The Complex System: Sales Lead Management, Software Automation, Business Strategy & Personal Methodology

Product-Centric Leaders

I was forwarded a great article on Search Insider about how great product companies often have product-centric leaders, who are essentially customers themselves. By this I mean they understand what customers want because they are the same people. The article really resonated with me because I really am that guy. Just about everything creative I’ve ever come up with is a response to what I felt was not good enough. I’m constantly trying to “improve” products, services, systems, software, buildings, that I see. When I see something I like; when I’m in customer mode, my mind immediately goes to, ok, how can I improve this? What’s missing from this product or service? Most of the time I come up with good ideas.

At Leads360 I think we do this well. We have numerous people that behave like this and it’s enabled us to develop some pretty innovative products and services over the past 3.5 years. I wouldn’t say I know what our clients want 100%, but I get us in the ballpark for sure. The key is to add the customer input on top of baseline innovation.

Value is in the Eye of the Beholder

Discerning value from something, especially when it comes to a purchase for your business, is not something that should be assumed. All too many times have I heard from sales people, the client won’t pay that much, or it’s too expensive for a company that size. I always fire back at them about value creation. What’s valuable to one client is different to another. Never assume that any client will not find enough value in a product just because its expensive.

In a recent battle with one such salesman, I presented a very compelling argument to illustrate this point. Pretty much all corporate environments provide coffee to their employees. Of course we’re no different other than the fact that as a CEO I ascribe a significant amount of value from the coffee we provide our people. To me having great coffee, fresh brewed and always readily available is as important as the phone. We lease a Starbucks coffee machine that grinds, brews, pours fresh coffee on the fly. It is serviced weekly and we get all the supplies, coffee, creamers we need, and if the unit breaks down, it gets serviced that day! Many CEO’s may say, sweet, how much is it. And when they hear the monthly cost, they veto it. But to me, it doesn’t matter. The value we get as a company from this machine is impossible to measure.

By the way, we spend nearly $1,300 per month on Coffee for 45 people. Is it worth it? To us it is. But if the sales person who sold us the service had assumed we wouldn’t pay that amount because of our company size, he would have lost a pretty sweet account. Get it?

Reports Are So 2004

Reports are only as good as you use them. Unfortunately most people don't know how, or even take the time to use them. For the most part we've found that to be true with clients of Leads360. Of course there are a handful of clients that really dig in and get value from our reports and the custom reporting engine. But for the bulk of our clients they're "cool" at best.

As we race into the 2nd quarter of a very instrumental year we've done a lot of thinking and research on what our clients really need when it comes to reporting. The most common thing we hear from clients is "just tell me what to do". Well, when we give them reports we're doing the exact opposite. This is where analytics comes in.

Analytics is such a ubiquitous term, how do we know what clients really want, and more importantly, how do we know what actually working? This is a question we're trying to answer right now.

Wikipedia defines analytics as how an entity (i.e., business) arrives at an optimal or realistic decision based on existing data. The online resource continues by stating, business managers may choose to make decisions based on past experiences or rule of thumb, or there might be other qualitative aspects to decision making; but unless there is data involved in the process, it would not be considered analytics.

Analytics is about making intelligent decisions that are meaningful and make a significant impact on the business. If we can present our clients w/ tools to enable good decision making, along with data to back it up, and a clear course of action to get results, we're on to something. My partner Nick Hedges has a great post on the importance of consistent metrics which I agree is the first step toward good analytics. Trust me, it's all coming, and then some.

Show Me the Data

When I first met Matt Coffin I vividly recall him hammering the importance of metrics. I can’t tell you how many times he said LMB was metrics driven. Intuitively I knew what he meant, but it was anecdotal at best. By that I mean I knew it was important, but I really couldn't tell you how to get it or even benefit from it.

As I've matured as a business leader I've come to realize with piercing intensity the importance and value of good data. Right now there is nothing more important for me. What I now see is that good data is the cornerstone of good decision making. And even though I believe in trusting my gut, which has gotten me far, without specific and measurable data, it's only a matter of time before your gut starts to miscalculate.

Sounds simple and obvious, right? Well so is going to the gym or healthy eating. Simple but not easy. Establishing metrics, gathering good data and putting it all to use is hard work and requires some real strategic thinking. My biggest challenge over the past few months has been in this area.

