Relevant Chews

Casual Thought Friday… at what point do you need outside help to improve your performance?

A friend of mine recently tried to help fix my golf swing in the middle of our round. I’m no Tiger Woods, but on that day I was more like Charles Barkley. And in the middle of the game the advice of others seems to be readily available in hindsight and rarely sought at the opportune moment.

The pearl of wisdom was not to work with the clubhouse professional to get better results; it was why I needed outside help…

“You can’t fix your swing by yourself because you are part of the problem.”

Great companies refine their strengths and outsource their weaknesses. The ability to create value (your relevance to the customer) should be the strength of your sales strategy. Your weakness will be figuring out how to integrate social media and remove the antiquated sales pitch from your marketing. Accepting this is the first step in the best direction.

Ask a respected professional for an honest assessment of your 2010 business development plan. Because it will be an extremely competitive year, and you will need to change something to improve your sales performance.  There are no mulligans.