“A cat who sits on a hot stove will never sit on a hot stove again.

But he won’t sit on a cold stove, either.”

- Mark Twain

When the know-it-all pontificator looks down her nose and says “Never make the same mistakes twice!” I grunt and run.

Yeah, right. Like any of us haven’t made the same mistake again, and again, and again before FINALLY figuring it out.

Like Mark Twain’s cat, if I sit on a hot stove, I won’t sit there again. But that’s because it suddenly became crystal clear that I did something stupid – and I know exactly what it was.

But when you’re growing your business and dealing with all that’s involved in creating a great product and then actually selling it – you’re not talking about sitting on a stove.  You’re talking about walking confidently forward because the path looks clear – only to crash through a glass door you couldn’t see.

And so it’s only those of us who persevere long enough to make the same mistakes many, many, many times who wake up one day and suddenly “get it.”

That’s how I learned to speed up the sales process…

For years I thought that if I show people how smart I am they’ll want to buy from me. So I gave great advice.  And people saw how smart I was.  But they didn’t buy.

I made this mistake many, many times before I finally realized what I was doing: I was asking my prospects to skip a step.

There are four psychological “Levels” your prospects must pass through before deciding to buy:

1. Your prospect ‘raises his hand’ because something you said or did piqued his curiosity. You connected with him in a way that leads him to want to hear more.

2. Your prospect learns more about you, your company and products.  He comes to feel that yes, you folks know your stuff.

3. Your prospect shares his personal situation. He needs to get to a place where he feels you really understand him.

4. You make a recommendation and close the deal.

These four levels are just reality. It doesn’t matter what you sell, your prospect must pass through each of these Levels  - in order. If you sell coffee it may take a minute.  If you sell military helicopters, it may take a year or more.  But they MUST ALWAYS pass through these Levels.

I was losing deals because I couldn’t see this simple breakdown of reality. Since I couldn’t see the ‘hot stove’ I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. And when you can’t see reality, you break yourself against it again and again and again – until you do.

Today, my mistake is clear: I was recommending – a Level 4 activity – before my prospect had passed through Levels 2 and 3.

Now, the glass door you keep walking through may be different from mine. But what’s happening is that in your own way, you’re breaking yourself against reality and it’s hurting  your sales.

To speed up the pace of your sales, slow down and walk your prospect through one Level at a time. Refuse to talk about your product before they’ve passed through Levels 2 and 3.  And when you do this, your sales will happen faster.

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I’m going to create some more free training that will teach you how to systematically and consistently attract more first-rate customers, but I need to know what you want me to include. So please answer the 3 questions here.

Business authors often conjure up the most bizarre management theories and then “prove” them by pointing to current business media darlings like Google, Apple and _____ (who will it be today?).

Book after book and article after article points to what this or that company did to achieve their success – and advises that you and I do what they did to succeed.

The problem is that no one company can stay on top forever. So it’s very tempting for the average author to attempt his 15 minutes of fame by showing how the advice in last year’s bestselling book no longer applies. And unless you listen to HIS brilliant new ideas, your company is doomed as “likely to be a victim of the next market shift. At least you’ll be in good company in the history books.”

Such was the advice of consultant Adam Hartung in a recent Forbes.com article.  Hartung advised that you “Stop focusing on your core business. It has become the fast track to oblivion.” He then proves it with stunningly shallow analysis during which he writes off both “Good to Great” by Jim Collins and “In Search of Excellence” by Tom Peters.

His article included gems such as “When markets can shift quickly, focus simply loses its value.” And “If you’re trying to improve your returns with execution, you’re likely to be a victim of the next market shift.”

What does Hartung advocate instead?  I had to visit his website to find out. Turns out he advocates his “Phoenix Principle” and something called “Disruptions and White Space.” I’m not going to comment, because I haven’t spent enough time to know what he means.

But astute reader “dave” commented politely that

“…Won’t the time come, if it hasn’t already, that Disruptions and White Space will go the way of ‘the Kraft approach’ or RIM’s ‘app-oplexy’? I seem to recall that ‘In Search of Excellence’ was viewed as the great salvation for business at one time. I assume you don’t believe that there won’t be a successor to the Phoenix Principle?”

“dave’s” comment still awaits a response.

