Strategy Archives - Falconry Group Marketing Seattle

Small Business Marketing Do’s and Don’ts

B2B, Sales and Marketing, Social Media, Strategy No Responses »

Aug 032012

Tom Scearce was recently a panelist on a marketing experts’ roundtable titled “The Do’s and Don’ts of Small Business Marketing.”

Other roundtable participants included:

Shawn Naggiar, Chief Revenue Officer at Act-On Software, Inc.
Ivana Taylor, a Marketing Strategist at Third Force, and founder of DIYmarkets.com
Whitney Keyes who is a Strategist at Whitney Keyes Production
Maria Ross (moderator), the Creator & Chief Brand at Red Slice

This lively discussion addressed questions such as:

• Strategies for acquiring new customers
• Prioritizing small business marketing activities with time and budget
• Avoiding common mistakes in email marketing

Tom emphasized list segmentation and targeted content to increase relevance and conversion, citing a client example of the Portent internet marketing email series. Shawn stressed getting directly to the point, while not trying to “close the deal” in lead nurturing emails. Ivana stressed the need to keep your company goals in mind when communicating with prospects. Whitney shared tips on getting new customers, using the dating metaphor to emphasize how using the contacts you already know can expand your reach.

Hear The Conversation

Listen to the roundtable via this audio player:

Or you can download it here.

Enjoy!

Marketing for Non-Marketers – 3 Examples

Sales and Marketing, Strategy No Responses »

Jul 122012

This is the first Falconry Group blog post from our summer intern, Hanne Ockert-Axelsson. Welcome Hanne!

Have you chosen to be an engineer, a research scientist, or another profession requiring advanced analytical and technical skill? If so, in college did you ever nod off a little in those business pre-requisite classes? Especially during the marketing sections.

If you’re in the workforce now, you could be forgiven for skipping the optional marketing “lunch and learns.” You’ve got products to build, problems to solve, and deadlines to meet.

To people with the advanced knowledge required to build viable products, marketing can seem like a trivial detail. It’s something those nice marketing people do at the beginning and/or end of a product development cycle. This view of marketing is understandable. Architects and general contractors design and build great houses. But, for various reasons, they usually don’t sell them.

I hope you won’t agree with this statement too quickly, but truth-be-told, I’m not a “natural” marketer. I’m really fascinated by marketing, and I’m excited to gain more experience as The Falconry Group’s summer intern. Ultimately though, I want to build great products; specifically in the category of pharmaceutical research and development. This field is, and must be, a business. And I know that marketing strategy and execution can make the difference between success or failure. (I like success better!)

It seems like truly great products and great marketing come in the same package. Having a strong product is one thing. Communicating those strengths effectively in a brochure or web video is another. To turn a target audience into customers, we have to do both.

I’ve come to see marketing as an essential component of a great product. If I’m helping build that product, buyers need to know why it’s great. So they’ll buy it. So I can get paid!

Here are three things that I, a lifelong non-marketer, have learned about marketing:

1) Marketing myself. It’s my name on the résumé and LinkedIn profile. I’m the one sitting in the interview chair. If I’ve gotten that far, I probably think I can do the job. But if I can’t explain why I can do it to a potential employer, I’m unlikely to get an offer. Selling oneself can be awkward. But it’s essential to getting a foot in the door.

2) Marketing a product. Last year, I met an undergraduate advertising major who, along with a few friends, was starting a business. Their product was coconut water. Now, in any natural foods store, there are ten different varieties of coconut water. Most have brand names and packaging that promise more health to healthy consumers. These guys differentiated their coconut water by packaging it as a hangover cure. I thought this was clever. Instead of fighting for attention in the existing market of coconut water guzzlers, they focused on creating a new market of buyers. And those buyers will likely to buy an extra unit (or two) of the product, if it’ll make that $#@%&@* headache stop!

3) Marketing a brand. So we were successful with our last product, but now what? In the echo chamber of brands vying for buyers’ attention, our great product today will be tomorrow’s old news. Nobody wants to buy the original iPod anymore. But Apple isn’t really selling iPods, or even iPhones or iPads. They’re selling a lifestyle. That brand promise keeps Apple customers loyal while the Apple product folks cook up the next great idea.

Ok, now it’s your turn:

Do you agree that great products and great marketing ALWAYS go hand-in-hand?
Do you have any examples of great marketing overcoming a weak product? Or vice versa?

