Revenue Journal®

Two business owners are vying for the same client. Both are working hard, busy exchanging emails with the client, doing their homework, trying to make sure they make the best possible impression. A lot of money is on the line, and getting this project will secure their financial situation for the next year or two.

But something just happened that changes everything. The client, who knows perfectly well he is being wooed by these two different people, has just sent an email to Suitor #2 that he got from Suitor #1. He is asking Suitor #2 to comment on the email from Suitor #1.

What this means is that Suitor #1 has just lost the sale, because he has left the client's confidence zone. The client has gained enough confidence in Suitor #2, and has lost enough confidence in Suitor #1, that he is willing to step over the confidentiality line and show an email from Suitor #1 to Suitor #2.

The Confidence Zone has more influence on sales than any other factor, and yet it is something that is virtually ignored by the usual sales gurus.

I'm in a country at the moment where there is a very large divide between "the rich" and "the poor." The unemployment rate is estimated to be at 40%. Yet, in many areas, the malls are packed, and hotel suites in the city near the water go for $1500 a night.

What's been interesting to me, as a revenue coach, is seeing who is still gainfully employed in an economy where the unemployment level is so high. Who does well, and who does not? If you're working for someone else, and are worried about your future, this subject is worth a look. If you own or run a company, it's interesting to look at this because many of the observations I've made about the success of individuals can also be applied to companies.

Who gets work?

You've got a business to run. You've got a family to support and customers, employees, and vendors who are depending on you. If you stopped doing what you were doing, your business would die.

As true - and basic - as these statements are, it's important to say them right now.

Because as we all are trying to do our jobs, we are continually being distracted by the latest "crisis."

"Look at me! I'm the banking industry! I loaned money to people who couldn't afford to pay the money back! Now I'm going under! Help! Send me your money - via more taxes - and bail me out!"

My old buddy Jim Sterne wrote an article recently
in which he said that I had taught him two things:

1. It's about the customer

2. It's political

Throughout my career, these two realities have remained constant. It's very tough for company managers to think like their customers, and every decision made in marketing and sales is agenda-driven. The agendas of the internal people conflict with the agendas of both customers and other internal people. These never-ending conflicts prevent sales from happening. They restrict the revenue flow.

You can always tell when you are being sold something that you might regret buying later when the person selling it keeps talking about how sorry you will be if you don't buy it. They are selling fear, pure and simple. IBM used to call it "FUD: Fear, uncertainty and doubt." The goal was to convince the buyer how bad off he would be if he didn't buy whatever was being sold.

Right now we are being told to be afraid, very afraid. We are supposed to buy into that fear, to believe it, to act upon it. To fret and worry and rush around tearing out our hair.

Leadership is not about being afraid. Running your own company or managing a group of people is not about being afraid. In fact, the person in any situation most likely to be the natural leader is the person who is least fearful.

You can't be both. You can't be a successful leader, someone with the vision and the persistence to make it, if you are fearful.

You think your future is assured by your plan. You worked hard on the plan, you are executing in accordance with the plan. You obsess about the plan.

There's nothing wrong with planning. But there's something more important, something that is going to make you or break you, something that is taking place in spite of your plan and outside your plan.

Something that, if you don't pay much attention to it, will literally keep your business from growing, or kill it outright.

You'll still have all those wonderful plans, but they won't mean anything. You'll have to go back to working for someone else - maybe even that competitor whom you hate.

What is more important than your plan? The work your people do, and their daily interaction with your customers.

The economic news is in full tailspin mode. Cash is tight. It’s harder to find a job than it was, although employers are still hiring. Retirement savings are shrinking, spoiling the plans many had for their use. The pundits are even starting to utter the “D” word. Politicians and the media are telling us it's terrible, and it's going to get worse.

What now?

Now it gets really, really fascinating.

She's successful in her field. She makes a good living. She considers herself a stellar conversationalist. She loves to talk. She loves talking so much, in fact, that she talks even after she has said that she must go do something else. Instead of going and doing it, she remains on the phone or in the room, and talks some more. She talks when the person she is talking to is talking. She talks about things that matter not at all to the other person. She chatters on and on, entertaining herself by talking about all things that come to mind - in great detail.

She went into sales because she loves to hear herself talk.

What a shame that selling is not about talking.

For obvious reasons, I was thinking about "thanks" this week. And, because I never stop thinking about revenue, the two subjects came together. There's a saying, "To him who has, more will be given." I think that saying is often misinterpreted, because of the unstated truth underlying the statement.

The only way you can truly "have" something is to be satisfied with it and appreciative of it. If you are thankful for what you have, you will take good care of it. You will cherish it. You will look for ways to add other similar things to your life. This is how that "to him who has, more will be given" promise comes true.

