Revenue Journal®

You are the head honcho at your company. You stay awake at night struggling with unsolved problems. You go into work every day and focus on solving them. Your life consists of finding and solving those problems.

You think you know more than anyone in the world about your company. You're right - no single individual knows more than you. But there is critical information that you don't know, information that is sucking the life blood out of your company's potential for growth. Information that, if you knew it, faced it, and dealt with it, you could remove those stubborn barriers to the sale and start your revenues flowing in new ways and at new rates.

What is that critical information? Actually, the real question is, where is that critical information? You have to know where to look before you can find it. It's hiding in three main areas: employees, customers, and metrics.

Let's look at each one of these, starting with employees.

Hidden Secrets, Source #1: Employees know more than they're telling you. You only get part of the picture from employees. Why? Because a) they don't want you to know because it will get them in trouble b) they don't want you to know because it will get someone else in trouble c) they aren't telling you, because they've tried to tell you before and you didn't want to listen.

The first two situations are straightforward. No one wants to go to the boss with information that could make them look bad, and no one wants to be tagged as the company snitch. Mistakes and poor decisions are covered up; attempts are made to fix problems before they are detected; employees can agree to keep the whole thing under wraps, hoping they can repair the damage without detection. The problem is, mistakes and bad decisions often have unexpected ramifications - which are often not obvious to the person making the mistake. After they have "covered it up," they may think, "Whew - that was close!" Meanwhile, a customer or business partner now distrusts you because they have received or heard something as a result of the mistake.

To prevent cover-ups, the most effective CEOs ask an incredible number of questions; they routinely, randomly check all aspects of the business; and they ask one group of employees how the other employees are doing. They go into IT and ask, "Are you getting everything you need from finance?" They go into finance and ask, "Are you getting everything you need from IT?" They personally call customers and business partners, and ask them how things are going. "What has your experience been? Anything we could do to improve?"

Next, let's look at the situation where an employee decides not to tell you something because they assume you will dismiss it. If you're thinking, "This doesn't happen to me - I am very open," think again. There isn't a company in the world where the employees haven't decided, either on their own or (usually) because of the boss' behavior, that they will simply not mention certain things to the boss.

However, if you're aware of this, and work hard on it, you will make progress. Change your behavior, and you will start to hear things you've never heard before.

Let's say that John has tried to tell you that Mary "kisses up and pisses down." (Sorry for the language, but there really isn't a more dignified substitute for this expression.) You dismissed John's comment, since you haven't seen that kind of behavior from Mary. Obviously, since you're the boss, you only experience the kissing, and you are convinced that Mary is doing a good job. And, you don't want to encourage employees to gripe about each other in your office.

However, it's important for you to face the truth about Mary. Anyone who does what Mary is doing will not treat customers well, will not make decisions that help customers, and will not encourage her staff to make decisions that help customers.

To find out what Mary is really doing, without turning your office into a gossip confessional, ask John to talk about how Mary's behavior affects other employees, your business partners, and your customers. This is the real issue, and it will direct the conversation away from the more personal track ("I hate Mary because of the way she treats me").

Of course, if John really is just personally upset at Mary, and Mary's behavior isn't hurting other employees, business partners, or customers, you will find that out as you question him.

Approaching the problem this way also sends a good message to John: Your main concern is the overall well-being of employees, partners, and customers.

Hidden secrets, source #2: Customers never tell salespeople the truth. But, they will tell you the truth if you ask them the right questions, in the right way, at the right time. It's easy to see how this works when you look at it from the customer's point of view. Customer meets with salesperson. Doesn't like the way the salesperson behaves, but decides to buy from your company anyway. Salesperson thinks, "I've just made a sale! I'm good!" Salesperson tells you he's good. Since the sale has been made, you believe him. Customer hasn't said a word to the salesperson about how he bought in spite of the salesperson's behavior, not because of it. What's the point? It won't accomplish anything, from his point of view. So now you've made a sale, you think you have a good salesperson, and you are glad he's calling on more of your prospects.

If you (or someone knowledgeable and empathetic) called that same customer after the sale was made and asked about their impressions and experiences with the salesperson, that same "mute" customer would now relate, in great detail, what the problem was. "I almost didn't buy, because I was so put off by the salesperson's approach, but I really needed the XYZ function in your product, and I have heard that you have great service, so I decided to buy it anyway."

Customers who deal with your people know who is treating them right - or rudely. They know which aspects of your company are weak and inefficient. They know how difficult it is to get an answer to some of the questions that must be answered before they will make a purchase.

Customers who use your product know what you've done right and where you need to focus more energy.

When it comes to the reliability of information, what matters is the AGENDA. The employee agenda is to avoid embarrassment and to look good to the boss. The customer agenda prior to the purchase is to have the purchase go smoothly - to have it be a pleasant experience. The customer agenda after the purchase is for the product to be so easy to use that the customer is delighted - and happy to recommend that product (or service) to friends and family.

The customer's agenda is the same as your agenda. The employee's agenda is not the same as your agenda or your customer's agenda. This is why it is so important to find out what your customers are really thinking.

Hidden secrets, source #3: Metrics. I just interviewed someone in a well-known company who is in charge of his company's website metrics. He has managed to figure out the key performance indicators he wants to measure for the website, and has figured out how to do it. He has taken that data to his managers. Their reaction? "That's nice. But we're still going to do what we've been doing." In this case, the website is organized the way the company is organized, rather than the way the customer approaches the products and the buying process. The website guy figured out how to gather and present the data that shows the website should be organized the way the customer thinks, but the mangers are not buying his recommendations.

This is a sad, but all-too-common story. First you have to figure out what you want to measure, then you have to figure out how to measure it, then you have to measure it and analyze it, and, when you're all done, you have to actually take action on what the analysis has told you.

Basically, these managers are putting their personal comfort ahead of the customer's comfort. This is the root of the problem. It's actually at the root of almost every revenue-generation problem. "Sure, they want that. Customers have been saying that for years. But doing that is hard! Doing that is uncomfortable! Doing that is a lot of work! Doing that is too expensive!"

So much of this vital information is not a secret at all. It's not a secret to your customer. It's not a secret to the employee who cares about your customers but who doesn't think you'll believe him when he tells you about Mary. It's not a secret to your competitors, and others in the industry, who are fully aware of your weaknesses and your reluctance to correct them. Your competitors are happy you're not fixing those problems; your weaknesses are their opportunity. It's not a secret to the people in your company who have gone to the trouble to gather and analyze qualitative and quantitative data, and who are shocked when that data is dismissed as meaningless, because it threatens someone's comfort zone.

If you want to increase your revenues, the first place to start is to aggressively uncover and start attacking these problems. Your goal will be to eliminate your company's secret life, to know everything there is to know and to be working on improving whatever is weak. This is where new money comes from. Fortunately, your customer-centric employees and your current customers will be more than happy to help you, once you make it clear that you care.