Friday, October 12, 2012

11 Books Every Young Leader Must Read- HBR.org

Recently, I wrote that leaders should be readers. Reading has a host of benefits for those who wish to occupy positions of leadership and develop into more relaxed, empathetic, and well-rounded people. One of the most common follow-up questions was, "Ok, so what should I read?"
That's a tough question. There are a number of wonderful reading lists out there. For those interested in engaging classic literature, Wikipedia has a list of "The 100 Best Books of All Time," and Modern Library has picks for novels and nonfiction. Those interested in leadership might consult the syllabus for David Gergen's leadership course (PDF) at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government or the syllabus his colleague Ron Heifetz uses for his course on adaptive leadership (PDF).
But if I had to focus on a short list for young business leaders, I'd choose the 11 below. I've only included books I've actually read, and I tried to compile a list that includes history, literature, psychology, and how-to. Variety is important — novels can enhance empathy; social science and history can illuminate lessons from other times and fields that might be relevant to your own; and at the very least, reading broadly can make you a more interesting conversationalist. But I have tried to make all the choices directly relevant to young businesspeople interested in leadership.
Invariably, many people will think some of the choices are poor or that the list is incomplete, but I hope it can serve as a start for young business leaders looking for literature to help them chart their careers.

Marcus Aurelius, The Emperor's Handbook. Emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 A.D., Marcus Aurelius is considered one of history's "philosopher kings," and his Meditations were perhaps his most lasting legacy. Never meant to be published, Marcus' writings on Stoicism, life, and leadership were the personal notes he used to make sense of the world. They remain a wonderful insight into the mind of a man who ruled history's most revered empire at the age of 40 and provide remarkably practical advice for everyday life. This is the translation I've found most accessible.

Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning. Viktor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist who survived life in the Nazi concentration camps. Man's Search for Meaning is really two books — one dedicated to recounting his frightening ordeal in the camps (interpreted through his eyes as a psychiatrist) and the other a treatise on his theory, logotherapy. His story alone is worth the read — a reminder of the depths and heights of human nature — and the central contention of logotherapy — that life is primarily about the search for meaning — has inspired leaders for generations.

Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full. Tom Wolfe founded the New Journalism school and was one of America's most brilliant writers of nonfiction (books and essays like The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test) before he became one of her most notable novelists. Often better known for his portrait of 1980s New York, The Bonfire of the Vanities, A Man in Full is his novel about race, status, business, and a number of other topics in modern Atlanta. It was Wolfe's attempt, as Michael Lewis noted, at "stuffing of the whole of contemporary America into a single, great, sprawling comic work of art." It's sure to inspire reflection in burgeoning leaders.

Michael Lewis, Liar's Poker. One of the first books I read upon graduating college, Liar's Poker is acclaimed author Michael Lewis' first book — a captivating story about his short-lived postcollegiate career as a bond salesman in the 1980s. Lewis has become perhaps the most notable chronicler of modern business, and Liar's Poker is both a fascinating history of Wall Street (and the broader financial world) in the 1980s and a cautionary tale to ambitious young business leaders about the temptations, challenges, and disappointments (not to mention colorful characters) they may face in their careers.

Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't. What does it take to make a great company, and what traits will young businesspeople need to lead them? Jim Collins introduced new rigor to the evaluation of business leadership in his instant classic Good to Great, with a research team reviewing "6,000 articles and generating 2,000 pages of interview transcripts." The result is a systematic treatise on making a company great, with particularly interesting findings around what Collins calls "Level 5 Leadership" that have changed the face of modern business.

Robert Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Persuasion is at the heart of business, where leaders must reach clients, customers, suppliers, and employees. Cialdini's classic on the core principals of persuasion is a sterling example of the cross application of psychological principles to business life. Based on his personal experiences and interviews — with everyone from expert car salesmen to real estate salespeople — Cialdini's book is riveting and, yes, persuasive. It serves as a great introduction to other works by modern writers like Malcolm Gladwell and Steven Levitt, who translate theories from the social and physical sciences into everyday life.

