Execution category archive
Accurately Forecasting in 2012
Posted by Rick McPartlin on February 22nd, 2012
Forecasting revenue is always tough, but since 2008 it has been the most taxing in over 50 years. To get it right in 2012 you need to “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change”
Difficult conversations: the longer you wait, the worse they get!
Posted by Jane Adamson on September 27th, 2011
You know the one. It’s the difficult conversation you need to have with an employee who isn’t doing the job, or causing a problem, or doesn’t play well with others. The one that keeps you up at night and causes your stomach to feel like the butterflies inside you are learning the Latin rhumba. The number of excuses you’ve come up with to evade the issue is a testament to your creativity.
That perfect set of circumstances that you’re waiting for is simply not going to happen. And you know that the longer you wait, the worse things get and the more difficult the issue becomes to address. So instead of procrastinating and suffering, have the conversation! The key is to prepare in 3 separate steps.
The Accountability Conundrum
Posted by Jane Adamson on May 20th, 2011
This post is the first of many guest posts we’ll begin publishing for the CEO Challenge. As we announced yesterday, Jane has launched Sherpa Advisory and will focus on guiding companies with 25-500 employees to achieve excellence in EXECUTION. Don’t worry, we will continue delivering our popular strategic planning service together, and Jane is still a tightly integrated partner of The Revenue Game!
Your sales team shouldn’t be doing road repair!
Posted by Rick McPartlin on May 3rd, 2011
When you’re launching a new offer, everyone is fired up and sees a clear road to success. “The product is great. The market is huge. This will sell itself, and we’ll get top dollar, too. We just have to be ready to meet huge market demand.” So the organization busies itself preparing for huge demand and profits to suddenly appear.
Interestingly, salespeople often don’t see the same easy road the rest of the organization sees. (This fact surprises most of the executives we work with.) A sales team sees gold at the end of a road, but the road they see is long, twisty, challenging and uncertain. It will have potholes, dead trees and dead ends. They also know that they will probably have to build or repair that road if they want to get new deals to close at the end.
