Your Business Advisor

We have all been bored to tears by a pitch. We have all heard pitches that sound interesting at first and quickly switch to day dreaming when we realize how unrealistic it was.  Probably some of us have given pitches in which we were horrified to see in one dreadful glance that we had bored the socks off a few and lost the rest of the audience we were supposed to have engaged.  It is incredibly painful.

I speculate that once you have experienced this as a speaker you become committed, truly committed to never having it happen again … which is probably why you are here reading this.   Believe me, it can get better.

Although there are other essential components of a pitch, I will declare that two of the most fundamental are that it be both compelling and grounded.

Compelling

Being compelling is a relative assessment.  Only those that it was meant for can legitimately say whether it was compelling or not.  You cannot say it is in a vacuum.  You must try it out on those who it is meant for.

How do you make a pitch compelling?  A quick high level check is to start by asking:

-       Who is my audience?

-       What is it that they care about?

-       How can I help to make that happen?

Step 1 – Keep looking at your pitch as you write it from the perspective of your audience and their concerns, then how does this help them make that happen

Step 2 – Have those listening to the pitch as you practice hold the role of your audience.  Make sure as you have them critique, they tell you how they felt as you spoke different parts.  Having them intellectualize will only confusing things.  You’ll know you are being compelling if they sit forward, nod their heads or get goose bumps (we all wish!!).   If they yawn, look at their watch or get glassy eyed … change that part.

Grounded

Having a well grounded pitch is one that has a fair number of grounded assessments in it.  An assessment is grounded if facts are either presented or globally accepted that back them up.  A fabulous paper written by Peter Denning “Assertions and Assessments – CS4900 Technology and Transformation” can begin to shine a light on how we speak to move others into action.

A well grounded pitch will include:

- assessments that include assertions (facts) with the pitch

- assessments that have assertions (facts) backing it up that are globally accepted

Step 1 – Look through your pitch.  Are there assessments in the pitch?  If so, are they backed up with fact?

Step 2 – Get rid of any and all assessments that cannot be grounded in fact.

Conclusion

Those of us that speak to what our audience truly cares about and speak to them in a way that motivates them to action will not have to fear the dazed look of the disinterested or speak to the back of departing participants.  How wonderful is that?

More and more people are able to work wherever they want.  Even corporations with many employees are allowing, even asking, their employees to not have a regular office or workspace.  Indeed it makes a great deal of sense for companies to increase their bottom line by tightly organize their expenses.  Why pay for office space when it is only utilized a small percentage of time?

Also, with the cultural shift toward a more entrepreneurial workforce, there are many individuals splitting their time between sales and fulfillment, especially during the startup phase.  This group of people has to be incredibly agile.  They meet people in coffee shops, restaurants and their home offices.   Indeed, the transient workforce as a whole meet in these places.

The interest in gathering and working side-by-side with people with similar work habits is becoming not just an interest but also a need.

Mike Kessler from the Workantile Exchange in downtown Ann Arbor has been passionate about the co-working idea for a long time.  He’s even gone so far as to create a space that is ideal for building the community and allowing these people to be more productive than in their previous transient work lives.    The baristas aren’t interrupting conversations with loud steaming noises, we aren’t forced to buy lunch or a cup of coffee or make the bed, do the laundry or sweep the floor just so we can do some serious work!

Workantile is also highly collaborative.  They recently sat in on a strategic conversation with 654 Croswell (another public work gathering place in Grand Rapids) to share their strategies to make their spaces more valuable to their members.  What really struck me about the meeting itself was the willingness to offer up “work visas” for people going from one end of the state to the other and the passion for people …. trying to support them in whatever way they can.

There is a quickly growing market for this kind of space and the old “neighborhood” feel the members have when they come in.  People are respectful of space, supportive of one another’s work, completely open to sharing their ideas and referrals are flying all over the place.

I’ll be watching this market closely in the future.

