experiences and activities. Would either have made it through a traditional new product approval process?

The Makers Economy, like the old frontier, is rapidly opening new channels of commerce (e.g., 0.9B on Facebook and 7B smartphones, tablets, and other addressable devices), becoming a greater contributor to the economy and its place continues to evolve.

Thanks to the new frontierism, we may be watching an evolutionary growth engine getting under way.

What are the implications to traditional markets and the existing regulatory structure?

June 12 is the next Capital Technology Management Hub featuring Sales Lab's Rainmaker 14 – The Myth of Full Capacity - 300 seconds of pure profit. The featured speaker will be Cory Lebson of Lebsontech LLC, presenting User Experience: What it Means & Why a Technology Manager Should Care!

The Secret To A Successful Startup

Start with a customer.

Choke That Temptation

I was presiding over a science fair last week, when suddenly, a new class came in and no judges were noticing! I hurried to notify the judges, but was stopped by the press of happy students, happy judges, real learning just busting out all over.

Then I thought to myself, these judges are Ph. Ds, who have been working science fairs as long as I have, and they could all see the same situation I could. They knew the drill.

I subsided before I did something stupid.

The judges flowed over to the new projects, on their own, without a hitch. Just a low key action keeping the focus totally on the student-stars of our show.

Have you ever seen a manager who thinks he was appointed sheriff, and can’t stand to sit and watch?

I’m starting to think there is a lot to be learned from rolling a bowling ball. All the work is done before you let go and before you have any idea how it is going. Any improvement after you let go is just supplying comedic value.

Comments are always nice...

Evaluating Event Contacts

Ever go to an event?

Meet a lot of people?

See some people at event after event?

How can you tell who you should be meeting and who is a waste of your effort?

Here’s the way I’ve come to prioritize my activities at an event.

Most important, I am looking to acknowledge my existing clients and partners.

Then I enjoy seeing people I have worked with on a successful project. Completed commercial, civic, and social projects, and successful events are evidence of our ability accomplish something together. I particularly like projects that can be completed and also celebrated in one afternoon.

I want to meet the people who routinely put up and then take down the decorations at the dance. People who hold office and drive the check-in table are important to me.

Then I enjoy meeting people who say they are interested in working with me.

After that, I am flattered to meet anyone who has commented and added to my writing.

I am thrilled when I meet a writer or speaker I follow.

I like to hear an entertaining story, or some information I can use. Tell me about an event or website that interests me.

I’m never busy as there aren’t many people like that.

I am bored with people bent on unloading business cards, and uncomfortable with purveyors of that limited special opportunity, or their pressing immediate need that I should fund.

Have you met them?

After you fine tune your own rating system, how might that change your actions during and after events?

April 10 is the next Capital Technology Management Hub featuring Sales Lab’s Rainmaker 13 - Are You Making The Most of Your Opportunity? 300 seconds of pure profit. The main speaker will be Tom Cooper of Bright Hill Group, presenting How to Deliver On a Project - When Your Team Doesn't Report To You.

Rainmaker 13 - Are You Making The Most of Your Opportunity?

Technology isn’t about electronics. Technology is about how we work. Moving forward is usually a random walk.

The first few versions of an improvement are often hilarious...after we’ve recovered.

Databases are capturing and holding a lot of information about our customers. That is supposed to give a great benefit for selling.

To err is human. To really mess up requires a computer.

So what’s the best way to use all this data about our customers and prospects?

I find the key to the sale is to be present when the customer figures out something new. People like to learn something new and if I’m associated with it, I’m welcome in the future, sometimes even desired.

The purpose of data is not to tell someone what they already know, or even to make a recommendation of how they should act. The purpose of learning about your customers is to put yourself in the position where they learn something new in your presence.

Definition: A Rainmaker creates a significant amount of new business for a company. The Sales Lab Rainmaker Series is one rainmaker technique for technologists during the first 300 seconds (five minutes) of the monthly Capital Technology Management Hub Meeting.

Here's the growing collection:

#12 - Makers - The Future is NOW (3-11-12)

#11 - What Have I Done For You Lately? (2-8-12)

#10 - Tune Your Work for the Internet (1-2-12)

# 9 - Convey your Business Personality - Easy, Simple, and Free (12-24-11)

# 8 - Google + Your Personal Website (9-15-11)

# 7 - Mark Your Territory (8-22-11)

# 6 - Networking - Are You Being Served? (5-25-11)

# 5 - Start With an Offer (4-27-11)

# 4 - Time, Talent, and Treasure - The Winner's Lemonade (4-10-11)

# 3 - Process to Purchase - How to Sell Your Skills (3-1-11)

# 2 - The Name Tag (1-5-11)

# 1 - Gifts (11-5-10)

The Beginning - Rainmakers (11-3-10)

April 10 is the next Capital Technology Management Hub featuring Rainmaker 13 - Are You Making The Most of Your Opportunity? The featured speaker is Tom Cooper of Bright Hill Group, presenting How to Deliver On a Project - When Your Team Doesn't Report To You.

Sales Culture

The discipline of sales does more than provide the funds that power the organization. The skills developed in the practice of sales have a far-reaching effect on the organization.

