Whale Hunter

I have a new blog!

2008-08-22T14:44:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

I've decided to get with the times and start using a custom blog platform. But what does that mean? It means I'm no longer posting here. I'm posting here. So come on over!

Hope to see you there,

Tom

Don't Waste an Economic Downturn

2008-08-16T17:16:00.000-07:00

I honestly do not know who said it first, so, we'll just say it was me-

Never waste an economic downturn....

I think its brilliant- I listen to the traditional business people discussing the traditional business responses to the economic downturn - Lots of blah, blah, blah- let's face it, old-white-guy-lip-flapping... Here is a sample-
"Companies need to ride out the economic downturn..."
"Only the big, stable companies will survive this recession..."
"There will be a shake-out which will leave a very few winners..."

Where do these people get their data? The strong, scrappy companies know that it is harvest time for the sharp and courageous- You do not bury your head in the sand during a fantastic period like this one-
Here is what I am talking about-

Headhunt - There is so much great talent available right now. Larger companies, following traditional thinking and quarterly driven expectations, have cleaved off many talented people- REGARDLESS of talent or performance. You pick up your best people during times like these, because frankly they would not be available during more stable conditions. Go hire, right now, this is the time of opportunity.

Moneyhunt - Wow- money is tight- I am not going to blow smoke on this issue. However, I have been in 15 cities in the last 90 days and there is money out there- but you will need new banking relationships to get it. The banks with money are using this time to gain marketshare- so they are poaching through lending. Don't even bother with the usual suspects- they are still digging out of the last cycle of bad decisions.

Build Capacity - You cannot invest in your business at a better time than right now. Equipment, land, technologies, buildings are all at fire sales prices. Back to the money- you are going to have to clean up your Balance Sheet and get your story- all that there is to know about you and your industry- put together and cleaned up. Having said that- this is the time to re-position your company and to own the next business cycle against your competitors. Do what your competitors are doing and you will be in the same position at the end of this cycle as you were when you started. You have to go against the tide in this cycle to own the next one.

I read Berkshire Hathaway's Chairman's Letter every year, written by Warren Buffett. He has complained for TEN YEARS that the market was too strong to invest in- read that one again slow. What is he doing and having his portfolio CEOs do right now? Headhunt, build capacity, make strategic acquisitions- because opportunity is found in the downturn- don't waste it.

Roller Coasters

2008-08-05T18:24:00.000-07:00

In a grim little post-industrial town on the edge of Lake Erie, there is an amusement park called Cedar Point. I will confess that amusement parks, bus terminals and Iowa caucuses leave the reasonable person in the role of contemplative human observer saying- "God, what were you thinking?"

Cedar Point is known for one thing - roller coasters. They have 5 of the top 20 roller coasters in the country. They have 17 roller coasters in all. This is why people travel thousands of miles to a place where the "T to T" ratio, (tattoos to teeth) exceeds 1.0 and it seems that even the fountain drinks are deep-fat fried- because this is the holy place of roller coaster thrill seekers.

This past weekend I kept thinking, "Why is this place packed!?! Why am I paying Manhattan prices for Pocono rooms? How come every person I know across the country knows about this place, and yet I can't find hardly any marketing or media campaign that is memorable?"

It's about the roller coasters. Period. They spend unholy amounts of money on one thing, they neglect almost everything else, (trust me, the listless zombies running the rides were the gold star level of service for the whole joint), except the roller coasters.

What about us? What is the absolutely laser-etched thing that you and your company are known for everywhere? Can you name it in less than 3 words? Can your clients?

People are lining up at Cedar Point today at 7:30am for a 10am opening time. Roller coasters.

Best Business Dinner Conversation Starter

2008-08-01T02:39:00.000-07:00

I went to a great business dinner this week. Usual suspects of trappings - Morton's for the meal, ridiculously expensive wines, private room, great server- you get the picture. But, that's not what made it so memorable.

