Do you have INTENTIONAL retention?

"There is only one boss.  The customer.  And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else." 

~Sam Walton (Walmart) 

What are you doing to keep your existing customers?  If you haven't examined your organizations behavior in this regard, it is time to wake up and stop being complacent.

I've sold for many organizations and been involved with keeping customers happy (key ingredient to ongoing relationship) with diverse structures in sales coverage, territories and managing relationships.  However, I have to say, very few had, if any, had a retention strategy.

Most organizations leave it up to their sales and marketing teams to be the keepers of customer perception.  Some even have pow wows with the big wigs to shake hands and hob nob to convey appreciation for the business.

Yet what happens if there is a savvy organization out you by savvy marketing message or a sharp sales pro who can infiltrate the fortress of your customer, shed doubt on the relationship, offer a better "deal", make you look bad?  Can you withstand it?  In the wide world of business, especially with economic turmoil, expenses are scrutinized relentlessly.  

I am going to hazard a guess, that most organizations are able to easily provide proof and documentation on the following:

• go to market strategy

• sales structure

• customer profile

• delivery

• pricing 

• marketing

• web presence

Do you have a strategy to retain existing customers?

Far fewer can articulate their strategy to retain  existing customers.  If so, more than likely it falls on marketing and sales:

• face to face appointments

• reviews of service delivery commitments

• warm and fuzzy outbound marketing programs

• direct mail, email, and campaigns to keep in touch with the customer

• events, promotions, webinars, technical support

It is great if you have all of those going on and those responsible are held accountable for:

• increasing revenue

• building client base

• brand awareness

• referral programs

But what about plain old retention?  How do you define your program?  Do you leave it up to your customer to ask for more help with:

• frequency discounts

• options to upgrade 

• changing needs:  growth, technology, globalization

• evolving regulations impacting them or their industry

I have to tell you honestly:  if your customer is going to go through all the trouble to ask you for your help, they may as well put it out there to see if anyone else can provide better options.  What does that spell for you: RISK.

The 80% / 20% Rule

It is a known fact that 80 percent of your sales comes from 20 percent of your customers. So why aren't you protecting that 80 percent?  Are you doing everything in your power to ensure that those 80 percent are serviced the hell out of?  I'd bet 90 percent would say yes.  I challenge you to define how?  Do you have a retention program?  Can you answer:

• How you ensure that your customer is 110 percent completely happy?

• How do you prevent your customer from going to market to price shop?

• How do you measure customer satisfaction?

• How are you proactively helping your customers?

What I am talking about here is "intentional retention".  You aren't leaving it up to any scapegoats in sales or marketing if you lose a customer or even a major account.  You have the support and a standalone program in place that outlines and defines how you keep those customers.  Savvy retailers, airlines and the like have loyalty and/or reward programs to assist with repeat customers.  However, in business, you don't have the luxury of having the numbers to have a sophisticated program that is intricate within your systems, web, marketing and sales systems.  Don't make any excuses:  you don't have time, you aren't that big.  That isn't any excuse.  Your survival depends on it!

It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.”

                                                                                             ~Henry Ford

What I am recommending you do is assemble all the chiefs in your major areas (accounting, operations, sales, marketing, technical, production, labor), bring out the drawing board, split into groups of three or four and ask everyone to answer the following questions:

• Identify who your best customers are:  create a profile

• Who pays well? 

• Who is not always asking for discounts? 

• Who are you best able to provide service for?

• What are the frequencies:  daily, weekly, monthly, annually?

• Do you have measures to identify churn risk (will leave you for the competition)

• What do you do if a customer is identified as a potential loss?

• How do you communicate with your customer?

• How would your customer identify in its importance to your organization?

• Who is involved when a risk is identified?  What is done?  Is there a process?

Define a clear objective

Bring forward each team's contribution then extrapolate what everyone agrees upon.  Of course, there may be some who are inclined to defend their stance.  Regardless, the discussion that will evolve should be eye opening, the heated debates unsettling.  While it may take a few sessions, you must create a clear objective consistently held out front:

1. The goal is to understand everyone's perspective (it's going to be a mish mash to start with) 

1. What is your retention strategy?

1. How are you going to provide a loyalty or retention program?

Let me tell you.  You can often capitalize on the big boys.  Granted, they have at their disposal lots of research, intelligence, structure, programs that you simply don't have because of your size.  What I'm proposing is you to decide how you can carve out that information into a niche that helps your company. 