How does this apply to revenue? In just about every way.

She runs a hot dog shack on the waterfront of a major harbor. She's a tough old bird. Her name is Abbey. She serves hot dogs, burgers and coffee to the industrial workers from around the harbor.

I was standing there along with the workers, last in line, waiting to order. It was obvious that Abbey was always in a permanent bad mood, and always saying "Nope, can't do that." I had already heard from others that "No" was her favorite word. Someone went to her for a cup of coffee at one point in the day, and she said "I'm not serving coffee now." He smiled and pleaded, to no avail. She only served coffee when she wanted to serve coffee, in spite of the sign saying "coffee" to the side of the window.

Finally my turn came, and there was no one else around. We struck up a conversation, and I could see that Abbey had a good heart. She asked me what I do for a living, and I told her that I teach people how to make money. "Oh," she said, enthusiastically. "I need to talk to you! So, how do you make money?"

I've always been more comfortable working with "bootstrappers" than the highly leveraged, venture-capital-funded companies. There always seemed to be a distinct lack of realistic thinking in the venture-backed companies.

I've always attributed the unrealistic approach of venture-funded businesses to several factors, including:

• Multiple layers of "playing with other people's money" – in the sense that the CEO of the financed company is spending money obtained from VCs, and the VCs obtained that money from investors
  
• No connection between "money the company has available to spend" and actually meeting customer needs
  
• Having to answer to VCs, rather than to the actual customer

  Lately it occurred to me that the last item was the most damaging, and not just because the VC is often out of touch with customers, may be clueless about the business and/or industry he is investing in, or is just on a power trip.

In my first book, Rivers of Revenue, I talk about the fact that money is always flowing somewhere. Where do these "rivers of revenue" come from? Needs and desires. People, everywhere, have needs and desires, and they're looking for solutions. If lots of people have the same need or desire, you have a BIG river. Going after opportunities is a matter of identifying the needs and desires you can satisfy, and figuring out how you can satisfy them.

All of this sounds pretty straightforward and logical when you're enjoying a steady flow of revenue. But, if your river starts to dry up, life changes - fast.

Careers and businesses used to last a lifetime. Not anymore. You'll be lucky if what you are doing lasts for five to ten years.

When your river dries up, everything that you did, everything that made sense, everything that "worked" for years suddenly just doesn't work any more. You are stumped. You will have no idea what to do next.

For some time now, I've been interviewing candidates for a sales management position. It's been a tough position to fill. We need the candidate to have experience in my client's industry, which narrows down the candidates considerably. The candidate needs to fit well into the company's culture, which is fairly progressive, further limiting the gene pool. But the two most formidable limiting factors are the need for the candidate to have matured beyond the shallow, snake-oil approach to selling, and have the ability to inspire and lead a group of experienced and "deep" salespeople.

The shallow swimmers sink fast, during my screening process. They have their memorized cliches, and cling to them like the proverbial life preserver. It doesn't take long to determine the depth of their abilities, as I try to determine how good of a "coach" they will be for the sales force. I ask them to describe a couple of specific examples of coaching they have done.

Back when most people lived on farms, there were "snake oil salesmen," who came around to tell residents, one by one, about a cure-all elixir. The salesperson had to be very convincing, and sell as many people as possible in a short time, because the stuff didn't actually work. He had to be in the next town before the people in the previous town discovered the truth.

Fast forward to when people moved to the cities. Buyers saw ads, and then used any means they could to determine if a product was right for them. They would visit a store, call a salesperson, get a brochure, read an article in a "consumer reports" magazine, and so on. The salesperson, and the company's ability to get covered by the press, played a large role in the completion of the sale.

Fast forward to today, when most buyers have access to Google.

One of the most important skills of a marketing strategist is to know "where the heat is." What matters now? Who matters now?

One of the things that matters now is your buyers, trying to get relevant, useful answers in a sea of irrelevant, self-serving blather. Anyone can publish a blog and post a video. Almost everyone does. Every company has a website. Publishing companies that used to have a monopoly, those large lumbering newspapers, magazines, and networks, are now surrounded by swarms of publishing gnats. The giants are dying, one gnat bite at a time.

Meanwhile, the gnats - the bloggers who publish text and video - have become the kings of Influence Hill. Of course, as with all media, bloggers who provide useful and relevant information get more attention than those who publish self-serving or silly content. Well, that's not entirely true. A lot of very silly content gets its share of attention - but not for long. The blog authors that get the long-term attention are like lights shining in the darkness, and they shine for a long time.

If you are trying to make sure people know about you, you should be courting these bloggers.

No matter what you're selling, but especially if you're selling something technical or complex you can't assume that "the way we've always done it" will work for you now. "The way we've always done it" usually means that the salespeople have minimal training, and are set loose on customers.