Here’s my thinking on all this:

It’s important to study “Best Practices” because it gives you tactical ideas. But far more important is to study and master “Best Thinking.”

Best practices were best for a company in a particular industry at a particular time.  And they were probably the result of careful thought and analysis.

Then 98% of business people go out and thoughtlessly imitate what the model company “did,” forgetting that what they “did” was preceded by clear thinking.

At The Alchemist Entrepreneur™ we focus on clear thinking first, and then on wise practice. As you read through the articles here or go through any of our programs, you’ll start to notice that.  My tagline has long been “Clear thinking is your most valuable work.”

Here is the comment I left at Forbes.com below Mr. Hartung’s article:

There are so many problems with this analysis. Where to begin?

1. It is a waste of time to study “best practices” if you haven’t first studied “best thinking.”

A “best practice” that made one company a star, was probably the result of some really good behind the scenes thinking.  To imagine that you can imitate the practice without the thinking is not a very mature approach to business or life.

Yet this article, as well as the books it criticizes, focuses on what practices do and don’t “work.”

2.  To say “When markets can shift quickly, focus simply loses its value” is plain silly.

“Focus” is not a specific enough concept. Even the author must agree that focus is not an on-or-off switch, but a continuum.  At one end would be tunnel vision while on the other would be excessive diversification.

So how can you write an article saying that something as vague as “focus” is either good or bad?

3.  This author, like so many others, uses the scare tactic that “Times have changed. What worked yesterday doesn’t work today!  Listen to me or you’ll be doomed!”

This, too, is shallow.

Yes, some of the “best practices” that worked in 1975 may no longer work, but the Best Thinking is timeless. What worked for King Solomon works for us.

At The Alchemist Entrepreneur™ http://DovGordon.net we teach Best Thinking first, and best practices second because when you learn to quickly zero in on the key issues and decisions of your business, you have no need to mindlessly imitate today’s business darling.

Dov Gordon

PS – Isn’t it interesting that after a couple of minutes of clicking around on the Forbes billionaire list I came across James Leprino at # 374.  How did he make his billions?  Cheese. He’s the largest manufacturer of mozzarella cheese in the world. Would the author advise James to start selling sauce or pizzeria tables?

My point: You can always find a company to illustrate one practice or another.  So be smart and train yourself in clear thinking. Clear thinking is your most valuable work.

Are you struggling with profit, satisfaction, or both?

Some business owners are doing what they love, but not making money.  Others are making money, but get no satisfaction. Many make no money and get no satisfaction. But they sure do put in many hours!

Then there are the few, the artists, the Alchemist Entrepreneurs™, who both make money and feel immensely satisfied. They approach their business as a work of art.

In the best works of art, every element fits. Think of your favorite song. Every note fits. Every instrument adds something and together it’s magical. When you hear it, it lifts you up.

Your business can and should give you, your employees and customers the same feeling. Think of Warren Buffett who likes to say that he and his partner Charlie Munger enjoy what they do so much that they “tap dance to work each morning.” And look at what they’ve built.

Let me tell you why most business owners never achieve the rank of artist…

The answer is simple: They’re in a rush.

You can always justify your rush. One day it’s the competition and you need to keep pace and stand out. Another day it’s a demanding but important customer. Still another day, it’s your cash flow.

But whatever the explanation, this frantic rushing rarely gives you the profit and satisfaction you really want.

To build a business work of art, you DO need a sense of urgency.  Things are constantly changing and if you’re not moving, you’re falling behind. Move fast and you learn, adapt and turn ho-hum systems into systems that hum.

So what’s the distinction between rushing, which stifles and traps you and a sense of urgency which is a basic ingredient?

Rushing: When you try to make things move faster than they’re meant to move. For example, trying to make a sale before you really understand your prospect.  Or throwing someone on a job without proper training because you “don’t have a choice.”

A sense of urgency: When you’re committed to not let things take any longer than they absolutely need to. All this while acknowledging and respecting the reality that some things do need to evolve, mature and ripen.

To the point: If you want more profit and satisfaction from your business, don’t rush. But do act with a sense of urgency. That’s the way of Alchemist Entrepreneur™.

Has this clarified something for you? I’d love to get your reactions in the comments section below.

