Grolistic

What Issue Most Consumes Executives?

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Business leaders for small and mid-size companies are always thinking about how to increase sales, improve profitability, boost productivity and better manage cash flow. But of all these challenges, which one consumes most of their time? Our work with owners and executives typically begins with an assessment of the current business circumstances. We learn about goals and strategies, what’s working and what’s not – but before long the focus of this dialogue becomes the people …

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3 Motivators That Drive Decision Making

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Recognizing the motivating factors that will influence the customer’s decision helps you determine their decision-making process and who will make the decision. The dynamics of your customer’s decision-making process involves several factors. Have you been discussing their needs and challenges with just one person or several? If you have been working with a customer’s team, who has been driving the discussion? To whom does the team defer? How well do the folks around the table get along? The decision-maker …

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“SARISSA”

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Philip of Macedon introduced it and his son, Alexander the Great used it most effectively; a very long spear or pike  (typically 8-16 feet) which provided the phalanx with the opportunity to strike at some distance prior to being “hands on.” With the arrow it became short range strategic artillery and always in tight formation, the “cluster” effect. Between the  “onrush” of cavalry (Alexander rode Bucephalus) and the “clustering” of compact strategic groups, it became …

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Every Business Has Just Two Strategies

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Have you needed to focus on surviving rather than thriving? As a leader, getting your head up to find the future is your responsibility. If you don’t do it, who will? Begin by recognizing that every business really has just two strategies.  The first strategy involves protecting and optimizing your current core business, the mature activity that is paying your bills today. Investing too much of your time in this strategy keeps you mired in …

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3 Ingredients to Successful Proposals

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There are three key ingredients that help earn a customer’s commitment on your proposed solution. Gaining customer commitment on your proposal begins by identifying the key stakeholders in the customer’s decision, learning why they are influential, and aligning the benefits of your proposal to meet their needs. This enables the development of advocates for your proposal within the customer’s organization, and reinforces your position as a problem-solving business partner, not a peddler. Responding to requests …

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3 Drivers of Sustainable Growth

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In its recent study about growth drivers, “Pathways to Growth” evaluated eight proven management parameters to identify why some companies grow on a sustained basis while others fail to grow or experience a short-lived rapid expansion before sliding back to negative performance. Their report specifies key drivers for sustainable growth. Companies seeking to achieve sustainable growth should emulate the proven best practices of small and mid-size organizations that have produced prolonged growth performance. Three of …

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“Coniunctae Feminae”

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Yes, it is Latin: “Coniunctae Feminae” (Women United). It was the title selected for a women’s retreat in recent days; there being some woman who wanted “more” than the typical business seminar. We divided the themes into four parts. Thus: An examination of Temperament (MBTI) and how we function with it A series of stories told by participants which we described as “numinous narratives” (stories of impact and intervention into our lives: a person, an …

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3 Ways to Earn Stakeholder Commitment

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Earning the customer’s commitment on your proposed solution often requires the successful completion of many intermediate steps that may affect multiple shareholders within the customer’s organization. Different stakeholders play different roles in the decision process with some being more influential than others. Here are 3 ways to earn commitment from the key decision-makers: 1. Be a partner, not a peddler Act as a problem-solving business person, a partner more committed to making them money than …

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The Price of “Free”

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Offering something for free to capture attention remains an effective technique – everyone can be seduced by a zero price. But are you attracting the right prospects? Could they become customers who actually invest in your product or service? What is the true price of “free?” Offering something for free often attracts the wrong type of prospect. Something in your message appeals to these folks and they react to the word “free” but they rarely …

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“Quaestio”

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“Quaestio mihi factus sum” Yup, it’s Latin. . .from Augustine some 1600 years ago. Typically translated as follows: “I have made a question of myself” or “I have become a question to myself” Or let’s be more colloquial in translating: “I have become a puzzlement to myself” or “I puzzle me” How interesting that a statement so ancient sounds so modern and psychologically contemporary. It’s the statement one hears very often in coaching others; be …

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