Monthly Archives: June 2011

June 29, 2011 · 1:57 pm

Breaking Through ~ The Power of Your Authentic Self in Starting Your Business

A former coaching client of mine gave me a call the other day, somewhat out of the blue.  I had worked with her several years ago to help her with a strategic launch plan for a business she had envisioned for quite some time.  She had been attending various seminars, been adding to her skill set for many years, and was well positioned with her expertise and level of resources she had at hand to move forward with a very high probability of success.  We worked together for about two months, and for a variety of reasons, she decided that perhaps she wasn’t quite ready yet to take the plunge into this new endeavor.  She was an artist, and her art was selling well, so she decided that perhaps staying focused on this aspect of her life was in her best interest at the time.

This is not entirely uncommon in my experience.  More than once I have entered into a coaching engagement with a client with an objective in mind, and through our journey of self reflection, contemplation, and structured assessments an entirely unanticipated outcome has arisen from the process.  The approach holds the space for the individual to safely, and without judgement, journey deep within themselves, often awakening long dismissed passions and kindling the inner courage to pursue their bliss.  One of my very first clients, who had hired me to help take her business to the next level, realized as we moved through the process, that she really wanted to move to Europe and pursue her spiritual path.  The client subsequently sold her business and jetted off to Greece to meditate at the foot of the site of the Oracle of Delphi.  It was a remarkable experience to be a part of, watching someone rediscovering their true bliss and move decisively towards the actualization of their authentic self.

The former client, the one who had decided to put off starting her business and focus on her art, called me to thank me for my book.  She had started reading it on the prior day, and had made her way half way through it, doing each exercise that is at the end of each chapter.  Her energy was palpable and her positive comments regarding the book made me smile.  The language and intention of the book truly spoke to her, of how mindful strategic planning is actually a creative process that engages the mind, heart, and spirit of the entrepreneur.  She added that, in reading the book and engaging in the self reflective exercises, she finally understood the process we had been working through together some two and a half years ago.

What she said next really touched my heart.  She told me that, in reading my book, she felt as if she had, for the very first time in her life, been given permission to bring her own values and authentic self into her business.

“Wonderful,” I declared.  ”That’s exactly the intention of the process!  This is why it works so well.  For your vision and intention to resonate in others, it must first resonate with you!  It engages our entire human continuum…the intelligence not only of our mind, but the wisdom, passion, and authentic power that emerges from our heart and human spirit as well.”

She shared that she had been involved in business planning before our first coaching engagement, and always felt it to be a drudgery.  From the perspective of an artist, the process always seemed to be a left-brain dominated endeavor, a process that was easy to procrastinate or abandon entirely.  She also told me that she now knew she didn’t have to take this journey alone, that she could call upon the talents of like-minded professionals to help accelerate her success.

This is what being a Transformational Entrepreneur is all about!  About finding your bliss…giving yourself permission to allow your authentic self to come to the surface and flourish through your work, each and every day.  People sense this level of passion, joy, and commitment to service.  It is infectious; it engages and motivates everyone you encounter in the pursuit of your dreams…in the manifestation of your vision!

In finding and engaging in the power of your authentic self you will find the courage, inspiration, and resources you need to live a meaningful, fulfilling life…and have your livelihood be source of more than economic income!

© 2011, Terry Murray.

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June 27, 2011 · 3:47 pm

Drucker’s First Principle of Leadership- Why this Still Matters to Entrepreneurs

Key Concept ~ According to Peter Drucker, a leader’s main work is strategy.  This is even more critical for aspiring entrepreneurs.

I was creating a Scope of Work the other day for a prospective client company and it got me to thinking.  As well as coaching and advising aspiring entrepreneurs, my firm also delivers leadership development, team building, and sales training solutions to established organizations.  Each engagement is customized, integrating and aligning our Accretive Coaching Process™ with the client’s leadership philosophy, strategy, and organizational culture in order to achieve transformational performance.  This particular client embraces the teachings of Peter Drucker, who was perhaps the first business guru and definitely a brilliant luminary in the area of business thinking in the 20th century.  He published his first book on the subject of management in the 1930s and his last in 1999, before he died at the age of 95.

Having come of age as a business leader during the latter part of Mr. Drucker’s influential life, I was very familiar with his teachings and philosophies.  I dusted off a couple copies of his work and went about aligning my proposal for my prospect when his first tenet of leadership jumped off the page.  The leader’s main work is strategy…a manager’s job is to do things right; a leader’s job is to determine the right things to do!  This is perhaps even more true for entrepreneurs.  Small business owners are required to bear more than just the responsibility of leadership; they are also bearing the risk of their own capital invested in the enterprise.  For this reason, determining the correct strategy is even more crucial, on a personal and professional level, for the aspiring entrepreneur.

I know I preach this continuously throughout this blog, but when I think about the fact that less than 50% of nascent entrepreneurs have even started a business plan, never mind a strategic plan (here’s an earlier blog that discusses the difference), I shudder!  All of my success throughout my business career, including the rapid ascent I enjoyed (and at times endured) at STERIS Corporation, was rooted in my ability to create and execute dynamic, highly differentiated, and engaging strategic plans.  You see, the strategic planning process is where the value emerges for your business.  It is the incubation period for you to reflect, assess, intuit, explore, and validate every critical aspect of value creation and delivery for your target market segment.  Building a business without a sound strategic planning process equates to playing darts in the dark.