Big Mistake. It was a smaller mistake back when salespeople could be "order takers," (I think that phrase was last heard sometime last year), but it's a catastrophic mistake now. Why? Because buyers have changed their behavior. Companies that adapted to those changes are doing OK. Those who haven't are slipping, fast.

The most significant change I see in buyer behavior is an increase in impatience. They have no patience for websites and salespeople that don't answer their most pressing questions. That's the first big hurdle you must overcome. Then, if you manage to answer their important questions, and meet their "Critical Criteria," they are impatient to make the purchase. They want your product or service NOW.

Let's look at these two dynamics separately. We'll do it using a fairly simple real-life example, but one that can be applied to even the most complex type of sale.

Last week, over a 5-day period starting on Thursday, I flew to from Providence to San Jose to meet with a new client, then to San Diego and Tucson to visit family, then back to Providence. I flew Southwest all the way. It was pleasant, as it always is. Whenever I fly domestically, Southwest is my first choice.

Southwest is famous for its "love" theme, tenuously connected to Love Field in Dallas, where they started. It's such a departure from the other airlines, whose snarly bureaucratic behavior I've covered here before. What I want to focus on this time is how that "love" manifests itself in the customer's interaction with the airline.

Of course, it starts at the top.

It's hard enough to get customers. In tight times, the last thing you want to do, after you've gotten a customer, is to lose them. Not a good idea. But, it happens all the time to lots of companies. Why?

One reason. Yes, that's what I said: ONE reason. In every situation, for every type of product or service, in all the thousands of customer interviews I've conducted, it's obvious that there is really only one reason why customers leave. The reason:

"You stopped caring about me."

You want to grow your revenue - you need to grow your revenue - but the big question is: How?

Do you take what you've already done and try to do the same thing in another location? Do you partner with others who are doing something related to what you're doing? Do you offer more products and services - to current customers, or new customers? Do you continue doing what you do now, but expand your distribution channel - selling through more portals, distributors, resellers? Do you make it easier for people to buy from you, on your current website? Do you increase your marketing spend? Do you hire more salespeople?

The real answer is not what to do, but how you go about figuring out what you should do.

People buy when they're comfortable that they're making the right decision. If they're uncomfortable, they don't buy. This is especially true when money is tight or people are fearful. Their comfort zone - and how well you stay within it - will determine if you make a sale, or not.

Let's look at what will kick you out of their comfort zone - and how you can stay inside.

As consumers, we are encouraged to enjoy life, relax, have fun, hang out with our buddies and laugh, drink, eat, travel, be entertained, look for ways to make things easier, more efficient, faster and more cool. As marketers and salespeople, we make claims that our products and services will help people do these things.

Given that the average consumer is exposed to thousands of these messages a week, consumers are immersed in an endless sea of messages encouraging them to "do your thing," "just do it," and do "whatever turns you on." There's also an overriding theme, that you are really, really important, that it's all about "you."

The problem is, in our society, money is the vehicle we all use to pay for those indulgences. We have to make money before we can spend it on our ever-so-special selves.

Some time ago, I wrote an article about how software buyers were mired in the "skepticism swamp." It's even worse now.

If you're selling software, you have to be able to overcome the massive amount of disbelief that has built up in buyers' minds, thanks to all the promises that have been made to them - and broken. Everyone promised higher productivity, increased efficiency, and plug-and-play. HA.

What everyone delivered was installation headaches, integration nightmares, missing-in-action service, and navigation that required that you know the program intimately before you could do anything useful with it.

Today, software buyers and users consider each purchase an investment - of time and grief, as well as the money.

When I got an advance copy of the about-to-be-released book, Tuned In, and started reading it, my head swam. The authors, whom I've known for a long time, were singing my theme song so perfectly that I felt like I was in a parallel universe.

Their basic premise? That the companies that make it - the ones that rise above all others - have one thing in common. They're "tuned in." They came to this conclusion after actually doing research - which is a good thing, all by itself. After interviewing hundreds of CEOs and people at thousands of companies, they were sure that the difference between the Starbucks and the Peets of the world was how "tuned in" they were.

In the beginning, the entrepreneur starts a company, and does all the selling himself. Then, as the business grows, he hires a salesperson, then a few more salespeople. This goes on for a couple of years, then he hires even more salespeople and a sales manager.

As this progression occurs, this entrepreneur, now the CEO, makes selling mistakes. All CEOs make these mistakes, even if their background was in sales before they started their company, or before they joined the corporation. There aren't many companies run by salespeople; in my experience, CEOs usually come from engineering, finance, or operations. But even the sales-background guys and gals make these same mistakes. Avoiding these seven mistakes can save you a lot of grief.

