writings – Chitra Nayak

AI in the Boardroom: Risk and Innovation

AI in the Boardroom: Risk and Innovation

“Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?” “Supposing it didn’t”, said Pooh after careful thought. Piglet was comforted by this – Winnie the Pooh, by A.A. Milne

It’s all about thinking through the risk of anything, and then proceeding with caution, right? When it comes to AI, doing nothing is not an option. Your company could ultimately go out of business if you ignore either aspect of AI: risk versus opportunity. Your competitors are moving fast. So…AI conversations in the boardroom, anyone?

There are hundreds of use cases for AI bubbling up in most companies. (P.S. if it’s not bubbling up in yours, you should be worried.) The board needs to ask about the ROI. And to understand how to assess AI risk. The AI Act in the EU shares seven critical “common-sense” guardrails by which to assess risk (which are relevant to all): Bias, accuracy, privacy, intellectual property, cyber, health & safety and antitrust. The company needs a framework to assess the risk-reward balance and decide where to focus.

Some important questions for the board to ask about AI initiatives, as shared by Dominique Shelton Leipzig in a great session on “AI for the Boardroom: opportunity and risk”, hosted by BDO:

“Do we have a cross-disciplinary AI team? And is Legal involved?” The company needs to work as a whole across functions to understand the impact and the risk. A few examples: HR needs to watch for bias, marketing needs to watch for intellectual property, IT needs to watch for cyber, engineering needs to watch for privacy.
“Are we risk-ranking our AI? And do we have “prohibited” or “high-risk” use cases?” Prohibited cases are those which can cause the highest risk to humans, both physical and mental. In any company doing business in the EU (but again, relevant for all to consider), which includes many US companies, these must cease by the end of 2024. And “High-risk” use cases, of which there are 145 listed, must be closely monitored.
“Do we continuously test, monitor, and audit the seven guardrails? Who/what are we using to help us?” GenAI models will experience “drift”, i.e.” the decay of models’ predictive power as a result of changes in real world environments”. This leads to unintended consequences that can cause huge brand damage (e.g. the chatbot which started to swear at customers) or lawsuits (e.g. due to bias in decision-making), hence the need to monitor closely
“What is our human oversight plan?” Humans need to be in the loop. Period. While it is true that AI models can be used as guardrails to test and monitor other AI models, at the end of the the day, the accountability and the ownership lies with us. The executive team. The board.

We need to recognize, as boards of directors, that, in Winnie the Pooh parlance, it is on us to provide oversight for the tree not falling on the company while we pick the fruit.

Originally published on LinkedIn

Ready for the Big League? (a.k.a. Selling to Enterprise)

Ready for the Big League? (a.k.a. Selling to Enterprise)

Your company has been wildly successful in targeting the SMB space, and maybe even the low end of mid-market. So maybe you say, “It’s time, lets go down the path of blockbuster companies like Salesforce.” Salesforce made its way from early beginnings selling to small businesses to multi-million dollar deals with very large enterprise customers.

What do you need to think about as you embark on this journey? I was at Salesforce for eight years, early in the evolution to large Enterprise deals, and so much had to change over time. Ten things to consider:

Does your product meet the more complex requirements of Enterprise? For example, security features, remote device management, permissions for limiting access by role, to name a few. And can you still support the simplicity needed for SMB customers, while building in the more sophisticated offerings for Enterprise? One could say that Salesforce has long sought to try and figure out this balance, not entirely successfully, hence the rise of other competitors in SMB such as Zendesk.
Does your Sales team have the broad cast of characters needed to make a successful foray into the Enterprise? Most companies need a strong field sales team of experienced Account Executives able to make in-person visits and build relationships. And typically your Enterprise AEs need the support of Sales Engineers (2 AEs: 1 SE), as well as prospecting support from Business Development Reps (3 AEs:1 BDR).
Do you need overlay sales teams if you have multiple products that are significantly different? The overlay teams can help with more complex sales of different products to an Enterprise account. You will likely need to implement a double comp structure to ensure no protective behavior among “primary” AEs owning an account. Will your primary AE act as the quarterback for the account to ensure the relationship is maintained, and call in overlay AEs as needed?
Have you built the other support resources you need to close the deal? Other teams which need to be expanded include a deal desk for pricing, more legal support due to complex legal contracts and purchasing requirements to close the deal, etc. The Github CEO mentioned a few years ago that Disney came to them proactively looking for an Enterprise deal to aggregate all the individual Disney developers who had bought Github, and Github was shocked by the “sucking up of resources” that ensued to work through the contract.
Have you changed your sales business model and approach to include the longer sales cycles, often 6-12 months, and the 10-15 stakeholders that can have a voice in the deal, and hence need to be educated and influenced? Have you considered all the personas and roles from whom you need buy-in? For example, while your product may be targeted at the CMO or the CRO, what are the pain points and risks from the viewpoint of the CIO? How about the CFO?
Do you have credible use-cases, customer stories and ROI calculations, ideally by industry, that speak the language of the customer’s business? Be as relevant as possible. For example, remember that “health care” is not an industry; you need to build use-cases and ROI for big pharma, for hospitals, for biotech, for medical device companies…each is different.
Are you showing up in the right places? Are you at the right events and conferences where the buyers and influencers are? Have you considered targeted custom marketing, e.g. ABM, to Enterprise prospects? Marketing moves more to the role of awareness & credibility building and nurture versus lead generation when playing in the Enterprise space.
How will you price your deals for Enterprise? You may consider pricing your first few deals with banner-name customers as loss-leaders. The first few big customers at Salesforce were priced at jaw-dropping discounts, as the credibility that came with having these customers onboard was priceless. Large customers will expect discounted pricing based on volume and on multi-year deals. And of course sales people will do what it takes to close the deal…to address this issue, you need a tiered pricing discount matrix, which mandates how much discount is allowed to what level of sales (AE to SVP), for what volume of deal.
How do you ensure successful implementation? Enterprise customers often require some degree of customization and professional services assistance. Have you developed the ecosystem to support your move to Enterprise? Do you have enough professional services personnel in-house to be able to implement what you sell? Have you figured out how to excite third party developers to implement and customize your product? And have you figured out how to train and certify them, to protect your brand and ensure smooth implementation of your product as demand increases?
How will you drive retention, cross-sell and upsell? In SMB, of necessity this tends to be more mass-market and automated. In Enterprise, with the “land and expand” strategy dominating, you need to ensure you have post-sales teams, i.e. Customer Success Managers and technical support, to ensure the customer is successful in being onboarded and in using your product, understands the value delivered, and is likely to renew. And you will need to make your sales team accountable for ongoing cross-sell and upsell…some companies even make retention a part of the Enterprise AE compensation, as the primary relationship should belong to sales.

What are the key priorities, the “must haves”? In the early years of making advances into the Enterprise market, clearly it is not possible to do everything. There is no doubt that there needs to be an upfront investment that will only pay off after there is traction, which takes time.

So how to prioritize? You need to use the same logic as the “minimum viable product” approach for your Go-To-Market strategy in Enterprise. Specifically, get something out there and see what sticks, iterate until something works and then do more of it. For example, you may find that your products are not as complex, and can be sold by the same AE, without much/any overlay support. You may find that specific industries are responding better, in which case you may go an industry-specific route to Enterprise. You may start with fewer prospecting resources, or fewer sales engineers, and see where the ROI on resources is highest. You get the picture. It’s all about tradeoffs.

Note that your profitability on a margin basis can be lower for Enterprise than it is for mid-market given all the additional resources and time typically required, but the profits and revenues on an absolute basis is what the game is about. And if you can manage to continue the focus on SMB and mid-market to generate the steady flow of business while embarking on your quest for Enterprise magic, it can be the best of both worlds.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Originally published on LinkedIn

“She Said, She Said”: Life-Lessons from Women Leaders

“She Said, She Said”: Life-Lessons from Women Leaders

Ten women leaders spoke regarding their life-lessons to MBA students at the Women in Leadership class I co-taught recently. The group represented a terrific and diverse set of leadership experiences: big companies vs startups, companies spanning financial services, technology, healthcare, social impact, in careers spanning legal, finance, marketing, and general management. Themes I heard over and over:

