Holden Advisors Blog

(Part 3 of 3)

(Part 2 of 3)

In the first blog of this Asking Great Questions series, I talked about the need or rationale for asking questions.  Great questions can undoubtedly be great tools in the right hands.  However, as any good craftsperson can tell you, the key to getting the most out of your tools is knowing how to use them. Using a hammer to drive in a screw never works, no matter how hard you pound.

(Part 1 of 3)

Great leaders spend their time looking forward and inspiring their team to build an exciting future.   These leaders actively embrace curiosity and reward people that ask great questions rather than ones that offer quick answers.

Ask any salesperson what their most valuable asset is, and they will answer instantly—my time. Great sales people are really stingy about this scarce asset, always asking “Is this the best use of my time?” before they engage with a prospect, set up a sales call, or respond to an RFP. In sales terms, they qualify the opportunity before they invest their time. Right on!

Innovation is the key to revenue growth and a healthy stock price, right? Firms with innovative products and services can crush the competition with unique, market-leading offerings that command premium prices and develop an early market lead. So unleash those product developers and software engineers to innovate away! Not so fast, warns experts from MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research. Siloed innovation can create complexity, increase costs and leave the customer with a dizzying array of salespeople and systems to deal with.

Congratulations! You just inked a major deal that you’ve been working on for the past six months. You carefully worked the deal through a complex buying process, beating out your major competitor in the process. Your quota is almost clinched for the quarter. Time to focus on those other prospects that you have shortchanged recently in the hope of making it over the finish line.

Wireless carriers continue to amaze me by their drive to race each other to the bottom of the pricing curve.  Who can lose money faster to grab new customers?