Hi Pat, thank you very much for your question “How would you know if your new businiess is financially feasible.” It’s an interesing question that I am certain in all entreps minds.

From a straight financial perspective, you need to generate more sales than your total expense. Of course, this may not be possible from the first month. However, in time, hopefully in six months you still going cash flow positive.

From a business perspective, we may need to go back to your business model. The primary quesiton to test is will your specific target customer pay for your product or service that solves a problem they have? Is their problem pressing enough for them to go out and pay for a service.

Let us take for instance a pet grooming business. One of a pet parents problem is that they don’t like to have their lovable pets look disheveled and smelling bad. The solution would be to find a trusted groomer for their lovable fur babies. Another problem that comes to mind is trust and peace of mind. Can they trust the groomer with their fur babies. It’s a similar question to parents. Will you trust someone with your child? Do you have peace of mind when leave your child for half an hour with a stylist? Do you trust that your child will look better when you leave the parlor?

Assuming that you have a service that uniquely solves your target customers problems, the next question is that is it scalable? Can your business scale bigger? If your business model does not scale, that’s still not so bad specially if it provides good income. It’s more an income generating hobby or a source of good revenue for you, a solopreneur.

If it is scalable, then the set of questions change. Can you get funding for it’s growth at a later time? Can you maintain the level of service quality and operational excellence that brought you initial success? How much of your shares are you willing to give up in exchange for funding?

I hope that I was able to answer your question Pat. If you have followup questions, please feel free to send your voicemails.

Thank you everyone and stay safe.

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Speakpipe 4 How to enter the market during the pandemic and high inflation rate? Anonymous

Thank you so much for your question, Ms. Anonymous. Historically, growth is born during tough times. The best way to figure out a business model in tough times is to look for a general problem you want to address.

Take Zoom, for instance. Zoom has grown exponentially during the pandemic. It solves the problem of companies that need to continue collaboration but in a remote environment. Work cannot stop during the pandemic. Collaboration, meetings, and brainstorming are still required.

Other companies that thrive in challenging times are; Slack, Github, Twilio, Okta, AppDynamics, Freshworks, Nutanix, Zscaler. Even my personal favorite, Netflix, grew exponentially.

Even though department store sales went down, grocery revenues skyrocketed. Sales of alcohol, face mask, toilet paper, and bottled water also had a good ride.

There will always be opportunities. I suggest you seek these opportunities through the lenses of problems you can solve. Please revert to the lean business model. A successful business solves a specific problem of a targeted set of customers using a unique approach (unique value proposition or UVP). Your solution is better if it’s uniquely different from competitors.

Difficulty produces better focus. You will need to be more careful about your strategies and use of resources. You are more cautious with your tactics and activities.

Challenging times develop better and more resilient entrepreneurs.

Find a problem to solve Ms. Anonymous for a target niche of customers. Solve it in a manner that’s different from your competitors.

Thank you for your question. Please feel free to send in more “voice in” questions as I enter the ones in the pipeline.

Have a good day Ms. Anonymous.

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Thank you, Lance, for your question “how do you create a  brand image when you are still starting up?”

When you are starting up a business, you first need to get the basics in place. Your business model needs to be created before anything else. You will find it very difficult to create a brand personality if you are not clear about your business.

The sections from your business model that will help craft a good brand persona are the customer avatar, their problem statement, your solution to their problem, and what makes you different (your unique value proposition).

To create your brand, you need to understand your business very well. It will be created from the personality of the business and its founders.

If you were able to attend our Building your brand attribute workshop last July 19,  what I’m saying above falls under the first three steps;
1. Know yourself or your business
2. Choose to be a specialist over a generalist
3. Know your customer

Now that you have a clear business model, you can now go to step 4, define your brand identity.

After you accomplish the first four steps, you need to get the attention of your target customer.

You will then need to craft your origin story as step 5. The best story to write at this point is your origin. Why did you start the business? What’s your mission?

To get the attention of your target customers, you need to understand which channels they are in. As an example, let’s say you are a B2b company. Your prospects might be more on LinkedIn rather than on Facebook.

You need to have a framework to get your brand out there in the market. You need to create a marketing strategy and plans. You can use one of the best marketing frameworks fondly called AIDA.

This standard is for attention, interest, desire, and action. You get your prospect’s attention, get them interested in what you offer, get them to desire it, and get them to act on your call to action.

Let’s reserve the steps in crafting a marketing strategy and marketing plans for another time.

Thank you again Lance for your question. Please feel free to send more voice questions.

Voice in questions
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Hi Carlo, thank you very much for your question “are great salespeople born?”. With billions spent on sales training programs in various industries, most companies would argue that great salespeople are developed.

