Amazingly enough, less than 1,300 small Maryland companies have obtained this valuable hunting license which means that if you randomly assembled 200 Maryland small business CEOs, only 1 of them would run a company which holds a GSA schedule. Missed opportunity!

Small businesses that sell via the GSA schedule capture an average of $1.2M in annual revenue so this is a market that I highly recommend considering, especially in these tough economic times. I have had a number of consulting Clients over the years who have increased their sales, earnings and employee count several times over. The Federal market is certainly not for everyone but given its close geographic proximity and this program which is specially designed for small business, isn’t it worth at least investigating?

Why do so few Maryland companies hold schedules? I believe that there are 3 reasons: the first and most important is not being aware that the Federal government purchases what you sell – almost 11 million products and services each year, the second is not understanding how to obtain a schedule and third is being willing to make the investment in outside assistance ($10,000 to $20,000+) to obtain the license.

That’s why I asked House Majority Leader Kumar Barve to propose legislation for an Income Tax Credit for Maryland companies to help defray the cost of professional assistance. I’ve testified in both the House and Senate budget committees and am awaiting the fate of this common sense idea.

Imagine several thousand more Maryland companies selling their wares to the U.S. Federal Government, creating many more jobs and stimulating our local economy.

A GIANT opportunity that is hiding in plain sight. Call me to discuss further – no obligation & I can recommend excellent resources to help you pursue this. 410-802-7333.

I offered to go on a sales call with him because there just happened to be an appropriate target Customer business a couple of blocks away. We walked in and he started trying to sell to the woman behind the counter. Her face turned red, she turned her body physically away from him and she clenched her jaw. He kept talking….

I interceded with some friendly comments and you could just see her defenses melt. I patted him on the back and said that I thought there just might be grounds for a very nice discussion with her husband, the owner.

She didn’t say yes but she left the door open to the possibility.

In all fairness, this young man and his wife just had a baby a week ago and he’s in “daddy” land. When he settles down we’ll have a good discussion about bonding with prospects and not overwhelming them with all that good information before they want to hear it.

It would be a better world – and we’ll sell a lot more – if we stop talking at one another so much.

• Interest: Do work you love. Spend YOUR day well matched.
• Skill & Experience: Next, filter to those interests where you have superior skill & experience or at least a driving passion and the discipline to become a superior practitioner
• Subject Matter Expert: be a craftsman and keep raising your game with continuous improvement to the point where you have valuable things to share & others want to hear them
• Target Market: find a market niche where these skills & experience can be sold for premium prices because there are un-served or underserved buyers.
• Market Leaders: identify high quality buyers in your target niche and respectfully ask them to help you understand their needs and their challenges and the $ value they ascribe to solving each issue
• Formulate: using the Good/Better/Best model, develop product/service offering packages
• Position: find a sustainable place in the competitive pecking order which is not dominated
• Key Message: cut through the noise with “wow” that solves an important need
• Communicate:  pick the marketing vehicles that work the best for your audience
• Center of Influence (COI): join an organization where you target market gathers, be active and visible and become a hero by helping the group achieve a tangible result and by helping others.
• Goals: establish clear monthly, quarter and annual Goals… and exceed them by
  • Measuring key activities: i.e. establish weekly targets for meetings with decision-makers
  • Measuring Results: you greatly increase the probability of winning if you measure results.

There is a cure for the common cold call. Don’t do it. It’s not that it can’t work but rather that it is a very inefficient method (produces minimum results for maximum effort) that should be used only as a last resort.

Here are some ideas about how to approach an important decision-maker in a manner that has a much better probability of getting a meeting:

• Do research on them to learn about their business and personal goals, interests and experience. The more you know before you contact them, the greater the potential outcome of your interaction.
• Reach out to them through a common connection. This may be through the staff on an Association they belong to, one of their colleagues whom you know or somebody who knows them personally. If you don’t have a common connection, create one.
• Start the relationship in “learn” mode, not “sell” mode. If they want to buy from you, that can be determined after communication begins so don’t assume it. If it turns out that they are not a candidate to purchase from you but they like you (partially because you didn’t try to sell them), they may make a valuable introduction to somebody else.
• Develop a keen understanding of their concerns, which are often shaped by conditions in their industry so that you can speak intelligently with them about their perceived needs
• Email blast short messages with very appealing titles that indicate strong subject matter understanding of their industry, market and needs. If the title is right, the percentage of recipients who read it is dramatically higher.
• Create a new email blast campaign every Quarter and follow up every single email sent with a series of 5 phone calls that span the Quarter: 1 a week later, 2 & 3 spaced a week apart and 4 and 5 spaced a month apart.
• Be active in Associations where your target prospects congregate. Help bring in Members, with Events and make friends with the staff and with Board Members. They know the members and can open doors after you’ve contributed.

Achieveeeeeee!

I woke up showing the after effects of a long hard day. FLAT. The desire wanes, the ambition subsides and the creativity just won’t kick in.  Flat, that’s how it feels. BLAH, sort of numb, you get the picture. Yes, I’m in just such a mood as I look out the window of my small comfortable home office on this DREARY morning (dreary, of course, is not a fact but what I project onto what I see).  And my first reaction to this is to think that it’s a bad thing. “Come on man, get going & create something,” I say to myself. So, I fire up the computer, open up Word and stare at the blank screen. And listen….. and wait…. and smile, because….

