That’s a mouthful I know. Don’t forget to scroll down and take the survey. I’ll explain what I mean by low support, new product initiatives, and contributing factors. I’ve found the amount of support needed is highly volatile, timing is everything. So, “Low support” is the condition where there is not enough support to push new product initiatives to completion. One indicator of this condition is what I call the Support Ratio. This is computed by taking the total number of new product initiatives completed in a time period and dividing it by the sum of new product initiatives proposed for that same time period.
From my perspective, anything less than one is low. Of course a practitioner may find my viewpoint harsh and unrealistic. That’s OK. Remember, it doesn’t really matter what that ratio is, what’s critical is your perception of why it’s what it is. As a sales person, I can better address my market if I understand what you think the cause for low support is.
I mean new product-initiatives, as opposed to old product-initiatives. Not only new products, but product improvements as well. Consider the term “Product” to be used in the broadest sense of the word, any offering, product, service or combination of both. Expand this to even mean those value activities that are used to deliver differentiated value to your customers. With this interpretation, initiatives to improve your service department would be included. Yes, improvement to the sales team would count!
“Contributing factors”, that’s a good one. I suspect the list is endless. Those factors that contributed to a single consequence are “contributing factors”. Just ask a teenager why they did poorly on an exam, you’ll get an earful. Just ask why your significant other forgot an anniversary, you’ll get a long list. Probably the best example would be the endless list we sales people make when we fail to close the deal. The trick is to select from this long list of alternative factors, those that created significant constraints that ultimately prevented generating enough support.
I’ve listed the top four contributing factors that I’ve observed. What’s your opinion, please take a second and let me know.
- Failure to develop compelling business case – Many practitioners stumble when asked by senior management to produce a business case or to justify financial support. Either they promise to end world hunger, or they demonstrate value at such a fine level of granularity that no one else cares. it normally boils down to something like “trust me”, you hired me because I’m smart.
- Failure to validate customer benefit – Many times we just state, “the market demands this or that”. “Our customers want X.” But there is no verifiable evidence that there is any demand for what is being proposed. Customer validation is directly related to initiative support in most cases.
- Failure to communicate initiative vision – Yes, you may understand, but others may see it completely different. Then, as things move forward, and conflict arises … forget it. People need time to get on board. It needs to become their vision, they need to work out how it will impact them. It’s just plain rude to blindside them and expect them to support you. It’s like a daughter telling you that she’s getting married in the morning, and you’ve never met the groom.
- Failure to resolve initiative conflicts – Don’t think just because it’s quite, all is well. That only works before they become toddlers. Identify and resolve the conflicts before they become road blocks. You need everyone working together. Without this, you reduce any competitive advantage that initiative produces. That is in the good scenario, it may stop the initiative, and even impact other initiatives.