Define your niche 

If so many big guns have loyalty or reward programs ask yourself what the purpose of it all is?  Then set out to define your own niche and create something that fits in with your size, capabilities and financial resources.  If you don't think this is important then I should have asked at the start:  what will it cost your organization to lose a customer ... if you don't have an intentional retention strategy?

 "The well-satisfied customer will bring the repeat sale that counts." 

~James Cash Penney (JC Penney) 

~CUSTOMER CARE ~

 "Let's take care and protect our customers -- or someone else will." 

Customer cycles or sales funnels?

"The top salesperson in the organization probably missed more sales than 90% of the sales people on the team, but they also made more calls than the others made."

                                                                                    ~Zig Ziglar

The difference between a customer journey and a sales funnel - is your perception of either.  Inexperienced sales rookies are coached to label what phase their customer is at in their buying cycle by their management and/or organization.  The most definitive one you tend to see is divided into thirds .... commonly referred to as "the sales funnel".

The top third and widest with the most numbers is "Suspects".   Otherwise referenced as leads.  You are at the beginning, likely haven't met with a decision maker, or even understand why or how they buy.  They  have been identified as a potential customer by:

1. Cold calls
2. Lead generation
3. Referrals

The second tier is "Prospects" or called opportunities.   Are a mid-volume of numbers.  Prospects have moved from being a "Suspect" to a "Prospect" because they have been qualified.  The sales professional has identified them as a potential customer from a number of avenues: 

1. Web contact inquiry contact 
2. Inbound telephone call asking questions 
3. Internal leads:  referrals, heads up or personal recommendations
4. That first meeting, cold call
5. They've been identified as having a need that your company can fill
6. Follow up from cold call, or investigative meeting
7. Someone has read or shared information that shows where growth may be
8. Knowledge of key players are:  decision maker, influencer, user, authority, payment
9. They have the ability to pay for your service or product
10. Who you are speaking to has  the authority to make a decision to move forward or will simply be making a recommendation or gathering prices
11. What internal endorsement is required to proceed with providing a solution, quote or proposal or be established as a vendor, provider or partner
12. A decision will or can be made based on the need you can fill

The final third tier is "Customers".   These are the fewest numbers.  They have traveled through the funnel to arrive at a transaction, contract or agreement to buy.  They have satisfied your organizations criteria to do business or you have met their's:

1. Set up an account: met credit requirements:  credit check, references
2. Have the ability to pay:  financial resources, how or when and authorized by someone
3. You have identified that your prospect wants or is willing to pay for your service or product
4. You understand their buying frequency:  one time, annual, intermittent, monthly, daily, etc.
5. You understand how they work and how to work them within your own system or processes ... sometimes customized
6. You know their structure and where they may buy from:  global, national, or local 
7. They have issued a purchase order (PO#), requisition or cheque to buy
8. You have broken them down by value to your organization:  major account, corporate, enterprise, business, entrepreneur, consumer
9. You have systems or structure to match their buying:  an account executive, major account representative, territory manager, sales representative, customer service
10. You have adapted your structure to mirror your customer's behavior:  single point of contact on major accounts or enterprise sales, business to business local or global points of contact, order forms, web order systems, incoming telephone orders, fax'd orders (forms), catalogue, directories

The most successful sales professionals or sales oriented organizations match their behavior or identity system to that of the potential customer.  They understand where their customer is in the buying cycle:

1. Research
2. Information gathering
3. Price shopping
4. Vendor qualification
5. Who can provide the desired product or service to match what they think they want
6. Criteria outlined on how they will decide to act (make a purchase)
7. Established approved list of vendors or providers authorized to be purchased from
8. Budget accounted for
9. Approval process (by transaction or by location or by authority)
10. Payment structure
11. Review structure 
12. Service structure
13. Support to maintain orders
14. Ability to meet needs
15. Reputation to meet requirements or identify unknown needs and proactively fix gaps
16. Established trust

How you identify where you are at is important to create a language among your team as to where you are at in a sale:  are you on a fishing expedition or are you assembling your team of resources to put all heads together to put together a win-win proposal?

"If eighty percent of your sales come from twenty percent of all your items, just carry those twenty percent."

