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A major corporate client of ours asked for help with a new programme they were planning. It's a joint business planning process that they want to "roll out to their largest customers". Their objective is to build closer relationships which will (hopefully) increase their influence in the decisions their customers make.
This is a laudable aim, and the programme is sound, but they ran the risk of sinking the programme before it started.
Struggling for support? Brush up your presentation
The best ideas don't always win. In fact some of the best ideas never get off the drawing board. Why? Because they usually need (financial) support and can't get it. This applies equally well to corporate innovators and independent inventors. The fact is that unless you are good at evangelising your idea you will never get it to fly.
My advice, if you are struggling for support, is not to assume that you have bad ideas which need to be dumped (not at first anyway). The fact is that you may not be expressing your ideas plainly enough for others to understand . My advice is to brush up your presentation, sharpen your act, tell your audience what they need to know to make the right decision. And that's exactly what we have done to help many projects to move forward over a number of years.
Over a number of years we have advised blue chip companies such as Reuters and Cisco on how to do this. We've taken complex briefs for very complex products and services and turned them into succinct business plans that invite support.
Move your ideas to the top of the agenda
We have completed some interesting work for Cisco (the world leader in Internet technology) recently. One of their VPs had a project which was just not getting the focus it deserved. The other Board members where either disinterested or distracted by their own agendas to pay more than lip service. They all said they were in support, but their agreed actions went undone as other activities were given higher priority.
This is a common scenario, and one which we have tackled many times before. In large companies (and small) there is rarely agreement on everything that needs to be done. As with any group, Senior managers cannot just demand the support of their peers. They need to sell their ideas and garner support, to constantly communicate and reinforce their project's messages and its value to their internal teams. It is no coincidence that many of the most successful corporate managers would be classed as great at 'selling their ideas' and 'politically astute'.
Our advice helped to identify where the issues lay, to recognise supporters and objectors. We helped to draft a new presentation of the project which engaged the issues directly and drew a much more considered, decisive, practical and measurable action plan that worked.
Do you want to sell more?
You have the power to beat your competitors. Your global sales team is more than a match for any other...and yet you lose. Not always, but sometimes - more often than you'd like.
You've got a great product. You've hired a top-class sales team and trained them well. You've armed them with a great CRM system and yet ... you still don't win every deal you should. Worse still, you look at some of the deals you lost and you want to scream. "Surely we could have done better that that". "We should have won!"
You might think the answer is "more training" but it's not. Or "more incentives" but it's not that either, or "better management". No - your sales team need help.
On a daily basis they confront difficult customer problems (some of these may be very technical), which they cannot be expected to fully understand. And yet they need to find a better solution than your competitors can offer. They don't need to understand, but they do need Insight - so that they can beat your competitors and offer the best solution for the customer and you. What's more, they need that Insight right now, and at any time of day or night.
It's a tall order. But don't worry - your solution is at hand.
What is it?
I know a word. You know it too. But it means something different to me than it does to you. And that's a shame.
For this word describes skills that you need to run your business successfully. As an entrepreneur you'll already have some of these skills, but you may need some help. For this word describes a profession too - it's my profession.
The skills, the profession, the word is ...
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