Your comments below please!

Social media and the authentic business

B2B, Social Media, Strategy No Responses »

Jun 062012

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

In a letter to potential shareholders included in Facebook’s pre-IPO S-1 filing, CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote this:

We hope to improve how people connect to businesses and the economy. We think a more open and connected world will help create a stronger economy with more authentic businesses that build better products and services.”

On reading this, I was struck by Zuckerberg’s use of the word “authentic” to describe businesses. This adjective is more often applied to people than to companies. For a person, being inauthentic means failing to be yourself, which often leads to failing other people. For people who want to succeed in life, being authentic is considered a best practice. Yes, one can still achieve success by fooling some of the people some of the time. Even the un-fooled have learned to tolerate this fact. But it’s the “real McCoys” and “straight shooters” who earn our enduring respect.

Can the same be said of companies? Do straight-shooting companies also win in the marketplace? We could debate that question all day. But regardless of the current “truth,” Zuckerberg believes that in the future, authenticity will be a source of competitive advantage for companies.

These days, it’s easy to notice when companies fail their customers, employees, or shareholders. Would a more authentic business be less likely to let its stakeholders down? If so, the Authentic Business may become the new standard of excellence, due to the favorable business outcomes a commitment to authenticity creates.

And we’ll soon be tearing down cubicle walls.
And we’ll throw the cubicle walls into a burning forge.
And the burning forge will operate 24/7,

giving rise to a large new army of…

…Business Authenticity Consultants!

[I know that won't actually happen. But do you think it could work as a Super Bowl ad?]

Ok, back here in our world, this leaves me with two (other) questions:

1. What does it mean for a business to be authentic?
2. How can companies use social media platforms, today, to become more authentic?

I’d welcome your thoughts (on question 1, question 2, or my Super Bowl ad concept/nightmare) in the comments section.

A lead nurturing preso we posted to Slideshare

B2B, Marketing Automation, Process, Sales and Marketing, Social Media, Strategy No Responses »

Mar 302012

This is a presentation on lead nurturing we created for a webinar a while back. We think it’s kinda neato. Sorta spiffy. Swell, even.

The deck includes some easy-to-follow examples from work we’ve done with clients. However, there’s no audio. Just slides. If there’s enough interest, we’ll record an audio track and add it to the preso. Cast your vote via email [info at falconrygroup dot com] or in the comment section. Democracy – don’t you just love it??

Lead Nurturing That Works – 7 New Ideas for Increasing Lead Scores, Conversion, and Pipeline

This gallery contains 1 photos

5 reasons Good beats Perfect (almost) every time

Process, Strategy No Responses »

Jan 142012

The perfect is the enemy of the good.

This wonderfully compact nugget of wisdom – commonly attributed to Voltaire, the French Enlightenment figure – is a fixture in the vernacular of modern business.

My undergraduate French degree doesn’t qualify me to challenge Voltaire’s intellect. But hey, Voltaire hasn’t done a lick of work in over 330 years. So I’m going to weigh in on his War of Good and Perfect, to see if I can pick a winner.

Here are 5 ways Good beats the crap out of Perfect:

1. Good is quick out of the gate. Perfect debates whether this gate, or that one over there, is the best gate from which to proceed.

2. You probably can’t afford Perfect. But with a savvy mixture of your cash on hand, some pocket lint, and your own creativity (or your talent for inspiring it in others), Good is within reach.

3. Perfect is an egotist. Good is a collaborator. Perfect is an old school, round-world, command-and-controller. Good is a progressive, flat-world, plays-well-with-others hipster. [thank you Thomas Friedman]

4. Good is motion. Perfect is an obsession. Good feels like a hike or a trip to the gym. It’s got a beginning and an end. It makes you sweat. And when you’re done with Good, you feel it (Good). Perfect is like a Scottish poet, locked in a seaside cabin, curtains drawn, brooding for weeks over the next couplet.

5. Good finishes on schedule, or early, and doesn’t expect kudos. Perfect always takes extra time, without asking for it. And if you object, Perfect will lecture you, gazing into the distance, with trite zingers like “time takes time,” or “you can’t rush (me),” or this little gem, “Rome wasn’t built in a day!”

[No, it wasn’t built in a day. It took 1200 years of militaristic expansion, artistic and cultural thievery, slavery, torture, taxation without representation, corruption, massive debt, and general debauchery, until it collapsed, ushering in the Dark Ages. Thanks a lot, Rome!]

