by Peter A. Arthur-Smith, Leadership Solutions, Inc.®
“50-90% of start-ups don’t survive more than four years; depending upon which studies you follow.”
On Saturday morning September 3rd, 202?, Susan and Alex met with excited Strategist team members. They were about to launch into their first three month start-up mode for SalesSMART Advisors – see adjacent pictograph that they bore in mind until now and what they will continue working with throughout this second cycle and beyond. They could now envisage continuous momentum. Can you picture this, too?
Already formed into three appropriate “pairs,” they proceeded to brief their colleagues on their ten respective ‘A’ target, early adopter prospects. These had already been post-mailed and emailed in a personalized way, based upon the clever messaging approach put together by Sarah-Expansionist, Malcolm-Innovationist, and Jeff-Promotionist. They were optimistic about speaking with 50% of them. Of those, they anticipated securing at least three initial prospect meetings.
Again, since they were still all gainfully employed, each pair split their intended ten calls between them. Spread over 2-3 days it would be a small commitment. They talked through key points that should be conv-eyed during any phone call. The prospects’ phone #s had been obtained through normal research. Breakfast, lunch or after-hours prospect meetings would be arranged to present SalesSMART Advisors’ tremendously compelling concept; backed by appropriate visuals. These were also prepared by the same threesome.
At Susan’s home, Alex and Susan continued to be impressed with their team’s enthusiasm. Sheila-Humanist, Mark-Provisionist, and Julia-Operationist walked the team through their proposed recruitment program and package for attracting independent advisors. Armed with this package, both in paper and electronic-graphic form, Strategist pairs were encouraged to reach out to potential SalesSMART advisors within their circles and beyond. Susan would make the opportunity known on LinkedIn and Strategists also agreed to post the opportunity on their professional announcement boards or social networks. As they anticipated a strong response from candidates, can you envisage how Sheila or Mark handled their appropriate company introductions?
With all their efforts and ideas so far, everything seemed to be coming together rather nicely. They were aware that once SalesSMART Advisors started attracting customers and independent advisors, these entities in turn would quickly become advocates and spread the word, too. With full professionalism, program quality, proper servicing, and resolute follow-through, they knew their firm’s reputation would spread fast.
The team agreed to meet every Saturday morning for the next month to celebrate their successes, discuss fresh ideas and make adjustments. Once real momentum was evident, they agreed to then meet every two weeks instead and over time that could extend to three-weekly or monthly gatherings to celebrate progress and enjoy some well deserved time together. They would, sooner rather than later, start adding-in six-weekly Periscope Time sessions, where they could not only review today’s immediate Execution successes, but also devote time to Preparing-Positioning for tomorrow’s activities – looking 3-6 months out. It would also include Thinking About 6-12 months and beyond; as per the streaming intentions in their prior Phase 5 mode.
Within a month after lift-off, every strategist-pair was working with at least two business customers and had already recruited one independent advisor-pair ready for onboarding, plus In-Team Discovery sessions. The latter sessions were coordinated by Sheila-Humanist and then orchestrated by Jeff-Promotionist and Julia-Operationist as a pair. This latter pair would increasingly become the de-facto leaders of all SalesSMART’s independent advisors. So, as certain advisors showed their mettle, as natural experts and leaders, they were also to be groomed as Advisor Team Leaders (ATLs). Those team leaders would still work in pairs, with other advisor team leaders, to attract and collaborate with more sophisticated, large scale customers and their “newbie” salespeople. Can you appreciate the intent of matching expertise to valuable prospects?
Strategist professionalism, commitment and enthusiasm paid off during their recruiting and sales-advisor activities. Strategist pairs also met concurrently with their customers’ salesperson “newbies” for their first sessions during early evenings or Saturday mornings. They would then follow-up with ongoing coaching phone calls at times to suit. Additionally, Strategist pairs met with chosen independent advisors, when needed, over breakfast, lunch or early evening…again being mindful of their “other jobs.”
Once sufficient revenues were generated, Strategists were then able to consider operating full-time with SalesSMART Advisors or acting as advisory board members. On this occasion, all went for SalesSMART’s full-time role. Now they could use time gained for their strategic leader activities, expand customer “newbie” salespeople work, and further coach-mentor their own independent advisors – the latter until Advisor Team Leaders (ATLs) were appointed. Once those ATLs were promoted, Julia-Jeff would become their leaders.
And so the Strategist team continued to work through Cycle 2; with its respective Phase 2, Positioning and Pathfinding activities, Phase 3 with Engaging and Involving endeavors, Phase 4 with Collaborating and Team-work intentions, and Phase 5 with Orchestrating and Momentum Building needs. Every cycle would increase confidence and reinforce success. Before they knew it, they were into Cycle 3 and so on, which included a critical mass of enough customers and advisors to sustain their business. What’s your start-up’s critical mass?
It was only a matter of time before they broke-even and allowed their Strategist team to extend its vision and initiate fresh strategies. They finalized appropriate business principles and values to act as their guidance mechanism; rather than rely upon policies and procedures. SalesSMART’s Strategist team could increasingly view their firm as a growth venture with its compelling purpose, growing resources and people talent to match. That’s another story – to be told by Christine Facilitates SuperGuard’s Expansion. (NOTE: With this fresh story you can transpose name SalesSMART Advisors into SuperGuard. This change of name and marketplace allows for another fresh, enlightened leadership perspective with different venture issues.)