It happened not too long ago. You were talking with your Ideal Prospect and you could just about feel yourself holding the check that would make him your newest Ideal Customer.

Suddenly, something went very wrong and somehow you lost control of the conversation.

Your product and service were exactly what he needed.  It didn’t matter.  Your Ideal Prospect got stuck in the quicksand of distractions, “what ifs” and “second thoughts.” You tried to pull him out with your best answers, explanations and efforts to “overcome objections.” But nothing worked.

In the end, he was sucked under with a loud “sluuuuuuuuurp” and went straight to the Place where the best lost deals go.

Why did you lose control? And how can you be sure that next time you will confidently direct the conversation to a closed deal?

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If you want to attract and close deals with first rate customers, you need to be highly skilled at controlling and directing conversations. Not in a stifling way, but in a way that exhilarates your AAA prospects. A way that leaves them  feeling free, understood, and hopeful because of the new possibilities you helped them see for themselves.

“Robert,” who is currently enrolled in my “12 Weeks to Your Perfect Business” one-on-one coaching program, recently had some frustrating conversations with a few active customers.  (If you feel stuck on a plateau; if your business no longer gives you the satisfaction it used to, email me to schedule a private 1-1 consultation to explore if this coaching program is right for you: dovgordon@gmail.com)

It turns out that Robert’s combination of outsourced products and services had done such a good job that:

“All my clients now talk about, ‘Geez, I really need a full time person, Robert. I need somebody in my office.’

“They don’t need anyone in their office, but that’s what they’re thinking…”

Hiring someone full time would make Robert’s company unnecessary. So I asked Robert how he responds.

“I say, ‘Really!  You haven’t even maximized this, and now you think you need a full timer, which is $80,000+ in salary, and that’s not including all the technological infrastructure…’”

I could almost hear the dreaded sluuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrp.

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Here’s the simple secret for controlling and directing conversations:

You need see beyond what your customer SAYS to what she really MEANS.

So Robert’s customer SAYS

“Your XYZ has proven so important, that we need someone in-house to run it going forward.  And since you can’t be here yourself, we may need to find someone who can…“

BUT, what Robert’s customer MEANS is

“I can see how valuable this is. And we’re only just scratching the surface. And that’s the problem! I don’t like the feeling of not getting all I can from this.

“Help me figure out how we can get even better results with you so that I’m not tempted to look elsewhere!”

If Robert responds to what his customer SAYS, he’ll talk about how his company’s solution is really much cheaper than someone in house.  And about how it doesn’t pay for them to invest in all the infrastructure.  And about how if the customer would do just a bit more of what Robert was telling her, she would see that there’s no need for someone in house.

But none of this answers the customers REAL frustration, what she MEANT.

Here’s how you respond to what the customer MEANT:

“Customer, this is what I live for!  I love when someone gets it like you do.  You’re so pleased with the results so far, and frustrated with your inability to really maximize your results, that you want to explore ways that we can help you more easily get the full benefit that my products can bring to you, isn’t that right?”

If you have a good relationship, and you did correctly hear what your customer really wants, this kind of sentence will make your customer FEEL GREAT because you’ve just articulated what she really wants far better than she could ever do it herself.

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POP QUIZ FOR MY REGULAR READERS: There is a simple “structure” lying beneath what Robert’s customers have been telling him. Robert didn’t see it, so he almost broke himself over it.  I did see it, and therefore I was able to formulate a powerful reply.

What’s the structure?  Post your thoughts with an explanation in the comments section below.

Note: This article was originally published on SMBCEO.com.

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Have the requirements for leadership changed?

Is it true that “The time of the great leaders like Churchill, JFK, FDR, and Golda Meir, is over because the world is too complex for one individual to know everything”?

Is it true that “One of the things that people need to master now is… not only to be like Reagan and Martin Luther King who were great speakers, but also to be a great listener”?

In a recent video my colleague, Thomas Zweifel, argues “yes” to all these questions.  I disagree.

The Dangerous Myth of the “New.”

How many times do we need to fall for the myth of the “New?”  A New World Order.  A New Economy.   A New Middle East. And now “New requirements for great leadership.” In centuries past there were the snake oil salesmen and their “new” magic ointments and today we have spammers and their new magic pills.

But, as King Solomon noted some 3,000 years ago, none of this is new.