One of the owners of the firm stood up and gave a toast to his grandfather- "My grandfather was an immigrant who came to this country at 11 years old with a buck in his pocket and no ability to speak the language. I am his American dream- to have his grandchild complete an advanced degree, own part of a great company and live in freedom was why he came and worked so hard. I toast him tonight."

The CEO then said- "Thank you for that great toast. We are probably all a part of our parents, our grand-parents or great-grand-parents American dream. I would love to hear some of the other people's stories." And with that, great stories, laughs and relationship building started happening at a much more remarkable level.

Couple of tips if you are going to do this-

Don't push - someone doesn't want to share or seems really uncomfortable, then just say, "We can come back to you later if you want or jump in when you want later." If the person doesn't jump in, don't go back.
Keep it moving - some people love a stage and they can take a story out forever. If you find someone like this, grab a thread of their story and interrupt- for example, "Your grand-parents came through Ellis Island? I wonder how many else's grand-parents came through Ellis Island- can I see a show of hands?" then re-direct the conversation to one of the other people who hasn't spoken. Monopolizers, often CEO's, can be a real buzz-kill on a conversation like this one.
Help out the speaker - since you have opened up the conversation through this approach, you need to keep the conversation interesting and moving through questions to speakers when they are either telling a boring story or droning on.
Get your own story right - if you tell the first story, you need to include fun details, a quick anecdote, a physical description, even something risque- You are setting the bar of whether these stories will be sleepy travelogues or fantastic fun.

This was a great conversation starter for a table of 6 - 12. If you have a great conversation starter, I would love to hear it- post it up!

Speaking Whale

2008-06-28T03:07:00.000-07:00

Whales listen for a special language when they buy- Whales buy money, they buy time and they buy risk. For a whale, it doesn't matter what you sell to them, they will translate it into these 3 ideas-

However, we have a bad habit of selling what we think that whales want to hear- Quality, Service, Capacity, Innovation, On Time Delivery, Guarantees.... the list is a long one. But the fact is that these are not the reasons that whales buy- in their minds they are speaking an entirely different language.

When you use these words you are asking the whale to translate what you believe is valuable to what they believe is valuable- For example, for a whale,

Quality means Time - production lines not going down because of faulty parts, customer service calls not received because products work and so on
Quality also means money - repeat purchases, reduced waste in production and so on
Quality means Risk - or really risk management - fewer product returns, investment confidence and so on

The more complex your offering, the more difficult it is for a whale to hear the three things it needs to hear to understand and purchase. Our job as whale hunters is to talk to a whale in its own language. We have to do the translation of value based upon what result is produced by what we deliver. The results that a whale cares about are Time, Money and Risk. For us that means doing the translation real-time when we are presenting the benefits of what we sell- Every benefit needs to be accompanied with an impact statement that translates to Time, Money or Risk in the whale's business.

Simple exercise- Pick a marketing piece or Power Point that you are using currently to interest a whale. Read through it and circle every feature/benefit that your company is highlighting for the whale. Draw a line from that circle to the clear statement you are making about Time, Money or Risk. If you can't connect the circles, neither can the whale.

If you are interested in learning more about how to Speak Whale, attend our workshop on July 24th, Building the Unstoppable Harpoon - register on our website, www.thewhalehunters.com.

Whale Hunters Love Nasty Weather

2008-06-16T10:27:00.000-07:00

I have been getting a lot of questions on the road lately about how The Whale Hunters’ clients are doing under these economic conditions- So, I asked a few of them- and their responses were very positive. Whale hunters like nasty weather because of what it does to their competitors. The big competitor’s reactions to tough economic times seems to create lots of opportunities- here is what they do:
• Hunker down – Freeze hiring, travel budgets and capital expenditures. Push out product release dates and new version releases. All of this says to customers that they are going to receive less for the same money.

• Cut back – Reduce hours of service, cut headcount, close facilities. This tells customers that the long-term viability of their provider is at risk.

• Re-organize – Change leadership, move key contacts around, shuffle work loads so that the whale’s support team is now burdened with more responsibility and can spend less time on its account.

All of these approaches scare whales and create opportunities for smaller companies to hunt. What to do?