                                                         ~Henry A. Kissinger

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems have these areas identified and can populate into graphs or graphic funnels to help those:

1. Forecasting potential revenue, profit margins, marketing efforts
2. Budget resources:  people, equipment, processes, tools, systems, 
3. Have all the systems and resources in place or easily activated responses
4. Policies and procedures in place for escalations or when things go wrong or extra assistance required for customer are in place
5. People resources match customer orders:  equated to response time, hours of operation, scheduling

It is the footprint of your sales efforts success:  as both an organization and the customer facing personnel status in the customer's buying cycle.  I recommend that you break it down into bite size chunks so that they can be addressed.  If you are writing a business plan, a key component is answering:  "where and how will you get or retain customers?".  This should be long before you are looking for investors or financing to launch or continue operations.  I liked this diagram via Google by Andrea Callahan:

Ironically, most start ups and entrepreneurs gear up on marketing, outbound campaigns, telemarketing, sales coverage long before they have answered any of the above.  It can easily foreshadow failure over success.  Yes, you need to walk before you run.  However, assembling and identifying who are suspects, prospects and customers and where they are in the funnel, and the numbers associated with those numbers, clearly outlines the road map to monitor and manage growth.

It takes patience, practice and precision to be able to do this automatically.  The more adaptive or fluid you are in meeting demands are going to allow you to pinpoint the when, who and how to focus on your grow and ability to flourish.  If you recognize how you will move and keep pace with your customers at their speed, not your own, will signal a mature organization with a clear understanding on who is their customer and how great the relationship can be.

"Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says: 'Make me feel important.' Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life."

~Mary Kay Ash

The tortoise vs the hare

Selling to big corporations compared to selling to small-to-medium businesses is like differentiating between a marathon runner and a jogger!  Then, to make matters more confusing in come the dreaded acronyms that we take liberty with:  B2B (business to business) B2C (business to corporations) or B2C (business to consumers).

JOGGER (B2B) HARE

Sales to business are more transactional:  quantity over quality - the more activity, prospects in your sales funnel, the more likely you will close some of them (secure a sale).  Rookies to sales will start out in B2B and as they improve, they may (not always) be promoted and evolve into B2C sales.  You should be comfortable cold calling, knocking on doors and rebounding after being declined.  You are a quick closer.

MARATHON (B2C) TORTOISE

Selling to big corporations (sometimes referred to as enterprise sales) requires skill -- knowledge about the company, its people, culture, processes, needs, -- which requires a lot of research, endurance, and more training.   This is usually a step up from B2B sales and recognition for having put in the time to understand what your value proposition is (what sets you apart).  You create solutions, you identify needs before anyone else may.  The organization tasking you to sell B2C must equip you with all the necessary tools, resources, support but most of all TIME to be successful in this arena.  The bigger the fish, the longer it takes to reign it in.  You are a problem solver.

I took liberties with this blog by changing it up.  Essentially, B2B is selling to businesses which includes corporations.  B2C is often referred to as selling business to consumers.  I modified it simply because Business to Consumers rely less on sales professionals and more on advertising, marketing, direct mail, telemarketing, etc.  The skill and finesse required to sell to corpora-tions/enterprise is more complicated and should not be part of a start up strategy.  Chances are, as a start up, you won't have the compensation, resources, support or time to attract the skilled sales executive.  You can take just anybody and shove them out the door and tell them to knock on doors when you want simply a hunter for new business.

Take the time to evaluate what kind of sales professional you are or what kind of sales professional you want.  Turnover in sales will hurt you in the long run.  It sends a message to your potential customers that you value the sale over the value of those representing you. 

Read my biggest click blog:  Hunter, farmer .... Most companies will hire the hare instead of the tortoise.  The results are at the finish line.

One can't help but notice how often structure can defeat itself when most organizations decide they want the energy of the hare and don't have the patience for the tortoise.    We all know how that story ends.  Similarly, the results in sales at the end of the race can be the same.

I suggest that you need both.  I highly recommend you don't eliminate either. Understanding both styles and the benefits to your organization will allow everyone to flourish.  Primarily, expectations will be accurate, deployment of resources managed accordingly and timelines will be adjusted. 

Orange you glad I picked orange?

I have implemented and included the color and fruit orange into my theme and as a key identifier or logo to be associated with @optioneerJM.  My blog is a bit behind my business cards that adopted the image several months ago. 

 I love the idea of the orange because it is so appealing to me and likely many others.  It depicts freshness, health, colorfulness, while being memorable.  I also associate the color orange with a positive vibe.

In my brief research, I discovered that in psychology, Orange is the color of social communication and optimism .... amazingly spot on to who I want to be associated with.  

Reading on, I learned that the color orange radiates warmth and happiness.  It relates to "gut reaction' or "gut instinct".  Orange also offers emotional strength in difficult times.  It helps us to bounce back from disappointment, despair and assists in the recovery from grief.  The color orange radiates warmth and happiness, combining the physical energy and stimulation of red with the cheerfulness of yellow.  