Here they are. I'll be stating each mistake as a belief, because it is the belief that gets the CEO in trouble. These beliefs are actually dangerous myths, myths that cost companies millions or billions of dollars every year.

There comes a time in the course of inevitable economic ups and downs, when "everyone" starts to feel like "things are going to hell in a hand basket." The media is filled with stories of business and industry failures, people start hoarding and cutting back on their expenses, sales that used to be easy become difficult, and company budgets are cut.

There is a sense of impending doom, and financial statistics are reported that reinforce that sense. We are in one of those periods now.

It doesn't really matter how we got here, or how much of it is real and how much is mass hysteria. Having been through a number of these periods, I've come to pay less and less attention to the "why."

When your market changes, your company must change with it. This seems so obvious - when you're an outsider looking into someone else's company. You can plainly see that buyers have changed what they are doing, and conditions have changed, but the people inside the company are behaving the way they have always behaved, as if nothing had changed.

When you're inside one of those companies, you can tell that something is different. You get hints. But it is so much easier to continue doing what you've always done. You would rather ignore the changes you sense, than admit they are happening - and deal with the changes you know will you have to make.

New players will come into the market, while the market is in its new state, and think, Ah, so this is how it is. OK, I will behave accordingly. They don't have to change their current behavior or infrastructure. They will simply start doing what makes sense.

The leaders of the companies-in-denial either wake up and take action at this stage, or continue to sleepwalk. I don't have to tell you what happens to the sleepwalkers. They walk right off a cliff, never to be heard from again.

The most accurate economic indicator I have ever found is "primary customer motivation." As I interview customers for clients, I learn what is driving them to make the decisions they are currently making. In times of uncertainty, there is usually one big, fear-based driver. In times of economic growth, more drivers come into play, such as the need for status, the need to solve a problem, the need to change one's lifestyle, and the need to experience something new.

I have also found that journalists and economists don't have a clue about "primary customer motivations" until it's obvious to everyone what is going on. And, you can be sure that if the facts conflict with their agenda, the agenda will overshadow the story. That's why any business owner who depends on the press or economists to "guide" him is always going to be a day late and a dollar short. Instead, if he was personally and regularly interviewing customers (or having someone he trusts do it for him), he'd be finding out what's really going on - six months before everyone else (including competitors).

In any economic situation, these primary customer motivation drivers determine what people are buying and how, as well as what they are deciding not to buy.

I am currently working with a couple of clients whose sales are being affected by current economic events. One client is in the luxury travel business and another is in the recreational boating business. In the former situation, high gas prices, higher food prices, and the fall of the dollar against the Euro are causing their customers to pull back on their buying decisions. In the latter situation, high gas prices and a concern about the economy are causing their customers to put off their next recreational boat purchase.

Of course, they're not the only ones feeling the pinch right now. If you are too, here's a recessionary rallying cry for you:

If you want more sales, get serious.

Serious about what?

Those persona articles I wrote recently (here and here), created a bit of a stir out there in BlogLand. Adele Revella from Pragmatic Marketing mentioned my concerns about personas and then went on to describe how those problems could be addressed, including not talking to salespeople about personas, but by relating stories about real buyers. Good advice.

Pragmatic marketing also blogged about my persona blog, with a piece about how people find numerous ways to avoid visiting clients.

Brian Eisenberg quoted Adele's quote, then also went on to talk about how to solve persona problems, using a 4-question survey that will help put flesh on the bones of your personas.

Salespeople (or, I should say, order takers) who are used to taking calls all day are still having a hard time adjusting to the email-driven business world we live in now. The same is true of many small business owners.

The phone is no longer the "instrument of choice" for today's busy buyers. Their preferred way of contacting companies when they are interested in a product or service is via email. And yet, too many salespeople and entrepreneurs are still treating email as an intrusion into their busy day. Because they get so much email and spam, and because they don't want to spend all day typing notes to people, they just aren't giving incoming email buyers the attention that they deserve.

If your salespeople are struggling with, or ignoring, this issue, it helps for them to see the email scenario from the buyer's point of view. It will help them understand how just a few minutes spent responding can make the difference between closing a sale or losing a customer for life. Let's look at this from the perspective of a customer we'll call Jane.

Personas do have their place. When you're designing a product, you have to make decisions about what to put in and what to leave out. Personas can help with that process.

But once the product is designed, and it's time to create your web page, write selling copy, and train your salespeople, personas can get you into real trouble. They can make you think you're addressing the buyer properly, when in fact you are probably ignoring who the buyer is, what the buyer really wants, and, in many cases, insulting the buyer.

You see, if I'm the buyer, I already know who I am. So I'm not the least impressed if you think you know who I am. Besides, it makes me feel a little creeped out anyway, that you're so determined to know everything about me you can describe me to your buddies around the conference table.