1. Focus your scouts on the competitors – Using your scouting resources, look at your biggest competitors and determine if they are doing any of the things described earlier. Using that information, go back through your Whale Chart of prospects who are in Baja, and see which ones are using those competitors.

2. Have Harpooners re-contact all vulnerable whales – A call to the key contact in the whale that says; “We have been hearing about some dramatic changes in service levels for companies like yours because of cutbacks, changes in policy and reorganizations in some of the major providers. If you are experiencing this or anticipating this, maybe now is a good time for us to re-connect.”

3. Surgical strikes – Just as big competitors are scared, so are whales. Entire program shifts may be outside of what is possible at this time. Focus on pieces of business that you can move quickly and relatively independently from the larger contract. The market pressure will continue to move work to you once you have established yourself as a strong alternative.

To win in whale hunting, you need to do the opposite of your competitors- don’t hunker down, HUNT!

Lost my raven

2008-04-25T02:39:00.000-07:00

I was working with a Harpooner and Shaman team the other day on a whale deal when a call from that very company came into the Harpooner letting him know that his Raven, (champion) at his whale was leaving the company. The Harpooner had worked hard to get the relationship with his Raven and now, after almost 5 months, the Harpooner was going to have to start over- Happens all the time.

What do you do? (Let's assume we agree that having just one contact at this stage in the whale hunt was the first mistake, but we are still stuck, so what do we do?)

Back up - Typically you came in a door with a series of contacts that got you to this Raven. Time to tap that list again and determine who is handling these responsibilities.
Push forward - Reach out to the Raven's boss. The call should sound something like this: "The Raven and I have been moving along for 5 months on a very important project- I would like to meet with you and give you an executive briefing on where we are and determine the best course of action for your company on these solutions." The answer will probably be something like- "Well, we really need to wait until we have the Raven's replacement. I wouldn't be prepared to do anything until then." Your response needs to be "Of course, that's why I want to have the executive briefing now, to bring you up to speed and determine the interim steps you want to take with the time and energy investments made by your company up until now."
Side step - Someone is picking up the interim responsibilities- probably a colleague of the Raven- while he replacement search is going on. Take the same approach as the Push Forward approach but at the interim player.

One of the reasons that we tell people to add contacts to the Buyer's Table as fast as possible is that the business world in which we live is volatile- a Rolodex' shelf life is shorter than ever- so having a single important contact inside of a whale is very risky.

What techniques have you used when you have lost your Raven?

I blew my last sales call-

2008-04-22T15:41:00.001-07:00

It's true- I blew it.

It gets worse- I made rookie mistakes-
Here is the setup- We were in our offices with a buyer's table from the whale's side of 6 people- The Polar Bear, (ultimate buyer) who is also our raven, (champion). There were 4 other people who will be deeply involved in the program if we land it. We had a small team from our side- The meeting was mid-process in our sales process for a whale-sized engagement. We were exploring their needs, credentializing ourselves and discussing how we might work together. Where did I make my mistakes?

Talked when I should have asked - I cringe when I think about it- but we did not prepare our questions in advance to drive to the core issues of the other people in the room. Our polar bear was our raven- so the conversation focused on him- except he had ALREADY BOUGHT! So, we were working with him on the rest of his team- and that means asking, not telling.
Rushed the discussion - We knew we had a hard out for the meeting time, so I kept pushing to my agenda, the one in my head, instead of listening to their issues and the agenda in their head.
Didn't solve the fear - If you don't ask the right questions, you don't give the right answers- In this case, the fear we were answering was "will this work?" The fear that they had was "how long will this take to implement of my time?" Strong disconnect.

Errors happen all of the time- you try something and it doesn't work, so you learn and try something else. In this instance, I knew better... I just didn't do better. Anybody else out there make rookie mistakes?

So, my new resolution on old mistakes:

Prepare my questions in advance so that I am focused and mentally accessible.
Slow down-
Identify, confirm and re-confirm what the issue is that you are addressing with the person you are addressing it throughout the meeting.