Ok, ok. The Rome comparison is probably the right place to throw down a big fat caveat. Because the Romans clearly did some great work. And caveat is a Latin word.

If you consistently reject even the pursuit of Perfect, Good will eventually let you down. Maybe in a big way.

Perfect, for all its faults, wants to get it right. Perfect has been there and done that, and will also listen to others – like Been There and Done That – who have relevant experience. Perfect is willing to consider all the angles. Perfect doesn’t trust quick fixes. Perfect is all about adding value over the long-term. Perfect has calculated the cost (to the penny!) of what happens when Good ends up being Not Good, because Good phoned it in, half-assed it, or took a short-cut. “The Donner Party tried to take a short cut,” Perfect says, annoyingly but with conviction. “And THAT didn’t work out so well, DID IT?!”

[Perfect tends to overindulge in hyperbole.]

So what’s our endgame in the war between Perfect and Good?

Maybe it’s this: Perfect and Good may be enemies. But Too Expensive, Too Late, Half-Assed, and Eaten-For-Breakfast-By-Your-Friends are our enemies.

So let Good and Perfect battle it out a bit. Just be sure to impose a cease-fire before Good Enough and Nearly Perfect end up K.I.A..

Your turn now. Do you have any more fun personifications to compare — or comparisons to personify — Good and Perfect?

The 3 Keys to Marketing Happiness

Marketing Automation, Sales and Marketing, Strategy 8 Responses »

Apr 162011

Here’s the deal: marketing is hard. If you think marketing is easy, you’re probably not a marketer. Or a human. Yes, you’re probably some kind of replicant who (that?) has been lucky enough to have the Google algorithm programmed into memory. Or you are, in fact, the Google algorithm, crawling this page right now. [In which case: hey, make yourself comfortable. Can I get you Fresca or something?]

But for those of us who ply the marketing trade, it’s a pretty tough job. Among our long list of responsibilities:

we’re supposed to spend $1 of the company’s money and get $25 (or more) back.
we have to keep the Sales team supplied with good leads, and be neither a father of Sales’ success nor an absentee dad when they fail.
we must stay focused and execute in a constantly changing landscape of internal (e.g., budget, people, products, processes, policies) and external (e.g., media, agencies, buyer behavior, competition, government regulations) variables.

In the marketer’s pursuit of success, this all just comes with the territory. But, in business, “success” is a weird thing. It’s not always a (linear) result of hard work. In fact, it’s sometimes awarded to those who seem, at least on the surface, unworthy. And a jealous rival can always spin an objectively kick-ass outcome into a “gap versus expectations.” Business success is always worth pursuing, but it is rarely captured on our preferred timing or terms. But with the right tools and attitude, success in the form of personal fulfillment is always within reach.

One of my trusted mentors, Lenora Edwards, encourages her clients (consultants, entrepreneurs, and executives) to define a Ten Commandments list. These are ten (or however many are needed) experiences that are essential to making any project, job, or client relationship fulfilling. ”Achieving great results” is a mainstay on my list. Even though it can be squishy and elusive, I have to be chasing a meaningful, measurable outcome. But for me the process is even higher on my Ten Commandments list than the outcome.

Oh gosh. I know that sounds trite. But the oft-maligned and misunderstood notion of getting there has always been vital to enjoyment of my work. The results will either happen or they won’t. Or, as noted above, they will happen AND they won’t. I can’t control the outcome but I can strongly influence it if I’m not too caught up in how it looks. Adopting an “enjoy the journey” approach isn’t just pie-eyed happy talk for me – it’s a survival skill.

So, here are my three keys to marketing happiness. Get ready to smile. Wait, wait… …ok, go!

1. Seek the truth. Also known as “optimization.” I’m spending the company’s money, time, and energy. If I’m not getting a return, I shouldn’t be spending. So I hold myself and my clients accountable for how we execute our decisions. That might require an occasional uncomfortable conversation with IT, Finance, Sales, or a C-level Executive. But the pursuit of the truth is fun, and honorable. And as long as I remember to breathe, those uncomfortable conversations are learning opportunities. And the truth will set us free.