For those who know me you will be surprised at my choice of topic.  Technology in general is not an area I’m most comfortable with.  Having said that I had the opportunity to review a book that I think could have wide ranging impact on small business owners.  They asked me to review it because I’m so familiar with the world of the small business owner.  I was a little skeptical when I saw the title — “Anywhere: How Global Connectivity is Revolutionizing the Way we do Business”  by Emily Nagle Green.

Here is a link to the review

For those of you who know my interest and connection with innovation and Peter Denning you will see one more instance in which I think we can make innovation operational in our businesses.  Connectivity is going to revolutionize the way that everyday products and services are used and valued.  As an example, there is a newly invented top for prescription bottles.  This top is “connected” in such a way that Dr.’s of the patient or care givers can see if a dose has been taken from the bottle.  This top also allows for the pharmacy to know when supplies are low and the prescription needs to be refilled.

These kinds of innovations can change the world and how we care for one another.  These kinds of innovations will allow an expansion in product and service offerings to nearly any company.  This is one of the instances of new markets and professions being born.  Check out Green’s book for a quick read.  Enjoy just speculating about how your business will be different.  This kind of practice can open up many possibilities and give you a competitive edge.

Enjoy!

I had a fabulous session with a client.  It’s a new relationship and the two partners were clearly drinking in what they could about the conversation.  Although they were not imprudently taking advice but asking tons of questions along the way …  ”So how do Angels decide whether to invest in you or not?” and “Are there people who could help to figure out what we are doing now to set us up for a good franchising possibility?”  and “Would vendors be willing to work with us to get different terms up front so we can test this first?”  and “What kinds of conversations should we be in as partners?”

This is just a short list.  It’s delightful that they know that they don’t know.  It’s also delightful that they know there isn’t a “right” way to do business.  The western tradition of being “independent” or “going lone ranger” makes it feel uncomfortable bringing many people into the conversation while starting and running a business.  Let’s just get the work done (I can hear my younger self saying it …. and truthfully my older self on ocassion!  :)).

Take in that openness is the willingness to authentically listen to someone else’s interpretation and be changed by it.  That doesn’t mean you accept every interpretation without examination.  What it means is you seek interpretations from those with the subject area expertise and listen for coherence … an alignment with what you have already experienced, alignment with what other subject matter experts are saying and an alignment with your own intuition.

Start by building a board of advisors …

- ask those you trust to join you in thinking about your business at dinner once per month (pay for dinner)

- look at critical areas of your business often (marketing, inventory of opportunity, product/service development, financials ….)

- talk to your peers, what are they losing sleep over, how are they thinking about their critical areas of business

- look up and to the future often, how will the actions you intend to take change your ability to act in the future

- get out of the certainty that you know what you are doing

Of course you can be paralyzed by uncertainty and chronic openness to different interpretations.  Take a deep breath and know that there are many out there conspiring to help you succeed.  Know that you can stay in speculation and build a more powerful action plan for your business with the help of others.

Entrepreneur Support Professionals (ESPs) are one of  two vital groups that will bring our country to a healthy, booming economy again.  Entrepreneurs (the other vital group) are innovators and have a very sexy seat in ramping up the economy … but they cannot do it alone.  ESPs are a very under appreciated  and largely unrecognized group that is a critical part of EVERY successful entrepreneurial operation.  Many of them are entrepreneurs in their own right!  They are out there hanging out a shingle and pounding the pavement offering their services, hiring employees and spending their money (making their communities a better place).

No entrepreneur can make it alone … even if they say they can.

We are starting to see the need for ESPs to organize.  Their lack of collaboration and lack of organization is having a detrimental effect on their clients.  The other resources their clients need are being denied them because of a sense of competition.  If an entrepreneur is working with a particularly savvy CPA who is unwilling to introduce a good marketing person to their client because it will dilute the revenue they expect to get or because they think they understand market planning enough to consult with them on that too, the entrepreneur (their partners, their customers, their employees and ultimately the CPA) loses.  The savvy CPA is not being malicious, they are not intentionally (perhaps not even consciously) destructive.

The more our sensibilities shift toward a commitment to support entrepreneurs in their work, the more it will appear that we also need to support those who support entrepreneurs.

