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Cross Link Consulting, LLC |
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Transforming Businesses through Top-line Growth and Process Innovation |
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The Cross Link Communicator |
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Whether we like to admit it or not, what often makes someone a great salesperson is also what makes doing paperwork even more of a challenge than it is for the average person. Ask the average salesperson about their pipeline and the glass is always 90% full! “I’m sure they’re going with us. I’ve got a great relationship with the decision-maker.” This natural trait of sales people makes managing sales and the sales people themselves a major challenge for any company. |
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K. Keith Drew, Executive Consultant |
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It's a New Year—Do You Know Where Your Pipeline Is? |
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Vol. 2, Issue 1, January, 2009 |
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Book Review: Three Cups of Tea |
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It’s not often you find a book that is both inspiring and has a message for what it takes to start a business. While some might not consider Three Cups of Tea; One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time1 a book about starting a company, it is about what it means to become inspired, follow your passion, make mistakes, and create an institution which enables your dream to move forward. The average Entrepreneur doesn’t wake up one morning saying, “Wow. I’m a really good manager. I should start my own business!” Instead, they have an idea, a service, a product |
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What is your passion? How can you make a difference in the world? |
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The place most companies start when they talk about sustainability is to Go Green. This usually entails looking for ways to save resources and reduce their carbon footprint. While this is a great place to start, unfortunately it is also where many companies end. They implement a soda can recycling project in the break room, and call it |
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Sustainability—Moving Beyond Saving Resources |
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that they believe will sell. In this book, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin recount the story that lead to the formation of the Central Asia Institute. The CAI was formed to raise funds and implement projects for the establishment of schools, specifically girls, in Pakistan and now Afghanistan. While done as a method for bringing a quality of life to the people of these mountainous areas, it also serves as a way of counteracting the horrible circumstances which often lead to young people seeking the solace they can receive by being a part of extremist organizations. By countering guns with education, the CAI seeks to transform lives, and in doing so, promote peace. This is a great example of an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) which is approaching sustainability from the perspective of using resources to improve life. Though Mr. Mortenson would never have used that kind of language as a part of the development of the CAI, his story is one which many of us dream about, but few of us follow. The story itself takes place in the shadow of K2, the second tallest mountain in the world. Mr. Mortenson was a climber who, after working to rescue a fellow team member from an accident while trying to climb K2, became lost and disoriented. He stumbled into a village and would forever have his life transformed. He makes a promise, to return and build a school. With time, one school becomes many (over 50 at this time). And while the names of the institutions are different, the challenges he faces with government and social institutions can be akin to the challenges many businesses face in our country today. Like closing a sale, there is a call to action at the end of the book. Ways for companies and individuals to be a part of a movement making a difference. If you or your company are looking for ways to make a difference in the world, if you are looking for a story of inspiration, or just looking for a good story to read, then this is the book for you. You can also check out the organization through www.threecupsoftea.com, or the web site for the CAI, www.ikat.org. At Cross Link Consulting, we work with your company to find ways to improve your sustainability plans and corporate social responsibility (CSR). By working with you to evaluate your plans and visions, then working with you to implement the changes you need Cross Link Consulting serves you as an agent for growth and change, not just sales. To learn more, visit www.crosslinkconsulting.com, or call us at 770-378-6904. ______________________ 1 (375 Hudson Street, New York, NY, Penguin Group (USA) Inc.), 2006 |
