“Since you asked, the following would change my business model drastically” began an email I received around midnight from Rod, a professional service business owner that I had met for a drink just a few hours before.
During our conversation earlier that evening Rod related to me what was going in his business and what he was looking to accomplish in the coming year. It was the usual stuff that I had heard before from him and from others in his industry. As the conversation progressed I asked Rod where he would like his business to be in three years. Rod had previously given it some thought so he immediately answered. When I pressed him if he was working on making that vision happen for himself, Rod replied, “I am too busy “along with an explanation of why he was “too busy” to work on the future he wanted for his business. I then asked Rod as we were headed out the door, “What would it take for you to not be too busy so that you could focus on the future you want for your business?”
A few hours later I got my reply. In the email Rod talked about a slightly different group of customers and staff than his current customer base and staff. This new customer base and change in staff would be more lucrative and thus would be the start to enable him to get the future he really wanted for himself and his business. Unfortunately in the two years I have known Rod, this is the first time he had mentioned this to me.
Rod’s midnight email to me ended with: “Hope that helps. Now you go find them.”
No Rod, you go find them!
(although Rod I am much more excited to help you get closer to the future you want versus helping you stay “too busy” to work on it)
Rod on to something....
Two suggestions I have based on my own experience to help Rod is.
Start now and actively continue building a recruiting pipeline of top talent and you will see who the right staff are and more importantly be able to quickly take action. Finding top talent is a fulltime job and interviewing should be done monthly.
Two years ago we got a lot of the Team (mix) together and analyzed our clients. We looked at 2 yrs of history and went deep to see what clients had spent with us, thier Corporate top line revenues, economic IT spend, service to product mix, types of services (managed services +), referral client, market segment (we left some markets, strategic) part of our Client Advisory Board, went to our seminars, attended our events and in the end gave them an A,B or C. We looked at what would it take to move them up or out. At the end we came up with a list of C clients who were taking up a lot Sales, Sales Operations and presales time and gracefully transitioned them to another organization with a different business and labor cost model. This was hard for a 23 year old regional company but in the end we were both better off for it.
PS the Sales Team didnt like it because they were holding on to that $2k switch order but after they had more time to target the right clients they saw the opportunity cost related to their time was much better off with a new A client.
If you would like more insight related to either of these insights connect with me on Linked in - Paul Cronin
Posted by: Paul Cronin | 12/20/2010 at 08:14 PM
Thanks Paul for sharing your personal/company experience on making the transition, wonderful insight. Extremely relevant to Rod and others that are in a similar position to Rod...
Posted by: Jeff Silbert | 12/20/2010 at 09:29 PM
Read this as you ponder planning for 2011. It all starts with you.
Posted by: Dcilea | 12/21/2010 at 08:47 AM