I know the flavor of the day from the technology-driven entrepreneurs is flexibility, espousing a just do it philosophy.  In order to quickly, and most importantly, mindfully adapt to rapidly shifting conditions you must first, however, know where you are to begin with.  Flexibility emerges through structure and a refined sense of organizational Self-Awareness.  It doesn’t effectively happen the other way around.

Let’s stop and think about the source of this perspective for a moment…as well as the perspective of Mr. Drucker, and to a lesser extent, myself.  Mr. Drucker was active in, and observed the drivers of, business for, what, more than 75 years?  I myself have been actively involved in business since my sales days in the biotechnology industry in 1980s and in leadership since the early 1990s.  The technologist, and by this I am mostly referring to the exceptionally gifted code writers that have caught lightening in a bottle during the expansive growth stage of the internet, are, for the most part quite young individuals.  Brilliant?  Yes…brilliant in their technical skills, but not yet seasoned generalists that have led through thick and thin times, and in a wide variety of industries.

So who’s advice should you trust?  If it comes to code writing, I’m going with the tech people, but when it comes to creating a thriving, sustainable business, regardless of the times and regardless of the industry, I think I’ll defer to Mr. Drucker.

After all, just do it is a slogan from an shoe company, not a mindful process.

© 2011, Terry Murray

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June 24, 2011 · 11:30 pm

Thinking of Starting Your Own Business? In Today’s World, it Just May be Your Best Chance for Financial Security and Success!

Key Concept ~ Owning your own business represents a certain level of risk.  The hard, cold facts are, however, the entrepreneurial path is rapidly becoming the only way you’ll ever reap the rewards of your labor.

It sounds like the beginning of a science fiction movie from the 1970s…Once upon a time, in a country far, far away, in a time long, long ago working for a major corporation was an ideal career path for motivated, industrious, and creative people. A good corporate gig meant financial security, great benefits, and (those of you under forty may have to look up the meaning of this next term) a pension for your retirement.  If you were hardworking and loyal to the company, the company would reciprocate with opportunities for you to grow professionally, financially, and, as foreign as this sounds today, perhaps even personally, too!  Stepping out of the corporate world introduced immeasurable risk to your future and your livelihood.  Sure, the one’s who made a go of it enjoyed the rewards of their efforts, but the one’s that failed…well, it was just a much safer bet for us to stay put in our corporate offices.

Whom among us still believes that pursuing a corporate career is the path to living a successful, stable, and meaningful life?  Two articles that came across the wire in the past two days really come together to send a clear message…you may be better off going it on your own.

Yesterday, I read an article on MSNBC.com that stated “Despite an unemployment rate of 9.1 percent in May, nearly three million job openings went unfilled — up from roughly 2.1 million when the recession ended in June 2009.”  The article went on to quote Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, “In the ’60s and ’70s you could go from an entry level job on the loading dock to manufacturing engineer or accountant to maybe a manager in a corner office. It doesn’t work that way anymore. The qualifications have gone up. The commitment between employer and employee has gone down.”

I think many, if not most of us, have seen or experienced this erosion of the social contract that once existed between employer and employee.  What really caught my attention from this article was a quote from Ms. Darlene Miller, CEO of Permac Industries in South Burnsville, MN (Ms. Miller is also a member of President Barack Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness).  Ms. Miller stated in the article that she would gladly hire more workers to operate the new, high-tech machinery her company just invested in to improve productivity, but, “We just can’t afford to take the time and the money to hire and (sic) someone to just shadow someone else and learn hands-on. The equipment is just too high-tech to do that.”

That really got me to thinking.  I’ve been a business strategist, senior executive, and now an entrepreneur for more than twenty years and I just couldn’t understand why an executive would invest in high-tech equipment to improve productivity if they didn’t take into account the human talent that was necessary to operate it?  I was so perplexed by this seemingly apparent disconnect that I was compelled to visit Permac’s website hoping to gain some insights into Ms. Miller’s perspective. After all, she’s officially advising our President on jobs and competitiveness, right?  So she’s stepped into the public arena, affecting public policy, and assuming a leadership role in our society.  I will refrain from quoting directly from her profile, as I respect copyright laws, but the company’s website basically tells a tale of how Ms. Miller started at the very bottom of the corporate ladder, as a parts inspector on a manufacturing floor, and successfully moved up the ranks, through a series of employers, to gain the skills and attributes that enabled her to buy and transform Permac in 1994.

Like me, corporations invested in Ms. Miller’s professional development.  Without the experience and education both Ms. Miller and I received working in Corporate America we would not be where we are today.  But where’s the reciprocation? Corporations once plowed back a significant amount of their profits in developing both their human and technological resources.  So what happened?  Why the sudden disconnect with what once proved a successful and positive approach to ensuring prosperous growth and a stable society?  A philosophical and sound business perspective that benefits one and all?

Perhaps this graph tells another part of the story…

Data Source – Bureau of Labor Statistics, Congressional Budget Office, Census Bureau and the Economic Policy Institute – Reprinted From Mother Jones

This graph is from an article that appeared today written by Allison Lynn, the senior business editor at MSNBC.com.  The graph originally appeared in Mother Jones magazine, but please note the source of the data at the bottom of the graph…the U.S. federal government.  When I reflect on these two articles I cannot help but think we are living in a time where corporate leadership is in total harvest mode…running our industrial economy like slash and burn farmers of prehistorical times.