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Add the fact that companies often promote their top sales people to become sales managers and the problem often gets multiplied. One key is teaching them how to manage their process…and their pipeline. Several studies have shown that the number one reason sales are never made (by up to 70%) is sales people not making the “follow-up phone call.” As a veteran sales person used to always say to me, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” So managing sales is more than making cold calls, knocking on doors, or buying lists. It’s being intentional about who you are calling, which doors you’re knocking on, and keeping track of what you do. In the old days of the phone industry, sales people used to drive around and sell business phones from the trunk of their cars. These people became known as “trunkers.” One old trunker I knew was able to sell at least a million dollars a year by making about a hundred cold calls a day! What made him successful when others around him were failing all around him? He not only made the calls, he kept track of the calls, who he called, and when they were looking to make a change in what they had. Bottom line: he wrote down everything he did. In his case, he did it in spiral notebooks. With today’s technology, several tools exist for becoming effective at managing the process and following up on the leads we work so hard to generate. Pipeline reports are a great tool for managers to not only know what’s going on, but know how and when to help a sales person. While each industry is different, this report becomes the common tool between the sales person and the manager to identify the prospective customers which may lead to sales. Sales cycle in the industry will also define your pipeline. Does it usually take 3-4 days to close a deal? 3-4 months? Or 3-4 years? The reality is that the longer the sales cycle is, the more important it becomes to properly track suspects, as well as prospects. Pipeline reports should include information such as: Name of the Company; Name of the Contact; Phone Number; Email Address; what makes them a prospect or suspect; when you believe they will make a decision; and an estimated percentage confidence of closing the deal. Of all the information, this last item is the least scientific, but something that comes with experience and is crucial to managing the deal. In publicly traded companies, especially manufacturers, this information is crucial to meeting goals and production! As an executive consulting firm, Cross Link Consulting is committed to assisting companies with top-line growth. For many companies, that means sales. By working hand-in-hand with your company to improve your sales process, we empower companies to become more effective and efficient at sales. That leads to profits, especially when economic challenges abide. Call us, today, to discuss how we can help your sales and your company grow; 770-378-6904 or email us at info@crosslinkconsulting.com. Don’t let another month go without knowing where your pipeline is! |
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It's a New Year—Do You Know Where Your Pipeline Is?, cont. |
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Sustainability—Moving Beyond Saving Resources, cont. |
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good. So how do companies move beyond simply saving resources? The first step starts with self-assessment.1 This includes looking outside your company to hear what the stakeholders are saying about who you are and what you do. Look at how your company operates, what it’s goals and visions are, and the nature of the business you are in. Once you have a balanced image of who you are and what you are already doing, then you can begin to map out a strategy for moving forward. This strategy should include strengths, weaknesses, and finding your Sustainability Sweet Spot. This Sweet Spot is, “…the place where the pursuit of profit blends seamlessly with the pursuit of the common good…”2 This Sustainability Sweet Spot is different for each company and dependant on a wide variety of factors. Sometimes finding the “low hanging fruit” can be a morale booster that will motivate the company to look more deeply and reach for higher goals. But before any success can truly lead to change, you have to know from where you are starting and communicate the change as a win for everyone to celebrate. One institution recently changed out all of their emergency exit signs—all 55 of them. The went from 40 watts apiece to less than 4 watts. Multiply that out and you get a savings of almost 2 kilowatts per hour. It’s almost 1.5 megawatts per month, just from changing out the exit signs! But as good as it feels it doesn’t truly impact the company until everyone knows about it. But we’re still only talking about reducing waste and saving resources. For a company to become fully sustainable, they need to look at ways of doing business which can eliminate waste all together. Better yet, find ways to do business which can increase resources, rather than decrease resources! While not all companies can achieve this, when looked at from the perspective of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL), we are looking at more than energy. Once we look at all three areas of the TBL, Economic, Environmental, and Social, we begin to find ways that can increase our resources in sustainable…and even growth methodologies. A key part of this is identifying the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that impact a company such as yours. These are the, “Measures or mileage markers that indicate whether procedures are actually working to help the company meet its goal.”3 By envisioning goals and developing methods for measuring success, a company can not only reduce their carbon footprint, but improve the quality of life for their employees, their customers, and their environment. Yes, sustainability means more than placing a recycling bin in the break room. If you, or your company, are looking for ways to develop and implement as sustainability plan as a part of your business, contact us today at 770-378-6904, or email us at info@crosslinkconsulting.com. Don’t green wash your efforts—Go Green with Cross Link Consulting! 1 The Triple Bottom Line, by Andrew W. Savitz, Appendix A, San Francisco, CA, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006 2 Ibid., p. 22 3 Ibid., p. 254 |
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