When it comes to revenue, why does my team have so much trouble hearing what I am trying to say?

CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, COOs, Attorneys, Marketing, Customer Service, Product Development, Engineers, Accountants, HR, Union Leaders, Customers, Clients, Vendors, Partners, Programmers, Government Workers, Doctors, etc, etc, etc.

What do these roles have in common with the following countries?

China, England, United States, Germany, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, Finland, Poland, Iran.

The answer is they are speaking different languages.  Now imagine you have a meeting, and the room is filled with each of these different roles (each speaking the language of their role), and every one of the people in the roles is from a different country.

To take this a step further, all the people work for the same company, and they are there to solve a problem that is REALLY IMPORTANT, and how well they solve it will determine if the company survives, and if anyone still has a job.

How comfortable are you that this will end well?

The problem they are solving is, “Can they predictably grow profitable revenue to a level that at least assures survival?”.  They need to solve this problem real time starting now.  They are competing against great companies all over the world and hundreds of start-ups and garage companies who dream of dominating at least part of their market.

This is a problem every company in the world has.  If you have one person in your company – everyone is on the same page, everyone understands everyone else, and no one will misunderstand the language, the strategy, the goals, the work plan, the sequencing or the deliverables that must happen to have a great year.

Next add just 2 people to the company and watch what happens.  Every company needs someone to sell and someone to deliver.  So now the CEO has a three person company, and even though you all grew up in the same city and went to the same college, the CEO can’t understand why the other two don’t “get it” after repeated conversations, emails, meetings and one-to-ones.

To make it worse, the CEO is not sure what the sales guy is really trying to sell, and if the delivery gal can really deliver anything close to the strategic vision.

Three years of a great market has grown the team to 40.  The team is in three offices so they can be closer to the big customers.  When the CEO visits the offices, he has to check the door to see if he is in the right office based on how different each office does things, who their customers are and how they charge for services.  The CEO ends up just shrugging and saying this must be what is meant by market focus and is happy the company is making money.

This company is already out of control and being driven by a fickle market asking for fulfillment of tactical needs.  There is no revenue strategy, no sustainable cost structure based on value, and the brand stands for “we will do anything for money,” and “if you don’t like my answer, call a different office.”

Every person will be clear about the niche or niches we dominate, the offers we use to dominate those niches, and exactly what our ideal customer looks like so we know them when we see them.  We can compel them with our clarity about the customer problem we are offering to solve for them that NO ONE else solves.

Those who practice the science of “Revenue Generation” will be able to accurately diagnose both opportunities and problems using the same tools and the same language in the same way engineers or medical professionals can come together to accomplish something important in their area without screaming and wondering if anyone knows what they meant.

Don’t let short-term fulfillment markets hypnotize you into doing “whatever” as long as we make a profit.  Short-term fulfillment bubbles will burst, and only those practicing the science of “Revenue Generation” using common best practices, models, and language will survive.  Members of these teams will be sure they were heard and understood.