5 Practical Tips on Requirements Traceability to Help You Control Change and Improve Quality

Traceability helps you stay connected, manage change and improve quality. Think traceability is just for compliance-driven industries? Think again. This best practice might sound technical and complex, but it doesn't have to be and it could very well be your ticket to better results. In fact, companies with mature requirements management and traceability processes achieve 75% higher success rates. What you'll learn: Demystify traceability, impact analysis and related concepts Get 5 tips on how to put traceability into action Learn how to automate the process to save yourself valuable time Download the whitepaper and take action >

Strategic Work Made Simple

Have you ever played that game where you repeat a particular word over, and over, and over until suddenly, it just doesn’t sound right anymore? At a certain point, it stops making sense. The phenomenon is called semantic satiation and it happens in business all the time! We have a tendency to overuse terms until, frankly, they don’t hold meaning any longer.

Take “strategic” for example. Of course, as an E-Myth Business Coach, it would be impossible for me not to hear and use that term all the time; strategic work is at the core of what we coach our clients to do.

But perhaps we’ve used it too many times and it’s lost its meaning. So let’s put aside all the times we’ve heard it (or used it ourselves) and approach the basic idea of strategic work afresh. Often, clarity of communication and returning to the true import of a particular term can re-invigorate an organization and our relationships within it.

Keep it Simple

Strategic work to me, first and most importantly, means thinking. That’s right. Nothing fancy about it. Nothing too crazy. Just thinking about your business; whether big picture or specific, data in hand or staring into space. It is in connecting our thought to an outcome, then a plan, that is at the heart of strategic work. 

On that note, I always recommend to my clients that they should create times when they disconnect from the tactical side of the business and simply think about the larger connections, the bigger idea… the wider context.  Schedule regular brainstorming sessions with yourself and your team. Get your ideas down on paper. And be prepared to capture your thinking in a variety of situations--from ice skating to shopping. You never know when that great idea might arrive.

The Structure of Strategic Work

The word strategy has military origins. Strategy refers to a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. One definition of strategy is “a plan, method or series of stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result: a strategy for getting ahead in the world.”

So how do you "get strategic"? Strategic work connects our thinking to a particular goal, and provides the step-by-step plan to realize it. Without strategy, tactics (the steps) are often misguided and off target. With the clarity of the goal and the plan, the tactics often fall into place perfectly. If not, we adjust, altering our steps based on our observations. Which means that we also must make some observations and gather some data that will tell us how well our strategy is working.

Here are five steps to give you a framework to approach strategic work.

1. Set the goal – Goal setting or identifying the desired results is always the first step. It’s much easier to hit a target that has been identified and described, than shooting at one you can’t see. Clarity of vision is critical. Once we have a clear vision, we can really begin thinking about our business in new ways; since every idea can attach back to the vision.

2. Think – Once we understand the desired result, you have to spend some time thinking about it. You have that goal in mind and you’re attempting to connect it into a plan that can be executed. Don’t be too hasty. Zoom out, look at the big picture. Ask questions, get to the truth of what you want to see happen. Be open, set aside assumptions. Let the intuitive side of your mind and the rational have their say in how to best deploy resources to achieve results. Gather data. Get a macro-view. Obtain all the information and opinions you can before you make your planning decisions.

3. Plan – The next phase, planning, is probably one of the weakest in many small businesses. Don’t succumb to the idea that tactics will just follow strategy and begin happening. You have to actively plan and manage the flow from thinking to doing. Planning requires good organization and the ability to think things through in logical steps, along with good communication skills to get everyone involved.  Do it yourself, or delegate it, but don’t neglect adequate planning. Get the right tools to support your efforts, and practice project management discipline in all your planning applications and you’ll soon see a huge benefit. How does the old saying go, those who don’t plan, plan to fail! 

4. Execute– Passing the strategy into tactics. Tactics represent the tangible events that occur in business. Serve the customer. Make the product. Go on a sales call. Unless these tactics are informed by strategic work, they won’t cohere and are often accomplished in a very haphazard manner. Identifying goals, thinking them through, organizing and orchestrating the tactics through plans and systems is the best way to secure the results you want to see happen and avoid those you wouldn’t wish on your most feared competitor.

5. Evaluate – Quantifiable objectives must be built into this entire process. You have to have a way to properly evaluate your strategy and the tactics that have been used to achieve a particular result. If you’re not getting the results you want through your present activities, then start this strategic work cycle again, since the only way to alter your results is to change how you’re doing things.

So strategic work seems simple now, right?  Quick, try it now before the word loses its meaning again!

Source: E-Myth Viewpoint

The 7 Deadly Sins of Successful Sales Teams

Selling is hard work, but it’s even harder when sales teams fall into bad habits.  When these deadly sins take hold, the team can end up alienating customers, peers, and co-workers alike.

If your team remains unrepentant and refuses to change, the end result can easily be the failure of your current sales campaign and even the collapse of your entire company’s sales.

Be forewarned.  You must, must, must take these 7 deadly sins seriously, and make sure that they don’t take hold, either on you, or on your team-members.

