We just finished attending a conference – all about growing companies, streamlining operations, aligning teams, strategic goals, market dynamics, and the list goes on and on. I’ve attended this conference before and I was impressed.
This year, however, I wasn’t.
As I sat back and watched, speaker after speaker came up to the stage. And their process was strikingly similar.
Here’s how it works:
Throw Enough Stuff Out There & Something Sticks
- Write a book proposing an X-step process to solve some big challenge
- Start a coaching/consulting firm
- Explain the process high level to see if it resonates with anyone
- Sell services from step 2 because in step 3 things weren’t explained completely enough
Have you ever seen a cold read? Or watched Penn and Teller in Vegas? You throw enough stuff out there and eventually someone bites. So it was amazing to me that the people who put the event together never thought of continuity. Each speaker would say something that literally discredited an earlier or later speaker.
In one example, a speaker/writer/consultant (I couldn’t figure out which role they were playing, so let’s just call them booksellers), said focusing on long term goals is useless. 10 minutes later, another bookseller said you should do longer term planning. Next, another bookseller says to do X, and bingo, the next guy says to do the opposite of X.
Then I realized: duh, they’re all selling a product. And what better way to sell a book then to sell a process that goes along with the book. Believe in the process, and you might just hire their coaching services. And whoa, look at that, each bookseller happens to have some services for sale…
Then a speaker (not a bookseller) came on (a very well known and wickedly respected CEO, I might add) – and he said two things that resonated with me loudly.
- Don’t debate or seek advice from people who haven’t done their research on your topic
- Trust in your capabilities, even though the market may make you feel unsure
Have the Courage of Your Convictions
In other words – you know what you’re doing.
The most important thing you can do right now is execute. Because in execution, you’ll learn new things. Even if your strategy is a little off, a mid course correction based on real data is always better than pontificating on what strategy to implement for months. And during execution, you can try new things in controlled ways.
Remember – you’re not building the next generation space shuttle here. You’re just helping people improve their homes, specifically their kitchen.
So here’s your X-step execution plan for the next quarter:
- Get your designers/salespeople to use the same kitchen sales process
- Measure their closing rates
- Tweak the process, go back to Step 1 & repeat
PS. I could have made this into 7 confusing steps complete with acronyms, but we don’t sell coaching/consulting services. 🙂
