I was talking to a friend at a holiday party over the weekend. He recently left his company because they wanted to change his compensation plan to pure commission. He had been brought into the company to develop the federal government market for a company which had zero sales to the government. Despite several early…
I recently declined to pursue two opportunities that emerged over the past several weeks. Both would represent near term revenue. Yet I said no. Why? Why? Because they really do not fit with my strategy and business model. The challenge is that they are close enough to seem like they fit, but they really don’t….
After years of working with clients in various organizational environments, I’ve realized that in most organizations there is a big question lurking. It is the elephant in the room. These elephants exist regardless of how well the organization is performing, but they are definitely present if there are issues with underperformance. As the leader, it…
Once you have defined all of the elements of the customer’s solution, now you can go to step two: defining all of the various options for how the customer might choose to buy the solution. Remember this is not what you are offering (yet) it is simply considering the various ways that customers buy. It…
How many times have you bought an item from a store, only to bring it home and discover that "batteries are not included" or "some assembly required?" I was working with a client last week when the topic of "solutions" came up. The issue was how to move from selling hardware, software, and services as…