FundingStrat

 

Once while at sea on a naval mission during the Peloponnesian War, the Athenian general, Pericles’ fleet of 150 ships were left in darkness by a solar eclipse.

 

This confusing event left many of his crew surprised and thrown into a state of panic and fear.

 

Undaunted, Pericles walked up to a lead steersman, removed the cloak he was wearing and held it up in front of his own face.  He asked the man is he was scared of what he saw.

 

“No, of course not.”

 

“So what does it matter when the cause of the darkness differs,” replied Pericles.

 

He then went on to explain to his men that this phenomena occasionally happened at periods when the body of the moon interposed between the sun and earth.  And with that, he freed his people from their hear by truth of reasoning.

 

Perspective is everything.

 

When you can break apart something and look at it from a new angle, it loses power over you.

 

Fear can be debilitating, distracting, tiring, and often irrational.

 

As human beings, we often choose the ominous explanation over the simple one, to our own detriment.

 

If we are afraid of the obstacles that present themselves, its time to change perspective.  As Pericles showed, its not about giving in to or ignoring fear.  Its about breaking it down and explaining it away from another perspective.

 

We all choose the way we look at things.  We can’t change the obstacles themselves – that part of the equation is set – but injecting a new perspective can change how the obstacle appears.

 

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

-Wayne Dyer

 

How we approach, view, contextualize an obstacle, and tell ourselves what it means, determines how successful we are at overcoming it.

 

Many times, we can allow ourselves to become consumed and overwhelmed with something that ends up being actually quite small.  But the right perspective has a strange way of cutting obstacles – and adversity – down to size.

 

This pandemic, recession and resulting socio-economic damage have presented many obstacles and much adversity for most.

 

But it is not some un-explainable omen that cannot be overcome, like Pericles’ crew must have felt when first thrown into the darkness of the eclipse.

 

There is a lot of ugly out there right now, but there is also a lot of good.  There is also a lot of opportunity in this adversity.

 

Whatever you look for, you will find.

 

Break down what is in front of you, set a new path, capitalize on the opportunities hiding in plain sight, but most of all, keep moving forward.

 

-FundingStrategist

https://fundingstrat.com

 

When to use it?

 

After deploying the Utility Close and Impact Close and hitting some resistance around timing (although a trigger event has already been discussed).

 

What does it sound like?

 

“Considering (insert initiative) and (insert compelling/trigger event) it looks like this really is the best time to close and fund.  That check out with you?”

 

Ex.

 

“Considering you’re gearing up to acquire your competitor due to his recent closing and there is only a limited time to get this deal done, it looks like this is really the best time to close and fund.  That check out with you?”

 

How it works?

Keep on Reading!

 

OKR is an acronym that stands for Objectives and Key Results.  It is a very effective goal setting and management framework that helps individuals and teams implement strategic execution and accomplish some pretty amazing things.

 

OKR is a tremendously powerful tool, especially in times of uncertainty, when stern direction (with flexible approaches) are needed.  Andy Grove, born Andras Istvan Grof in Hungary 1936, survived the Holocaust by taking on a false identity and reaching America with little English and no money.

 

He eventually joined a fledgling company called Intel and transformed it using a method he created known as OKR.

 

Grove and his method took Intel from a precarious position to putting personal computers in 84% of American households by 2017, increasing revenues from $1.9 billion to $26 billion.

 

OKR’s primary tenet was that execution is more important than mere ideas.  Grove, who fought his way through Communist Hungary to then become Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year,” was living proof of this – really a “walking OKR.”

 

The simple version of OKR consists of an Objective, which defines a goal to be achieved, and up to 5 Key Results (3 is best), which measure progress towards the Objective.

Keep on Reading!

 

What does it sound like?

 

“The timing doesn’t feel right.”

 

Where does it typically show up?

 

Closing Call: selling an Approval to a prospect.

 

What do we do with it?

 

Turn around.  Key Objective: to turn around the objection, engage the lead further, and continue to guide the lead through the sales process to ultimately close and fund!

 

How do we turn it around?

 

“You must have very good reasons for feeling that way, what’s going on?”

 

Why do we say it?

Keep on Reading!

 

“In my opinion, client retention has never been more important during an ever-changing landscape.”

– Heather Francis

 

Altify’s 2017 Business Performance Benchmark Study found these to be B2B CEOs’ most important strategic focus:

 

87.3% – Customer Retention

86.5% – Revenue Growth

73.1% – Profit Growth

65.2% – Operational Efficiency

64.6% – Increased Market Share

38.0% – Cost Reduction

 

Customer Retention edged out all the others for the #1 most important strategic focus.

 

Why?

 

Because:

• Acquiring a new customer is 5-7x as expensive as retaining an existing customer.

• The success rate of selling to a customer you already have is 60-70%, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is 5-20%.

• Increasing customer retention rates by 5% can increase profits by 25-95%.

 

If all this sounds important, we need to remember that:

• 89% of businesses report their customers state that their user experience is the key factor in their loyalty.

 

The user experience is essentially customer service, how we serve and provide value to the customer (continually).

 

Well, what is the user experience that will drive customers away (to churn)?

Keep on Reading!