A few days ago I came to a pretty big realization that guys like Matt Coffin probably figured out long ago. In my hunt for good intelligence I've been pushing my management team to give me more reports. I need a report for this or an update on that. I've probably been driving some of these people downright mad. At the end of the day I could care less about reports. Really I don't want them; they waste paper and don't tell me what I really want to know. It's really about what the reports can "tell" me. Ironically, this is probably why reports in software really don't help (our software is no exception).

I think the trick is to transform my passion for data into a passion for answers. People understand questions; they understand how to find the answers to those questions. Getting the data that leads to answers requires asking the right questions. That's my job and I've got some work to do.

Mission, Vision & Values - Post #1

First and foremost, get the mission, vision and values right. This has been somewhat of a chore for me over the years. I think I've done three or four revisions, maybe more; but even as I tune the mission and vision, our core values and core purpose have not changed dramatically. I think that Jim Collins in Good to Great does a great job articulating the difference between "what your company does" and "who your company is". The theory being, that companies that enjoy enduring success have core values and a core purpose (who you are) that remain fixed while their business strategies and practices (what you do) endlessly adapt to a a changing world; he calls it "preserving the core, while stimulating progress". His research suggests that the best, longest lasting companies, have taken this approach.

So if a powerful vision embodies both the who we are and the what we do, then articulating one can be quite tricky. Even as I write this post I think we have more work to do on this topic; nevertheless, developing our vision, writing it down and articulating it to everyone in the company, repeatedly and on more than one occasion, has made a profound difference.

I remember at one company meeting someone asked me in so many words to articulate the vision. He said that the people here trust me and know that I have a plan, but sometimes they wonder who we are and where we are going. He asked that I tell them; that I put it on the wall; and that I make it clear so everyone can understand what it is we are trying to do. That inquiry really impacted me and I responded. A few months later I presented our 2008 strategy along with a detailed description of our vision. As a result our people are engaged, focused and driven toward a common goal.

When times get tough and fear of the unknown is abound, I love that I can hear the persistent hum of enthusiasm from my office; frankly, it's the thing that keeps me in this game at times.

10 Keys to Exponential Growth

As an entrepreneur, I think one of the most common and difficult challanges is the inevitable transition that occurs when you try to grow beyond your own reach. What I mean by this is that most entrepreneurs start small. Like me, I started in my living room on more than one occassion. Eventually I grew to a small office; then added staff, moved into a bigger office, raised money, etc. The list of growth steps goes on. But there is a moment when you realize that you can't see and certainly can't touch all the chess pieces. You need to let go. This is the difficult transition for many entrepreneurs. Going from small business to real company.

As someone who's been in the middle of this transition for the past 18 months, I can tell you, it's not easy. Over the next few months I'm going to start breaking down what I've found to be the 10 most important aspects of managing this transition and hopefully achieving exponential growth on the other side. In this post I'll share the 10 areas and in future posts, i'll get into details about each one. Please bare with me as this is a work in progress and will surely evolve.

1. Mission, Vision & Values
2. Roles & Responsibilities
3. Recruiting
4. Management
5. Performance Reviews
6. Accountability
7. Strategic Planning
8. Goals & Metrics
9. Financial Visibility & Budgeting
10. Corporate Transparency

So far, i've found these 10 areas to be the most important and have the most positive impact and where I spend the bulk of my time. If anything, this will be an interesting experiment as I apply these 10 aspects of running a company at my current business and in real time, share the feedback of my successes and failures.

Get Out the Way

I've been told, the minute I start doing someone else’s job, the minute they leave. My experience is that when I do someone else’s job, I rob them of the opportunity to excel. And when people aren’t excelling, it's only a matter of time before they're out the door for one reason or another.

I bring this up because of how powerful this realization has been for me. I'm very hands on, and I regularly go out of my way to "help" people that I work with. The key distinction is that while I think I'm helping someone, I'm really just doing their job. When I do that, I not only keep them from growing into the role they've been hired to do, but also limit the amount of time I can spend doing my own role. This is a pretty common mistake that entrepreneurs make. I think most entrepreneurs don't even realize they do this, and more importantly, they have no idea it is this exact behavior that limits the growth of their businesses. That's the irony of it. We think we’re doing our company well by working harder and harder to do another’s job, but we’re doing just the opposite. After all, if I don’t focus on steering the ship, who will?

