Greg's Right FIT Newsletter #148

Quick notes to help you get more done in less time. . . next week. 

In this issue: 

- Techniques for FIT
- Being Human
- Random Stuff

Techniques for FIT

• Not growing as planned in 2018? Start the troubleshooting process by looking at the number of leads your team identified this year. Solutions to problems are in the past, so go backwards and start quantifying how well the team did prospecting for leads.
• When you find out how well your team did finding leads, the next question is who are your people spending their time with? Ranking, scoring, grading prospects is worth the effort.

• Research shows companies spend 80% of their marketing budget on producing leads, the rest on follow-up. Buyer research shows most qualified buyers say they will make a purchasing decision, "eventually." Next week, think about how you up your investment in follow up. 

• George Bernard Shaw famously said, “He who can does; he who cannot, teaches.” What gets lost in that is how hard it is to teach someone. Finding a great trainer and extracting their processes turbo charges knowledge transfer in your organization. Anyone can teach, few can teach well. 

Being Human - Tactics for managing marketing & sales

Tactics for Managing Marketing and Sales 

(an excerpt from the book, The Human Being's Guide to Business Growth, out now.)

We need to cover what to do with your sales and marketing staff. They are the experts in developing new business and naturally resistant to any encroachment into their turf. The day you walk in and announce that everyone sells, their eyes will roll. It’s natural. They are the professionals, no one can do what they do. In this section, we’re going to discuss how to smooth the transition from an organization with siloed sales staff to a company where everyone looks for opportunities. To start, we define marketing qualified leads (MQL) and sales qualified leads (SQL).

Leads are individuals or organizations that are in the market for, or have expressed an interest in your goods and services. We break leads down into two types, the MQL and SQL. The easiest way to understand the difference is using Figure 6.3.

It’s based on the answers to two questions. Is the individual or company aware of the problem you solve or the result you provide? And is your solution perceived as valuable to them? Their awareness we describe in simple terms, yes or no. Their perception of the value we use three grades ranging from minor, to significant, to game changing, which we interpret as “has to have it.”

(to read the full section, click here)

Random Stuff

The stain on my notebook

Meeting for a coffee is something I do on an almost daily basis. I step up to the counter, ask for a simple, plain cup ' joe, and wander off to wait for my appointment. When they ask, "room for cream?" I always answer yes because otherwise, the barista has been instructed to fill that little paper cup up to the very, very, top. 

"Exceed customer expectations," I can hear a manager urging his troops, "don't give them anything to complain about!" Young heads nodding in understanding.

On this day, however, my routine is interrupted. 

"Grande Pike's Place," I say.

"We just brewed a dark blend," she replies and I notice her green apron is trying its best to hide a very pregnant belly. "I'm sorry," she says, "I just would never recommend Pikes Place. Anything but that." 

As she waits for my reply, I feel a line pressing behind me while every bit of pregnant lady advice I've ever heard races through my brain. do her feet hurt? how is her lower back doing? when the baby is due? when will she have to return to work? will she have post-partum depression? should she be drinking coffee? don't ask if she's pregnant! are her parents excited? 

Somehow I miss the prompt to leave room for cream and yep, like a good soldier, she proceeds to fill the little cup with dark, dark roasted coffee. Easily 100% of capacity. Freshly brewed, dark roast, 1000 degree coffee, handed to me with a smile. 

There's no where to sit and talk because the perimeter has been staked out by the laptoppers peering at me from over their devices, single earbuds dangling. I'm left with the barstool area to the right of the cash wrap. 

I take off the lid, debate whether or not to violate the sign above the trash, "DO NOT POUR COFFEE IN TRASH" and try to blow some of the heat away. I debate asking the pregnant barista if she can pour some of the liquid out when my appointment shows up. 

There is a handshake, an adjustment of the stool, and a slight tap of the coffee cup which doesn't make much of a spill. No, the real spill comes from my attempt to save the cup. What a mess. 

Every day since, when I grab my slightly waterlogged notebook, I get this earworm that I'm passing on to you. Sing it with me:

Oh! Now she's gone
And I'm back on the beat
A stain on my notebook
Says nothing to me

Good stuff. 

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