So, why do I put so much emphasis on the color orange?  It is because I read a long time back that the colors you select in your logo are important clues to longevity and success.  Imagine that? 

According to Wikipedia:  

Color psychology is the study of color as a determinant of human behavior. Examples include quantification of individual color preferences^[1] and investigating the relationship between shirt color and match outcome in English football.^[2] However, the interface between color and environmental stimuli is a highly complex interface and one which is open to the influence of a large number of factors. In addition, there are a number of key reasons why the principle of caveat emptor should prevail in regard to color psychology, especially in regard to information about colour psychology found in mainstream media and popular culture.^[3]

The color psychology of orange is optimistic and uplifting, rejuvenating our spirit. In fact orange is so optimistic and uplifting that we should all find ways to use it in our everyday life, even if it is just an orange colored pen that we use.

Orange brings spontaneity and a positive outlook on life and is a great color to use during tough economic times, keeping us motivated and helping us to look on the bright side of life.

Here are a few more benefits of orange:

• It promotes enthusiasm for life
• Relates to adventure and risk-taking
• Inspires confidence, competition and independence
• Those inspired by orange are always on the go!
• Those who love orange are extroverted and uninhibited
• Orange lovers tend to show off
• Orange stimulates two-way conversations
• Orange gets people thinking and talking!

Well, I certainly hope my blog is uplifting, optimistic and spirited.  It is going to be an adventure to see whether it brings all the fun it promises.  Thank YOU for joining me on the ride!

WTF is SEO?

Be a yardstick of quality.  Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.

 ~Steve Jobs

A guest comment on my Linked In post, bluntly asked:  "WTF is SEO?" What a great question!  You see it everywhere on pretty much any social media site and fairly often as an attribute by a company or individual professing to be an expert.  "WTF" is right!  Although that is best avoided in polite language (most people can probably guess what it stands for) .... or it could possibly mean:  "W-ith T-rue F-ondness". 

FYI (For your information): SEO = Search Engine Optimization 

My apology for getting caught in my own trap by using the SEO acronym.  What it really means is persons or organizations who can bump up your results in search engine query results.  Often they are ones who specialize  in web analytic.  

According to Wikipedia:  Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid ("organic") search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search,[1] news search and industry-specific vertical search engines.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content, HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic.

SEO is often linked with advertising, marketing, events, blogs, promotions, email campaigns, social media -- whatever it takes to drive traffic to an organizations website.  

The top in the craft of SEO is when there are key words commonly linked with that organization or web site, is set to attract the web crawlers or virtual robots who scroll through millions of content to determine who/what/where you appear in  ranking results.  i.e. Page 1 or page 10 (not including paid banner ads).  

  

Design is a funny word.  Some people think design means how it looks.  But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works.

 ~Steve Jobs

  

 Most consumers today will not buy anything without first doing research:  reviews, media, etc.  How they do it, is typically by random searches by product, name or questions that lands them on a website to navigate around to find what they came looking for.  In fact, according to Hubspot:"55% of visitors spend fewer than 15 seconds on your website." 

Savvy web masters, have laid the trap to snag those searches on behalf of their organization or clients website.  This potentially leads to more inquiries, calls to actions, limited time deals, generated by the website.

There are other ways to get around the crowd and get in front -- quick fixes for those who don't have the time to wait for organic results.  Organic results, are from slow, steady, concentrated, consistent messaging out in the social media world.  Quick fixes, are paid banner ads through Google ad words or Facebook campaigns, keyword manipulations, buying followings, likes and the works.

Before you seriously consider hiring an SEO, marketing or content guru, ask yourself, what makes them so special?  I know I'm pretty darn tired of reading a bio or boast by someone wanting to take your money to "help you" increase your results, then go to Twitter and they only have a few hundred followers or even better, look them up on KRED or KLOUT to see how they rate among peers and it is dismal, not even noteworthy.

I would suggest you leave those "selling ice to eskimos" SEO, web analytical and Social Media self-proclaimed TOP of everything to their fooled customers who believe they are spending money to gain some hidden holy grail.   The truly gifted and ones you should be hiring are actively participating in it, not just talking and blowing steam at everyone.  They have results on KLOUT and KRED and have their own following.

Do your homework before you part with any money.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.  ~George S. Patton

Eagle's Nest or Crow's View? Who is better to sell for?

There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

~Nelson Mandella

A recent article in Linked In got me thinking ... which is better from a sales point of view -- to sell for a big corporation or a small organization?  There are definitely good points for either.