Do you really have to know all those things about me to sell something to me? I mean, c'mon. What does it matter how old I am or how much money I make? I just want to buy something to fix a problem. I don't want my personal space invaded.

Not only that: Is it going to be a fun to buy your product, or are you going to make it a hassle?

There's a joke - you've probably heard one of the many versions of it - that I think of as the "demo" joke. My favorite version is the one starring Bill Gates:

Bill Gates died and found himself standing in front of St. Peter, who was sizing him up.

"Well, Bill, I'm not sure whether to send you to Heaven or Hell. After all, you helped society enormously by putting a computer in almost every home in America, and you gave away a lot of money. But, you also created that evil Windows program. It's a close call, so I'm going to do something I've never done before: I'm going to let you decide where you want to go."

Bill replied, "What's the difference between the two?"

St. Peter said, "Well, I'm willing to let you visit both places briefly, then you will have to decide."

"Fine, but where do you think I should I go first?"

"I leave that up to you."

"Okay, what the Hell," said Bill. "Let's try down below first."

I am continuously amused at the lengths company executives will go to, to avoid talking directly to their customers. They'd rather do their taxes than phone or go face-to-face with a real, live customer.

As a result of this fear, company executives and owners will bet the company on any other data they can get their hands on. They pore over their website metrics. They run web-based surveys. They ask their salespeople (sometimes) and customer service people (hardly ever) what customers are saying. Every so often, they may lurk on an online discussion group.

They demand more and more data from their marketing folks. Every piece of data makes them want more data, because the data they get only raises more questions. Deep down inside, they wonder if it's all BS.

If they found some backbone and focused instead on actually having a few conversations a month with their customers - and listening to the calls that come in from customers - they'd understand what their customers want them to sell, and how they want to buy.

The rise of "personas"

Over the last few years, the idea of customer "personas" has been finding its way into website design. The basic idea, obviously, is to design your website for the types of people buying your product, so it satisfies each type of person's preferences and buying process.

As I was coaching a salesperson recently, we talked about the differences between leaders and followers. It's an important distinction, especially during turbulent, recessionary times, which require all company leaders - and their employees - to meet new, higher standards. In many cases, the survival of their business depends on it. Leaders must become better leaders and their followers must engage in more leadership-like behavior.

I pointed out that if you were to walk into any conference room, and start observing - even if you didn't know anyone in the room before you arived - you would be able to pick out the leader and the followers in about three minutes. It wouldn't matter where that leader was sitting at the table; it wouldn't matter what the leader was wearing or how old or young the leader was; it wouldn't matter what they looked like.

Employees often believe - and behave as if - managers were "born" into management. Sure, someone can inherit a position, but that's rare. On the whole, leaders are self-made, not born. Leadership is a learned skill. I am not talking about the people who rise in the ranks due to political shenanigans. I am talking about people who have rightfully earned the right to be perceived as a true leader, someone worthy of being followed.

"Fast, right, cheap. Pick two."

Print shop owners used to like to post this little truism near the front desk of their shops. There's a lot of wisdom on those five words. If you do it too fast, it's likely to be wrong. If you take too much time obsessing over details, it isn't going to be fast. And if you get it cheap, you might also get it fast, but it probably won't be right.

The problem is, today's customers assume that they can get "all three" if they just look hard enough. Google has given them a virtual, endless, global shopping mall. If one vendor can't give them all three, they'll just keep looking. Click. Click. Click.

A depression is one of the worst things that can happen to the economy - it affects just about everyone, in every industry, in every country. Recessions, on the other hand, tend to hit a particular group of industries the hardest, with lesser "ripple effects" on others.

What's happening now, as everyone knows, is that lending institutions have stopped lending with wild abandon. The first people to be effected by this are those in the real estate business - real estate agents, lawyers, title companies, and all the others who gain income from real estate activity. Their income - and their spending - decreases. Many decide to leave the business. There is a personnel shift from the real estate industry to other industries, where the money is still flowing. Until they are securely ensconced in their new positions, and have recovered financially, they are still cautious about their spending.

Recessions affect other industries, too, because of the recessionary drumbeat. The news media is always prowling around looking for the latest disaster. As you know, right now they're writing stories about the "subprime lending crisis," profiling people who have been affected. This steady diet of bad economic news affects everyone. Anyone who views their house as their main economic security will be more cautious about their spending. They will take longer to make decisions. They will want more information before making a commitment. They will more carefully compare one option against another, and will be more likely to postpone major spending decisions.

Consumer spending will slow, and so will business-to-business spending. People who run businesses are consumers themselves, and they follow economic news closely. They become more cautious about their spending, too. Their employees see the boss pulling back, and they tell their families, "Things are getting tight at work. Better wait on buying that new car."