No, King Solomon didn’t have an iPhone or a Blackberry.  (At least, I don’t think he did.) He didn’t have the Internet or a nuclear war head. And he certainly didn’t tweet.  But changes like these are superficial.

Then as Now, Great Leaders See Beneath the Surface.

In the days following World War One, Woodrow Wilson spoke of “A New World Order.” We all know how that turned out.

It’s human nature to be deceived by the superficial. We see things change and we want to believe it will all be good now. (Well, except for those who want to believe it will all be bad.)

We want to believe that the candidate across the desk will be a great employee. We want to believe this big deal will come through. We want to believe… Heck we want to believe a lot of things that just aren’t true. And so we tell ourselves and each other all kinds of stories.

But when you pull back the curtain and look at the mechanics, you see that the complex forces motivating human behavior are what they’ve always been.

Legendary leaders see patterns, forces and the big picture. And they live accordingly, even in the face of ridicule and fierce opposition. Eventually, we see it too and realize their greatness.

It’s unfair to Reagan, Martin Luther King and the others singled out, to suggest it was their oratory skill that made them great leaders.

Reagan was great because he saw what others didn’t. Communism was inching around the globe and many leaders resigned themselves to a “new reality.”

But Reagan saw communism’s evil and recognized that one day it would collapse under its own weight. Despite ridicule, opposition and threats, he lived true to what he saw.  The whole world is better off as result.

Leaders DON’T Need to Know Everything, and They Never Did

The world has always been too complex for one individual to know everything.

Great leaders simplify. They looked beneath the cacophony and asked “What’s really going on underneath?” “Where are the points of highest leverage?”

Warren Buffett was ridiculed during the early days of the “New Economy.” Many laughed, believing new technology meant things have changed.

Buffett guides himself with disciplined adherence to unchanging fundamentals and has become a legend in his own lifetime. But Buffett understood that the underlying mechanics never change.  And look who had the last laugh.

How to Build Your Competitive Advantage

And so, you can use this to your advantage. Notice how your competitors get excited about what’s new.  But you – you just smile and ask “How will these superficial development be influenced by that which never changes?”  Help your customers see the unseen and they’ll never leave you.

Fear is a sneaky wretch.

True, from time to time, he’ll jump out in the middle of the road as you drive by and your heart will leap. But usually, Fear just walks at your side pretending to be your dear, caring friend. Once you’re fooled, he takes your hand – and leads you off a cliff.

Think about it. You know the price of fear is huge.  But since Fear is subtle, slight and cunning, you often don’t notice his subterfuge. Watch carefully, or you miss it and you’ll blame yourself for his reprobate ways.

When Fear talks, it all sounds so logical. “You don’t have time!” he says. “Hurry!” And so you don’t plan. You wing it. And you stumble. With expressions of deep sympathy, Fear helps you up while whispering more deceptive drivel into your ear.

“You better hire this guy,” says Fear. “It’s just impossible to find good people and he’s the best you’re going to get. He’ll adjust once he’s on the job. Don’t worry.”

“Don’t throw out that pile of magazines. You really ought to read those articles. One day you’re going to look for them and wish you’d kept them.” And so you collect and accumulate when you should relax and let go. He tells you the same things about emails, which is why your inbox is such a mess.

“You really should serve the full range of customers,” he says. “If you don’t, your business will be boring. And if you don’t do it, someone else will do it and one day they’ll put you out of business.”  And with that you forfeit the tremendous potency of focus in favor of overextension and diffusion.

After a while, you turn to Fear for advice. “Look, we’re in over our heads.  We’re all over the place!”

Remember that uncomfortable conversation you needed to have? Remember how Fear advised you to put it off? “Give yourself some time to think about it.” And, “It’ll work itself out. Give it a bit more time and you’ll avoid the whole thing.”

Until you couldn’t postpone it any longer. But then you were forced to confront the issue on someone else’s terms. With no time to prepare, you fumbled and lost your advantage.

How do you do that?

One way is to notice your gut. Notice when you’re feeling tense. Notice when you’re feeling forced or pressured. That’s almost always a clue that your buying his latest story.

When you catch yourself, here’s what you must do:

1.  Remind yourself that if you’re dogged, there’s a way. If you want something bad enough, you can get it. So ask yourself, “If my life depended on this, what would I do to get it?” Or, “If my current option were taken from me, what alternatives would I come up with?”