The fact is, we’re living in an age where we must invest in ourselves and lead for ourselves.  The best chance we have for success is a return to old-fashion self-reliance.  Eventually, today’s approach to managing and leading businesses will wring out the last bit of energy and productivity the American workers have to offer.  When these businesses cross this threshold, they will rapidly lose their competitive advantage and decline into the dust of history.  My best chance for success and stability, your best chance, collectively as a society, our best chance for success and stability lies in our own hands.  Hopefully we can engage the call to entrepreneurship in a manner that is mindful and respectful to the dignity the human spirit deserves.

© 2011, Terry Murray.

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June 21, 2011 · 5:18 pm

Connecting The Dots ~ The Critical Nature of Mindful Strategic Planning

Those of us of a certain age may remember the groundbreaking PBS series called Connections that was aired in 1978.  In this fascinating series, science historian James Burke traced back the developmental connections of modern technology through a series of often arbitrary or accidental discoveries reaching back into the fog of history.  By connecting the dots of these historical occurrences (such as how the standardization of gold in the ancient Near-East as a precious metal of economic value triggered a series of events that eventually led to the development of nuclear weapons) Burke introduced my young mind (at the time) to a new perspective.  It opened my eyes to seeing the potentiality of human creativity and how seemingly disparate events, cultures, and individuals quite often interact in a non-linear fashion.  I was hooked, and clung to each of the ten episodes with enormous delight.  Mr. Burke’s approach planted a seed in my mind that continues to influence my approach to business today.

During my time serving in Naval Intelligence, this little seed began to sprout and was cultivated by the astutely attuned approach the Navy took to strategic planning.  Through diligent reconnaissance, meticulous analysis, and disciplined planning we were charged with making critical decisions which held extremely significant consequences for our fellow airmen and shipmates.  It all came down to discovering the leverage point in which our strategy could present us with the greatest opportunity for success.  These leverage points were not obvious, for if they were they would have been fully addressed and anticipated by our adversaries.  Little did I know at the time how these two very disparate experiences would influence the course of my life and career.  Yet, here I am today, writing this blog and working with my entrepreneurial clients to successfully create and execute business strategies that accelerate their success.

I still spend quite a bit of my time reconnoitering the economic, technological, and entrepreneurial landscape, looking for the hidden leverage points that will serve my clients’ business aspirations.  Trying to connect the dots of seemingly disparate trends, opportunities, and events while maintaining a highly disciplined approach to strategic planning.  The importance of integrating a flexible, innovative perspective with a comprehensive approach to strategic planning cannot be over-emphasized with aspiring entrepreneurs.

Here’s a few dots worthy of connection:

  • According to research conducted by the Small Business Administration less than half of nascent entrepreneurs have started a business plan.  It doesn’t report how many finish it.
  • In the 2007 research report, “Growth Entrepreneurship – Do we Really Understand the Drivers of New Venture Success?” John Cavill shares research that demonstrates the fact that 69% of seemingly sound ventures fail due to bad management.  I can personally attest to this finding.  In more than ten years of experience in strategic consulting and coaching for investor-driven startups I’ve yet to see one fail because the technology failed.  Failure almost always lies at the feet of management’s failure to plan and execute a sound, disciplined strategic plan.
  • The Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy’s Report to the President stated, “The most effective way to increase the probability of success is to provide training and managerial assistance to active nascent entrepreneurs.  Substantive training and education creates a fuller understanding of future customers, markets, and industry practices – information that can lead to the identification of opportunities.  Having the skills and information needed to implement a new firm will facilitate developing new ventures that reflect emerging business opportunities.”
  • In his book, “Radical Thinking”, philosopher Christian de Quincy explores human consciousness and discusses the fact that human beings don’t know what they’ve yet to experience.
  • If you examine the top nine reasons small businesses fail, as reported by the Small Business Administration, eight of them can be directly traced to the lack of a strategic business plan.  The ninth?  The lack of proper business planning.  (I detailed these connections in an earlier blog you can read here).
  • The final recommendation from the SBA’s Office of Advocacy’s Report to the President was, “So what is the bottom line for aspiring entrepreneurs?  Know what you are doing and do it.”

Do you see the connections?  The way towards discovering your path to entrepreneurial success begins and ends with maintaining an open mindset, adopting a fresh and adaptable perspective, and clearly discerning your landscape and opportunities through mindful strategic planning.  Just because you’ve never experienced the strategic planning process doesn’t mean it is not of value.  There are no shortcuts to awareness and a well structured strategic planning process expands our awareness; of ourselves, our firm, our limitations, and our opportunities.  We don’t know what we’ve yet to experience…so expanding our conscious understanding of our entrepreneurial landscape leads us down the road of discovery.  The place where we can begin to know what we are doing…and do it!

© 2011, Terry Murray.

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June 20, 2011 · 4:54 pm

The Entrepreneur’s Journey

Key Concept ~ When starting your own venture, you’re embarking upon a quest of mythical proportions.  What author and mythology expert Joseph Campbell referred to as “The Hero’s Journey”. Understanding the similarities between your journey and the fabled journeys of history can help you find inspiration during the most challenging of times.

I was recently having a conversation with a colleague I’ve been mentoring, an ascending, sole entrepreneur making the transition from a long career in corporate.  During our chat, I asked him what he felt was his greatest, day-to-day challenge navigating the change.

“The feeling of being alone, sometimes I feel really isolated” he replied.

