This is awesome and it is similar to the process thread earlier. In fact this client is all about process and the process of implementing process.
Client CEO of mine has been building process in his corporation (50+ people) to “know what we need to know to grow.” As you can imagine the pace of process building is dragging back the pace of growth. Some examples;
Four people can possibly be involved in approving pricing for a quote to the customer; the sales rep, the VP of sales, the CFO and the CEO. Nice velocity on that one, these four typically cannot agree on lunch or the definition of a “lead” let alone pricing. Average Selling Price per transaction? $30K.
Red Flag number one.
The discounting structure is fluid. And by fluid I mean like the liquid metal hottie terminator on T3 fluid. The rep can negotiate some discount and of course since there are no limits he can call the VP of Sales for even more discounting permission, and then the CFO gets to see it and he can modify the discounting and the CEO, because of his technical and product background, can always add value in a negotiation and he gets to get his two cents in, or out, depending on the revenue they need.
Another flag of crimson.
The process driven VP of Sales now has the company’s SFA system able to calculate pi to the 3,147 decimal place but will not produce a lead report for the rep by source, state, or date.
The corporate presentation has been revised with new graphics and a script by the ex-R&D team lead and safe to say if you are interested in the aggregate history of the industry from sand to silicon as well as why the fonts were selected it’s great. If you want thought leadership, excitement, enthusiasm and business resolution with the solution, turn the page. Classic example of the devil is the details on this one.
Making a trio of red banners aloft.
Or, when C-level and other executives are on a list like sales@mycompany.com and they insert themselves into the threads, mostly to clarify why an email was sent or what does it mean or some other pseudo-intellectual BS about the nature of the thread and an evaluation if it is important and why. Here’s an idea, when you are an executive and you are adding value, have a point it is so much easier on the receiver. And BTW stop the clarification-ism. Seriously, email is point communication and does not physically lend itself to deconstruction as the overall communication preference.
Flags now appearing in numbers similar to a foreign consualte building.
More to the topic at hand. I see a tendency by the existing management team to place an unusual amount of faith in recruiting a white knight who will ride in, speak in yoda-esque English, wave his hand, speak of the commitment to fight the good fight, reaffirm that if you are not willing to die on the field of battle get out now (actually good advice in some cases as the purpose is to change the world, make money and not die on the field of battle), and follow him (or her) on their vision of what can be and not what is.
Is five red flags a gaggle or flock?
First, white knights are typically pussies. There is a reason Chuck Norris said, “Good Guys Wear Black.” Now I would follow Chuck into battle because he has serious street cred. I will table the Chuck love here and move on. Second another oratorical diatribe on re-sacrificing yourself is BS.
People want direction, a focus and could someone turn on the light at the end of the tunnel? How about we are stuck in the dysfunctional dark tunnel of hell and it’s dark and did I mention it is dark?
While the white knight is orating his a** off, your competitors are out competing, out positioning and getting ready to snuff your light at the end of the tunnel. So stop talking and start doing.
BTW this is typically a move by a inexperienced CEO. He thinks will work as he is still in charge and the white knight works for him. What he doesn’t get is his channel has been changed by the employee’s mental remotes and he can never get them back. In effect his series was cancelled. He just ceded power to the white knight and unless it is say, Mark Hurd, and not a complete poof like Kevin Costner, the game is over.
Okay I feel better.
From a blog I read often by Marc Andreessen called blog.pharma.com there is a great quote he has from Rob Long, a professional Hollywood screenwriter and producer and even though it is referencing Hollywood’s inability to focus on how the Hollywood machine needs to be upgraded to enhance performance, it is very relevant to how most start ups end up as road kill;
“And right now we’re all standing around a machine that’s making alarming noises and emitting a funny smell and we’re all arguing about whose fault it is, rather than trying to figure out how to fix it.”
That is it in a nutshell, the machine is broken and if the current mechanics cannot fix it, here’s an idea; change your pit crew.
Client CEO of mine has been building process in his corporation (50+ people) to “know what we need to know to grow.” As you can imagine the pace of process building is dragging back the pace of growth. Some examples;
Four people can possibly be involved in approving pricing for a quote to the customer; the sales rep, the VP of sales, the CFO and the CEO. Nice velocity on that one, these four typically cannot agree on lunch or the definition of a “lead” let alone pricing. Average Selling Price per transaction? $30K.
Red Flag number one.
The discounting structure is fluid. And by fluid I mean like the liquid metal hottie terminator on T3 fluid. The rep can negotiate some discount and of course since there are no limits he can call the VP of Sales for even more discounting permission, and then the CFO gets to see it and he can modify the discounting and the CEO, because of his technical and product background, can always add value in a negotiation and he gets to get his two cents in, or out, depending on the revenue they need.
Another flag of crimson.
The process driven VP of Sales now has the company’s SFA system able to calculate pi to the 3,147 decimal place but will not produce a lead report for the rep by source, state, or date.
The corporate presentation has been revised with new graphics and a script by the ex-R&D team lead and safe to say if you are interested in the aggregate history of the industry from sand to silicon as well as why the fonts were selected it’s great. If you want thought leadership, excitement, enthusiasm and business resolution with the solution, turn the page. Classic example of the devil is the details on this one.
Making a trio of red banners aloft.
Or, when C-level and other executives are on a list like sales@mycompany.com and they insert themselves into the threads, mostly to clarify why an email was sent or what does it mean or some other pseudo-intellectual BS about the nature of the thread and an evaluation if it is important and why. Here’s an idea, when you are an executive and you are adding value, have a point it is so much easier on the receiver. And BTW stop the clarification-ism. Seriously, email is point communication and does not physically lend itself to deconstruction as the overall communication preference.
Flags now appearing in numbers similar to a foreign consualte building.
More to the topic at hand. I see a tendency by the existing management team to place an unusual amount of faith in recruiting a white knight who will ride in, speak in yoda-esque English, wave his hand, speak of the commitment to fight the good fight, reaffirm that if you are not willing to die on the field of battle get out now (actually good advice in some cases as the purpose is to change the world, make money and not die on the field of battle), and follow him (or her) on their vision of what can be and not what is.
Is five red flags a gaggle or flock?
First, white knights are typically pussies. There is a reason Chuck Norris said, “Good Guys Wear Black.” Now I would follow Chuck into battle because he has serious street cred. I will table the Chuck love here and move on. Second another oratorical diatribe on re-sacrificing yourself is BS.
People want direction, a focus and could someone turn on the light at the end of the tunnel? How about we are stuck in the dysfunctional dark tunnel of hell and it’s dark and did I mention it is dark?
While the white knight is orating his a** off, your competitors are out competing, out positioning and getting ready to snuff your light at the end of the tunnel. So stop talking and start doing.
BTW this is typically a move by a inexperienced CEO. He thinks will work as he is still in charge and the white knight works for him. What he doesn’t get is his channel has been changed by the employee’s mental remotes and he can never get them back. In effect his series was cancelled. He just ceded power to the white knight and unless it is say, Mark Hurd, and not a complete poof like Kevin Costner, the game is over.
Okay I feel better.
From a blog I read often by Marc Andreessen called blog.pharma.com there is a great quote he has from Rob Long, a professional Hollywood screenwriter and producer and even though it is referencing Hollywood’s inability to focus on how the Hollywood machine needs to be upgraded to enhance performance, it is very relevant to how most start ups end up as road kill;
“And right now we’re all standing around a machine that’s making alarming noises and emitting a funny smell and we’re all arguing about whose fault it is, rather than trying to figure out how to fix it.”
That is it in a nutshell, the machine is broken and if the current mechanics cannot fix it, here’s an idea; change your pit crew.
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