I believe that great salespeople are born. These are natural communicators. I have an elder cousin who was born a great communicator. He applied for a sales position in an ice cream company many years ago. These are salespeople that are given a territory. They scour the territory with their small trucks with a freezer at the back. They go from sari-sari stores to supermarkets peddling their ice-creams. In less than a year, he became one of their top salespeople. Of course, he was provided collaterals and product orientations to pull off being at the top. He was born with great confidence and fantastic communication skill, which helped him.

However, raw sales talent still needs to be developed. It’s like finding a raw diamond. You need to chisel and polish until you get a perfectly cut diamond ring. 

However, a great sales organization needs development. There need to be clearly defined processes to ensure the right talent is recruited, trained, immersed in the company culture, coached, and given stretched goals. 

Check out recommendations from HBR on things worth considering when putting together a strong sales organization. 

• Set a cohesive sales strategy that focuses sales effort on the right customer segments with a compelling value proposition.
• Design a high-impact sales process for communicating and delivering value to customers.
• Size the sales organization at a profitable investment level that provides ideal customer coverage.
• Define a sales structure and sales roles that enable effectiveness (high sales for the effort) as well as efficiency (low cost for the effort).
• Assign accounts to salespeople to enable good customer coverage and give all salespeople a fair chance to succeed.
• Hire sales talent by identifying and attracting salespeople with the characteristics (innate capabilities and values) that drive success.
• Train and coach that talent to continually develop the competencies (learned skills and knowledge) that salespeople need to add value for customers.
• Provide data, tools and resources for enhancing sales force insight about customers and supporting the sales process.
• Offer incentive compensation and recognition programs that encourage salespeople to work hard in pursuit of personal goals that align with company goals.
• Set sales force goals that are challenging, fair, and well-understood by the sales force.
• Manage performance by engaging a team of first line sales managers who can effectively direct sales activity and keep the sales force on course.
• Create and sustain a sales culture of accountability, achievement and ethics.

Thank you very much for your question, Carlo. Thinking about the answer was quite interesting. Please feel free to keep sending in your voice questions.

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P.S. – Please see below the link to the full article from HBR on ‘Silver Bullets won’t fix your sales force’.

https://hbr.org/2012/10/what-really-improves-a-sales-force

Hi Angg, thank you very much for your question “How do I develop leaders and how do I lead them?” I could imagine that it’s a common question in the minds of business owners or executives. It does not matter the size of the company. John Maxwell correctly stated that “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”

Leaders are accountable for the rise or fall of the organization. They cannot pass this responsibility to anyone else in the company. So let me see and try to put together a few easy steps for you, Angg. But, of course, execution is still the key to any framework or suggestion.

Step 1: Learn to recognize potential.

It would help if you were very clear on the potential that you are looking for in your leaders. For instance, are the behaviors you seek; good communication, team building, execution, motivation, and problem-solving skills? What is it that you seek in a potential future leader?

Step 2: Get help finding high-potential employees

Gone are the days of looking at employees from a single dimension – performance. Instead, a better way of looking at your employees is from the lens of performance, potential, and willingness. They may be performing but are they living up to their full potential? They may have great potential but are they willing to take on leadership roles?

Step 3: Sell your Vision

Leaders do not come to work just for the pay. Influential leaders are sold on a grander purpose, the company’s Vision. Are your potential leaders sold on the company’s Vision? Wait, let’s step back for a minute. Do you have a compelling vision to sell?

Step 4: Establish a development plan.

Leaders are created. Identifying future leaders with potential and willingness without a plan is pointless. Work with your HR to craft a 12-24 month leadership development plan. The keyword is their development and not just training. Training is only one method of developing people. It would help if you considered alternative and creative ways of developing your future leaders.

Step 5: Provide opportunities for leadership development and growth.

Development plans must be closely linked to opportunities to use their skills. The best development programs are quickly followed by opportunities to use new skills. Studies show that new knowledge quickly dissipates months after acquiring them if left unpracticed.

Step 6: Monitor. Measure. Reward.

You cannot improve what you do not measure. How effective is your performance management process?

Step 7: Follow-through through coaching and mentoring.

The theory is good, but the experience is better. The best lessons come from the experience of seasoned leaders. The leaders you are building will still need the guidance of battle-worn leaders from within or outside the company. Nothing beats coaching and mentoring when developing people. Experience still plays a significant role in rapid development.

It may sound easy, but the key is putting the commitment and processes in place to ensure the seven steps happen.

For your second question, how do you lead leaders once they are developed? Simple, give them a direction and get out of the way. Then, of course, you need regular alignments to ensure they succeed.

Thank you very much for your question Angg. I hope that I was able to answer your question.

Be safe and keep sending in your voice questions:

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