As I sat and listened to his comments, I had one of those a-ha moments…not exactly what I’d call an epiphany, but an insight into a sliver of symbolism that I thought might be supportive to my friend’s journey.

“You do realize that you’ve embarked upon The Hero’s Journey?”1

He looked at me quizzically, his eyes constraining a bit as he looked into my own.

“Are you familiar with Joseph Campbell?” I asked.  “He was the preeminent authority on the subject of mythology and the universal role it’s played throughout the ancient cultures of the world.  You’ve embarked upon what he referred to as The Hero’s Journey…or what I like to call The Entrepreneur’s Journey.  The parallels between the two are remarkably similar.”

My friend’s eyebrows slowly relaxed as he realized I might actually have a reason for my somewhat grandiose pronouncement.

He asked, “How so?”

And so began a fascinating discussion on the power of myth, not only in the ancient cultures, but the power it can hold for our contemporary society as well.  I’d like to encapsulate and share the spirit of the conversation that ensued…

It is best to begin with a clarification of the term myth.  To us poor moderns, a myth is perceived as a mistruth, fanciful fairy tales echoing out the dust of what we perceive to be an ignorant, pre-scientific past.  Historically, myths served a vital function to both societies and the individuals living within those societies.  According to Mr. Campbell, myths provided a vehicle of insight and understanding of the individual’s and society’s role and relationship with the natural world.  Myths emerge at the nexus of where our inner self, what we might call our mind or our sense of consciousness and being, and the external world intersects.  Myths provided a set of symbols that helped human beings navigate their particular human, spiritual, and social experiences.  Myths provided a set of proverbial keys that served to help explain the great mysteries and meaning of life.  To grossly oversimplify (and please forgive me Mr. Campbell), myths were a sort of psychological Google Map for the ancient world.  They explained where you were and showed you where you could be going.

Myths reflect the values and moral compass of the society in which they emerge.  Most critically, however, is the fact that myths must reflect the known cosmology and scientific knowledge of the society in which the mythical symbolism emerges.  This points to a poignant, psychological fault line in contemporary American society.  It is very difficult for a modern society to reconcile the science of today with the mythical roots of Western religions that have evolved to be interpreted literally, as historical fact.  How does a contemporary Westerner rationalize the relationship between The Book Of Genesis, in which the Lord created the world in six days, with the geological record that has emerged through the Scientific Method?  Eastern religions and philosophies, those of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and the like, haven’t lost the symbolic meaning of the philosophical roots of their belief systems.  Consciously embracing the allegory and symbolism in their belief systems makes it much easier to reconcile the spiritual path with scientific discovery.

But on to the point of the conversation…

Today, The Entrepreneur’s Journey is the modern equivalent of the ancients’ Hero’s Journey.  Joseph Campbell spent a career studying the ancient mythologies, those of the Near East, India, the Far East, Native American, Pre-Columbian Central and South America, and so on.  Through this study he discovered a near identical thread that ran through the great, eternal mythologies (those that sought to explain the universal and Divine mystery of the human spirit, as apposed to the ethnological myths that spoke more to regional, societal or political concerns).  His initial work culminated with his seminal book, “The Hero With A Thousand Faces” in the late 1940s, in which he identified the universal theme that is present from culture to culture, myth to myth.  That universal theme is The Hero’s Journey.

In each story, often told in the form of an epic, The Hero’s Journey is the personification of the culture’s mythology.  Traditional cultures often cast their heroes as warriors, off to slay the monsters or threats of the day.  For Americans, our heroes (with greatest deference to the first responders of 9/11 and our service personnel still in harms way today) have traditionally been the great pioneers; the frontiersmen and women that forged a nation, albeit at the horrific expense of the Native Americans.  As we ran out of frontier, we looked to the astronauts in a similar vein.  But the pulse and impulse of America has been and continues to be commerce.

It is the Horatio Alger type of stories, the rags-to-riches characters, the self-made man or woman that is often most celebrated in our materialistic culture.  The closest thing we have to a classic mythology is The American Dream.  There is a parallel symbolism in The Hero’s Journey that resonates today with The Entrepreneur’s Journey.

According to Campbell, the journey is essentially the same in every mythology.  It is a lone journey undertaken by the hero, a vision-quest that will, through the evolution of the hero’s path, quite literally change the world.  The hero is restless at the beginning of the tale, something is missing in their existence and they feel a sense of destiny.  Through an emotional shock or separation from society, the hero responds to the call of adventure.

Abandoning the safety of hearth and home, the hero ventures off into the dangers of the world and the underworld (referring to the unknown, both of the inner self and outer world).  In taking up the call, the hero moves across a threshold, a gateway of no return to the status quo.  Through a series of tests and challenges, the hero continues to move persistently towards the goal of their quest; be it to rescue the princess, capture the Golden Fleece, or slay the dragon.  The tale is a passage of initiation into a place of the heroic Pantheon.  Along the way, the hero finds a mentor; an advisor that imparts wisdom to help guide the hero upon their quest.  This figure often speaks in allegory, illuminating the mystical path that the hero must walk alone.

At the decisive moment, the climax of the story, the hero faces death.  This is the point where the inner journey is discerned, where the hero either finds the inner courage and heightened sense of self-awareness (and perhaps self sacrifice to an eternal truth or good) to step forward; or fall from grace into the underworld of hell and darkness.  The turn of the story pivots on the culminating steps of self-discovery, of maturing, of an awakening of consciousness, of slaying the dragons within, that defines the hero’s tale.

