Tag Archives: Success

How Do You Build an International Presence? Seven Guidelines

Situation: Companies are looking at market expansion opportunities. International expansion is one alternative. In the past this was done largely by sending expatriates to foreign locales. More recently there has been a trend toward hiring locally. How do you find the right talent locally? How do you build an international presence?

Advice:

  • Everything starts with the basics – a good job description.
  • Finding people is easier these days with social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Xing, The Meet Group, FlexJobs, TikTok, Reddit and Quora. However, finding the right people remains a challenge.
  • Invest time and effort to research your target market. Which country is a market or has the most likely prospective clients? What is your competitive advantage in that locale?
  • For a hiring company without an existing presence in the local market it is also a challenge to convince good local candidates that yours is the right company to join. It is important to understand the local business culture and values, and also to offer career-paths to qualified candidates.
  • Don’t assume the need for multiple offices as you start. You can start with a highly mobile person working from home who knows the local language(s), customs, and who already has contacts in your target market.
  • It is often assumed that it takes one year or more for an expatriate to be efficient locally, and that hiring locally often accelerates first years’ startup-time. However, the local person has to understand and “fit” into the corporate/head office culture.
  • Working with an international executive search firm to find qualified local talent with the right fit to your business and needs can greatly improve your odds of success.

Thanks to E.J. Dieterle, President & CEO, YES Partners, Inc. for his contribution to this article.

[like]

How Do You Focus Company Competency to Support Growth? Eight Thoughts

Situation: Both in the case of a start-up, and when an existing company adds a new business unit, one of the biggest challenges is supporting rapid expansion during market launch. Talent necessary during the product completion phase may not be sufficient to support this growth. How do you focus company competency to support growth?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Bring in “been there, done that” expertise to support the current team. You want to add individuals who have experienced both success and failure in similar markets, and in both larger and similar sized companies. Hire people who can be transformational, not someone who can simply occupy a box.  Give them a chance to do more, add to their toolbox and they will in turn help the company achieve its goals.
  • A wide range of past experience with multiple employers is now seen as a benefit, whereas in the past it may have been a liability. It brings more knowledge and experience to the company.
  • Among people with highly diverse resumes, how do you tell performers from non-performers? Focus on what they did to transform their past company. Did they build alliances, make change happen or improve the organization during their incumbency? Look at how they did it.  Chances are this is a very leverageable skill. Look for doers – people who aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves will make the biggest impact in the organization.
  • Look for people who possess “strategic humility.” Individuals who aren’t afraid of mistakes and foster an environment where the boundaries are continuously pushed. The enemy of ‘good’ is ‘perfect’. The best companies consistently make ‘good’ decisions.  If someone makes a mistake, allow them to own up to it, learn from it and move on.
  • Look for the ability to assess, develop, plan and mobilize resources to execute the plan.
  • Use LinkedIn to identify people with whom an applicant worked in previous jobs to conduct independent reference checks. People don’t provide individuals who will give them a poor reference as their references.
  • Also use LinkedIn to identify candidates for open positions.
  • By adding resources with these traits to your team, you will markedly improve the likelihood of your company’s success.

[like]

How Do You Differentiate Your Offering? Five Critical Steps

Situation:  A company has had success with a few large clients but wants to expand their customer base for long-term growth. The challenge is that their offering competes in what is commonly regarded as a commodity market. How do they avoid being perceived as a commodity? How do you differentiate your offering?

Advice of the CEOs:

  • One company created differentiation by getting to know everyone in the business. They built long-term relationships, based on reputation and trust. They took the time to understand the needs of customers that they wanted to develop. As opportunities arose, they built relationships and asked questions to clearly define and align with client needs. While this takes time and patience, the objective is to be able to say “We know your business” – with credibility. Here are the steps that they took:
  • Study the businesses, sector, and customers that you wish to serve.
  • Leverage your success with large customers. Talk about how you helped subunits within these large customers. This makes a big customer seem more like a collection of small customers similar to your prospects and makes your experience relevant.
  • Let prospective customers know that you are hungry and will go the extra mile for their business.
  • Learn who currently serves your prospective clientele. Study these competitors, their strengths and weaknesses. Talk to their customers – learn what they love about competitors’ service, and what they would like to see changed. Find the holes in what others provide and fill these holes with a better offer.
  • Look for and encourage repeat business and references to new business.