This classic, recessionary mass psychology will affect your own outlook, the outlook of your employees, and your revenue stream.

So why am I saying that recessions can be good for you? Because they provide a unique opportunity for improvement.

I really enjoy making sales departments more productive. It's one of the most rewarding aspects of what I do, because there's always so much to improve, and because even a few changes can make a huge difference in a company's revenues. As we slip further into group-recession-think, it's time to look at what an economic slowdown really means and what you can do to make sure your business continues to grow - in spite of the persistent recession drumbeat. There are a number of things you can do to improve your sales levels in this economic environment.

1) Ignore the recession drumbeat. It's easy to be spooked by the latest news on the economy. Even if you are in an industry that is directly affected by a slowdown, being distracted from your normal revenue-producing tasks - and lowering your sights - will only make matters worse. Make a personal, definite decision that your business will be an exception to the overall trend.

It is possible to be going "up" when everyone else is going "down" - I've done it myself several times in my career, so I speak from personal experience. Your two biggest enemies are always distraction and fear.

When someone in business says, "He's a micromanager," it's not a compliment. They say, "He's a control freak," "he doesn't empower people," and "he's obsessed with details." The common wisdom is that micromanagers are not anywhere near as successful as...

John Smith is a typical customer in the market for a fairly high-end product, one that requires a salesperson to finalize the deal. He has done his research on the web - he's spent hours, in fact, researching. Now he has a couple of questions for the salesperson to answer. Otherwise, he is ready to buy. He decides that the best way to get the answers he needs is to go to an industry tradeshow.

I've been interviewing "John Smiths" for a client, and one of them described what happened next, using these words:

"I had to defend my wallet and my family against The Pitch."

He was there with his wife, and as he was trying to get answers to his questions, the salesperson kept trying to close the sale.

From the customer's perspective, this is irritating. Sleazy. Totally inappropriate. You're just asking someone questions, and the whole time, they keep trying to sneak around to the side of you and grab your wallet out of your back pocket.

Lately I've encountered more entrepreneurs who have bought into the idea that they can just set up their search engine marketing and websites, and the orders will pour in. Oh, how nice it would be if it were true!

There are consultants who will say that it is possible, and say that they have made bundles of money doing it. But they sell one type of product (usually a guide of some sort), using one type of marketing method (usually a combination of search engine marketing, and a dedicated website that makes outrageous promises as it offers the guide for sale on the website). The website contains a single long-winded, direct-mail-like page that sells you on all the things that the guide will do for you, filled with convincing testimonials and "scientific" proof. And they let you pay and download the guide right there. This is a perfect product for the Web, and the method works well for that type of product.

These vendors often sell guides saying you can sell anything on the Web this way. Newbies have bought these guides and have become convinced that this method will work for any type of product - that all they have to do is set up this type of campaign and website, and then sit back and watch the orders flow in. It simply isn't true.

Every company has a tempo. What do I mean by tempo? It's the amount of time you think you have - to get something done or resolved. It's the heartbeat of your business. It's the tick-tick-tick of your corporate clock.

Your tempo is tied directly to two aspects of your business: How quickly your technology is changing, and how competitive your market is.

Tempo and revenue are joined at the hip. Here are the situations where the tempo/revenue connection becomes critical:

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.

Those who follow through make more money than those who don't. This is one of those absolute business truths. It comes into play in two situations: daily interactions and long-term, transformational projects.

Daily interactions

I recently worked on a project with a team. One person on that team didn't bother to go the extra mile. She didn't double-check. She didn't think for a second before answering a question. She acted as if she was thorough, but in fact she was not.

Everyone else on the team always went the last mile. They double-checked before considering something final - even a simple email. They were thoughtful, and deliberate. Very few mistakes were made, and the few that were made were minor and quickly corrected.

There are two types of situations where, in your business life, you are faced with a decision that tests your integrity: the big decision situation, and the little decision situation. We'll look at these one at a time, but before we do, let's look at the root of integrity: our conscience.

Now, there are a lot of people who say that there is no "right" and no "wrong." But I believe that most of us - with rare, pathological exceptions - have a conscience. That conscience is that little ping we get when we are faced with a decision. We intuitively know what the right thing is, and what the wrong thing is. What we decide to do after we get that internal message is the true test of our character.

What does this have to do with revenue? Everything.

"That does it. I've had it."

That declaration is provoked by someone "stepping over the line." They've "gone too far." It's "too difficult."

All of us - low functioning and high functioning - have these lines, drawn over many years of interacting with others. I have an autistic brother, who is considered "low functioning," because he has no concept of the danger of traffic, the need for money, or the need to work. I could point to all sorts of areas where Michael is higher functioning than many "normal" people, and he has shown me more than you can imagine about human behavior, but that's not the subject of this article.