I know this because I used to do it. Of course, old habits don't die easily, but I've really been successful with in this area and I surround myself with people who remind me that my role is CEO, and that my role is not their role. So like the title of this post says... "Get Out The Way"!

I Love Progress

I love progress; I love it in the world as much as in my own life. Wiktionary defines progress as a moving or going forward; a proceeding onward; an advance toward ideal completeness or perfection in respect of quality or condition. Often I see it; sometimes I feel it. But right now, I'm deep in it.

This week marked ths biggest jump forward in the "building" of Leads360 2.0. I've been arranging the blocks, recruiting the talent, defining the strategy and taking the actions; and more importantly, so has everyone around me. By month end, we will have hired 10 new faces and have added more talent to our team than I could have imagined was possible. That must be progress.

I think progress is what happens when I’m not looking. It’s the spontaneous accomplishments of the people around me. I can hear it from my office; that instinctive hum of hard work and forward thinking. At Leads360 things just seem to be moving along without me. It’s not as if I’m making less of a contribution; maybe that the engine is running on its own more and more each day and the great people I’ve hired are doing what they do best; make progress.

I’ve been preaching the strategy forever, perhaps now it’s really proving to work.

What Does Management Really Mean?

My fascination with management and what it really means began when we started to evaluate raising money. One of the most common questions posed to me in meeting with venture capital firms was “what is your management team look like?” They pounded me on having the right executive management staff to get the job done. Of course at the time, I didn’t have great answers for them. Perhaps that is why we ended up with Rustic as they banked on the idea that we were open to the idea of building a stellar management team rather than penalizing us for not having it yet.

Furthermore, in speaking with other proven CEO’s (by the way, I regularly reach out for advice from many mentors in the business community), the consistent message is; “build a superstar management team.” They say this is the key to managing and delivering exponential growth.

So as you can imagine, I've been wrangling with the question of management quite a bit lately, and I think there is more than meets the eye. As I strategize about the answers to this question, I think about my father’s long standing advice "hire people smarter than me", which I have posted about numerous times. I'm pretty sure this strategy plays heavily into being a good manager.

So what is management? Is it the same as leadership? Peter Drucker tells us management is doing things right, whereas leadership is doing the right things! In formulating my own thoughts on management I’ve pulled together elements from numerous sources including Wikipedia who defines management as directing and controlling a group of one or more people or entities for the purpose of coordinating and harmonizing them towards accomplishing a goal. The site continues citing these four critical aspects of management:

1. Planning: deciding what needs to happen in the future (today, next week, next month, next year, over the next five years, etc.) and generating plans for action.
2. Organizing: making optimum use of the resources required to enable the successful carrying out of plans.
3. Leading/Motivating: exhibiting skills in these areas for getting others to play an effective part in achieving plans.
4. Controlling: monitoring -- checking progress against plans, which may need modification based on feedback.

I love the simplicity of these four themes. I’m of the belief that simplicity is going to be a key driver of our success in 2008. Of course there is more to management than what’s listed here, but I think this list is a framework for my management plan.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to post more about my management strategy and how I hope to make Mr. Drucker proud.

Less is More

We've all heard the old addage, less is more. In 2008 it's more true than ever; at least for me. Quality sacrifices when we take on too much, and it's become somewhat of a habit for me to do just that. People have already started asking me the popular January question, "what are you New Years resolutions?" I put some thinking into that question this year and I have a different approach to answering it.

Rather than focus on making a resolution to do somthing that presumably I haven't done before, I'm going to focus on improving on the things I do, but maybe don't do as well as I could. It's that whole strengths vs. weaknesses thing that I frequently talk about. To that end, one of my resolutions is to focus on quality. I'm already good at getting thigns done and doing them well. But am I as good as I could be? Could I do things even better? That's where the whole less is more concept comes into play. If I focus on doing less things, I could do them even better. The upside is exponential.

Ok, so if less is more, that means I have to choose to do some things and choose not to do others. How do I prioritize on the things that are most important? I love that Stephen Covey quote "the things that are most important must never be at the mercy of things that are less important"; that's just it. I am prioritizing what I spend my time on, and as a CEO it's my responsibility to help those around me prioritize what they do. That means I have to utter the unfamiliar words "NO" much more in 2008. No, we can't do that now. No, that's not a priority. Maybe then if less is more, than no is even more important than yes!

As much as I like doing more, sometimes doing less makes all the difference.

Happy New Year!