The Complex System: Story of an Entrepreneur

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.

Chapter 2

Of course I’ve always been driven by my own engine power; I’m an entrepreneur. But I’m also driven by the fuel of others, in particular, the people I work for. I think that’s somewhat unique; in my experience, the ego often plays a big part in the drive of a successful entrepreneur, but I’ve always prided myself on being a bit different.

For me, the idea of learning just a bit more today than I knew yesterday keeps me going. I’ve mentioned before how my dad taught me early on that I should hire people smarter than me. I think I do that not only because it makes me successful, but because it makes me smarter. I learn from watching others. I’ve learned just about everything I know in business from watching other people. After all, I didn’t really learn much in school; well about business anyway.

So, I titled this post Chapter 2 because I’m moving into a new phase; propelled by the fuel of others, I’m eager to learn more; and have a hell-of-a lot of fun doing it.

On Friday the 5^th of October, we completed a venture capital round of $3.25 million. And of course while there is no guarantee that this means we’ll be any more successful, I’m extremely proud of this accomplishment. Not just because it was a lot of work (I’ll soon post on the reality of raising venture money), but because I believe it is right for me.

I’ve done a lot on my own. I’ve accomplished just about everything I’ve set my mind to. I’m confident I can keep doing that. But now I’ve got some rocket fuel in me. Now I’ve got a lot more smart people surrounding me. Now I’ve got even more people counting on me, and pushing me to deliver. And because I have that unique quality of being driven to please; and because I sincerely get pleasure out of it, I know the future is bright.

It’s going to be a ride. It will probably be more like the classic wooden rollercoaster that rattles and cricks as you whiz by than anything else. But it’s going to be a blast and I’m ready for it.

Stay tuned.

Takeaway ‘s From AlwaysOn 2007

Last week I attended the AlwaysOn 2007 Conference at Stanford. It was my first time at this event and I thought it was definitely worthwhile. One of the key takeaways from the event was this: Why MySpace is Successful

First, let me say that I hate MySpace. Frankly, I think it is a totally lame site. From a technology and web interface perspective it’s totally worthless. I never understood, nor did I care to understand why it was so popular. However, I’ve always appreciated that it had something that people wanted, and that it has proven to be a valuable business property; for those things, I respect it.

Someone at the AO event was talking about MySpace and why it was so successful. He shared my sentiment on how lame MySpace is, but explained their lack of creativity was in fact key to the success. Early on, MySpace had no designers or creative product people. First and foremost, thanks to founders Tom and Chris, they listened to what users wanted. That’s it; they just listened, and then built it. They never said the proverbial words “this is a feature we think our users will want.”

As a software developer, product designer, interface guru and all around anal retentive guy, I pride myself on coming up with great features and functions for Leads360. Many of these features are great, and our customers love them. But I think there is something to be learned from MySpace; or let me rephrase that, there is something I need to learn from social networking juggernaut.

That something is listening to customers. Of course, we do that, but I’m pretty sure we could do better.

Close the Loop; Close the Lead

We recently made a pretty big step in overcoming the challenge of getting closed loan conversion data for our clients. Calyx Point, one of the leading loan origination software’s, has been notoriously difficult to integrate with.  We’ve struggled for some time to develop a reliable and efficient way to get data to and from Point. With the release of our PointSync software, customers can export leads directly into Point with 1-click and get updated dispositions automatically.

What’s the big deal? It’s the conversion metrics. Clients can now learn critical strategic insight to what lead sources are converting. Furthermore, clients can get granular reports on loan officer performance and correlated loan fundings.

It’s a big step in our new strategy: prove to our clients, beyond any doubt, that they make more money with Leads360, than without.

Push the Pull or Pull then Push? Lead Distribution That Is

Morinsight leaked the news about our new "pull" distribution engine before we had a chance to put it on our site. But here's the scoop. Our powerful “push” distribution model was recently augmented with “pull” capabilities. Now clients can choose from either or a combination of both to deliver leads to sales people. Pull distribution creates a healthy competition in a sales organization and allows clients to maximize the likelihood of contact. Our Enterprise clients can implement a combination of “pull” and “push” which permits infinite routing possibilities. Some of our early adopter clients have only begun to scratch the surface of what’s possible with Leads and our distribution engine.