I remember that these flat periods are an important part of the creative and productive process. You can’t stay “up” all the time. PAUSE is a good thing. Let your system recover a little. Let your mind not create…. for just a little bit anyway.

RELIEVED of the pressure to produce right at this minute, a feeling of well- being moves in. I know that I’m recovering from the intense exhilaration of yesterday when a series of meetings had better-than-normal outcomes.

As I RECOVER my energy, the zip returns. An old idea that’s been tapping on my shoulder for a while asks permission to have a discussion. A new, really wacky idea occurs to me at which I shake my head and say to myself “won’t work but it would be fun to try.”

WHY does this happen? Simple, the great marketers first of all make greater investments in time, money and resources to ensure that prospective buyers are aware that they exist. They Plan to spend appropriately to achieve the sales results they want. Then, they HOOK buyers with a superior brand promise, competitive positioning and key messages that resonate well by tapping a strong need, desire, fear, uncertainty or doubt (FUD) and then RETAIN them with superior Customer experience by caring, communicating, working proactively and responding nimbly to solve problems as they occur. Your product or service is better? Well, the Customer won’t easily let go because they’re reasonably happy or at least not seriously dissatisfied enough to do something about it. If you’re 10-20% better, yawn. 40-60% or more? Maybe…

A Lucky Strike cigarette commercial from the 1960′s said it well:

“I’d rather fight than switch.” The law of Inertia (as applied to human buying behavior) means unless it’s really important, I’m not gonna switch!

What actionable steps for entrepreneurs does this imply?

• Make a Strategic Decision: you have a dramatically superior product and will live or die by that OR you have a really good product and need to dramatically improve your marketing, sales and service. Which is it? Your resources are limited.  Don’t sit in the middle – CHOOSE!
• If you choose to be a “best product” play, then your highest priority is to locate and start a conversation with buyers whose #1 criteria for purchase is already technical superiority, provide data that “proves” your superiority and capture external validation/testimonials from technical experts whose opinions matter to the target market
• If you choose to be “Good Enough Product” play, then you want to find a niche where you can dominate or you’ll never go far
  • Research your Competition so that you know what they are promising and to whom so that you can create a messaging platform that is superior to your competitors for a specific niche (subset) of prospective Clients. Don’t go head to head against an 800 pound gorilla unless you have high confidence that your “counter offer” to the niche they dominate will resonate well
• Determine the essential Marketing and Sales activities that you must invest in to meet the Goals you’ve determined… and then make those investments.
  • This may mean diverting funds away from product development to capturing sales
  • This may mean investing in a salesperson or outside business development resource even knowing that it could be a year before you break-even on that investment

Singer Sheryl Crowe posed a question in one of her ballads: “Are You Strong Enough to be my Man?”

My question is: “Are you Good Enough to be my Product?”

Driven and determined, year after year, I would sit down in my office at the computer and start pounding away at business plans, phone calls, emails, preparing a presentation or thinking about how to help a Client overcome a sticky situation and within minutes of “getting in gear” Sam would jump up on my lap and demand attention. Slow down, he seemed to say. Lighten up. Take your time. Let’s spend a few minutes together and chill. Deep in thought, I’d ignore him for a few minutes, then hug him then relax my breathing and smile.

Sam never met a lap he didn’t love. He would jump up on stranger’s laps and curl up and fall asleep. And he could purr the entire first quarter of a football game. I consider myself a pretty happy person but he was in an almost constant state of contentment. We’ve given him a great home but this guy was like Steve Martin all the time “the phone book is here, the phone book is here.”

Oh he could be demanding. When it was time to eat dinner or breakfast, Sam could bug you with the best of them. He transformed into “the devil made me do it” when hunger struck. Attacking your feet until you got up and fed him. Dive bombing your legs at 5am to get you up. Once fed, he would become very peaceful again. Stretch out and treat you like a warm, safe bed.

I buried him outside the breakfast nook under the bird feeder he loved to watch from the window so I can see him every morning. Still hurts like hell, I’m shell-shocked and the grief comes in waves.

There’s a lot of research that pets are really good for us. People with animals live longer, are healthier and less stressed. It’s been incredible for me. Still have a great dog who thinks she owns the place (she does), a 14 year old anti-social cat and a bird that’s supposed to be able to articulate half the English language but prefers chirping.

Sam was a stocky, furry little creature who gave so much joy and served as a constant reminder to enjoy life every  day. Think I’ll do some pushups, then some sun salutations and take a brisk walk around the neighborhood.

Love you Monkey Man.