Smaller Company (Crow's View)

• Usually bigger job title
• Greater agility in customizing solutions for customers
• Less bureaucracy to weed through to get an answer
• You can pick up the phone and call an executive for permission to clarify rules, boundaries, pricing
• The President, or an Operations Executive, will roll up their sleeves and sit in and pow wow to brainstorm on ways to win a customer
• You will be given more responsibility, in a shorter period of time because you have less people to prove anything too
• On the flip side, if you mess up, it will be exposed more readily with less barriers
• You will have to prove to the customer that you can handle their work or requirements
• Looking from the outside in, you may more easily identify gaps in service that you can fill
• You can offer to be the back up provider to the Bigger Corporation, which can be a toe in the door
• Customer relationships have a wider breadth - they get to know the delivery/dispatch personnel to the service tech, to the accounting people
• If your customers run into financial challenges, you can often navigate a win win arrangement that will earn loyalty
• More difficult for a smaller company to have the advertising, PR machine that the Big Corporation has
• Small companies tend to be entrepreneurial, therefore, many customers know the owner/principle personally
• Loyalty between employer and employee tend to be pronounced and rewarded with trust
• Smaller graphic locations or spread out to only a few branches

Big Corporation (Eagle's Nest)

• You will typically have brand recognition, which opens doors easily, even if just gaining appointments
• You will have a smaller title and a narrower realm of responsibility
• More people get involved, which can often cause confusion with the customer
• Too many silos or processes can greatly hamper being able to serve the customers
• Difficult to communicate, many channels you have to go through to get a single answer,
• The Big Corporation could be its own worst enemy --  you feel like you're constantly jumping through hoops to get have simple things done (i.e. credit to customer owed)
• Change is imminent .... customers are sometimes uncomfortable when they have to keep explaining themselves through various channels
• Streamlined processes are sometimes the barriers created to do business with customers
• Executives rarely visit with customers, and even then, they must be substantial in order to see
• Many managers are figureheads, numbers watchers, metric creators, and results drivers
• Strictly a professional relationship that rarely goes beyond to personal, family, history, because managers constant change prevents
• You have to prove yourself through multiple layers, multiple channels, multiple colleagues and their managers, in multiple locations to get one thing done
• The rules are the rules, the processes are the processes

The main difference highlighted definitely show the benefits and obstacles of both Big and Small.  Yes, in a smaller organization, there is less bureaucracy to weed through to get an answer, which often impacts customer responsiveness.  However, it you've worked for a substantial corporation, you are accustomed to the luxury of process ... less fly by the seat of your pants knee jerk reactions.  Alternatively, big companies have so many silos and obstacles in front of employees that negatively affect customers.

One of the biggest misconceptions I had was when a Small Company was acquired by a Big Corporation....  I was under the misguided impression that there would be big influx of money.  That was hardly real.  Stiff cost controls are common in both scenarios. 

The ability to serve is what is key.  There are definitely pros and cons to either.   Utopia would be finding a nice balance between the two.

RFPs are simple as your ABCs

"Freedom lies in being bold."

~Robert Frost

Oops, I did it again:  I fell into the nightmare of acronyms. When we become conscious of a pitfall, we become aware of the bad habit and take steps to avoid it.  I continue to discover that they're as much a part of business lingo as it is to breath.  However, for the sake of folks entering the business, entrepreneurial or sales arena, I will continue to strive to be remarkable, and avoid them. 

Firstly, I will disassemble what an RFP means:  Request for Proposal: A request for proposal is a process in business whereby a buyer or purchaser (typically from a company and more often from a major Enterprise corporation) is looking for a vendor who can enter into a contract or agreement for a period of time (1 year, 2 years, with an option to renew) to be their supplier of choice.  In many fields or industries, it is called a "tender"


Typically, the procurement (purchasing) department has received a request to put out an RFP from their executive, operations or internal group with a group of Vendors that they have determined that said vendors have the capabilities to meet their criteria of, for example:

• Location:  Local, regional, national or global
• Size:  Has the means to meet needs (equipment, process, service, personnel)
• Capacity:  Based on equipment, process, service, or personnel.  It answers considerations like bandwidth, equipment, personnel, financial resources that meet the volume of business being requested to meet
• Capability:  Usually falls under Technology:  i.e.  The right technology could mean software, process, equipment available, training
• Extras:  What do you have to offer that may be perceived as "Extra"?  It could also mean the additional support that is required to meet the contract SLAs:  (i.e.  in printing, marketing or website design it could be graphic designers), software, services, distribution channels that would be "nice to have" to meet the contractual obligations.