In your career, change is a constant. If you are looking to grow in your career, be open to new opportunities, be ready to leave your area of expertise behind and experiment with the “next thing”. Look for opportunities and put up your hand. Passion for what you do is important, but so is the ability to match opportunity with passion. Sometimes, moving sideways and taking detours to broaden your skills is a key element in learning the “big picture” and the “why”, which lets you ultimately lead better. Do not be afraid to take a step back to diversify your learning and experiences…it pays off.
Keep your network warm. Relationships are critical, with those inside and outside your company. They can help you learn more about your industry and the “big picture”. These people can potentially serve as mentors or sponsors for you. Stay in touch, not just when you need someone. Network with those you genuinely like and respect. Find what type of interactions work best for you, meeting one-on-one or joining associations. And think about the “two-way street” aspect of relationships i.e. what you can do for others, not just what they can do for you.
“Having it all?” Sometimes “family comes first, which does not mean work comes second”; many shared the view that one cannot have it all at the same time, and being able to prioritize is important. They spoke about the role flexibility has played in their careers, and the fact that at different times in their lives, different priorities rise to the top, then make way for yet others when it comes to a balanced approach. You may have to define what “having it all” means to you and what tradeoffs you are ready to make.
Confidence: “fake it till you make it”. Be confident that you can figure it out. Take the leap. Do not turn down new opportunities because you think you need more skills. Communicate with confidence and clarity. You do not need to be “perfect” at what you do to put up your hand. “Women typically do not have a competence gap, they have a confidence gap”. Assertiveness is not the same as aggressiveness; the difference is in how well you listen and look for common ground, and are then able to bring the facts to the table with confidence. Be your own best PR; and remember, it rarely hurts to ask. Many women do not ask and lose out.
Lead with integrity and empathy. Last but very far from least, being genuine and authentic is critical. “Radical candor” is the way to go, as we heard from so many of our speakers. Caring for those who work for you, while setting high standards for yourself and for your team, are far from mutually exclusive. Focus on developing your team and giving them opportunities to grow. A great test: do really strong performers who work on your team move ahead in their careers? And would they come and work for you again?

Originally published on LinkedIn

Telling Your Story: The Board Bio

Telling Your Story: The Board Bio

You decide it’s time to get yourself ready for the next chapter in your career, and you think it might just be getting on a board. So, how do you tell your story? At the end of the day, your board bio is a sales tool, and you are making a case for why and how “the product” (you) is the best fit for the board role at a company. Some tips to consider:

Be targeted. What is your value? Are you most relevant to a particular industry? Or within a particular functional area across multiple industries? Is most of your experience with large companies? With startups? US-based? Global? You get the idea.

For example, I spoke with someone who has deep expertise in banking and with the regulatory environment around cash management. Clearly a bank is the first, most evident target. However, by extension, it is likely that fintech companies providing specific services need this expertise as well. Approach your target industry systematically:

Identify what aspects of your experience might be a potential match for the industry and why. Use them to develop your value proposition. Highlight these aspects in your board bio.
Test your value proposition: make a list of likely companies in the industry that might need your expertise, and read the annual reports, the websites, the news to understand if your value proposition “fits”.
Talk to others in the industry to test and validate your hypotheses about what skills are relevant to showcase.

If your knowledge is broadly relevant to a functional area, and not necessarily a specific industry, it can be both harder and easier. The easier part? For example, a cybersecurity-focused CIO can be relevant to a large number of industries, as the skill set is fungible and applicable across a wide range. However, even in these cases, it may be that the CIO is more experienced in on-premise vs cloud based systems.

The harder part? You may be perceived as not specialized enough if you have a diversity of industries on your resume. How you write your board bio is very dependent on what you are targeting and why.

Make it about them, not about you: Should your story be about yourself and what you have achieved? Well, not really… it should be about how you might fit what a company needs on their board. Some board bios I have read tend to go on and on about the background and experiences an individual has. However, it is vital that these experiences are in the context of your primary value proposition for your target space. Think about:

What value can you deliver to a board and a company?
What relevant experiences do you have to support and make your value proposition credible?
What committees might be most in line with your value-add?

Make your story a crisp and credible one structured around this thinking, versus “let me tell you all about the wonderful things I have ever done”. Let go of experiences that do not add “heft” to your story.

Numbers and achievements are great, but only if they are relevant. I repeat: let go of experiences that do not add “heft” to your story. Numbers that share how you have grown something, or have created operating efficiencies, or have hit certain targets…these are all deeply valuable if they crystallize and bring credibility to your claim of expertise in an area. Similarly, awards are helpful if they highlight credibility in this area that supports your value proposition.

Another thought for you: make sure that you provide context for jargon-heavy achievements or awards, and expand less-known acronyms; it is important that the reader easily understand why something is meaningful.

You are not positioning yourself primarily as an operator; can you help the company think through its strategy? Provide examples of how you have helped to formulate and drive strategy, either in leadership roles at a company or on other boards you serve on. While the board may also be looking to learn about your functional and/or industry-specific expertise, consider where this expertise has helped your company enhance its position in the marketplace in significant ways. Weave the numbers and the descriptions together to make your case.