Sales as Change Agent

The fastest way to change an organization’s culture is to change what customers buy.

Communication

The skill to enlarge influence is communication. Selling is about communication. The next new thing is that every effective salesman will have their own web presence, that they design and maintain as a business asset.

Leadership

If you think leading a group on a mission is difficult, try leading before consensus is developed. Oh, that’s the definition of selling.

Square Deal

Every salesman I know has a healthy respect of the power of the disappointed client. Most weren’t disappointed by design, which doesn’t lessen the pain, and it is better to learn that respect earlier rather than later.

Developing Others

I don’t develop people because it’s some right thing to do, I develop people’s skills to make my life easier and more productive. Training time is way too important to spend on trivial pursuits.

What benefits of the sales culture do you use?

The High Cost of Maintaining

I was participating in a market entry strategy session and reached a conclusion that unless you already have a commanding lead in a category, it’s better to build your strategy around disruptive innovation.

Look for:

• Fewer features,
• Much less cost,
• Taking advantage of newer technology, and
• Scaling to many more customers.

Sometimes “maintenance” is code for following what is comfortable for management, not satisfying customers.

Your thoughts?

And How Would You Like Me To Proceed?

One of my buds got a referral from a client. She got all excited, wanted to learn more, called and offered to take the referrer to lunch, coffee, whatever.

The response was like she passed gas in church.

The referrer just wanted her to call up the new person and sell her something. The fix was in.

Later she called me, concerned she hadn’t handled it as well as she wanted, wanted to know how to respond better.

I said, “And how would you like me to proceed?”

She said she wanted me to tell her what she should say, she was concerned about a referral fees, and didn’t want to upset her existing client.

I said, “And how would you like me to proceed?”

She said she wanted to behave better, but she didn’t have that much experience with this kind of referral, and...

I said, “What you want to say next time is, ‘And how would you like me to proceed?’ That should bring out more of the conditions for satisfaction. What you don’t want to do is make assumptions when you don’t know what is going on.”

Now, how do I get your comments defining the value of this post for you?

One True Expert

David Weinberger is one of my heroes. He was one of the four who wrote The Cluetrain Manifesto, which laid out the “why” of social media. He has a hot blog The Journal of Heuristic Organizations (JOHO), and he has a new book, Too Big To Know, one of several recent books defining how information, education, learning, and society are being changed by the hyperlink.

I really like David because he writes about important ideas and makes them useful in many ways. As you can see from that hyperlink hyperlink, he can be a bit of a smartass, meaning he finds shareable humor everywhere he goes. What would you expect from a guy who was a writer for Woody Allen?

Over the weekend, I enjoyed a 58 minute video, Authors @ Google: David Weinberger (Thanks Google!) where David explains parts of his new book. It was a two pages of notes presentation, which means I got a lot of value per minute. This is new thinking, not sit back entertainment, so I wrote the ideas, so I could think about them later.

I think a lot about models, (Reality is too complex to parse in real time, models are simplified versions of reality. Don’t confuse the model with the reality), so one of the best bits in the video was the platypus. 

After we noticed animal-vegetable-mineral, scientists set up an organizing system, or taxonomy, so they would know where things fit in relation to each other, and why a tomato is a fruit.

The platypus didn't fit the classification requirements of the taxonomy, so the most common solution was the platypus couldn't exist. Wonder who told the platypus' mother? 

Taxonomies are a way to put everything in their one right place. That is important if you're filing your data in libraries and books. The one right place no longer matters in a hyperlinked world. Louie, Louie shows up on every rock playlist without being diminished.

Building on how hyperlinks change single point filing methodologies, Weinberger then notes the value of having one true expert. 

Since knowledge is so hard to find, let’s certify specialists in specific disciplines, so we can ask them the hard questions and get a quick answer. What we notice next is one expert is an authority, two experts is a disagreement. The hyperlinked world allows anyone who cares to look at the original data, and I find the experts usually recommend a suboptimal solution for my need.

Now that hyperlinks let each of us look at the original material, finding and understanding what we need is different than relying on the one true expert. And that is why hyperlinks have changed our world.

Your thoughts?

Please join us 6 pm, March 13^th, at the Capital Technology Management Hub, where Sales Lab’s Jack Gates presents Rainmaker 12, Lessons from Makers, followed by the featured CTMH Presentation, Sales Lab’s Dick Davies speaking about The Direct Economy, How to Profit from The Most Lucrative Market in the History of the World!

The Accident of Your Experience

I was talking with a pretty smart business observer, who said, “I don’t think the lives of many people in this town have turned out the way they expected.”

At first I thought he was referring to overwhelming smart-phone addiction, but thinking further my life sure hasn’t been what I was planning in high school, college, the early years.

It’s not better, it’s not worse, it’s just very different. That unexpected sense of differentness makes some people unhappy, makes some people feel rootless. Of course it makes some people feel like they have won the lottery and are living in a fantasy world.

Same world.

My observation is that seldom do we end up doing what we had originally planned, that our external circumstances are the sum of our choices and to a lesser extent what has been done for and to us. We have more control over our internal equilibrium.