There I went again!  See, how difficult it is to eliminate acronyms, jargon or business speak from our vocabulary?  SLAs translate to "Service Level Agreements".  SLAs are predetermined by the organization issuing the RFP, the minimum they consider acceptable to be considered a supplier of choice, such as:

• Timelines/turnaround
• Service team response time based on the time difference between an incoming problem or troubleshooting and  capabilities  (i.e.  within 2 hours, same day, 24 hours, 5 business days, etc.)
• SLAs are often the area in the contract that addresses:  if you win our RFP or contract for business -- how are you going to measure, ensure that we're satisfied
• Your team should examine internally what SLAs you are able to meet, excel or struggle with so that you have identified same

You see, I don't want you to end up with your first RFP and then be a) scrambling to figure out what to do, or b) have questions that you've never examined before even though they are issues or problems that have surfaced c) miss the submission deadline! (YES:  There is usually a deadline that disqualifies many a disorganized teams who don't make the dateline stamp) More often than not, sales organizations are the organizations that are set up as "in it to win it" mentality.  Not only are they completely conversant in embracing and understanding RFPs, they are set up to be successful:

• They are in tune with what their best customers and potential customers want from them
• They have testimonials, case studies or white papers that exemplify where, how or when they have been successful;
• They have the right level of sales professionals who are equipped, educated or knowledgeable on how to approach or be considered for RFPs.
• They have the support available to the sales team to collaborate, review, address what has been asked for on the RFP (see previous Blog on "Fix your organizations dysfunction")
• They have tools readily at hand to be able to track, measure, monitor, or proactively respond to RFPs (i.e.  CRMs:  Customer Relationship Management software to key in pertinent details).
• They have more tools available to respond to RFPs:  i.e.  letterhead, color printers, proposal covers or templates that are on hand to create, print, issue the RFPs
• They have a team of experts that contribute on various sections of the RFP.
• They have partnerships or third party vendors lined up to take pieces of the RFP that the organization themselves don't have the infrastructure to handle (this often falls within distribution or "time to market" requirements)

"There's still the part of me that wants to leap at every opportunity, but now there's the other side that says, 'Let's just wait a minute and see what happens.' That's intuition, and it comes with age and experience."

~Kim Cattrall

 
I've just shared a sampling of the items for consideration that should be foremost in an entrepreneur or organizations mind, if they think they should, must, or want to be on the RFP track.

Large sales organizations like Xerox, HP, SAP or mid-size companies already have on hand the sales support in place to respond to RFPs because they have designed, recruited or trained their sales professionals on their unique "Value Proposition". These successful teams have huddled, examined and debriefed on failures many many times. 

The "Value Proposition" is different than a mission statement that is formed very early on in the infancy of the organization.  I see this area should be tabled for another blog to avoid tangling up the ABCs of RFPs. 

For homework or as a team assignment:  take the bullets out provided above and put them on a flip board, piece of paper (a napkin won't give you enough room) and gather your team of resources to answer these bullets.  Schedule a meeting time, go into the boardroom (or coffee area) and huddle.  Turn off cell phones, computer alerts, and disallow interruptions for that scheduled hour or two.  It may take a few times but don't worry, this is a great habit.

You have this assignment because you don't want to start hiring sales professionals if you don't have the infrastructure in place to go after RFPs.  I am approached and had discussions with numerous entrepreneurs and business startups that want to hire a salesperson and even have a fistful of money to pay that person, but are jumping too far ahead.  You are setting up that person, your organization, to fail without considering the direction you are going in.  I'm sure everyone wants to be an overnight success, however, that isn't realistic or practical.  There are steps to growing.  How fast you do, is dependent on how you manage growth.  Managing growth should normally address the questions your basic customers may ask long before you're ready to go after the big guys.

I look forward to writing about the next step of RFIs and explain  (ha! acronym for "Request for Information") a portion that may surface while your team is starting to think about tackling RFPs ... but only after you have sorted and completed your homework.  I would hope that you haven't hired a sales rep or team to punt out the door expecting them to perform miracles before then.  I look forward to writing about it in my Blog!

Take the time to comment or communicate your thoughts on what I wrote, your organizations obstacles, whether you agree or disagree, or have additional tools or points to help others.  After all, the websphere is where we can all gather to help each other move beyond average to remarkable!  For consideration, you can read my Blog "Stop before you jump ....)

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."

~ Benjamin Franklin