[Like]

How Do You Draft a Fair Partnership Agreement: Six Points

Situation: A CEO is negotiating a partnership entity. Her company will fund the entity, and the partner will earn ownership through sweat equity. How do you draft a fair partnership agreement?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • The most important factor is the ability of the two partners to create a successful venture.  Proof of ability to contribute needs to be a prerequisite to allocating ownership.
  • How does the sweat equity partner prove their capabilities? Create a schedule of milestones for the partner to earn ownership, based on mutually agreed objectives or revenue generation. The beauty of this is that you retain control until the partner has proven their value by delivering results.
  • The potential downside is long-term liability of the venture. The longer that you retain majority ownership, the longer you retain majority liability. Insure yourself against this liability.
  • Buyout clauses are important to retain your interest if the partner fails to deliver. Include a liquidation clause in case the venture fails.
  • While negotiating the agreement draw up a 6-month letter of intent. Specify what each side brings to the table and what each commits to deliver. Set clear, measurable, time-bound objectives. Negotiate fair protections desired by each party. Consider a consultant to facilitate settlement of areas of contention.
  • Theoretically, each party needs their own legal counsel. This adds expense but provides protections for each in the final agreement. Factor the cost of legal advice as well as consultant facilitation into your planning model.

[like]

How Do You Make Time to Plan? Four Points

Situation: A CEO is up all night worrying that things are “too good”. Business has turned around positively in the last six months and she so focused on sales that she hasn’t had time to plan. How and when do you plan for growth? More basically, how do you make time to plan?
Advice from the CEOs:
• Think about the business cycle – the upswing, the peak and the downturn. On the upswing there is a tendency to be so focused on the day-to-day that there’s no time to spend testing the business environment or on long-term planning activities that are critical to sustained growth and success. If the CEO doesn’t take time during the upswing to evaluate new opportunities it’s easy to fall into the trap where planning occurs too late – after the cycle has peaked.
• After the business cycle has peaked, it is too late to take advantage of opportunities that were available during the upswing. Once the business cycle is in a downturn attention shifts to preservation and survival. The opportunity to reallocate resources to build alternative future scenarios has been lost.
• If there is pressure to bring on additional resources to handle the workload, set a timeframe to evaluate the situation – a few weeks or a month – and see if the pressure is sustained. If it is, have a plan in place to secure those resources. Do this with a clear head – not on impulse. Exercise discipline.
• Remember that leadership is the CEO’s job – not being immersed in the day-to-day. A leader keeps others immersed in and focused on the day-to-day.

[like]

How Do You Hire Good Salespeople? Eight Points

Situation: A CEO struggles with finding competent sales people. Issues include both finding these people, evaluating their skills, and assuring that they fit with the culture of his company. What techniques do others employ to find good candidates? How do you hire good salespeople?
Advice from the CEOs:
• Hiring salespeople is one of the most important jobs a CEO has, yet is paid the least attention. In a small company the CEO is deeply involved in the process, while in larger companies the CEO’s role is assuring that those responsible for selection and hiring are bringing in quality individuals. In either case the important points for the CEO to oversee are as follows:
• Determine what you want the person to do. What skills do they need? How much can you pay? Is that competitive with the market?
• Advertise – use internet portals, print media and referrals. Beyond this, one of the most successful means of recruiting is to hire individuals who have proven their skills in other companies and who are known to and respected by your existing salespeople.
• Review resumes for basic qualifications and weed out all that do not meet those qualifications.
• Test potential hires. There are a number of good tests including: DISC, Meyers-Briggs and Identity Compass.
• Bring candidates in for interview. See how they react to pressure. Are they a good match for the company culture? What is their personality like? Are they comfortable with the company’s philosophy, size, reputation, products and services, and so on?
• Check references and contact their current customers to gather their impressions of the candidate’s capabilities.
• Remember that past performance does not guarantee future results – particularly if there is a significant change in what is being sold.