Use your board bio real-estate wisely. A board bio is one page long, and most of us find it challenging to “fit it all in”. So you reduce the font, then you shrink the margins. You feel the need to tell all…you have had such an amazing career, it must be of interest! Step back and think about how it would come across if you were the reader:

How readable is your bio? Does it look crowded?
Do the key messages show up clearly?
Do you make it easy for someone taking a quick look to “get” it?
For someone reading your board bio for the first time, can she play back to you what your value proposition is, and why a company might find you relevant?

Ask your colleague, or friendly board members in your network, to take a look and give you some honest input. If your bio is to be used as a screening mechanism, how does it hold up? I recently reviewed a board bio which traded density of content for clarity. There was a list of key skills in bullet points. There was a great (and not tiny) photograph. I didn’t have to strain to read the font. Honestly, that experience made me go back to look at my own board bio with critical eyes. Always be ready to learn how others do things better than you.

Your board bio is only the beginning. Once you are selected as a potential candidate for the board, you will have the opportunity to speak about your relevance and skills, and how these align with the company’s needs. You will be able to explore cultural fit with others on the board, and to understand if this board and this company is right for you and vice versa. However that first step, the price of entry to have the conversation, may sometimes be about who you know, but equally, is how compelling your board bio is perceived to be. A good start is half the battle!

*First published on Athena Alliance in Jan 2021

Growth traps…Proceed with Caution

Growth Traps…Proceed with Caution

OK, you know that “Grow, grow, grow” is the startup mantra, right? But what happens when it doesn’t quite work like that? Do you madly start to do things that…well…might not be in your company’s best interests? And as you do start to grow, are there some things you should watch out for?

There is pressure from investors and venture capitalists to demonstrate stellar growth trajectories. Of course you need to experiment, and try new things. But focus is one of the most critical elements of success. The fragmentation that comes from too many priorities in a world of scarce resources gets squarely in the way of focus, and ultimately, in the way of growth.

Some growth traps watch for:

Going to the “next product” too soon: Running after the next “shiny object” before getting traction with the first one can dissipate the energies of a small team. The development team should be spending its time enhancing the first product to get it right. The only exceptions: (1) if the next product enhances the first one so that the joint offering is significantly more attractive (2) if the first product is clearly failing, and a pivot is needed. In all other situations, time is better spent honing the first product. At Salesforce, we had a successful Sales Cloud product, then focused on adding functionality and resources to move up-market; Service Cloud came years later.

Expanding to other countries too quickly…Just because someone asks doesn’t mean you go! While it’s terrific to get positive affirmation about your product, is it going to take substantial resources away from your core market focus? What are the regulations in the country? GDPR, anyone? How do companies do business there? At Salesforce, I remember an early attempt to get into the China market with an “online-sales only, low-cost Chinese language CRM” for small businesses. We then learned that most Chinese small businesses at the time did not have internationally recognized credit cards, hence they could not buy. Ooops!

…Or expanding to other segments too early: Additionally, be wary if you are SMB/mid-market focused, and the company asking for your product is a big Enterprise company. I remember the GitHub cofounder telling me that when Disney came knocking in the early days, they were SO not ready. At Comfy, the last startup I was with, we caught the eye of some big Australian customers. For a small US-based startup with an IoT product that needed onsite installation, the distance and the customization became a huge distraction. There is enormous lift required to work through the legalese and the procurement process, as well as the scrutiny on privacy and security. Make sure you are ready before you go there!

Waiting too long to fire and replace: In fast-growth environments, a common mistake is not moving fast enough to replace team members who are not a good fit. You need to explicitly admit you were wrong in hiring the individual in the first place, which is hard. You also need to have a frank, possibly unpleasant conversation, which is also hard. Sometimes an individual was the right person for a role in the very early days, but does not grow into what you need as the company grows. The reality is you are doing a disservice to both the company and the individual by not having the conversation earlier than later, and then taking prompt action when needed.

Not being explicit about an achievement-oriented culture: It matters, especially in the downturns. Many startups have wonderful values: “be empathetic, show curiosity, be humble, be a team player”. But sometimes, as at the most recent startup I was with, the concept of “get it done” is missing. The cofounders felt that this should be a natural outcome. Lack of explicit achievement-oriented values can sometimes reflect in urgency being less than desired. And when you have a less inexperienced team who sees a down cycle for the first time, it can be very, very hard for the team to keep pushing, to keep the positive energy flowing. Help your team by making an outcome-driven focus an inherent part of the company fabric.