It is helpful sometimes to think of people in the business world as either blenders or pushers. It is helpful because you can then make choices about how to include them (or not) in your business dealings and wheelings.

Blenders are people who in nearly every aspect of communication and action work to incorporate what others are doing and to expand on it (hopefully only when it makes sense for their own business). These people are not pushovers or doormats. They are quite charming when they encounter those they do not consider valuable. They are nice and polite and may even introduce them to other people they don’t consider valuable but they do not incorporate them into their network of people with valuable offers.

Blenders pause and listen to what you are saying with interest and genuine empathy. They say things like “and” as well as “what you were saying made me think of this …”. Their speech is about blending with what you say and adding on. Blenders lead by structured emergence and use carrots rather than sticks.

Of course there are powerful blenders who know how to keep the crazimakers away and then there are consummate blenders who do not discriminate and include everyone, everywhere. The consummate blenders can be dangerous in their own way.

Pushers are people who are listening to their own thoughts and working on what they will be saying next rather than listening. They typically have big egos (even though they may not think it) and are clear that they have a better way and discount the value of others by reinventing process and networks rather than using what is there. They are seen as ornery. They don’t consciously look for partners. They are competitive.

Pushers say things like “but” as well as “no, it’s not like that it’s like this”. Pushers lead by command and control and use sticks rather than carrots.

Of course blenders can exhibit pushing characteristics and vice-versa. It helps to know what your style is and when to include pushers and blenders on teams and in what roles. Rarely are networks of business so simple that you can declare “no pushers” or “no blenders”. When you use and think about these distinctions it is most effective to think of these character types or characteristics as effective and not effective rather than good or bad.

Of course, I’d love to hear your thoughts or stories! ☺

Enjoy.

The Superbowl ads were relatively boring but one stood out as I am a small business owner and I work with them all the time.  Miller Highlife “gave up” their time to four small business owners: Loretta Harrison (candy retailer), Tim Herron (baseball card shop owner), Del’s Barber shop (in California), Bizarre Guitar (in Arizona).

http://littleguysbiggame.millerhighlife.com/#/main

Although I’ve put the URL here you’ll have to enter your date of birth on the website to see it.

There’s no doubt there are selfish and altruistic reasons for Miller to run this ad and I thought it was brilliant.  Although it may not have a lasting effect on these for businesses it may carry them through the recession.  Back to the brilliance … Branding for Miller:

• “we care about people who are struggling”
• “our customers are real people”
• “people who work for us are real”
• “we aren’t afraid of being different”

There’s more here, but you get the idea.  If you Google Miller High Life this morning, you get 437,000 hits.   People are talking about it.

How does this tactic (and it IS an advertising tactic) affect how you think about your advertising or promotional campaigns?  Is it scaleable (we don’t all have the ability to be picked by Miller to be on their 3M spots)?  Will you think radically about your target market and appeal to them differently?  I think it’s worth some time.

I encourage small business owners to think of their year as a timeline with many recurrent conversations (strategy planning) to be had.  This is one of the many marketing conversations.  If you don’t have a team, find peers who would be willing to be in speculative conversation about their business as well and help each other.  Go to lunch and just start the conversation.  This could be a powerful way to reach and capture some portion of your target market you hadn’t before.

Entrepreneurs are by nature an innovative bunch.   They work to invent products or services but are genius at figuring out how people need to change their practices to use them.  Their genius really lies in that they see the pain that people have and invent something that will make the pain go away.

I once heard a well known venture capitalists here in Michigan say, investors are interested in a venture that involves pain killers not vitamins.

Anyway, my point is that true entrepreneurs innovate because they already see how people are motivated to use their new product or service and then work to make that happen.  It’s four times as hard (no scientific study sited here) to push a product or service into a marketplace than it is to have it pulled in by the people who want it.

What do Entrepreneurs do to spot the pain?