[like]

How Do You Establish Sales Accountability? Three Approaches

Situation: Several CEOs have experienced difficulty establishing accountability within their sales teams. Sone sales reps consistently come up with excuses for not generating new accounts or meeting their sales objectives. The impact of lost sales had significant effects on revenue performance. How do you establish sales accountability?
Advice from the CEOs:
• It is vital to understand who are the best customers and most profitable products and services for those customers. Establish regular sales meetings to discuss customers, products and services, to identify promising sales opportunities and to coordinate sales efforts.
• Work with both sales management and individual team members to determine desired outcomes:
 Set sales targets – work with the team to establish firm expectations on reasonable and achievable sales targets. Agree on a tracking system to measure progress toward those targets. Encourage members of the team to work together to achieve the targets.
 Customer type – who are they, what are their priorities and expectations, and how can the company best address these.
 Product(s) – work with the team to determine which products best fit each customer type and develop creative ways to position those products to increase sales.
• Establish measurable behaviors which if done will result in success. For example:
 Calls per week and results of those calls.
 Relationships with key decision makers and development of additional relationships within existing and potential customers.
 Thorough qualification before quoting, presenting, demo, and so on. The who, what and why that connects with successful sales..

[like]

How Do You Create a Side Business? Five Suggestions

Situation: A CEO has built a successful company. She is considering creating an additional company, unrelated to the current company but which will enable her to pursue a long-term dream. The second company will be sufficiently different from the current company that it makes more sense for it to be a separate entity. What success parameters should she set? How do you create a side business?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • A number of successful entrepreneurs have been able to do this. Elon Musk is an excellent example. Study the steps that he took as he moved from PayPal to SpaceX and Tesla. This will provide insight into the factors that must be taken into account.
  • For the short term, pursue the dream of setting up the new company. Draft a business plan and seek an angel – perhaps someone that you already know – to get it moving.
  • Fall-back positions are good to have in mind. While looking at options, assure that sufficient time is allocated to pursue the long-term goal. Be aware of and provide the necessary resources to meet the demands of the new entity. Assure that there is a qualified individual to take the lead in the existing company as your attention shifts to the new entity.
  • For your long-term goal, be the Beta subject of the new program.
  • Assure that all of the ramifications of the long-term goal – including financial and quality of life realities – are taken into account and that there is a plan for each.

[like]

How Are You Preparing for Next Year? Two Approaches

Situation: A CEO and his team are preparing for next year. There is a lot of uncertainty as to how the year will unfold and what the economic and financial environment will look like. What are others doing to plan for next year and beyond? How are you preparing for next year?

Advice from the CEOs:

One company built a 5 year plan to 2028 about a year ago.

    • They are now reviewing the plan. Their core has been growing faster than anticipated as a result of the new sales effort. For next year and beyond they are revisiting the plan and revising it both to take advantage of the new sales effort and to leverage this success into other areas.
    • Within the plan, priorities for growth have been identified, and the company is on target to double the size of the company in 5 years.

Another company established a Strategic Priority Team a few months ago.

    • They started by setting goals for 2025 to 2030. They followed this with a plan for what they need to do year by year until 2030 to realize this plan. They recognize that there may be speed bumps along the way but have established the internal discipline and capacity to address these.
    • Within the plan, they are looking at expanding ther facilities in 2nd half of 2026, and plan to double both their space and staff over the planning period.
    • An additional area where they will focus is their current and new business development effort.

[like]

How Do You Focus Your Team? Six Points

Situation: Several CEOs asked how others have had success improving company performance and is interested in how they focused their teams. How do you focus your team?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Important tasks for any company are to validate the value proposition, technology, target customer, and the rate of market expansion, and minimize risk and liability. This should be a regular company exercise – not a one-time event.
  • Assuming that a company has goals and people who can align with and achieve them, a company needs a vision – the broader strategic picture of where they are going. Often some of the best ideas come from line staff who are enabled by their company’s culture.
  • It is critical that companies are able to quickly identify problems and have systems in place to drive problem resolution. The minigame technique is very useful in these cases.
  • Companies should have a plan for transitioning employees into new roles as the company grows. The key is clear identification of the individual’s role within the company, and how that role compliments achievement of company objectives.
  • If a company wants to grow sales from, say, $20 to $60 million, it will need a professional sales leader. In addition, growth may require a change in company culture from engineering and development centric to sales centric.
  • A significant challenge is determining how to define corporate success. Much depends upon the questions asked. The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack provides guidelines and tools for assessing options. Anyone starting or growing a business should look at this book.

[like]