Trying to scale and codify too early…or too much: Sure, you should define processes so that you provide clarity on how a job should be done. However, some managers are inclined, given the plethora of tools out there that promise to improve productivity, to add the tool before they have clarified their processes. They feel the tool will enable them to be more efficient and to scale. Take it from me: if you automate a mess, you still have a mess. It’s just disguised by all the cool dashboards.

The reality is that in the early days, as each functional area is growing, so much is changing that locking down a process is often counter to the end goal of ultimately scaling your processes. You need to be ready to iterate. First, be thoughtful about designing and documenting processes to ensure outcomes you need. Then consider whether you need a tool to help, but be sure you implement the tool in a way that, as your customer base and your product portfolio changes and grows, your can evolve your processes too.

So yes, “grow, grow, grow” by all means…just don’t inadvertently get in your own way!

This article was originally posted on LinkedIn

When It’s Time to Go, You Gotta Go

a.k.a. “The No-Fear Approach to Your Next Career Move”

When you start to feel it’s time to do something new, to take the leap and leave the familiar, it can be daunting to think about how to approach the task of changing jobs and starting over.

Being afraid of change is natural, and anyone with humility will have some fear. Uncertainty in your ability to adjust to a new role, new environment and new people is very real, but so is the opportunity to learn, grow and succeed by embracing these changes.

I spent eight wonderful years at Salesforce, a mission-driven company that has been growing at an amazing pace – full of creative, passionate and smart people, with lots of opportunity to flourish professionally. But recently, I found myself thinking, wouldn’t it be wonderful to take everything I have learned, and go someplace smaller where I can help another company grow and scale and succeed?

Changing jobs was a big decision, but in the end, it was the right decision for me. And, I learned a lot in the process. If you’re ready to make a change, here are my top four tips on applying the “no-fear” approach when considering your next big career move:

1. Take the “no-fear” approach. Newness can be daunting. The unknown, even more so. It could be that, faced with the uncertainty of not knowing what’s out there, and being worried about your ability to adjust to a new place, new role, new people, you go with the safe option…stay with status quo, or find something very similar to it. Anyone with humility will have some fear. If you decide not to leap, be prepared to miss out hugely on all the excitement and learning…new skills, new environments, new people.

2. Understand your own “non-negotiables”. To embrace change, you need to be flexible, courageous and adaptable. But it’s just as important to know, and stay firm on, your non-negotiables. For each of us, there are some things that just have to be in place wherever we are. No choices, no maybes. For me, integrity is critical. I am black and white on integrity; “grey ethics” are unacceptable. And I must be part of a mission-driven, customer-centric company with deep customer focus, with people I respect professionally and like personally. Think about what your own deal-breakers are and stay true to your values when assessing new opportunities.

3. Apply logic, and then go with your gut. Thinking about transitioning to a new company and role means you commit to strong introspection. Be your own career consultant and take the reasoned approach. Consider your personal and professional priorities in life, and accept that there is no way that one does not spill into the other. Consider how your options compare if you assess them against your priorities. List them, then rank them. If you find the logical outcome is Option A, but your gut says Option B, listen to your gut. Analysis is valuable as a way of clarifying thinking and understanding the tradeoffs, but then there is instinct. Never ignore your instinct. Heart over mind.

3. Remember the people are the most important. In the first few jobs out of college, job-seekers make decisions based on the company, the role, the money, and to some extent, the people. It takes years to recognize that no matter how fulfilling your role or salary is, if you do not like and learn from the people you work with (the people you spend most of your waking hours with!), the rest matters very little.

Look for a team who you respect, whose values are aligned with your own, and importantly, a team who you can count on in difficult situations and want to celebrate with after important milestones. Ask the age-old question, will they be good company if you get stuck on a long-haul flight together? Use your network to ask others about the team culture and, as someone advised me, try to “bathe in the culture” yourself to see if it’s a good fit.

4. When you do it, dive right in: When you do initiate a move to something new, especially something outside your comfort zone, you may well have moments of self-doubt and uncertainty. Was it the right call? Can you handle the job? I can still remember, eight years ago, I took a huge leap of faith and changed everything I possibly could all at once: industry, function, role, company size, culture, everything. Months of bumpy moments ensued. But I can say today that it is the best move I ever made. Throw yourself into whatever you choose to do, give it your all, and don’t second-guess yourself.