Richard Tedlow, Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built. Richard Tedlow taught one of my favorite business school classes, The Coming of Managerial Capitalism, and this book is something like a distillation of a few of the high points of that class. Giants of Enterprise chronicles the lives of some of the businesspeople — Carnegie, Ford, Eastman, Walton — who shaped the world we live in today. It's a brief introduction to the figures and companies who built modern business for the young business leader seeking to shape the future.

Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World. Financial capital is at the heart of capitalism. Any young person aspiring to business leadership should understand the financial world we live in. Ferguson is one of our era's preeminent popular historians, and The Ascent of Money traces the evolution of money and financial markets from the ancient world to the modern era. It's an essential primer on the history and current state of finance.

Clayton M. Christensen, The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Clay Christensen was recently ranked the world's greatest business thinker by Thinkers50, and his breakout book was a thoughtful tome on innovation and "disruption" called The Innovator's Dilemma. All of Christensen's books are essential reads, but this is perhaps the most foundational for any young leader wondering how to drive business innovation and fight competitors constantly threatening to disrupt his or her business model with new technology.

Stephen R. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey's book represents the best in self-help. His advice — about prioritization, empathy, self-renewal, and other topics — is both insightful and practical. Seven Habits can be useful to the personal and professional development of anyone charting a career in business.

Bill George, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership. A hallmark of next-generation business leaders is a focus on authenticity. Bill George has pioneered an approach to authentic leadership development articulated well in his second book, True North. George (who, full disclosure, I've coauthored with before) conducted more than 100 interviews with senior leaders in crafting the book, and offers advice for young leaders on knowing themselves and translating that knowledge into a personal set of principles for leadership.
So what are your picks? Aside from a list for "young business leaders," are there others you'd propose?

John Coleman

John Coleman is a coauthor of the new HBR Press book, Passion & Purpose: Stories from the Best and Brightest Young Business Leaders. Follow him on Twitter at @johnwcoleman.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Facebook Grew 1 Million Percent. Why Can’t VC’s? by: Nick Petri

The venture capital industry is all about helping companies scale.

Peter Thiel and Clarium helped Facebook grow from a $5 million company in 2004 to a $44 billion company today. Forget doubling or tripling. That’s growth of nearly one million percent, and they did it in under a decade. Helping small companies become staggeringly, mind-bogglingly, impossibly big is the industry’s core competency.

Why, then, can’t VC’s achieve this type of scale, themselves?

That’s the observation Dave McClure made a few months back in his blog post Scaling Venture Capital? We Suck. We Can Do Better (I know, that was 6 months ago, but better late than never). As a VC in the midst of scaling, OpenView spends a lot of time thinking about how we can do more stuff – complete more consulting projects, hire more people for our portfolio, make more investments, generate more content – without compromising the quality of our work.

The truth is that it’s very difficult, and we’re not alone in choosing the easy way out by choosing to grow our own firm in a much more controlled manner than we attempt to grow our portfolio. We’re not alone. No VC, to the best of my knowledge, has cracked the code to achieve Facebook-style one-million-percent growth. There are many in the billions of AUM, but none in the hundred billions. Why not?

The answer lies in the limitations of modern technology. It’s allowed some actions to scale infinitely while others are left in the stone ages.

To demonstrate what I mean, consider some of the things Facebook needs to do in order to grow so rapidly, that are only possible because of modern technology:

Deliver its product on a massive scale. With computing power and storage dirt cheap, how much does it cost to maintain someone’s Facebook profile?
Communicate instantaneously across the entire company. With a few key strokes, Mark Zuckerberg can let everyone at his company know exactly what he’s thinking and what they should be focusing on.
Analyze huge amounts of incoming quantitative data. With terabytes of behavioral data being generated by its users, real-time analysis requires both sophisticated back and front-end systems.

Essentially, outgoing communications, technology, and quantitative analysis are incredibly easy to replicate. Since these are Facebook’s core functions, the company is able to scale at a positively ridonculous pace.

The problem is that venture capital’s core functions don’t really rely on those things.

Personal relationships and qualitatively-based decision making can’t be mass-produced by a computer. And while innovations like Twitter and Salesforce.com have certainly made a VC’s life easier, they haven’t been able to replace their core functions. Ironically, very few of the innovations that venture capital has fueled have actually made venture capital easier to do. That’s why no VC has yet succeeded at growing at a million percent.

