|
Introduction for the Initial Issue:
A CEO’s job is one of the most challenging occupations
on earth, requiring the energy and drive of a racehorse, the stamina of a
marathoner, the patience of Job, and the political acumen of Disraeli. Many
are called, but few are chosen. Even fewer survive, and only a handful
achieves the prosperity they hope for; those who embody the proper balance
of essential attributes, evolve from a good leader to a great leader and
from a competent CEO to a prosperous CEO
Why Should You Listen? I have worked
closely with twenty CEOs in the High Tech Sector and have interviewed an
additional dozen to identify those attributes that separate the winners from
those who merely get by. These CEOs run the gamut from individuals who
created multi-billion dollar companies in less than a decade to first-time
CEOs trying to get the latest innovation into the marketplace.
There are over 20,000 books commercially available
today that detail what it takes to be a great CEO and a great leader. They
all focus on some fundamental factors:
1)
An intense--even overwhelming--desire to create your vision of
success for the firm and yourself, and your investors.
2)
The skill in every moment and in every breath to balance the elements
of simplicity, creativity and harmony within the organization, while moving
unwaveringly to fulfill the vision.
3)
The constant and omnipresent elementary understanding that the
primary purpose of your business is to provide the acknowledged market with
Products/Services that meets the needs of that market.
The ability to maintain equilibrium between these
fundamental factors is based on your underlying value system which
constitutes the essential attributes that will drive your decision making.
In this and upcoming issues I will examine common
occurrences that cause a CEO to lose either focus or balance and, as a
result, for the company to lose momentum, personnel, customers, market share
and capital.
Want Revenue? Dismantle the Maze!
Scenario: For the last 3-5 years the engineers have
been working day and night to develop an innovation that will change the way
people interact with their world. The engineers are very proud of what they
have created, but still believe additional functionality is required to
complete the project. Marketing is dutifully turning on the demand creation
engine and developing literature, training sales personnel, and generating
leads. The sales executive has hired a crack team to bring in that
low-hanging fruit and to beat the goals promised to the investors. Everyone
involved is convinced they understand what the market needs; they have
developed the right tools and have contingency plans for problems that may
occur. The excitement is high and everyone is sure that success is just
around the corner.
Six months later, though, customers aren’t biting, the
coffers are empty, and you are waking up in the morning with cold sweats
wondering what went wrong. Ask your executive team, and they will provide
you with hours of their spin. Many of the statements and arguments put
forth by the executive team will be useful, others will be
self-aggrandizing. You will hear arguments for and about increasing
functionality, increasing advertising, changing market focus, hiring more
personnel, and replacing the sales organization. Your team members will
blame undercapitalization, product bugs, market timing, etc. Yet, when all
is said and done, executive team members are only speculating. While some of
their recommendations may be useful, expecting answers from them is
unrealistic and actually adds unneeded complexity to solving the problem or
problems. Companies, from the executives, to the field representatives, to
the janitors live under a myth/vision of what the firm’s success will be and
how it will be constructed; this myth/vision which was sold to investors,
employees and other committed constituencies, may be flawed. The hardest
part at this moment is in your mind to discern, if the myth is imperfect and
to do so you need to gather information from the prospects.
Only two groups of people really know why the product
isn’t selling: the prospects themselves and the field representatives who
speak with them:
1)
The prospects can tell you in a New York minute whether your product
is appealing—or what’s wrong with it—and under what circumstances they are
willing to bet their careers and purchase your firm’s offering.
2)
The field representatives are constantly exposed to what prospects
think is wrong with a product. Indeed, it is the primary responsibility of
this group to remove prospects’ objections to the product until the
prospects have no further objections to purchasing your firm’s offering.
Marketing and Engineering are great organizations, but
even with the best product and service planning by these enlightened
personnel, the proof of your success is when the company sells something.
The prospect is not going to become a customer until every objection is
addressed to the satisfaction of the prospect. The field organization may
need all resources available with the company to remove these objections.
So how have other successful CEOs leveraged these resources to remove
objections?
-
Always, be available
for meetings with prospects and customers.
-
Keep an Open Door
policy for all member of the field organization.
-
Encourage your staff
to spend at least 20-25% of their time with customers or the field
organization.
-
Attend Sales/Customer
Service Meetings regularly, listen intently and ask detailed questions
about objections, on functionality, availability, price, competition, etc.
-
Have joint meetings
with the field organization and the executive staff and in the case of
smaller firms, the entire company can join in on field organization
meetings.
-
Keep an account on the
CRM (Customer Resource Management) system and peruse the activities of
your field organization.
-
Attend tradeshows with
your field organization and spend at least 50% of your time meeting with
prospects, customers, and the field organization.
-
Create a sense of
urgency within your executive staff to immediately assist the field
organization is managing and resolving prospect and customer objections.
-
Most importantly in
your mind constantly weigh all inputs as to the underlying motivation
behind all providers of relevant facts, to determine bias based on Myth,
self-aggrandizement and faulty measurement systems of achievement.
Unfortunately, upper management too often dismisses
prospects’ objections as mere excuses by field personnel who are not meeting
their goals. If you are to be a highly successful CEO, you must insist that
the executive team not treat objections lightly. Rather, team members must
listen to the feedback from each serious prospect, then systematically
prioritize and remove every relevant and pertinent objection reported. Your
executive team may have great insights into the underlying cause of the
objections, but if you want the revenue, remove every wall in the maze
between the mouse and the cheese.
|
|