What is important here is that one of Michael's low-functioning traits is his inability to ignore or move beyond his demarcation lines.

It's so easy to rationalize. We are so eager to think of ourselves as successful, to have others think of us in as successful, and to want things to turn out a certain way, that we are willing to ignore all the signposts along the road and keep driving, full-speed, until we realize that we have driven right off the cliff and we are on our way down. Even then, we rationalize.

"Gee, this isn't so bad. I'm sure I'll survive."

When it comes to generating revenue, rationalization is one of your biggest enemies. It's especially common for entrepreneurs to ignore what their own customers are telling them. "Oh, they always say that," is a common response we get from the rationalizing entrepreneur or CEO. In other words, "I don't think this problem is worth worrying about, it's always been that way, and I'm still here."

Many rationalizers manage to limp along for years, in spite of themselves, when they're lucky enough to have a product that people actually need. But when things get tough, or the market shifts, or buyers become more skeptical, those rationalizers start to slide downwards. As they slip, they start to panic, and do all kinds of crazy things. They become deceptive and manipulative, desperately pulling vendors and customers down with them as they start to swirl down the drain.

Imagine that you are going to have a house constructed, and while it is under construction, you want to insure the construction site. Your contractor refers you to an insurance salesperson he knows. You meet with the person, you like him, and you proceed to give him the information he needs to proceed with a quote.

As the weeks go by, however, you decide that you aren't going to do business with that insurance broker. Why? Because he just wasn't working hard for the sale. He was friendly, but not professional. It takes too long for him to respond to requests. The information he provides doesn't match your situation nor answer your specific questions.

You end up finding another broker, who responds quickly, thoroughly, professionally to every question you ask him. You end up telling the contractor that you appreciate the referral to his insurance buddy, but that you will be using a different insurance broker.

When you run a business - no matter how large or small it is - you have a certain amount of energy available to apply to the long list of things you must get done. How you apply that energy will determine how successful you are.

I have been watching companies invest that energy for years. One conclusion I came to early on was that management fads were very distracting and expensive. They seldom, if ever, result in tangible, positive results.

A lot of entrepreneurs obsess over their search engine marketing and Adwords campaigns, to make sure that they are within view when someone goes searching for their type of product. Nothing wrong with that, but given the bandwidth of the typical business owner, there's a tendency to focus on lead generation at the expense of conversion.

The problem with marketing and sales is that they are the functions inside companies most likely to be driven more by emotions and anecdotal "evidence" than they are by facts. The result is never as profitable as it could be.

If salespeople dominate decisions, without the benefit of qualitative customer research and buying process analysis, the atmosphere is always dominated by fear of losing the next sale, and activity is always frantic.

The salesperson will send an email to the marketing person: "I just closed this sale. I sent this fax to them, and they read it while we were talking to each other, and the person loved this fax. We need an email and landing page that uses this copy!!!" The marketing person will comply. The salesperson will then talk to another customer, who will react positively to something else, and the salesperson will send another email to the marketing person, demanding another email and landing page.

Fear is a powerful motivator. Entrepreneurs use fear to motivate themselves; CEOs often use fear to motivate themselves and their employees. After a while, it's easy to consider fear as a valuable tool, a friend. Too bad it isn't true.

Every business starts with a dream. Every buyer starts the buying process with a dream.

Every business can turn into a nightmare. And, every buying process - especially those involving large, expensive, important purchases - can turn into a nightmare.

These dreams - and fears of nightmares - drive the decisions and actions of both business owners and buyers.

We've all seen this at work in extreme cases, where an individual will let their own fantasy world overwhelm reality to the point where they lose their job or their business, and the people who supported them along the way.

But these situations are rare. The more usual, day-to-day situation is one where the seller and buyer are trying to find common ground, to negotiate a realistic solution where everyone can be happy.

As you probably already know, the most important aspect of time management is deciding where you will spend your attention.

It's difficult to practice good attention allocation because anyone with a need can interrupt you at any time, using a variety of methods to access you and hijack your attention.

One of the most famous, and still-relevant self-management tools is Stephen Covey's four-quadrant matrix for importance and urgency ("important/not important, urgent/not urgent").

We all know we spend far too much time on the urgent/not important tasks; and, if we are totally honest with ourselves, we also spend too much time in the "not important/not urgent" category.

Why?

If you own or run a company, you're passionate. Certain things matter to you. Every day, in every interaction, your passion determines how you manage yourself and those who work for you - employees and vendors.

Your passion is a powerful force. If you manage it correctly, you will:

• Make the right decisions about what is important and what is not
  
• Allocate the right amount of energy to the important things
  
• Convey the right messages to employees and vendors about what matters
  
• Create and run a balanced company
  

What do I mean by a "balanced company"?