• Read
• Ask a lot of questions
• Observe
• Study
• Try stuff

The last one is the most interesting tactic for me this morning.  It’s the most interesting because it is the most cost effective and in this economy people are looking for quick ways to make assessments of effective solutions to problems.  If you try something enough with people, you’ll start to be able to see their automatic reactions.  If people are leaning forward and want more .. this is good.  If people are getting out their wallets … this is better.  If people are yawning and checking their watch … not good.

What could be a trap is making sure you are trying stuff on your target market!  If you are trying stuff on your friends and family because they are safe to try it on, you are wasting your time.

Read Peter Denning’s “Social life of Innovation” and you’ll take a deep dive into this topic.  Great stuff.

Choosing to promote someone from within into a position can be a much more successful and much less stressful strategy than hiring anew.  This strategy applies to both those you require to be autonomous in their thinking and those who are strictly task oriented.

Generally I think of those roles that require concentrated action, critical thinking or direct face time with your customers as being those that most require autonomy.  However, an organization build on a communication strategy to have all employees be autonomous (even those sweeping the floors or making the coffee) will be more directionally sound and be able to produce results without the owner present at every moment.  Regardless of your needs for a new role being autonomous, examining a recruit over time and making assessments based on multiple experiences will result in a better fit.

The work to figure out what size and shape the role will take first:

• know the concerns and values you have as the owner
• understand how these concerns and values translate into your business
• clearly specify the responsibilities of the new role (stear clear of a task oriented list unless you intend to micromanage)

Next making assessments:

• specify what actions exhibit effective results with respect to the responsibilities
• observe actions of possible recruit for consistency with your concerns and values
• make a log of actions that meet your concerns and those that do not
• review the log when you need to make some choice about promotion

You can then make some grounded assessment of the appropriateness of the fit for hiring within.  If the candidate(s) is/are a good fit you can make a choice.  If they are not meeting the standards and cannot fulfill the responsibilities of the role, you can begin to look outside your organizations for candidates that will better fulfill the job.  That process is a bit different and  more difficult to gather good solid assessments.  A great indication of how a person will act in the future is how they have acted in the past, regardless of your choice to promote from within or to recruit outside candidates, this will help you to find the “right” person.

How does this information change how you’ll act to make your next hire?

How often have you presented a proposal or offer to a client and had them say no … and then they move on? There’s no discussion, no negotiation, no question that you offered this client a yes or no situation … no gray areas.  Very few people have the move for negotiation and when they are presented with offers they think that’s it.  It’s even rare in the business world.

First we need to recognize that the prospect that says no falls into one of two categories:

• they really don’t want your offer (there is no fit regardless of the configuration)
• their could be a fit but the space for an Agreement doesn’t exist because one or the other or both are not holding that there is a gray area between yes and no which can be identified to be a win/win.

The first category we need to recognize that there really is no win/win scenario and move on quickly.  Do not invest more time and energy into a lost cause.

The work that goes into identifying, qualifying and moving a prospect to proposal is often very time consuming and costly.  To get them to this point and have them entertain an offer from you and then declare a flat no is, to say the least, disappointing.   What can you do to get them to stay in the conversation, find a win/win scenario?

The good news is you can bring some of those who fall into the second category along and produce a satisfying outcome for both parties.  Now the question is how.  Inventing a space for an Agreement requires a series of conversations and meeting design prior to the time the offer is made.  If the space isn’t there when the offer is made, you may lose the opportunity altogether.  Recovering and trying to produce the space for an Agreement after can look like hounding or desperation.  You don’t want that.

Inventing a space for an Agreement (negotiation) normally will include:

• clear language in one of the first meetings with your client that you are designing together something that can ultimately work for both of you … this requires a back and forth conversation.
• reiteration that you are designing together something that will work for both of you in follow on conversations.
• body language and an atmosphere that encourages conversation no conclusion in the meeting where the offer is made.
• commitment to find something that is a win/win for both of you.

This is an essential skill in selling when your values include finding a win/win engagement between  you and your client.  If you work to produce this space for an Agreement you will increase your revenue, increase the satisfaction your clients have with you in the long run, and reduce your cost of selling.

Does this work for you?