Remember, you own your career. Clearly the business environment, the marketability of your skill set and the availability of jobs all impact your opportunities and decisions. But you can change, you can reshape your skills, and most importantly, you are in control of your own future. Take the opportunity to reassess your career every year to reflect on what you have learned, and what you can expect to learn and gain from the coming year. And then you should decide on your next step. Because if it’s time to go, you gotta go.

On to the next thing. Always be learning.

Originally published on LinkedIn

Follow the Leader

What makes people want to follow their boss from one job to another? From company to company?

What does it take to be a leader that people follow?

1. Integrity: For most people, integrity should be the price of entry in looking at a leader. Can they be trusted to do the right thing for the business, and even more for their people? Do they have ethical clarity? “Grey ethics” directed at someone else could be directed at you tomorrow. Would you put your career in the hands of someone you couldn’t trust?

2. Passion and vision: Do they have a vision towards which they are trying to lead the team and the organization and the company? Can they inspire others in their communication of this vision? Can you feel the passion? Does it clearly lay out the path forward, the goals to reach for, and why others should feel energized and commit to follow?

3. Mutual common values: What’s important to you has to be important to them. A leader with a company that has a deeply mission-driven approach to improve something may generally be more “followable” than one who is primarily motivated by making money…but making money appeals to people too. Whatever floats your boat, be sure the leader (and the company) is in synch with it.

4. Caring: Do they care about you? Your well-being, at work and at home? Your family? If you are burning out, do they think to ask why, to help you to manage the workload better? To be there when you vent? To show you how to prioritize?

5. Coach: Do they spend time on your professional development? Do you get ongoing feedback on how to improve, what to do differently, how to be more compelling, how to learn to influence? Do they empower you to make decisions? Do they put you in situations where you are forever learning?

6. Listener: Given everyone is always too busy, do they take the time to solicit and hear your perspective and that of others? Are you able to have a dialog with them so you can exchange ideas and opinions on the path forward? On what didn’t work and how to fix it? On options for new initiatives to explore?

7. Champion: Do they thank you and others for a job well done? Do they stop, amidst the frenetic pace we live and work in, to show gratitude? Do they broadcast your success so that others in the company know? Are they at the table highlighting your skills and supporting you when discussions happen around promotions and new assignments?

8. Builder of great teams: Are they known for the terrific, high-performance teams they build? Does the team function in harmony, engage in strong debate, collaborate and then demonstrate the ability to make a decision and move on it decisively? Is there diversity of all types within the team, whether it be gender, ethnicity, background, skills and personalities? And do they enjoy being together?

9. Only Human: Nobody is perfect, and it is a wonderful thing when someone can admit it. Do they share with you when they have failed, and what they have learned from it? Do they manage failure with grace? Do they own it? Do they show humility? I know many leaders have huge egos, and sometimes can be brilliant as well, but I believe people follow them “in spite of”, not “because of”.

10. Admirable: Do they command your respect? Can you learn from them? Do you want to be “just like them” in some way or another? It may be the astuteness with which they pick their battles, or the ability to influence an audience, or the resilience to handle pressure with calm…just a few examples of the great leadership qualities you may want to learn.

What about other qualities like, “Are they nice? Are they likeable?” While no one would ever want to work for someone who they dislike, it seems that “being liked” in itself is not enough for anyone to follow someone.

I know that I, like most of us, will always have work to do on many of these dimensions. No one is likely to personify all these characteristics; we all have different strengths and areas to work on.

Are you self-aware enough to know what your strengths and focus areas are in your path to becoming the leader that others will follow?

Originally published on LinkedIn

“Hello? I’m calling to…”

How do you make inbound lead follow-up effective? Millions and billions of dollars of pipeline later, here’s what makes the inbound B-to-B sales pipe-gen engine turbo-charged at Salesforce, and what can make yours be turbocharged, too.

1. Real-time response: There is no doubt that calling as soon as possible after the lead is created is key to successful conversion of the lead. Minutes can make a difference. It is critical to train inbound reps to know that quick followup will result in better outcomes, and to track it. This does not mean a blind call is the answer; a quick look at the company’s website and online presence (e.g. Facebook page) before calling is a great way to be intelligent about the customer’s needs and business. It’s also good to check on the customer’s past interactions with your company, if any, e.g. other products purchased, or other information viewed.

2. Evangelist-in-Chief: The rep who followups on an inbound lead is often the first person a prospect speaks with at your company. True, evidence shows that buyers are increasingly becoming educated about the product before they speak with a salesperson. However, it is still important that the reps know they are evangelists for the company’s products; also that they are the “first face of the company” and first impressions go far.