DEADLY SIN #1: STUFFING

• Definition: Pushing more products on the customer or the channel than they want or need.
• Why It Happens: This is often done with the best of intentions, under the “customer is always right” maxim.  Customers and channels are not always on top of their needs and requirements, and thus order (or agree to buy) too much product.
• What Results: When the customer or channel figures out that they’ve been “stuffed” with product, they assume (probably rightly) that you were more interested in making your numbers than in making them successful.
• How to Prevent It: Before closing, always make certain that the customer really needs your offering and that it will assist them in building their own business.  If not, volunteer an adjustment that will put the order in line with their real needs.

DEADLY SIN #2: GRANDIOSITY

• Definition: You’ve got a product that’s so wonderful that you’re convinced that it’s the solution to every customer’s problem.
• Why It Happens: Most of the time, this happens because you’ve let the marketing group convince you that you’ve got a product that can “change the world.”  However, no matter how fabulous you offering might be, it’s not a panacea and there are going to be customers for whom a competitor’s product is a better fit.
• What Results: Grandiosity results in customers who aren’t well served.  They end up with features and functions that they don’t use, can’t use, and don’t want.  Worst case, they begin to see you, the sales rep, as something of a religious fanatic rather than a trusted adviser.
• How to Prevent it: Remember that the point of selling is to help the customer become more successful.  Rather than trying to converting them to your “product” religion, dedicate yourself to making sure that your offering gets into the hands of the people who need it most.

DEADLY SIN #3: NOSTALGIA

• Definition: Sales teams often look back to the glory days, when their product was selling like hotcakes.
• Why It Happens: Sales professionals always know what worked in the past, but the memory of past success blind the team to changing customer requirements and major shifts in the marketplace.
• What Results: Gradually, your firm becomes unable to develop new accounts, or take advantage of existing ones.  Revenue from your cash-cows take-over and you find yourself consistently being outbid and outsold by the competition.
• How to Prevent It: Whenever you lose a deal (or don’t get included in an opportunity), take the time to find out exactly why.  As the market changes, adjust your sales approach so that it better fits the way that the customer wants to buy.

DEADLY SIN #4: OVERWHELM

• Definition: Sales teams keep taking on more work, insisting that they can close more business than the last quarter, quarter after quarter.
• Why It Happens: Sales teams enjoy being successful and so they’re sure that they’ve got the ability to be even more successful in the future.  As such, they commit to more growth without having a strategy to accomplish it.
• What Results: It works for a brief period of time, but then productivity begins to quickly decline.  Top performers become frustrated and leave the team.  The company begins to lose business, creating even more pressure to perform.
• How to Prevent It: Come up with plans that are achievable given your current resources.  Then figure out how make the team gradually more productive.

DEADLY SIN #5: FECKLESSNESS

• Definition: When results are good, many sales teams start to relax and celebrate their wins, rather than develop new business.
• Why It Happens: Let’s face it: selling is hard work.  It’s natural to want to take a bit of a rest on your laurels, especially after a big sales campaign has paid off big.
• What Results: This is the great disaster of many successful sales teams.  Their pipeline dries up and the numbers start to decline.  This is then followed by frantic effort to build to another peak and lo! the cycle repeats.
• How to Prevent it: During the good times, make the effort to continue doing all the things that caused the good times: relentless prospecting, cold calls, building out your network.  Make the pipeline a constant priority.

DEADLY SIN #6: OVERCONFIDENCE

• Definition: Sales teams assume that the buying process is moving forward because they’ve presented the deal to all the key decision makers.
• Why It Happens: When you’ve put a lot of work into building up an opportunity, you can enjoy the fruits of your labor (without getting the sale) by simply assuming that it will take place.
• What Results: While you’ll sometimes get the sale, it’s also more than possible that something will go awry and the buying process will stall.  You lose momentum and, eventually, the sale.
• How to Prevent It: Assume nothing.  Stay on top of each major deal.  Continue to ask questions, listen carefully, and make sure all the bases are covered.

DEADLY SIN #7: SANDBAGGING

• Definition: The sales team becomes (or pretends to become) overoptimistic about sales that will take place in a quarter.
• Why It Happens: Sometimes it’s because they’re upbeat and optimistic people and sometimes it’s because they’re telling management what they want to hear.
• What Results: When the sales don’t take place, everyone ends up looking stupid.  Or worse, you end up antagonizing customers trying to get them to buy, simply because you need to make the numbers that you foolishly promised.
• How to Prevent It: Stay focused on reality and make sure that you are putting effort into maintaining a realistic pipeline.  Tell management what they need to know, not what you think they want to hear.

The Pink Bat

Everywhere you look today there are problems. Turn on your TV or computer, pick up a magazine, and what do you see? Problems.

Talk to your spouse, co-workers, family members or friends, and within minutes someone will bring up a problem...or two or three.

In an unforgettable way, Michael McMillan teaches us that many problems aren't problems at all - only opportunities for unseen solutions waiting to be formed!

Here's a warning...once you see this movie titled Pink Bat, it'll be hard to forget!