There's a certain type of entrepreneur who becomes obsessed with a product idea, and sets up a business to sell it. It's always a guy (yes, for some reason, it's always a guy) who can never understand why "everyone can't see the wisdom of this idea" and why "someone can't give me the money to get this business off the ground."

I hear from these gentlemen because of my blog and book, and my consulting company. The most recent person who contacted me said he had also contacted a famous "marketing guru" company, but that "they won't give me the time of day."

This most recent person says that he lost a great deal of money trying to sell websites for a website creation franchise operation. He is now in debt, and is trying to get out of debt selling a gasoline additive. He tells me that he wants marketing help. But when I make specific suggestions, he responds to my email with more detail about how he got into debt and how he is a nice person who was raised to treat people with respect and courtesy, and how he just needs marketing help. In other words, he asks for advice, advice is given, and then he ignores it and asks for advice or sympathy.

At any given time, in addition to my Fortune 100 and medium-sized company clients, I always have a couple of entrepreneurs on my client list. I enjoy helping startups, and increasing the revenues of existing small businesses.

Typically, someone who starts a business is an expert in a particular area. In other words, their core competency doesn't lie in marketing and sales. As a result, they are constantly searching for any trick or technique that will help them make more sales.

This search - and in some cases it is a desperate search - makes them easy prey for any halfway plausible idea. They are constantly reading articles and books, talking to friends, and listening to vendors selling ad space, website design, direct mail, and so on. I often get questions by email - "I just talked to So and So, and they said..." Or, "I just read an article that said..." The questions are always about doing a specific thing that will supposedly help their sales increase.

The sad thing is, it's never one thing. And it's never the thing that you just read or that someone just told you. 100% of the time, the answer is right in front of you. Yes, I said 100% of the time. Always. Here's how you find the answers you seek.

Here are some of the most common barriers to revenue that we encounter as we help our clients. Are you making one of these mistakes?

Your company name doesn't tell them what you sell. We call our company Zhivago Marketing Partners for this very reason. It would have been just as easy to call it Zhivago & Company or something similar - but that would not have answered the first, most basic question: "What does this company sell?"

If you're just starting out, make sure your name clearly indicates the type of product you sell.

If you've already invested too much in your non-specific name to change it now, then add a tagline to your logo that says what you sell. Keep it short - no more than five words. Tell them what you sell, using the words people would use to find you.

Well, it's that time again. People are worried about a recession.

Strange, because according to the US Department of Labor, the unemployment rate is at 4.4%. For historical perspective, ten years ago (April 1997) it was 5.1%, rose to a high of 6.3% in June of 2003, and has been falling ever since.

Average hourly earnings have risen from $12.29 in January of 1997 to $17.10 as of January 2007.

How do I know people are worried? The phrase "How to make money during a recession" has started to become more common again in my search term results. Plus, the bigger companies have stopped spending while they wrangle over budget cuts. And entrepreneurs are focusing more seriously on making more sales.

If we do have a recession, what will happen? What typically happens in all recessions?

Looking for higher revenues this year? Pay attention to your projects and processes - Part 2

As I mentioned last week, successful companies are characterized by a series of successful projects.

There are other activities, however, that happen every day, which are not as "visible" as projects are. These activities are "processes" that take place as people work on projects, produce products or information, or carry on day-to-day administration such as accounting, IT, marketing, sales and order fulfillment.

If I were to do a "revenue growth audit" of your company, chances are you would get low marks for your processes. Inefficient processes would be inhibiting your ability to service customers and run an efficient operation.

How can I be so sure about that? Because process-centric companies are very, very rare.

Well, it's that time again. Elections. Always causes a bit of a dip in productivity, and a slowdown of the buying process, while everyone waits to see how the election will turn out.

Welcome to Distraction City.

In our news-dominated culture, distractions interrupt buying patterns. The larger the distraction, the larger the interruption. I tend to think of these periods as distraction-driven mini-dips. If there are a number of them in succession - especially those involving armed conflict or a terrorist attack - the dips can turn into a recession.

During these distraction-driven mini-dips, it's more difficult to generate revenue. Everyone still goes to work, meetings are still held, contracts are still signed, but if you're on the selling side, it always feels like the world is sliding sideways. As you attempt to finalize a contract, it's like talking to someone who is talking to someone else on a cell phone. Or who is pretending to be paying attention to you while simultaneously watching a movie. Sure, they will answer your questions, but they're not "all there." People are no where near as adept at multi-tasking as they think they are, especially if they have an emotional stake in the other task.

It's not just the buyers who are distracted. Sellers are distracted, too.

Major opportunity for you