I wouldn't mind it if you had a rookie mistake you have made recently if you shared it here in this blog- It is painful enough to make them- it is even worse to think you are the only one who does.

One whale- many hunts

2008-04-20T04:52:00.000-07:00

I was sitting with someone I consider to be a "master" Shaman. She is responsible for a sales organization that produces hundreds of millions of dollars in sales per year. We were discussing the challenges of big hunting boats - This occurs when you have a large whale with many different relationships and lots of sales opportunities. With so much opportunity on the table, so many different touch points and mini-buyer's tables and ongoing activity, how do you make certain that things do not slip through the cracks and that your boats are operating efficiently?

Supply chain management, transportation and logistics, computer solutions sales and many other industries struggle with this many touchpoint/many deal problem.

First, lots of boats, one Shaman - Set the organization up for one person to provide oversight to all of the hunts inside of a single whale. Too often, cross-functional areas put a company at risk because they do not have central coordination of all of the hunts. This scares and confuses, (and annoys) the whale because of the apparent ignorance in the hunters.
Shaman on the boats - Too often the Shaman manages the fleet of boats from the shore- trying to keep oversight through reports, emails and conference calls. You have to maximize the hunts by being on the boats.
Choose the Harpooners by hunt, not title - The most important quality for the Harpooner to have with this many hunts going on is the relationship with the whale- access to people and information. Make the decision early in each hunt who will serve as the Harpooner and let everyone on the boat know why.

What are your experiences with one whale/many hunts? What are the best practices you can share?

No surprises

2008-04-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

I see that Jack Welch just body-slammed his hand-picked successor at GE, Jeff Immelt, in the media- Immelt broke sacred trust- he predicted he would hit earnings for the quarter and then surprised his investors by missing the projection.

Whales really don't like surprises- not that any one else does. But the stock markets have become ruthless about it- even if the news is better than what was projected to be. It comes down to this- no surprises, period. We see this get fouled up alot through these approaches-

Delay and hope for the best - people put off telling the client hoping that they can fix the problem and the client will never know, or that they can take steps that will mitigate the damages before the client finds out.
Spin doctor - create a story or a scenario where the problem looks like it is the client's fault and that we are actually the heroes.
As little as possible - this minimalist approach gives the client barely the basics of the problem and leaves them with a "trust me, I'll handle this" answer.

In the spirit of full-disclosure, I want to admit I have done all of these- and they have worked some of the time. The problem is that when they didn't, the blast-zone was so big that I have gone another way:

Full-disclosure with a chosen solution as early as possible.

I'm not preaching. It has just been my experience that going to the client with the real information along with the approach we are taking is best. Then following up with high-frequency and regularity as we are fixing the problem.

I had a utility company who did this along time ago- We had a power outage and they called back every hour on the hour to tell us what was being done and how much longer it would take, (this was back when phones were simple and came out of separate lines in your house to corded contraptions). Lot's of peace of mind, customer satisfaction and confidence.

Disrupting the Whale

2008-04-11T03:58:00.000-07:00

Live Nation recently purchased Madonna's next 10 years of mega-tours from her for $100 million. They turned around and bought U2's next 10 years of mega-tours for $120 million- For the revenue from the tour ticket sales? Maybe... but the real strategy here is to target Ticketmaster and start chipping away at the monopoly Ticketmaster has on concert and event ticket sales.
Whales fighting whales can be very instructive. Most of us are attacking our whales from an outside in approach- or a head-to-head approach. That would be the same as opening up an on-line ticket sales website and trying to fight Ticketmaster in a fair market fight. Problem is that with their market position, it is impossible to have a fair fight- so you have to set up an unfair fight. By going after the events and the artists rather than the venues, Live Nation has changed the dynamics of the fight.
When we see clients take this type of game-changing approach to the marketplace- fight a different fight in a different way in the same market- market share moves to them quickly. Clients of The Whale Hunters on the front-end of the outsourcing and offshoring market shifts have cleaned up in their industries by changing the rules of the fight. How have you seen game-changing strategies work in your market or company? How can you develop one for market share grab?