Dont forget to share this movie with everyone you know. They'll thank you for it!

Now, let's go find some problems and turn it to a great opportunities!

All the Best,
Marifi

10 New Year's Resolutions for Entrepreneurs

Forget about going to the gym -- that resolution is typically only good for about a month. What are you going to do for the fitness of your business in 2011? Here are 10 places to start.

     1.   Do a little less flying by the seat of your pants

Measure as much as you can. This is one of my toughest personal challenges, even though I know that anything that gets measured is likely to improve. You don’t have to succumb to analysis paralysis, but find one or two things you don’t study closely and study them.

For starters: Do you know how profitable your key customers are? Most small business owners don’t, and many don’t know who their “best” customers really are.

2.   Find even more ways to save money

There are always, always ways to reduce costs in any small business, and it’s incumbent on us to find every penny.

For starters: Take a close look at all transaction costs (bank fees, e-commerce charges, credit card processing, etc.). These things generally become more competitive every year. If you have a million-dollar business and reduce expenses by just 1 percent — not hard to do — you’ve just put ten grand back in your pocket.

     3.   Sell, sell, sell

As my father used to say, “sales cure all ills.” If you don't already have one, make a plan for the year to find every way to grow your top line, and execute.

For starters: Don’t try to do everything and chase every opportunity (I’ve learned that lesson the hard way too many times). Identify the single biggest growth prospect you have — and have the ability and resources to pursue — whether it’s a new customer, new product or new market. Laser-focus on it until it happens.

4.   Stay focused on your people and their ideas

Make sure you are getting the most out of your employees and they are getting the most out of you. You may have a formal process for this or a more casual approach (my preference is the latter, but it doesn’t work for all businesses).

For starters: Have open New-Year conversations with employees, either individually or in groups. Do the best you can to create a non-threatening, no-consequences environment for the discussions — these are not performance reviews. If you have a small group, do it over a nice long lunch. See what your people thought of the past year, and share as much as you feel comfortable about the business. Try to pick up a few ideas on what you can be doing better for each other in the New Year and plan/act

     5.   Never stop paying attention to cash

You know that cash flow is the only thing that pays you and your bills. So are you doing everything you can to maximize it (payable/receivable management, improving inventory turns, proper use of financing)? The sooner you can get every dollar and the longer you can hold it, the better.

For starters: It’s business 101, but how often do you talk to your suppliers about payment terms? Perhaps if you agree to a minimum order level you can get an extra 15 days to pay. Or maybe your vendor will let you place a blanket order and draw from it as needed over time, to reduce your cash tied up in inventory. If you’re a good customer with a flawless payment history, chances are the good companies you work with will be open to finding ways to help each other out.

6.   Analyze everything about your customers

Deal with problem accounts, find ways to reconnect with idle customers, and identify opportunities to grow your best prospects.

For starters: Take your top 10 customers and study every detail about their business with you for the year just-ended. Odds are you’ll find some problems and some opportunities. Build a plan for each customer for the New Year, and if possible, meet with them to discuss it. Customers know you want them to do more business with you, so put it out there. Tell them what you’re hoping for and what you can do to help make it happen (if you don’t know, ask). Always make it a two-way street.

     7.   Freshen up your marketing materials

Is all of your collateral material up to date? How about your Web site? If you’re like most companies, you’ve probably got boxes with old addresses on them, or Web pages that are way overdue for updates.

For starters: Get fresh eyes. Have a handful of people outside the company (friends, family) put your website through its paces. Ask them to visit every page they can, try forms and transactions, and evaluate the general browsing/shopping experience, as appropriate. I’ve never seen a website without glitches, so enlist some help in finding as many as you can. Give your testers something nice for their time.

8.   Master your inventory and product line-up

Do you have the right products in the right quantities going into the New Year? Bad inventory only gets worse, so it’s rarely a good idea to try to inch your pricing down to move it. Solve inventory problems decisively — the sooner you can get rid of bad stock the better, so take your medicine and start with whatever markdown you think will sell it.

For starters: Build a list of companies that buy overstocks of products like yours, and send an attention-getting but to-the-point “special buy” newsletter every month or quarter. This can be very effective, but again you must be prepared to lead with a price that will solve the problem. Surplus buyers can be a huge help, but only with merchandise that is priced to move. That’s the nature of their business.

     9.   Adjust your pricing to keep your business healthy

It does no one any good to boast about having the best price if the best price means you don’t make money. Have you kept up with pricing to keep your all-important gross margin healthy?

For starters: Model all your pricing and look at what your real margins are, after all discounts. If your gross margins won’t support your net profit goals, and you do a good job controlling expenses, chances are you need to raise prices. Better to raise them a little now than a lot later.

10.   Think about you

Are you managing your time and life as well as you can/should? What can you do to make your work life and personal life better? 

For starters: Take a few quiet days off, disconnect as best you can, and do an honest appraisal of how your business affects your life and vice-versa. Can you make the two mesh better next year and get more of what you want? You became a business owner for a reason — is it “happening” for you?

Have any resolutions of your own? Please share them. I wish you a happy, healthy and successful New Year.