Upon sharing this, I asked my friend, “Do you see any similarities in your own journey?”

My question dropped my friend’s eyes into a thousand yard stare.  Pausing, I could almost see his synapsis’ firing away.  He looked down, then slowly brought his gaze back to my eyes.

“I’ve never thought of it that way.  I was ‘downsized’ after twenty-three years of faithful service to the company, tossed away like yesterday’s news.  But I was never really happy working there.  I always felt like I could do better if it was my company, if I was calling the shots”, he replied.

“So you were restless and then given a shock, displaced and sent out to find your own way…” I added.  “Remember when we spoke about your vision and intention at the outset of your strategic planning process?  You’re living your vision-quest…you’re living The Hero’s Journey, and that journey is always a lone journey.”

My friend sighed deeply, sipped from his coffee and looked up at me again.

“Wow…I guess I am.  At times it sure feels like I’m fighting dragons.”

“The Entrepreneur’s Journey is beset with challenges of the unknown.  We don’t know what we have yet to experience.  But you’ve burned your boats on the shore, there’s no going back for you, right?”

“Are you kidding me?  I’m fifty-three years old…corporations look at me like I’m some sort of overpriced dinosaur.  I couldn’t even get an interview before I decided to start my own business,” he resigned, shaking his head in agitation.

“You’ve past the threshold, the point of no return.  And don’t forget what you told me at the outset, that your intention was to help other people in similar circumstances, to help coach them through these career transitions, right?  You’re out to change the world.”

“I hope to, if I can only succeed at getting some initial traction.”

“That’s where your inner journey is the key.  You’re facing a symbolic, financial death if you fail.  The challenges you’re facing and meeting with authentic intention are courageous and in service to others.  This is your passage of initiation, of finding a greater meaning for yourself and for the world.  This is your Hero’s Journey.”

“Thanks, Terry,” he said with a smile.  “I suddenly don’t feel so alone anymore.  I’ve got the company of all those mythological heroes of the past walking along side me.”

“Yes, my friend, you do!”

1 The Hero’s Journey, Centennial Edition, Joseph Campbell, New World Library, Novato, CA. © 2003.

© 2011, Terry Murray.

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June 15, 2011 · 3:48 pm

Why Every Pharmaceutical Sales Representative Needs To Develop A Career Contingency Plan

Key Concepts ~ The health care industry is transforming at breakneck speed, and this change is only going to accelerate in the coming years.  Entire purchasing, sales, and delivery models are shifting. Traditional sales models are being replaced by new technologies and modalities.  Pharmaceutical sales professionals need to prepare for the greatest upheaval their industry has ever seen.

Having spent the last twenty years working in and around the health care field I’ve seen a lot of change.  I can still remember developing contingency strategies during Hillary Clinton’s efforts to reform health care back in the 1990s.  The scope and reach of what is happening today, and soon to happen tomorrow, makes the 1990s look like the halcyon days of a long-lost era of remarkable stability and professional promise.  While the Great Recession permanently displaced millions of manufacturing and construction workers, what is emerging in health care is about to have a seismic impact on the more than 150,000 pharmaceutical sales and marketing professionals working in the U.S. today.

Seismic market transformations occur when a confluence of trends, pressures, and policy issues come together at a single point in time.  Here’s a short list of the factors converging today in the pharmaceutical world:

1.) Physicians are less available for face-to-face meetings with pharmaceutical representatives due to their own challenges with lower reimbursement rates and pressures on their practices.  Physician practices that once may have had 500 to 600 patients now carry a patient load of 1,000 to 1,200 patients to generate the same level of income.

2.) Third-party payers are moving to drive the prescription decision-making process as a way to contain costs.  As medical information technology begins to drive decision making models, current therapeutic protocols will eventually be supplanted by evidence-based care protocols that will remove even more of the prescription decision-making process from individual physicians.

3.) Blockbuster drug development pipelines are a thing of the past.  Big Pharma simply doesn’t have the next big thing coming down their pipelines anymore.  Blockbuster drugs, which in their parlance means the drug will sell at least $1 billion annually, have waned in recent years and new drugs of similar financial promise simply aren’t on the horizon.

4.) According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007 (Donahue), pharmaceutical companies spend more than $30 billion annually on sales and marketing.  While prescription drugs have side-stepped the Medicare/Medicaid cost containment efforts of the past (these two agencies pay for 49% of all health care expenditures in the U.S.), those days are numbered.  This is a major area for future cost cutting in order to maintain profits and stock prices as the golden era comes to a close.

5.) The Physician Payment Sunshine provisions (part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009, H.R. 3590, section 6002) becomes the law of the land on January 1, 2012…less than six months from today.  The health care reform law requires disclosure of payments, whether cash or in-kind transfers, to all covered recipients including: compensation; food, entertainment or gifts; travel; consulting fees; honoraria, etc.  Individual items of less than $10 in value can be excluded from reporting until they reach a cumulative value of $100 per recipient, then they must all be reported retroactively.  The administrative cost of compliance is astronomical as compared to the potential fines, which will run between $10,000 to $1,000,000 per incident.  The days of the lunch-and-learn meeting, the complementary box of donuts, and promotional goodies are rapidly coming to an end.

Brass tacks…what does this mean to me?