Now there are business models that are threatening to disrupt the VC paradigm:

Crowdfunding platforms are hailed by many as a more scalable alternative to VC. In my opinion, they’re liable to skimp on the main value proposition of a VC: qualitatively evaluating management teams (I’ve made my opinions on this topic very clear in the past, here and here).
A few VC’s have launched with an explicitly quantitative value prop, such as Correlation Ventures. Knowing how difficult it is to scrounge up quantitative data on the companies we’re looking into, I have my doubts about this model. I’d love to be proven wrong.

These models are ambitious, and maybe someday we will see a VC grow one million percent. But until the new models are proven out, VC will remain a craft industry. We do suck at scaling, and no, we can’t do better.

9 Things Successful People Do Differently (Reread this one regularly!)

Nine Things Successful People Do Differently

by Heidi Grant Halvorson | 8:58 AM February 25, 2011

Learn more about the science of success with Heidi Grant Halvorson's HBR Single, based on this blog post.

Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren't sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do.

1. Get specific. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. "Lose 5 pounds" is a better goal than "lose some weight," because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you'll "eat less" or "sleep more" is too vague — be clear and precise. "I'll be in bed by 10pm on weeknights" leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you've actually done it.

2. Seize the moment to act on your goals. Given how busy most of us are, and how many goals we are juggling at once, it's not surprising that we routinely miss opportunities to act on a goal because we simply fail to notice them. Did you really have no time to work out today? No chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers.

To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take each action you want to take, in advance. Again, be as specific as possible (e.g., "If it's Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I'll work out for 30 minutes before work.") Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300%.

3. Know exactly how far you have left to go. Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress — if not by others, then by you yourself. If you don't know how well you are doing, you can't adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently — weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.

4. Be a realistic optimist. When you are setting a goal, by all means engage in lots of positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it. Believing in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don't underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort, and persistence. Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead, and significantly increases the odds of failure.

5. Focus on getting better, rather than being good. Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality, and our physical aptitudes are fixed — that no matter what we do, we won't improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves, rather than developing and acquiring new skills.

Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong — abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices, and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.

6. Have grit. Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime, and earn higher college GPAs. Grit predicts which cadets will stick out their first grueling year at West Point. In fact, grit even predicts which round contestants will make it to at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The good news is, if you aren't particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. People who lack grit more often than not believe that they just don't have the innate abilities successful people have. If that describes your own thinking .... well, there's no way to put this nicely: you are wrong. As I mentioned earlier, effort, planning, persistence, and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed. Embracing this knowledge will not only help you see yourself and your goals more accurately, but also do wonders for your grit.

7. Build your willpower muscle. Your self-control "muscle" is just like the other muscles in your body — when it doesn't get much exercise, it becomes weaker over time. But when you give it regular workouts by putting it to good use, it will grow stronger and stronger, and better able to help you successfully reach your goals.

To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you'd honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching, try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up, or just not bother — don't. Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they occur ("If I have a craving for a snack, I will eat one piece of fresh or three pieces of dried fruit.") It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that's the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step-up your self-control workout.

8. Don't tempt fate. No matter how strong your willpower muscle becomes, it's important to always respect the fact that it is limited, and if you overtax it you will temporarily run out of steam. Don't try to take on two challenging tasks at once, if you can help it (like quitting smoking and dieting at the same time). And don't put yourself in harm's way — many people are overly-confident in their ability to resist temptation, and as a result they put themselves in situations where temptations abound. Successful people know not to make reaching a goal harder than it already is.

9. Focus on what you will do, not what you won't do. Do you want to successfully lose weight, quit smoking, or put a lid on your bad temper? Then plan how you will replace bad habits with good ones, rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves. Research on thought suppression (e.g., "Don't think about white bears!") has shown that trying to avoid a thought makes it even more active in your mind. The same holds true when it comes to behavior — by trying not to engage in a bad habit, our habits get strengthened rather than broken.

If you want to change your ways, ask yourself, What will I do instead? For example, if you are trying to gain control of your temper and stop flying off the handle, you might make a plan like "If I am starting to feel angry, then I will take three deep breaths to calm down." By using deep breathing as a replacement for giving in to your anger, your bad habit will get worn away over time until it disappears completely.