2. Take reasoned risks. Also known as: “managing a marketing program portfolio.” Marketing is about placing smart bets. The bets should be smart. But they also must be placed. This link contains a keyword search for “average tenure of a CMO.” Click it and check out the organic results. The average tenure is around two years, right? Personally, I prefer embracing this reality to wresting with it. Either way, I get my uniform dirty, but the former is more fun than the latter. I try to never be reckless, but also never afraid. And I always keep in mind that — no matter how high the stakes – it’s a game and that games should be enjoyed. Otherwise, why play?

3. Predict the future. Also known as: “forecasting profitable revenue growth.” This is the hardest part of the job but also — when I have the right mindset – the most fun. And if I am diligent about truth-seeking and reasoned-risk-taking, I learn enough to make future-predicting easier over time.

So, what do you think? Is my list missing any “bliss-enabling imperatives?” Tell me yours in the comments.

Smart social media – 5 ways KLM gets it right

B2B, Sales and Marketing, Social Media, Strategy No Responses »

Apr 092011

A friend in Amsterdam shared this video on Facebook today, and I was inspired to spin it here on the TLOTL blog. It struck me as a potential “beginning of the end” in the tedious debate of the question: is social media dead?

I refuse to waste pixels issuing birth or death notices for social media (or wade into questions of its citizenship for that matter). But if you are still monitoring social media’s vital signs, or if you just like watching videos, then watch the video. Then read my analysis. And whether you agree with me but think I missed a few points, or you think I’m hopelessly hopped up on social media Kool-Aid, I invite you to make your case in the comments section. [Hey, as long as you're not a comment spammer or some other type of internet n'er-do-well, you can even launch an epic vitriolic screed against all forms of social media containing links back to your blog or Twitter page.]

Here’s my take on what this video and story does for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines:

Launches a new Miami route with a dose of the fun a KLM passenger can have there. Message: when you fly KLM the transportation is part of the destination. And now one of the reasons you would go to Miami in the first place is one of the reasons you’ll consider flying KLM to get there.
Targets a customer segment with a high expected lifetime value. If you’re a major airline in 2011, it’s nice to fill a seat. It’s reeaaally nice to fill it with young people who tend to travel in groups, probably don’t have kids or a spouse to think of, and spend disposable income on international leisure and entertainment. Seats filled (for 16-18 hours round trip!) with those kinds of passengers provide KLM with a captive audience who will buy drinks, meals, movies, and sign up for credit cards and loyalty programs.
Connects a distinctive, generations-old brand with notions of youth, vitality, style, escape and adventure. These themes appeal to a wide cross-section of the traveling public, and indeed have been part of the air travel sales pitch to consumers for much of the last century.
Shows KLM:
a. Using social media. Period.
b. Using social media to listen to customers, and not just to blast out special offers or manage the TV news cycle.
c. Using social media to engage customers in profitable exchanges – “yes, we’ll gladly move the Miami route launch up one week, but you gotta get your raver friends to fill some seats.” I bet shareholders like that part of the story.
Differentiates KLM as a company that rises above the B.S. – at a time when the dominant storylines in air travel are rising fares, nickel-and-dime surcharges, and (in America at least) TSA body scans, KLM is setting a Guinness World Record for the highest altitude dance party. This is really smooth, and the nexus of content and context matters a lot here. How would we feel about this video if this were 1999 instead of 2011? In a world awash in post-Cold War, dot com, fin de siècle giddiness, a thumping, transatlantic, 30K-foot dance party would’ve looked terribly tacky and “me too.”

Leon Pals, a Rotterdam-based trendwatcher, posted on thenextweb.com that even if this video is just a clever concoction of KLM’s marketing department or creative agency, he enjoyed it as an example of effective social media. (Such sleight of hand would seem a needless risk for KLM, in my opinion.)

I would take Pals’ point further and say that even if some level of storyline manufacturing took place, this would only underscore social media’s value as a communications channel.

And BTW, let’s just take it as a given that all media is subject to misuse. We should move beyond moral outrage and accept that, at some level, we’re just going to have to figure out the difference between authentic and synthetic messaging. We can try to regulate and we should. And we can hope that those who think it’s ok to “pee in the pool” (I’m talking to you J.C.-Penny-and-or-the-agency-that-supposedly-acted-of-its-own-accord-to-employ-black-hat-SEO-practices-on-J.C.-Penny’s-behalf) will eventually be caught in the act, publicly shamed, and sent to the big house if necessary.