3. Persistent and Polite: Some prospects may be hard to connect with for a live conversation. Certain times of the day can be better to call, typically at the beginning and end of the day. The best reps know how to be persistent in following up: 5-6 touches, including phone calls and emails, ideally also sharing new and interesting information. Equally important, the best reps know when to give up too.

Many prospects may not be ready to buy yet. An important component is lead nurturing, ideally with marketing automation, or by the reps themselves, to warm up “cold leads” with periodic emails to touch base, provide useful information about the industry or the product. When a prospect is “warmed up” enough (e.g. the prospect has viewed demo and downloaded a white paper), then the lead is fed to the inbound reps for follow-up.

4. Asking the right questions: Key elements for the rep to know, or to try and uncover, relate to four factors: 1. Is the specific person the decision-maker in the purchase? 2. Is there budget available to purchase the product? 3. What is the need the prospect is trying to fulfill? 4. What time-frame does he plan to buy in? With these insights, the rep is in a good position to assess if the lead is a good opportunity likely to result in a sale. For larger customers, this expands to a discussion about goals, plans and challenges, to help with a more complex sale.

5. It’s a numbers game: Inbound demand management is about assessing metrics at every stage of the funnel, against internal and/or external benchmarks. Key metrics include speed of response, and number of calls, conversations, ensuing opportunities, closed deals and dollars. For example, a rep having many conversations but creating few opportunities needs to work on the quality of conversation. Similarly, strong results on number of closed deals but low closed dollars means a stronger focus on upsell is needed.

Clearly, building strong inbound demand management capabilities is a balance of many different elements. Any one element managed in a vacuum will fail in achieving the desired outcome, managing them all in concert is the secret.

“If you aren’t going all the way, why go at all?” – Joe Namath

Note: If you found this post useful, you may be interested in the previous post on outbound prospecting: “Sales Prospecting: Get your Message Thru”

Originally published on LinkedIn

Drowning in Data? Make It Work for You

90% of the data in the world has been created in the past two years. Big Data is everywhere. There is a treasure trove of information about consumers, markets, and anything else you can name. Sounds good, right? How could it possibly not help you as you think about growing your business? And the answer is, of course it can, but…

The big question is, will you drown sloshing around in data? Will your company waste enormous resources tracking and reporting on information that no one looks at? Will you miss the forest as you peer at the tree, and even worse, at the leaf…and the vein on the leaf?

Work backwards from the answer: Think about possible outcomes and actions, and then construct the key questions to be answered. In this way, you can use the results of your analysis to validate or invalidate your hypothesis, which then lets you take action. This is the only way to maximize effectiveness and avoid “boiling the ocean”. It also helps to sharpen your thinking through the options upfront, versus wallowing around in the data and hoping it tells you something.

An example – Option One: We think that future platform customers are likely to be existing customers who have been doing some customization already. Option Two: We think that customers in certain industries have a deeper need to customize their applications, hence they are the best targets for the platform. Analyzing your data to assess both options will let you figure out the best approach to targeting and segmentation.

What do you really need to know? What decisions will it help you make? Who else needs to know? Think hard about what you need to know to do your job. Figure out how to crystallize and minimize the data you are looking at and ensure you know what action it will help you take (or not take). Lots of data can be very distracting. Think about who else will gain from sharing in the information. Who needs to know it all? Who just needs a top-line summary? Would it help someone to have the big picture versus the detail?

How often do you need to look at the data? It all comes back to actionability. Some information can tell you what to change on a weekly basis e.g. results of a marketing campaign. Other information is more actionable monthly e.g. if your company has monthly quotas for sales reps, the real story emerges at the end of the month, though of course there are lead indicators you can track by week or even day. And last, some trends emerge in broader timeframes, e.g. changes in customer satisfaction, and should be reviewed appropriately, e.g. twice a year.

Note that some data exists to be looked at only when diagnosing the root cause of an issue so you can figure out how you can fix the problem. It is important to have the data at this deeper level available, but only to dig into for problem solving.

Remember “good enough” is sometimes all you need: Precision is over-rated. Of course there are times that it is important, such as reporting on your company’s financials. But often, you only need to know “directionally correct” information. There is a temptation to drive to accuracy at the cost of massive time and energy. This is when you need to think about whether having more accuracy will change the outcome of the decision. For example, if a product line is wildly unprofitable when you do the directionally correct math, it is unlikely to change with more decimal points and granularity. It is more important not to miss any material factors entirely.