If you’re a pharma sales rep, a medical device sales rep, or a related marketing professional, you’ll be well served to start preparing yourself and your families for displacement now.  It is not just your job that may be going away, it will be an entire professional segment evaporating simultaneously.  Take a quick look around and see how Computer Based Training, e-learning, and information technology is already taking root in your industry.  The convulsions that are about to take place in the industry are driving executives to seek out entirely new models of sales and marketing…and, unless you’re selling sophisticated technology in the surgical suite, these new models very likely won’t include you.

While you have the time and you’re not under emotional duress, sit down and figure out your contingency plan.  Set out a series of what ifs and reflect on your vision and intention for the direction of the rest of your working life.  Approaching your career and life goals strategically, independent of Corporate America, will help guide you through the most dramatic of changes.  You’ve spent a career developing world-class skills…now you need to strategically transfer those skills for your own benefit rather than the benefit of a major corporation.  Start planning today.  If you need help, find an advisor or trusted coach that can help guide you through a formal process that will accelerate your successful transition.  It is always darkest just before the dawn.  I know…I’ve been there!  You have the courage to make this transition.  You already have the interpersonal and selling skills so many first time entrepreneurs lack.  This could be the start of taking command of your life, perhaps your own company, and finding success on your own terms!

© 2011, Terry Murray.

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June 14, 2011 · 2:58 pm

Passion, Process, and Persistence

Key Concept ~ Nothing of substantive value grows overnight.  Your seeds for success are sown with your passion, and it will take persistence to cultivate your harvest.  But without structured process you may get lost in the weeds.

If you’re familiar with this blog, you probably already know how passionate I am about the importance of sound strategic planning.  Regardless of the technology that permeates our world, the fundamentals still apply.  The technology characters that prowl the internet and espouse forgoing strategic planning for immediate action, tweeting, email marketing, and such will inevitably destroy more wealth than their advice and “just crush it” market launch programs will ever create (except perhaps for themselves).  This community of carnival barkers, the new snake-oil salesmen of the twenty-first century, prey on the hopes and dreams of people who, in many cases, have been used and displaced by Corporate America.  The displaced, first-timers may only have the financial resources to get one shot at getting their business off the ground.  In fact, the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy Report to the President emphasized the importance of obtaining good information, training, and assistance for entrepreneurs just getting underway:

“The most effective way to increase the probability of success is to provide training and managerial assistance to active nascent entrepreneurs.  Substantive training and education creates a fuller understanding of future customers, markets, and industry practices – information that can lead to the identification of opportunities.  Having the skills and information needed to implement a new firm will facilitate developing new ventures that reflect emerging business opportunities.”

Writing your strategic plan, with guidance from an experienced advisor, will educate you as to your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and risks.  It will also provide the process, the very day-to-day structure you will need to see your passion come to fruition.

I’d like to share a short story about a recent client of mine.  We’ve just wrapped up a coaching engagement in which I walked her through the strategic planning process detailed in my book, The Transformational Entrepreneur.  She has been practicing disability law for thirty-five years in the midwest.  She has a nice, established practice, but her passion has always been in trying to improve the quality of life of disabled adults.  More than ten years ago, she founded a charitable organization to provide housing assistance, employment opportunities, and recreation events for people struggling with physical and cognitive limitations.  To provide the less fortunate among us with the basic things most of us take for granted each and every day.  This was her passion, her dream, and she put her money where her mouth was, buying apartment buildings and subsidizing their rent, opening small businesses to provide employment, and even running camping retreats so the disabled could get out of doors and enjoy a weekend at the lake.  With all of her passion and persistence, however, the foundation struggled to gain momentum and deliver services on the scale she envisioned.

This client of mine was referred to me by a former client, stating my approach may help her get to where she wants to go with her foundation.  We dove right into what I like to call a conscious, strategic planning process.  Together, we discovered a way to scale her law practice in such a way that she could slowly move out of the day-to-day management of it and focus on her charitable work. In addition, the scaling of the practice would generate the necessary cash flow to hire staff for the charity (employment for the disabled), expand her housing initiatives, and add more recreational retreats and camps for the people she has chosen to serve.

We just had our last call, wrapping up the plan, and her enthusiasm was palpable. She told me that she finally felt like her legacy was coming together, her ten year long effort to help the disabled community was taking form and building momentum like she had never experienced before we embarked on the planning process.  My client displays an honorable passion to help those that need it most. She has been persistent, chipping away for ten years to get her foundation moving forward.  But it was process…the conscious strategic plan that we created together, in just a few short months, that is accelerating the manifestation of her vision.  That was the only thing that was missing all these many years.  To have played a small part in all of this is humbling and a distinct honor.

That’s what this blog is trying to advocate to those of you that have similar dreams.  Please don’t fall to the siren song of short cuts and gimmicky marketing programs that promise the world through the magic of the internet or some secret formula.  Passion, process, and persistence are the attributes for success.

 

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June 8, 2011 · 12:33 am

The Value of “Stress Testing” Your Value Proposition

Key Concept ~ Finding the right positioning for your value proposition can take time.  Testing it with prospective customers and industry experts can help you get it right.

Well, I finally went for a physical today, thanks to the persistence and caring of my wife.  During my physical, my doctor asked me about what I do for a living.  I told her about my coaching and professional development programs, focusing primarily on our workshop, “The Emotionally Resilient Nurse”.  I openly shared a bit of my frustration with the fact that we hadn’t captured any significant market traction, and, recognizing the value that our program delivers,  she was kind enough to share her insights on how we might reformulate the workshop to fit the needs of local hospitals here in Florida.