But in the meantime, we marketers have a job to do, and that is TO SELL. And whether or not J.C. Penny or anyone else is cheating is not our concern. What we need to do is tell great stories that inspire the right customer to engage our brands, and ultimately, buy our products. Well done KLM.

A/B testing – it’s not just for web sites anymore

Sales and Marketing, Strategy No Responses »

Apr 082011

Lowe’s Hardware in Seattle is currently carrying two boxes of the same Procter & Gamble product. I’m stocking up so I bought both, but I wonder which packaging ‘converts’ better?

Are you a rainmaker or a meteorologist?

Sales and Marketing, Strategy 5 Responses »

Oct 112010

A CFO with whom I once worked shared with me the qualities he believed essential in a VP of Sales. As he worked up the list from bottom to top, I was certain that some variation of “consistently achieving revenue and gross margin quota” was going to occupy the #1 slot. But instead, he treated me to this nugget of wisdom that has stayed with me over the years:

The thing I care about most is predictability. Of course I want the VP of Sales to make his number. But actually, I really need him to make the number that he has been forecasting to the executive team, as close to the mark as possible, regardless of where that number is in relation to quota. To put a finer point on it, if he over-performs against quota by 30%, but he told us that he was going to beat quota by 10%, I’m happy for the business that month, but that VP of Sales has lost a measure of credibility with me. And by the same token, even if he comes up short, I want him to tell me how much he’s going to miss the number ahead of time, and then deliver that result exactly. Because that shows me he’s in command of his business. And when he’s in command of his business, I can manage mine more accurately.

I was reminded of this conversation recently when the sales director for one of my clients happily announced the latest new customer win. I relayed my congratulations and then asked “how is the forecast that we discussed last week coming along?” I know, I know. Shame on me for not letting the sales director enjoy a few more moments in the winner’s circle. But this exchange, and that CFO’s words, point to an important truth about modern sales management:

It’s not enough to be a rainmaker. You also need to be a meteorologist.

It’s not enough to simply beat a sales goal. Management expects that. To be an “A player” in sales, you must be able to accurately predict AND deliver a specific sales outcome.

To the casual observer, this may seem like a ridiculously tall order to fill. But it should be noted that these kinds of sales acrobatics used to be easier to pull off than they are today. Sellers had more direct leverage in the sales process, buyers had less information, and there were fewer regulations on corporate accounting practices such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. These and other factors gave Sales VPs more hands-on control of the revenue factory.

Today, sellers have less leverage, buyers have more information, and compliance regimes have significantly reduced or eliminated sandbagging. But somehow the sales VP is still expected to accurately predict when it’s going to rain (hour-by-hour), how many inches will fall, and what the temperature, windspeed and direction, and barometric pressure will be. Oh and s/he needs to do this job while managing the people (sales reps, overlay resources, clients, channel partners, and executives) whose interactions will determine the final “weather report.” If you’re a Sales VP and this is your reality, here are a few ideas for how to pull this off….

1) Look at your past ratios and trends. Get a report of your past sales results, by month, going back 1-2 years. Then on the same timeline plot all of the contributing factors inputs to those results you can think of. How many sales reps were on staff during each month? How many selling days were there during each month? If you can identify a metric that is more highly correlated than others to variations in sales, you can try forecasting the next few periods using that ratio. It’s a low-tech and brute force forecasting method, but it may nonetheless make your crystal ball a little less cloudy.

2) Look at the sources of leads that convert into sales. Which lead sources have the highest conversion rates and deal values? Which ones have the most consistent conversion rates and deal values? You may need to optimize your lead generation portfolio for the same reason you may need to occasionally re-balance your investment portfolio – to get predictable returns.

3) Find out what your champions eat for breakfast. This is really just another take on the lead sources recommendation. If you had a widget factory with 20 assembly lines, and 4 of them consistently shipped defect-free widgets, on time, and in the quantities specified on the work order, you would figure out what goodness is happening on those assembly lines and make sure the other 16 know it too.

4) Look at marketing automation software and or services. Although much more of a “commitment to the process” than the first three suggestions, marketing automation can provide, along with many other benefits to your organization, more predictable revenue and profit over time.

Whatever you do, don’t try to pull this off alone or as a project managed solely within the sales organization. Making it rain is an art form, and it’s what you’re really good at. Meteorology is a science. So partner up with the scientists in marketing, operations, and finance people who “get” sales the most (but could never do your job) and ask for their help.