Pressure comes from outside, stress from the inside.

Seems to me that a lot the success of Americans comes from following the words of the famous Yogi, who said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

How have your choices changed your outcomes?

Please join us 6 pm, March 13^th, at the Capital Technology Management Hub, where Sales Lab’s Jack Gates presents Rainmaker 12, Lessons from Makers, followed by the featured CTMH Presentation, Sales Lab’s Dick Davies speaking about The Direct Economy, How to Profit from The Most Lucrative Market in the History of the World!

The When of Sales

The Sales Model still shows the best way for the salesman to spend her time.

Let’s try a model describing how prospects come to a decision for considered purchases, as opposed to impulse purchases...and what Sales should do.

I am seeing three movements to the performance.

First Movement

Due to internet and social media, prospects learn about me before I know they are looking. They know about my history, process, customers, and results before they talk to me. They have a good idea how we fit culturally. Early adopters have been finding better ways of making their story available for a couple of years. The prospects have their list of needs and features defined before we ever meet.

Do you know what your prospects are learning before you get a chance to exert yourself?

Second Movement

I am learning that when I finally get face-to-face, my story isn’t important. They already know my story. They want to make sure I know their story...and like it! I’m taking good notes, as this is the official version for our continuing relationship.

I am also alert for one way to upgrade their understanding of what they want. I figure that if I can change their understanding of what they want, all those who have gone before me are disqualified, and it would be a major job of work to track them all down for comparison.

A great example of that happened last week.

The woman I love decided she needed new golf clubs. She does that every decade or so, So two weeks ago we went to the Washington golf show where she tried all the new ladies’ clubs, and started to make up her mind. Her next available day we went to a couple of golf stores to buy some clubs. At the last one, the salesman cautioned not to buy anything that day. Her chosen brand was coming out with a new, improved model in five days. Game, Set, and Match to Kevin at Golfdom. It’s on the calendar.

The Third Movement is after our meeting, what I call, “Gotta ask the wife.” My wife does it, too, so it’s not about the wife. It’s about getting out of the room to decompress and make sure we are making the right decision. I would hate to make a foolish decision, just because I enjoyed the performance.

I’ve noticed that the good salesmen have figured out how to set up a winning presentation even when they know they will not be present.

Winning that third movement requires providing more than was available during the initial selection stage. You need something to push all the stakeholders into agreement to take the desired action.

Yesterday, I was working with a 25 year customer, still doing the same business, still running a high margin shop, in a field that collapses every eight years. It’s been five years since he upgraded his business cards, and nothing was broken, but he wanted to see what he could improve.

In 12 words, we got his tool for the Third Movement, how to bring fresh energy to the relationship. I would have thought after 25 years there wasn’t much fresh to do. Whew, I was wrong!

February 22nd Sales Lab’s Rainmaker 12 is WhatHave I Done for You Lately? at the Capital Technology Management Hub on Wednesday, February 22^nd. The featured CTMH speaker will be Sean Crowley on the topic of The Open Source Web Content Management Platform, Drupal, and its Momentum.

LinkWithin Creates Reads and Comments

Last week I got a valid comment on a two year old post. The same commenter also posted under a current post.

LinkedWithin is a widget that shows a changing choice of three stories at the bottom of each blog post.

I first saw it on A Suitable Wardrobe, and even though I feel tremendous pressure to get off the  internet, I would read three or four previous posts, both those that were new to me and some I had forgotten I had seen.

Recalling that R&D means Research and Duplicate, I installed it on Through The Browser and Sales Lab Posts. Occasionally I get lost in past posts on my own blogs.

LinkWithin Creates more Reads and Comments

How are you increasing flow?

February 22nd Sales Lab’s Rainmaker 12 is WhatHave I Done for You Lately? at the Capital Technology Management Hub on Wednesday, February 22^nd. The featured CTMH speaker will be Sean Crowley on the topic of The Open Source Web Content Management Platform, Drupal, and its Momentum.

Life Boat Rule

One of the saddest things in management is the gold star looming on the project plan that says, “Breakthrough required HERE!”

Next time you are faced with a thorny problem, consider using the Life Boat Rule.

The Life Boat Rule is You have to make it with your current crew, no substitutions.

When I remember the Life Boat Rule, I save a lot of time, not mooning for some random waterwalker.

Our solution is based on existing skills and our best technologies. We know what we’ve got, and spend less time reading directions and hacking our way out of failed prototypes.

When I am recruiting, remembering the Life Boat Rule has SOMETIMES stopped a dumb selection.

After my crew understands the Life Boat Rule, people are faster to step up for what is required. As my good friend John Wayne used to say between movies, “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”

Of course when we’re all fully committed to using our existing talent and resources and nicely making way, we look a lot better to some random water walker if one happens by.

Your Comment?

February 22nd Sales Lab’s Rainmaker 12 is WhatHave I Done for You Lately? at the Capital Technology Management Hub on Wednesday, February 22^nd. The featured CTMH speaker will be Sean Crowley on the topic of The Open Source Web Content Management Platform, Drupal, and its Momentum.