Greg's Right FIT #437

Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week. 

In this issue: 

- Reminders to future Greg
- Being Human
- Random Stuff

Reminders to future Greg

• Don't book back-to-back meetings. You'll be half present in both. There's probably a tool for this, but you can remember.
• In a meeting, it's ok to break out pen and paper to write down information. Writing activates something in your brain that aids in memorizing information. If you don't write, you'll forget.
• After a meeting, take a minute to decompress, process the information you just received, and prioritize one next step.
• In cooking, simmering low and slow brings out the best flavor. Apply this concept to high gain activities and you'll get more done, over time.

Being Human - These are all lay-down sales

"It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong."
– Richard Feynman

Everyone loves grand unifying theories. Simple explanations for the complexity of life. You see it in how we tell stories about the past. "We did x, then y, then z happened," sounds much better than covering whatever crazy set of circumstances that led to x happening in the first place. 

This week I sat in on a presentation of an exciting new product. It's a marketing tool that can be used to determine intent. The plan is to use it to bring down the cost of some very expensive, complex sales lead generation. Instead of trying to reach buyers, you can get access to a data stream that tells you about people who are actively looking for information about the product you sell. Reach out to them, the theory goes, and you can eliminate a lot of the pre-work that goes into producing the best leads to follow up on. 

It's very impressive. 

One of the issues we had when digging into the details of the product turned out to be defining the term we both used freely. Leads. Both sides peppered their comments with this word, but over time it became clear that we operated from different definitions. 

Our side sees decision-making as a complex, almost indecipherable event. We can make some assumptions, but inside each buyer's head is an unknowable world. In a complex sale, there are dozens of heads involved, hence the name. A name showing up on a list doesn't make the intent obvious. However, in a list of 1,000 names, it may identify a few more qualified leads than an alternative list. This has some value. We ask to run tests to get a feel for what kind of improvement happens when we use their black box, and go from there. 

Their side doesn't like this arrangement. They see their AI intent algorithm cutting through the decision process and providing the sales people with a massive operational advantage. In short, they are operating on the idea that their intent engine operates on a grand unifying theory. This simplicity is worth a $500,000 price tag. We should prepare to pay handsomely for the test because just by giving us access, we are getting the "Glengarry Glen Ross" leads. The easiest of easy sales will be put right in our lap. They hope our bank is ready, because our accounts are about to overflow with cash. 

I love a big grand unifying theory. They're fun. They help explain the crazy randomness of life. But I know they don't exist. They work at a high level, and fall apart in the details. 

That said, I hope they're right. If they really are able to find new opportunities earlier in the decision process, giving their users an advantage and increasing revenue, they'll get very big, very fast. Then I can tell my story about how "we did X, then Y, and that's how we ended up with Z." 

Random Stuff

"I love crime, I love mysteries, and I love ghosts." – Stephen King

Do you believe in ghosts? I love a good ghost story, but I haven't had many experiences with the supernatural. The experiences I've had can usually be chalked up to the moment before you fall asleep, when what scientists call a hypnagogic hallucination occurs. That feeling of something very real, and very weird, happening just before we drift off to sleep. 

Like the time I was drifting off in a chair that faces the kitchen and I saw a big rat cross the floor. I viewed this through a doorway, so the rat was only in my field of vision for a second. The disturbing part, besides it being a rat in the kitchen, is it was moving toward the interior of the house. I jumped up, running to the kitchen, expecting to catch it between however it got into the house and the dining room. 

There was nothing there. 

I moved the fridge, I reluctantly dug through closets, and I used a black-light flashlight looking for traces of this creature that my lovely bride would not be happy to learn was in our house. Nothing. 

I inspected the kitchen in the direction the rat must have come in from. The best I could come up with was a small hole under the dishwasher. No other way in, but rats are clever, so I kept my guard up for days. Maybe weeks. 

Many months later, we remodeled the kitchen. A full gut job. I was right there when the demo crew took out the cabinets and when they came to the dishwasher I half expected them to jump back and scream, "a rats' nest!"

Nothing. 

Alas, 'twas all a hallucination. A hypnagogic one at that. 

Boo.