It is my hope that, after reading about the nine things successful people do differently, you have gained some insight into all the things you have been doing right all along. Even more important, I hope are able to identify the mistakes that have derailed you, and use that knowledge to your advantage from now on. Remember, you don't need to become a different person to become a more successful one. It's never what you are, but what you do.

Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. is a motivational psychologist, and author of the new book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals (Hudson Street Press, 2011). She is also an expert blogger on motivation and leadership for Fast Company and Psychology Today. Her personal blog, The Science of Success, can be found at www.heidigranthalvorson.com. Follow her on Twitter @hghalvorson

More blog posts by Heidi Grant Halvorson

More on: Career planning, Managing yourself

HEIDI GRANT HALVORSON

Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. is a motivational psychologist and author of the HBR SingleNine Things Successful People Do Differently and the book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals (Hudson Street Press, 2011). Her personal blog, The Science of Success, can be found at www.heidigranthalvorson.com. Dr. Halvorson is available for speaking and training. Follow her on Twitter @hghalvorson.

Good management article: 10 ways to get people to change

Ten Ways to Get People to Change

by Morten T. Hansen | 8:00 AM September 21, 2012

How do you get leaders, employees, customers — and even yourself — to change behaviors? Executives can change strategy, products and processes until they're blue in the face, but real change doesn't take hold until people actually change what they do.

I spent the summer reviewing research on this topic. Here is my list of 10 approaches that seem to work.

1. Embrace the power of one. One company I worked with posted 8 values and 12 competencies they wanted employees to practice. The result: Nothing changed. When you have 20 priorities, you have none. Research on multi-tasking reveals that we're not good at it. Focus on one behavior to change at a time. Sequence the change of more than one behavior.

2. Make it sticky. Goal theory has taught us that for goals to be effective, they need to be concrete and measurable. So with behaviors. "Listen actively" is vague and not measurable. "Paraphrase what others said and check for accuracy" is concrete and measurable.

3. Paint a vivid picture. When celebrity chef Jamie Oliver wanted to change the eating habits of kids at a U.S. school, he got their attention with a single, disgusting image: A truckload of pure animal fat (see photo). When Oliver taught an obese kid to cook, he showed how cooking can be "cool" — walking with head up, shoulders back, and a swagger while preparing food. This gave the boy a positive image he could relate to. As Herminia Ibarra outlines in her book Working Identity, imagining new selves can be a powerful force for change. Use stories, metaphors, pictures, and physical objects to paint an ugly image of "where we are now" and a better vision of a glorious new state. This taps into people's emotions, a forceful lever for (or against) change.

4. Activate peer pressure. As social comparison theory shows, we look to others in our immediate circle for guidance for what are acceptable behaviors. Peers can set expectations, shame us or provide role models. When a banker was told by his boss that he needed to show more "we" and less "me" behaviors, team members observed and called out missteps, such as inappropriate "I" statements. The peer pressure worked. This is also the case for online groups. Ask peers to set expectations and put pressure on one another. Sign up friends on facebook to check in on your behaviors (or use a company network tool).

5. Mobilize the crowd. In this video, would you be the second, the middle or the last person to join the dance? Most people would join somewhere in the middle, at the tipping point. Embracing a new behavior typically follows a diffusion curve — early adopters, safe followers, late-comers. Diffusion theory holds, however, that this is not a random process: Key influencers make it tip. They are often not managers with senior titles but those with the most informal connections and those to whom others look for directions (see ch. 6 in my book Collaboration for these "bridges" in a company network). Get a few early adopters to adopt a behavior, then find and convince the influencers, and then sit back and watch as it goes viral (hopefully).

6. Tweak the situation. How do you get employees to eat healthier food in the company cafeteria? You could educate them about healthy food. Or you could alter the physical flow. Google did just that. Using the cue that people tend to grab what they see first, they stationed the salad bar in front of the room. This and similar techniques are based on the red hot area of behavioral decision theory, which holds that behavioral change can come about by tweaking the situation around the person. You nudge people, not by telling them directly (eat salad!), but indirectly, by shaping their choices. Use different default settings, frame things as losses (not gains), commit in advance and so on.