Holster that nerd gun! – 8 Do’s and Don’ts for Successful Sales Meetings

Sales and Marketing, Strategy 2 Responses »

Sep 072010

Today I saw a question on a B2B expert network website that I found helpful in re-lighting the TLOTL blog boiler, which had been silent since my vacation to Southern California in mid-August. I literally have 5 post concepts from that trip that I have committed to banging out at some point. But sometimes, seeing a business problem in the form of a question is all it takes for me to overcome a mild case of writer’s block. Here is the question I saw, and my response below it. Enjoy! And, as always, your comments, questions, and protests are encouraged!

The Question: “I just read this blog post from Cloud 9 Analytics (http://cloud9analytics.com/2010/09/02/3-tips-running-a-successful-weekly-sales-meeting/ ). I was inspired to take this to the Focus Network. What are you (sic) tips for running a successful sales meeting? What have you seen that doesn’t work?”

My Answer: Great question! We’ve all been in good and bad weekly sales meetings. And since the stakes are usually high, these meetings are always educational, regardless of how good or bad the numbers are.

The tone and substance of the article you referenced is nicely even-handed and process-oriented. So I’ll go the other way, perhaps erring on the side of bluntness. Here are my 8 tips (4 “WHAT WORKS” vs. 4 “WHAT DOESN’T WORK”) for a good weekly sales meeting.

WHAT WORKS

1) Right audience. The weekly sales meeting needs to strike a balance between too few and too many participants. It can’t be a back-channel meeting exclusive to lobbyists and senators, but neither can it be an unruly town hall. To promote continuous improvement, there needs to be an atmosphere of transparency and collaboration. In my experience, there’s always a point of diminishing returns in meetings, where the honesty becomes a bit less rigorous with each additional attendee.

2) Solid routine. If every week’s meeting seems like bad Reality TV, there may be a lack of structure to the meeting. Call a side-meeting with the stakeholders where you propose a “time budget” for how the meeting will be run. Also get agreement on the specific reports and forecasts to be reviewed each week, and who presents them. Establishing familiarity allows people to focus on analyzing results and proposing improvements.

3) Meeting discipline. This is the weekly sales meeting — a necessity for most companies. For those who need to attend, it needs to be treated with respect. It starts on time, and it ends on time. Habitual lateness and random absences are not tolerated. If you’re on the road and your schedule allows you to conference in, do it, even if you are not presenting. Usage of mobile devices during the meeting must, by definition, be more important than sales (which keeps the lights on and probably pays for, or subsidizes, your mobile device usage). So if you’re using your iCrackoid during the meeting, there must be a family emergency — in which case you should excuse yourself — or a sensitive corporate transaction that can’t wait till the meeting is over. Holster that nerd-gun for the next 60, sit up straight, and pay attention.

4) Facts vs. fiat. If we want to help drive sales, then color commentary must take a back seat to black-and-white truth. The functions that support sales (finance, marketing, operations) often resist quick changes without a logical justification. If they resist for a personal agenda, or no agenda, that’s a “sales prevention department” problem. But if they’re being good stewards of scarce resources (money, people, time), they should be able to review data, and collaborate on solutions. In the long run, this approach builds a broader base of support for the sales team, and drives better results on the top line.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK

1) Hand-waving. If you present at this meeting, you must inspire confidence in your audience. For most of them (especially your CEO) this probably isn’t their first rodeo. They know it’s hard, and that’s why they hired (or had someone hire) a talented guy/gal like you to figure it out. So if you’re not yet performing to plan, show them how you’re getting closer to that goal. And ask for, and accept, help.

2) Learned helplessness. If you took an action last week to fix a problem, please be prepared to discuss either (a) how things are better now, or (b) how things will be better next week. This is especially true if you serve the sales team in a support role. But it’s also true for sales managers who enforce policy.

3) Needless sparring. Some bickering is inevitable when building cohesive teams. But frequent food fights not only waste time, they discourage contributions from smart people who prefer not to enter the Sales Thunderdome — i.e., “two men enter, one man leaves.”

4) Empty proclamations from the ivory tower. I’m talking to you, Marketing-executive-giving-the-monthly-update. We actually do care (a lot) about the focus group or web site usability study you recently conducted. And the Google Analytics reports showing the “engagement lift” from last month’s social media push are interesting (really). But unless you can discuss, numerically, how these projects grow revenue in the current quarter, let’s save it for later. This is the weekly sales meeting.

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