We’re not curing cancer here…

One of my earliest mentors in business, Frank Whittaker, used to say this. We both worked in an organization of people that took things so personally and really got emotionally affected by things, that in the end, just aren’t that important. Right now we’re going through some serious growing pains at Leads360, and this statement is more pertinent than ever.

We’ve got warring tribes; we’ve got political battles; we’ve got balls being dropped; and we’ve got some egos being smashed. It’s all part of the process and even I get scared when I see it happening. As cheesy as it sounds, I think of this place as my family (incidentally I spend more time with them than my own wife), and when your family isn’t groovin’ its tough. We’ve got more than ever to lose, and I’m not about to let that happen; so what’s the opportunity here. In every crisis, lies opportunity, we just need to find it.

Back to Basics; Customer Service is #1

I’m as much of a customer as I am a provider of customer service. For me, a fulfilling customer experience means more than satisfaction. It means I stay around, I tell others and I’m willing to pay more for the same thing. This can be a significant competitive advantage, in any business.

Sometimes I worry about giving away our secrets; but as with most things in business, providing successful customer service is not a choice, it’s a philosophy that must be practiced. At Leads360, customer service has always been a key factor in our success. Early on we jumped ahead of the competition by over-servicing our customers. As the competition caught on we started looking at this part of the business as a commodity. I know now it is not. It requires a consistent discipline and habitual revision. So that’s what we’re doing.

We recently made a critical hire to further develop our professional services offerings and customer service strategy. As an architect and implementation leader for a large customer facing division at Sun Microsystems, Dave Collyer is enabling us to not only scale our significantly infrastructure and positively affect our bottom line, but more importantly provide a more satisfying and valuable experience for our customers. It’s truly a win/win, and we are frankly, stoked!

Lead Theft; You Either Know it Or You Don’t

Lead theft is a reality. There are two kinds of companies that generate and buy leads: Those that have had leads stolen and know it, and those that have had leads stolen and don’t know it. Depending on the size of your sales staff lead theft can be a big problem. At Leads360 we’ve had several clients experience serious financial loss due to leads being stolen by internal sales people.

Incidentally, that’s one of the ironic things about selling software to companies that buy leads; they are always concerned with us selling or stealing leads, but the real threat is from internal staff; sometimes it’s the people you’d never even think of.

While our software does provide some good safeguards for deterring and detecting lead theft, it’s by no means full proof. Really, there is no way for sure to protect your company from this threat. However, we have a new product called LeadGuardian by Leads360 is in BETA on a new service that will make a huge impact on this issue. Soon we will be able to offer any business that is concerned with, or has experienced lead theft, peace of mind that your data is protected. Read my new blog post on this subject.

Remember, lead theft is a fact; if it hasn’t happened to you, or it isn’t happening right now, it will happen soon. You either know this or you don’t.

Practice Contagiousness

Good business means being contagious to those around me. One of the mechanisms for change I find very effective is poking the coals, going around the office and stirring things up to make sure things are moving along as they should be. I’ve been out of the office on business lately and so I haven’t had my pulse on the fire as much. Upon return from a recent trip, to my great surprise, my tactics were contagious and I learned that my product manager had been “poking the coals” with regard to a big deployment we had coming up and was right on track as a result.

Strictly for My Ninjas

We sometimes refer to people at Leads360 as Ninjas. A Ninja is a very precise and disciplined soldier. The team we have is made up of people who execute like Ninjas, and today we had our first offsite team building and strategy session. We’ve grown to an incredible 23 people. We have a team that is primed and ready to kill; by kill I mean kill the market, kill the competition, kill the goals, etc. Some people say Ninjas are trained killers; when it comes to running a successful business, there is nothing better than a team of Ninjas at your side.