7. Subtract, not just add. In The Power of Habits, Charles Duhigg tells a great story about a U.S. Army Major stationed in a small town in Iraq. Every so often crowds would gather in the plaza and by the evening rioting would ensue. What to do? Add more troops when the crowd swells? No. Next time the Major had the food stalls removed. When the crowd grew hungry in the evening, there was nothing to eat and the crowd dispersed before a riot could take hold. Change behaviors by removing enablers, triggers and barriers. Managers are so obsessed with what new things to add that they forget the obvious: Subtracting.

8. Dare to link to carrots and sticks (and follow through). This list would not be complete without the traditional HR lever, incentives, in the form of pay, bonus and promotion. In a famousHBS case, a banker at Morgan Stanley is up for promotion. His numbers are great, but he comes up short on the 360-degree review that assessed his behaviors. Tie incentives to both performance and desired behaviors. But, as Dan Pink highlights in Drive, such extrinsic rewards and punishments only work for non-creative behaviors and much less for, say, "innovate outside the box" (see his TED video here).

9. Teach and coach well. Many behaviors have a skill dimension: I may not know how to prioritize work, even though I am motivated to do so. Be a good teacher or coach (or, be a good learner if you're trying to change your own behaviors). This involves practicing the behavior, like a muscle, which is difficult especially for behaviors with a high tacit component (e.g., how to listen well).

10. Hire and fire based on behaviors. The list so far is about changing the person. But there is also selection: Change the composition of the team. Get people who embody the desired behaviors and get rid of those that clearly do not. This is based on theories of role fit: Match strengths(including your current behaviors) to what the job requires. This also goes for you: Fire yourself and find a better job if need be.

These ten principles for changing behaviors are rooted in different theories that are rarely put together: Sharpen the destination (1-3), activate social processes (4 and 5), tweak the situation (6 and 7), and revamp traditional HR levers (8-10).

Why don't we see more successful change in organizations? Because managers use only a few of these levers. Use them all.

MORTEN T. HANSEN

Morten T. Hansen is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and at INSEAD, France. He is the author of Collaboration and coauthor of Great by Choice (with Jim Collins). Follow Morten on twitter @GreatByChoice and at www.mortenhansen.com.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Selling to big companies

Selling to Big Companies

Stategies to Break Through

Do you ever dream of the day when your customer roster includes companies like GE, Wal-Mart or IBM instead of Ma & Pa Inc.? If you’ve ever made attempts to crack into a large corporation, you know how tough it can be.
Plus, it’s downright intimidating. Those companies are so huge that you don’t even know where to start. You question why they’d ever want to do business with your small, no-name fi rm.
Enough already! Big companies can be virtual gold mines for savvy entrepreneurs. If they like your product or service, they’ll eagerly expand their relationship with you. But that can seem like an impossibility when you’re still on the outside looking in.
Here are eight fresh, pertinent strategies you can use to set up meetings with corporate decision makers and ultimately land big contracts.
Break big companies down into smaller entities.
Unless you’re selling enterprise solutions, you’ll find it much easier to get your initial contract if you pursue opportunities in a small subset of an organization. Rather than being immobilized by the magnitude of selling to GE, you might pursue a relationship with the marketing department of the Fleet Services division of GE Capital Solutions. This enables you to find out the names of potential decision makers, conduct due diligence without being overwhelmed and implement a customized getting-in campaign.
Employ a foot-in-the-door sales approach.
When most sellers go after big companies, they want their prospects to know the full range of products or services their company offers. Yet taking this approach to a corporate decision maker immediately creates objections such as: “We’re happy with our current suppliers.”
Instead, you’ll be much more successful if you focus on solving a small or overlooked need that your prospect is facing. This enables you to slip in under the radar screen of long-entrenched incumbents who own the account. Once you get your fi rst contract, you can prove your value and expand from there addressing related divisions with a targeted approach.
Pay the price of admission.
Corporate decision makers are swamped. They have way too much work to do and not nearly enough time to get it all done. They protect their time at all costs; it’s their most precious resource. If you want a spot on their already overcrowded calendar, you have to earn it.
What’s the price of admission? Research the company, industry and marketplace. Gain knowledge of their business issues, challenges, goals and objectives. Acquire expertise on their processes, methodologies or critical success factors.
Busy decision makers don’t want to take time to update you about their business. Nor do they want to learn about your offering unless they know, from the outset, that you bring value. Do your homework before you make a call.
Speak the language of business.
When you’re trying to set up a meeting with a corporate prospect, most likely the fi rst thing out of your mouth is something like this: “Hi, Pat. This is Terry calling from XYZ Systems. We specialize in offering a full range of services for all your needs in [fi ll in the blank] area. Our products [or services] are top-notch and we’re passionate about meeting your needs.”
Wrong! That’s all about you and it’s going to lead to an objection. Instead, talk about the business results your company provides. For example, decision makers want to hear you can:

Speed up time to revenue on new product launches.
Increase sales to new market segments.
Reduce supply chain costs.

That’s the language they speak. To capture their attention, you need to speak it, too.
Launch an account entry campaign.
After four to five attempts to reach the decision maker, you likely conclude that they’re not one bit interested in your product or service. But, truth be told, that’s an erroneous assumption that could be costing you lots of business.
In today’s business environment, you should expect to contact corporate decision makers at least eight to 10 times. If you’re trying to reach C-level executives, expect to make 12 to 14 contacts before you give up.
Plan your campaign from the onset. Decide what business results you want to emphasize in your various contacts. Spread your value proposition over multiple voice mail or e-mail. Send interesting articles with short personal notes. Invite prospects to hear an industry speaker. Put on your own events, too. One to two contacts per week is appropriate, so long as you leave a business-focused message.
Focus on trigger events.
One of the best ways to crack into corporate accounts is to leverage trigger events—those happenings that cause a sudden shift in corporate priorities. Internal examples are mergers, spinoffs, venture capital funding, new leadership or changing corporate direction. External triggers include industry trends, economic issues, competitive moves or government legislation.
Savvy sellers continually monitor the media for information about what’s happening in their targeted accounts. They’re constantly thinking, “What could this mean for the company? How can I use this information to create a new opportunity?”
Then they launch a time-sensitive account entry campaign to their targeted account, emphasizing the urgency and value of taking action soon. By doing this, they speed up the sales cycle and encounter minimal competition.
Pursue multiple relationships.
When you’re working with big companies, you don’t want to have your entire future resting in the hands of a single person. This individual could change jobs, leave the company or even blockade you from meeting other decision makers within the organization.
Initiate contact with multiple people concurrently. Let them know you’re speaking to others in the company. Engage your contacts in helping you identify everyone you should know in the account. Most corporate decisions involve multiple people, so it only makes sense that you’d have relationships with many of them.
Use Sales 2.0 productivity tools.
Use Jigsaw.com or NetProspex.com to fi nd decision makers’ names. Check out LinkedIn.com to see if you have any networking relationships you can leverage. When you’ve identifi ed people you want to reach, see if they’ve posted a profi le online. Google their names to learn as much as you can. Use InsideView.com to be alerted to trigger events as well as possible dooropening connections. Set up Google or Yahoo alerts to be notifi ed of changes in your targeted accounts.
Some of these Sales 2.0 tools are free. Others cost a small monthly fee. In every case, they significantly enhance your productivity and your expertise, making them a wise investment.
Don’t fool yourself, though, into thinking that landing big corporate clients is just a numbers game. Traditional sales gurus tell you to just keep dialing, smiling and making those calls.
That doesn’t work when you’re trying to crack into big companies. Lots of planning, creative thinking, research and persistence are needed. A strong business case is essential. Corporate decision makers demand that you come prepared—with valuable ideas, insights and information that can help them improve their business, reduce expenses or increase revenue.
By using these strategies, you’ll turn your entrepreneurial dreams into a reality. First you’ll land one corporate client, then another. Before you know it, you’ll have an impressive customer roster with lots of upside potential. S
Jill Konrath is the founder of SellingtoBigCompanies.com, helping sellers win big corporate accounts. She is also a speaker and author of Selling to Big Companies.

The Young Adult: Business

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