Have you ever said yes to someone (who isn’t really a prospect) and said NO to someone else (who really is a great prospect)?

Well if you haven’t you’re lucky.

I’ve done it loads of times, I think!

Well, you never really know, do you?

I do.

Because I have found to my everlasting chagrin that I have missed judged someone/a situation on numerous occasions.

My most frustrating one was when I was asked to be the ‘Fifth Beetle’!

No not really, I’m just kidding!

But I have got it wrong at times.

So is there a ‘Silver Bullet’ that you and I can use. NO, sorry.

But you can try to Test or Qualify.

Testing your prospect could mean you ask him. “Great but can you come to me instead”?

Or

To Qualify him you could ask could. “Can you make a decision on this matter or not”?

It saves time and money if you can find out where you stand early on.

If you don’t know how to do this sort of stuff, you know a man who does.

The crocodile nearest the canoe

From time to time some meetings don’t always go straight forwardly.

Know what I mean?

Have you ever had one? Of course you have.

During a recent strategy planning session one of the client’s team said. That’s all very well, but when you are surrounded by crocodiles you have no choice but to deal with the one closest to the canoe”!

What he was trying to let us all know was that he was too busy to provide the information that the project required.

He was told in no uncertain terms. ‘That was all very well but he must make our project a priority’!

Sadly he continued to work on his old basis i.e. he would respond when our crocodile got closest to his canoe.

Unfortunately, he lost us a great deal of time, missed us several deadlines and a few unrepeatable opportunities.

I had to chase him repeatedly for information, afterall I’m a professional!

Eventually, we completed the exercise and all parties where happy, until I reminded them that we had actually lost nine months or in other words nine months of improved profits!

If you need a help with similar issues, you know a man who can help

‘The most expensive of information is BAD information’

So, I said to my newly secured client. “We need to establish exactly who you have been working for over the past few years”, he replied, “WHY?”

Well, if we don’t, how are we going to know what types of customers we have worked for and what sort of services or products we have been supplying?

“Why do we need to establish that?” he asked.

Well if you don’t, you won’t know:

• What sectors we have a real connection with
• How many client we have in total
• How significant or otherwise is their contribution to our business
• How many times have they been a client
• Are they profit ‘Generators’ or profit ‘Hoovers’ etc

  

But obviously there is no point gathering and presenting information if it isn’t sufficiently comprehensive, in context or accurate. That is BAD information.

So, if you are wishing to make progress, make sure the information you base your key decisions on is sufficiently robust to allow you to base your decisions on which will allow you to determine the right way forward.

If you don’t know how to, you know a man who can

SIMPLE DOES AS SIMPLE SAYS

Or in other words ‘Keep it Simple Stupid’ (KISS)

A lot of businesses I visit seem to have a propensity towards making things more complex than they really are.

 

OK some things in our brave new world are without doubt complicated; but does everything need to be considered as such?

But, as they say ‘every journey starts with a first step’, and if interpret this/think in building industry terms ‘it’s just putting one brick on top of another’, isn’t it?

So why do so many people and organisations feel the need to complicate things beyond their true nature?

Well in an attempt to explain I remember that in a previous life I used to find myself doing ‘breakdown structures’; which is  a technique that a lot of project managers  use to get to the core of a complex issue, problem or project.

I didn’t really enjoy doing them so I now have a tendency to want to cut through the ‘technicality‘ of it  by engaging with client teams to establish such things as:

-why are we meeting?

-does anyone know what the real problem is?

-has anybody got a handle on things yet? etc

So, all my experience has taught me to at all times strive to keep things simple; to get to the point as quickly as possible, to things for what they really are and to appreciate that a good idea is a good idea regardless of who put it forward. I find that even the most sensitive of folk will appreciate the strength, quality and clarity of your thinking, approach and focus.

All time and other resources saved can be used to determine solutions and all necessary actions.

If you find it difficult to reason things out, see them in logical terms and be able to communicate your reasoning effectively then you know a man who can help.