As I was sitting on the examining table, she looked up at me and said, “I peg you as a motivational speaker.  Why don’t you repackage your program into a seminar you can deliver to a large group of nurses in, say, three hours?”

That got me to thinking.  Why not?  Hospitals have a severe nursing shortage, and taking them off the floor for two days for an experiential learning workshop is difficult for them to justify, regardless of the positive results and return on investment it may represent.  It is a luxury they simply can’t afford during these highly transformational times in health care.  Even if the hospital CEO wanted to engage us, he or she simply doesn’t have the bodies available to cover for the nurses attending our workshops.

I went home and took a look at our forty page companion workbook we had developed for the program.  With a few minor edits, it was readily obvious we had a great foundation for a seminar that we could easily deliver in three hours (versus two days) and at a correspondingly lower price point.  The key factor from our perspective is, in doing so, we’re going from ten to twelve attendees per workshop to 100 to 200 attendees per seminar.  Both the price point and the time commitment have a much greater appeal to the decision makers in hospitals.  And it is less expensive and more profitable for our firm to deliver!  We’re calibrating the positioning of our value proposition to find market traction.

I’ll give you another example…

My oldest client, a gentleman I’ve been doing strategic planning for since 2002, is a great example of an overnight success that was six years in the making.  The fact is, nothing in his fundamental value proposition has changed since 2002, but it took six years before we were able to hone the value proposition into a formula that truly resonates in a major market.  This isn’t unusual.  With each successive year, we guided his firm up the food chain.  We started with small, privately held companies, evolved into providing the same services for investor-driven startups, and since 2008, all of his customers have been, and continue to be, top twenty, global medical device companies.  With each successive iteration of value we offered the marketplace, we refined the positioning of the value proposition to the point where he only has time to work for major corporations (with correspondingly major paydays)!  He’s now the proud owner of a multi-million dollar company…but that didn’t happen overnight and it didn’t happen by accident.

My point is, the best strategies, founded in exceptional value propositions, take time to temper in the marketplace.  Could my client have made a handsome living playing with the small companies and startups?  Yes, most definitely.  But our strategy was for scale and value creation, which we’ve accomplished in spades!  Could I have dropped “The Emotionally Resilient Nurse”, resigning to the fact that we’re a bit ahead of the marketplace?  Sure.  But by engaging the market, and market experts, regardless of where we found them, we were enlightened to a way to hone the positioning of our value proposition.  There’s no substitute for persistence and tenacity!  Get engaged, walk your talk, and keep talking…you never know where it may lead you!

© 2011, Terry Murray.

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June 4, 2011 · 6:41 pm

An Example of Multi-Dimensional Sales and Marketing.

Key Concepts ~ An example of how Performance Transformation, LLC, leverages traditional conference exhibits, speaking opportunities, video, P.R., and innovative approaches to connect, engage, and motivate prospective clients.

For those of you that follow this blog, you’re most likely aware of how my firm, Performance Transformation, LLC, delivers similar developmental, coaching, and educational services to large companies that we provide to startup companies and entrepreneurs.  I’d like to share with you an example of how we go about building our client base.  The following video was shot at the recent American Society for Training and Development conference in Orlando, FL.  This is an example of how, for a relatively small investment, we were able to connect with 8,000 buying influencers and decision makers at a key conference, not simply by exhibiting, but also by speaking to the attendees of the conference about our training and development workshops.

Here’s a list of what we did to extract the maximum amount of value from a single investment in sales and marketing:

1.)  We exhibited at the ASTD with a consortium of Equine Facilitated Learning providers (this greatly lowered our exhibiting expenses and generated literally hundreds of qualified sales leads).

2.)  We had an opportunity to address the conference attendees as part of a demo on the exhibit floor, establishing expert status in our approach to leadership development, team building, and sales training.

3.)  We highly differentiate ourselves through our expertise in Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL), a highly innovative, evidence-based approach to experiential learning (it is so effective it has been embraced and commended by the U.S. Military).

4.)  We video taped the presentation and posted it on our YouTube Channel.

5.)  We issued a free press release reviewing our attendance and presentation.

6.)  If you watch the video, you’ll note we use the opportunity to draw attention to my book, “The Transformational Entrepreneur”.

7.)  We’ll leverage this event once again as we launch our national print, internet, and radio P.R. campaign this coming week.

This is an accretive approach to sales and marketing; where the sum is greater than the individual parts and we’re able to pull as much value as possible out of everything we do in the marketplace.  This doesn’t happen by accident, it is all part of our Strategic Plan.  This is an example of how Strategic Planning accelerates success…it coordinates every effort and investment we make.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments!

© 2011, Terry Murray.

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June 3, 2011 · 8:59 pm

Key Questions Your Sales and Marketing Plan Needs to Answer, Part Seven.

Key Concepts ~ In this blog series, we’re exploring the twenty-five critical questions our Sales and Marketing Plans needs to answer to accelerate our success.  Let’s wrap up this series by exploring questions 21 through 25…

21.)  What is the sales channel strategy?  Your sales channel is simply your access path to your prospects.  It is how you will get your product or service in front of the decision makers, with the right message, at the right time.  Sales channels are highly specific to the type of product or service and to the market that is consuming such products or services.