Never let data alone drive your decision: Data and analysis provide a way to flag the opportunities, risks and the boundaries, but should never be, in isolation, the way to make a decision. Use the data to talk to others and get input from those with experience and insight that will often go way beyond the data. Supplement one with the other to come up with the right decision (one reason I think it will be a very long time before computers and robots can do it all).

The top skills that got people hired in 2014 include data mining, statistics, marketing analysis, business intelligence…you get the picture. It should make you wary; data can show how to drive growth for your business, but it can result in wasted resources. And the danger is it can also result in flawed decision-making when it’s looked at incorrectly without the right “lens” of qualitative input.

Be afraid…approach with caution, but do approach, and dive in to see what your data can do for you. It’s the price of entry.

And it can unlock magic.

Originally published on LinkedIn

Sales Prospecting: Get Your Message Thru

In the new year, how do you get your sales prospecting call returned? Your email responded to? Billions of dollars of enterprise sales pipeline later, here are some tips from the top sales prospectors on my global teams at Salesforce.

It’s all about the person you are trying to connect with, what they need, and what they are interested in. Seems obvious, but when you look at some of the emails and calls we all get, sometimes it’s clearly not. Long gone are the days of “scatter-shot, broadcast email”. A well-crafted, concise email opener followed by a short, intent-driven call is the best one-two punch. You only have a few seconds to get attention. Personalization is everything.

Some tips from top prospectors targeting mid-size to large enterprise companies:

1. Grab someone’s attention up front: If you get someone to read past the first line, that is money! Social media is everywhere; use it to find an irresistible hook for the targeted prospect. An unconventional example: a very inventive sales rep discovered that his prospect was a keen fan of a sports team with an upcoming game. His email was titled: “Who will win the big game this weekend?” and his first line was “Go Ducks!” Sure enough, the prospect was engaged enough to read and respond based on relevant content following the eye-catching opening.

Another sales rep, prospecting to companies in the telecom/media space, found an online video of his top prospect speaking at a conference, who stated that “one day in the future, he hoped his daughter could get a pizza delivered from her TV”. Guess how this rep started his email?

2. Why is it relevant to them? It’s all about them…their company, their challenges, their priorities. Have you checked out articles about their industry, their company, and looked at their annual report? Searched for company priorities? Looked for quotes? Videos they have posted? Can you find a relevant issue the company is facing where your solution or product can make a difference? Once you get to speak live, listen carefully for their needs. No one cares unless you can show “why you, why you now?” to help deliver what they are focused on.

3. How can you instantly demonstrate credibility? Industry Rules: Has your product been successful at helping companies in the same industry solve problems, improve productivity, show results, drive growth? You need a library of use-cases and results by industry, e.g. “Company A and Company B in your industry were able to drive up sales productivity by X% because they did this, do you want to know more?” Around the world, the most compelling prospecting tactics are relevant examples and knowledge within the specific industry.

4. Connect on any level you can: If someone at the target company is familiar with your company from a prior role, find them! The best possible find is a champion for your solution who has moved to a prospect company. LinkedIn is a treasure trove of current and past roles. Other tools from companies such as Google (Alerts), ZoomInfo, InsideView and Data.com can find contact and/or flag mentions of a prospect for you. Do your research, figure out the strategic “in”. Connect the dots, use one lead to identify the next. Work up and down and across the organization; sometimes mid-level managers can share key information that provides insight. Often, a picture emerges that lets you position your solution better.

5. Unscripted is best: Sure, it is important to have templates with content you can use, such as examples of industry use-cases and ROI from using your product. But a “marketing-y email” is rarely the way, except for mass-market SMB outreach. Similarly for calls, frameworks such as “why you, why you now” are helpful to provide structure, but using scripted calls? Not so much. Unscripted approaches also force a better understanding of the product and the prospect. Customize, shorten and focus.

6. Prospecting is a marathon, not a sprint: Top prospectors talk about how you just have to keep on going. Sometimes, a sales opportunity in a big company can emerge after six months of assiduous prospecting with as many as twenty contacts. Develop a structured approach to the target company. Work the “white space” in a company, targeting relevant roles and divisions that you have not touched before or in awhile. Email your contacts any information they may find of interest along the way. Build a relationship if you can.

Good sales prospecting requires sustained drive, good listening abilities, persistence, great research, concise writing, verbal communication skills and the ability to influence. You will hear “No”, or even worse, hear nothing, many, many times every day. But if you do it well, you will also hear “Yes, let’s talk, I’m interested in learning more.”

Just. Keep. On. Going.

Originally published on LinkedIn