• Establish the amount due: provide written documentation to the Client and ask for confirmation that the amount is correct
• If they agree to the amount, negotiate a payment schedule, send them notices in advance of due dates (requesting read receipts), call them right away if they are late or miss a payment – staying in touch with them throughout this process is key as you want to hold them as close as possible to their commitment. You are relying on their ethics. It’s easy to get fatigued and stop paying attention but don’t let that happen – stay vigilant!
• If the Client does not acknowledge the amount, engage them in a discussion to understand their point of view and consider the legitimacy of their claims. Try to find out very specifically the points of agreement and disagreement. Based upon a dispassionate consideration of their statements, was your Company’s performance worthy of the invoiced amount? Are you willing to accept a smaller amount either because they have a legitimate point or simply in order to move on?
• If you are not willing to negotiate, tell them so in writing with a request for payment. If they do not respond to this in a reasonable timeframe, ask your attorney to send them a demand letter – this will often do the trick and its money well spent.
• If you are willing to negotiate the amount and the timing of payments, tell them so. You may want to estimate your expected legal fees and the value of your time. Generally speaking, small claims are not worth pursuing from an economic and opportunity cost perspective. Large claims may be worth your time and money.
• Ultimately, if they won’t pay and the amount owed is large enough to justify your time and investment, you may have to pursue them via legal means.  Unfortunately, in our legal system, it is very unlikely that you will recover your legal costs, and the process may take 1-2 years to complete so make sure you have the stamina and wherewithal to go through it.

A year ago, a business advisory Client did not pay the final amount due on a business plan because he had cash flow problems in his business. It was disheartening because I had gone the extra mile on the Plan and really enjoyed working together. He was never willing to commit to a payment schedule despite my numerous repeated attempts but the amount was not large enough to justify taking him to court. So, I stayed very constructive in our communications – though I was tempted to not be civil – and a year and a half later he stopped by and made his first payment and handed me a note that said “This is a very small part of what I still owe you. You will have the balance in full soon.” Conducting yourself as a professional craftsman sometimes pays unusual dividends.

Since 1859, 1.2 trillion barrels of oil have been consumed according to Paul Roberts in his article “The Last Drops” in the July 2011 issue of Popular Science magazine. Other critical information from the article:

• Oil is a very high ROI fuel: 1 barrel generates 30 barrels for use. 30:1!
• Daily consumption is now 800 million barrels per day (MBD)
• 1.2 trillion barrels have been consumed since 1859
• At least 2 trillion more barrels will be consumed before our reliance on oil is significantly lower
• There are 8 trillion more barrels of oil available in the earth
• Reserves of 1 trillion barrels have been identified
• The other 1 trillion barrels needed to move to reduced dependency will be more difficult to source

Feel like an expert yet? That’s the clarifying feeling we get when somebody provides us with a clear picture of a situation and supports it with useful information.

So, while great minds reflect upon our energy future, think about key issues in your business that would benefit from gathering and synthesizing critical data so that a clear, crisp picture emerges. When the right data comes together, better decisions can be made.

Entrepreneurs sometimes don’t want to acknowledge the facts as they hear them. They sometimes think they can “power” their way through to the promised land, changing the game, even in environments which don’t bend or give. Business advisors have a responsibility to relate the “facts of business life” so that Clients can make responsible decisions… well, that’s another story…

For example, if you want to raise equity capital, should you consider approaching venture capitalists or angel investors? You don’t know? Does it help to know that you are 40 times more likely to raise money from an angel investor than from a venture capital firm? Or, that venture capitalists are very unlikely to invest less than $1 million so if your need is for $500,000, you are probably excluded. Oh, and venture capitalists will only bet on what they perceive to be potential homeruns while angels would love homeruns but frequently bet on singles, doubles and triples. Do you see how collecting certain information practically guides you to an answer?

Don’t waste your valuable energy reserves. Improve your Company’s MPG (Miles per Goal)© by collecting, analyzing and putting important data to use. How’s that for an energy policy?

Business owners and Bruce Springsteen fans, check out the book “Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes and the Greatest Race the World has never seen” by Christopher McDougall. It will stretch your imagination, improve your stamina, help you sprint past obstacles, increase your appreciation for different running (your business) styles and remind you of just how glorious it can be to achieve great things.

This story of Mexico’s Tarahumara Indians, whose lifelong activity of ultra-running (more than 100 miles at a time, sometimes as long as 48 straight hours) in perilous conditions, will amaze you. And their climactic interaction with some of the most elite ultra runners in the U.S. will really have you huffing and puffing… with sheer joy.

This story reveals scientific evidence that the human race was meant to run – to outlast prey through superior endurance and despite inferior speed and that the introduction of the running shoe by Nike in the 1960s has led to a staggering injury rate for the reason that the supposed protection these shoes offer actually condition runners to not follow nature and do harmful things to themselves.

Business success is not a marathon but an ultra-marathon. You can survive on a minimum diet if it’s the right food (the right team, the right products, the right strategies). You can overcome great obstacles such as heat stroke (intense competition), dehydration (running out of cash) and getting lost (lack of a good business road map).

The camaraderie and shared values of the elite US ultra-runners with these tribal people makes me think of the value of a strong industry – competitors yes but with a healthy regard for the rights of others and an underlying knowing that a strong industry is better for all.

Your ultra-success can be found when you commit yourself to finding the hidden trails, learning the smooth motion of the Tarahumara runners and enjoying the journey.

Business owners like us, baby we were born to run!