Energy Management ... in the Heat of Battle
There are many parallels between Business and War... you only have to look some of the most inspiring business texts and concepts of our time for evidence of these parallels. Let’s see now, there is Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”, Jay Abraham’s “Force Multiplier”, Jay Conrad Levinson’s Guerrilla Marketing, and Brian Tracy’s “Victory”, to name a few.
And if you are still not convinced, then there is Hollywood maverick Oliver Stone’s 1987 classic, “Wall Street”, and if you still have doubts as the movie’s main character Gordon Gekko, who incidentally he should be out of prison any day now... just in time to reprise his role in a much awaited sequel, and of course hold a press release to answer any questions you may have! :-)
Of course we are just joking, but the serious point is that these parallels do exist and if you were unaware there is an abundance of proof out there to help you. So the battle part of our blog title has been demystified, what about this Energy Management stuff?
Our clients are SMBs and SMEs, small to mid-sized businesses/enterprises, and when you run a business of this size your attention builds your business. This is so important that we will repeat this... Your Attention Builds Your Business! If you take nothing from anything else you gain from us, please take this. Of course this may change next month when we unleash an even hotter and more valuable blog post, right? :-)
Back to the point at hand... as a SMB/E you literally need to “pick your battles” because energy spent on Project X is energy not spent on Project Y, and time spent with client/opportunity A is time not being spent with client/opportunity B. This is very fundamental and EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS, but ... how many do and how often do they?
The challenge for the maverick entrepreneurs of SMBs is that there is just so much flying at them, in the information age it is possible to get buried in data by 8:30am when the day just began at 8am!!! Also, one of the things that makes you entrepreneurs so special is you Decision and Ability to take risks; to launch into something with no guarantee of success, and the world is grateful for that spirit... if it was not for that there would be no iPods, Dysons, Virgin Galactic, etc. Nevertheless, as today’s SMB entrepreneurs and tomorrows titans, you must pick your battles carefully and if possible... strategically. This way you can focus, execute and then move on.
Two specific areas in which this comes to play are here:
1) Making Sales
2) Building a team
In making sales, as SMBs we can sometimes buy-into the false belief that there is not enough to go around, and when we find a lead we hold on for dear life like a dog with a bone. There is a lot to be said for persistence, it really does pay off... look at Walt Disney, and Colonel Saunders, they persisted and it paid off, but we are talking about something different here. We are talking about pursuing a prospect we know in our gut is all wrong for our business... we kid ourselves and get onto the hamster wheel of busyness, and we enjoy the being busy, but we are not getting the results. Another way in which this plays out is in pursuing that big sale... oh, if we only got ABC Ltd to sign with us we could all retire... again there is nothing wrong with this .... as a side strategy, there is nothing wrong with this as a Plan B or Plan C that you allocate no more than 20% of your time to... get the picture?
The energy management pitfall in selling is in the wasting of energy trying to convert “prospects” who are really “suspects”!
When it comes to building a team, we can sometimes fall in love with the idea of having staff, a team, even particular candidates... these are all traps. We must first and foremost address the needs of the business, and this may sound strange, but it is NEVER okay to gamble on an employee working out... the cost of mis-hires is something that shows up as a line item on your Profit and Loss statements, but when you realise how expensive it is (and we can help you with this too) you will be in no doubt as to the value of getting right the first time.... no matter how desperately you feel you need to have this person.
The energy management pitfall in building a team is in the expending of great volumes of energy selling the prospective candidate on how great your company is, and why they should work for you... this is all wrong! Ask yourself, A) what are your company’s needs today? Tomorrow? Next year? B) Does this person have what it takes to meet those needs?
Look at the titans of today, Rupert Murdoch, Richard Branson, Philip Green, Warren Buffet... notice how they do not look worn out and harassed... it is not the money that does this, it’s the deciding first where to put your energy... for maximum impact, that does it... of course the ensuing truckload of cash doesn’t hurt at all either.
As always, we hope that you have found this valuable, and please feel free to send through comments and questions.
Wishing you an awesome close to the business week,
Joseph and the team at Business Wizardry, SMB Consultants, Serving SMBs... and loving it!
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