Keep in mind, there is a cost/benefit to each type of channel you consider using.  Generally, the greater the intensity and focus your product will require to achieve sales traction, the more expensive the channel will be (i.e. direct field sales employees).  On the other hand, if your product fits a more passive approach, the less expensive the channel will be, but the more time it will take to achieve traction.

Example:  When I was leading the sales and marketing efforts at a life science company we had two brands of very similar technology platforms under our company banner.  One was seen as relatively standard and the other more of a custom product.  The high-tech, custom product went through our independent sales representative channel.  They were highly focused, well-positioned, and had the relationships necessary for selling a highly differentiated technology.  The standard product went through our major, national distributors.  While this channel was much larger, it was also more passive in its sales approach, but it fit a “catalogue sale” nicely.  Each channel was specific to our technology and aligned with the demands of our end-user prospects.

22.)  What is the sales compensation plan for the channel?  How you pay people will greatly determine the behavior you receive in return.  Notice I didn’t say how much you pay people.  You will inevitably get the behavior your incentivize.  Do you want to pay for unit installations, total revenue, profitability, or incremental sales?  Answering these questions will give you an idea of what your channel will focus on in their day-to-day sales activities.  Think it through and put yourself in their shoes.  You’d be surprised at how many large companies lose sight of this over time!

Example:  Back in the 1990s I worked for a company called STERIS Corporation®.  They had a product, the STERIS SYSTEM 1® that was a classic “razor/razor blade” model.  The system was a cold sterilization system for surgical procedures using flexible endoscopes.  The company never made much money on the equipment, basically selling it around cost in order to secure usage.  Where they did make money was in the consumable sterilant that each cycle used.  They heavily incentivized the sales of the equipment in order to secure more sterilant sales.  Without installations there would be no use of sterilant.  By focusing on the driver of long-term success, STERIS revolutionized minimally invasive surgery and grew to a billion dollars in revenue in twelve short years.

23.)  What is the sales support strategy?  This focuses on what needs to happen behind the scenes in order to secure and maintain profitable customers.  Will you need to sample?  How do you do so?  Are their compliance issues that need to be addressed?  Will customer training need to follow a sale?  How will you manage and distribute leads?  These often “hidden issues” can make or brake a sales launch.  Take the time to map out what needs to happen at every touch point of the sales cycle and define Standard Operating Procedures.  Doing so will save you time, money, and help you avoid irritating your customers.

Example:  I worked on a project for a company that was attempting to migrate from a low tech market into a high tech market with a new product they had developed.  They were used to shipping pallets of low-value product to large, regional distributors.  The new market, however, would be much more demanding, require more support, and consume much lower quantities of product that had a much higher value.  Their sales support system struggled to make the adjustment to this new environment.  We eventually outsourced their fulfillment and support activities to a custom sales house that understood this environment.  Know your strengths, understand your weaknesses, and leverage your core competencies…and be prepared to access the expertise you need to meet the requirements of your process.

24.)  What is your flourishing, preferential advantage in the market?  Traditionally, this has been referred to as continuous, competitive advantage.  I now prefer flourishing preferential advantage in order to focus management on the customer rather than the competition (I go into length on this subject in my book, The Transformational Entrepreneur).  The key is, if you can’t express this in thirty seconds, how do you expect your prospects to see it and embrace it?  What differentiates you in the market?  How will you leverage this advantage?  And most importantly, how will you sustain it once you set the bar to a new level?

Example:  I’ll use our firm, Performance Transformation, LLC, as an example.  In the corporate market space, we deliver experiential learning and ongoing coaching services that increase associate and customer engagement, adaptive team building, and transformational leadership.  We do so through our proprietary Accretive Coaching Process™ which integrates a continuum of evidence-based tools in alignment with leadership, culture, and strategy.  This holistic approach is four times more effective than traditional, fragmented methodologies.  With our entrepreneurial clients, we deliver an approach that is more mindful and comprehensive than the major, multi-national consulting firms deliver to their corporate clients.  Firms that cost $100,000 just to have a substantive conversation with at a fraction of the cost.  This is our flourishing, preferential advantage…world-class thinking and evidence-based process that accelerates revenue and profits at a reasonable cost point!

25.)  What is your ongoing service opportunity?  Ongoing, high, value-add services are king!  Ask Wayne Huizenga about service businesses, if he’s not on his yacht (Mr. Huizenga made his first fortune with his company, Waste Management Systems, and his second with Blockbuster Video).  Wayne loves service businesses, especially ones with a rental component, and he started Waste Management driving his first garbage truck in Pompano Beach, Florida.  By finding out where you can solve your customers’ problems or contribute to their market objectives, you’ll win, too!

Example:  While running the Scientific Service business at STERIS Corporation, I introduced a portfolio of value-add services that accelerated our customers’ critical processes in their manufacturing lines.  In doing so, we were able to grow our service revenue by 25% a year to $35 million.  In addition, the capital equipment sales (the manufacturing equipment we serviced) jumped from 9% growth to 17% growth in the first year of our new services.  Service pulls through product sales…it can be the strategic differentiator in your market!

Thanks to everyone that followed this blog series.  I know it was long, but these 25 questions are mission critical to your success.  Whether you want to secure investors, sell your business someday, or simply want to accelerate your revenue growth, answering these questions will maximize your success.  I’m glad I had the chance to share them with you!

© 2011, Terry Murray.

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