2.  Remind yourself of that wise comment of George Bernard Shaw: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”  There’s no hope for your entrepreneurial dream as long as you allow Fear to talk you into being reasonable.  Ask yourself: “What would I do if I was a tad more unreasonable?”

A bird in a cage may sing, but it can’t soar. A chief marketing officer, (CMO), apparently, is very much like a bird in a cage.  And you and I want to avoid being like either.

In a fascinating twist of irony, the bird sees the bars that confines him.  The CMO doesn’t.

CMOs have the highest turnover in the c-suite with the the average CMO lasting only 28 months.  This tenure is far shorter than the 46 months of his colleagues.  Only the CIO comes in at a distant 38 months.

This statistic seems blind to industries, caring only about title.  So it’s safe to conclude that there is something structurally unsound about the CMO job that keeps it a short one.  There are bars, or maybe a moat, around that job and we should learn to see them for our own sake.

And so, naturally, everyone has a theory.

In Forbes, a former CMO writes that CMOs are subject to what he calls the “Marketer’s Dilemma.”

That is, focus on today’s results, do the same thing that always worked and expect to get passed by aggressive competition. Focus too much on long-term innovation and you miss today’s results. Try some big innovations that fail, and you lose your credibility. While effective marketing isn’t rocket science, it’s quite a balancing act to hit the sweet spot that delivers today’s results while building the brand for the long term. And it’s all played out in public.

But don’t we all need to balance the short and long term?

In an article titled “Bottom-line Pressure Forcing CMO Turnover” another former CMO posits:

“The core underpinning challenge is being able to demonstrate you’re adding value to the bottom line,” Murphy said. “In b-to-b, it’s harder than in b-to-c because you’re selling highly proprietary assets, and personal relationships are much more important in the marketing mix than in b-to-c.

“It is harder to demonstrate if your marketing initiative is the determining factor in increasing value to the bottom line, as opposed to selling consumer products.”

Murphy said successful CMOs in 2008 will need to be highly skilled in analytics, use new technologies and metrics to demonstrate the full value marketing represents to the company, and be able to fully integrate with sales and other functions of the organization.

We may have some clues here, but I don’t know if Murphy sees what I’m seeing.

Then there’s this tongue-in-cheek observation that the reason CMOs have such high turnover is:

…too many of them followed a three step process:

1. Rebrand
2. Relaunch
3. Resign

Here’s my “alchemical” explanation for the CMO merry-go-round:

1. The CMO position is a means to an end.  And, as often happens, the means fill the screen and we can’t see the ends.
2. The CMO is expected to fix problems whose roots are in the neighbor’s yard.

Let’s start with # 1.

Peter Drucker pointed out years ago that:

“Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two–and only two–basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”

Marketing and innovation are everyone’s job.  So to pin the marketing job on the CMO is already misdirection.

(And once on the subject of corporate misdirection, there’s a thread that when you start pulling, it keeps on coming.)

What REALLY is marketing, anyway?

Why do you choose one cell phone over another?  One restaurant over another?  One lawyer over another? You choose the one you perceive will give you what you want in a way that their competitors won’t. Depending on the product or service, there may be dozens or hundreds of factors that color your perception.

Those factors may include what features the cell phone has, or doesn’t have.  It may include the payment plan.  It may include the company’s reputation for reception in outlying areas.

Companies do all sorts of things to create the right perception in the minds of the right customers.  It’s these activities that we call “marketing.”

Your customer’s perception of your product is formed by the sum of hundreds or thousands of factors. So you need EVERYONE in the company to have a deep understanding of the customer. When every employee understands how your customer decides to choose your product over a competitive one, and they understand how their actions will either contribute to it or subtract from it, then everyone is marketing.

If there is indeed a need for a CMO position, and I do mean “if,” the job’s primary responsibility is to infect everyone in the company with such an understanding and focus. That, in my opinion, is what Drucker had in mind.

This leads us neatly to # 2: The CMO is expected to fix problems whose roots are in the neighbor’s yard.

A precondition for customer-focus infection is that the company be clear about and organized around one simple idea that captures the imagination and hearts of BOTH it’s employees AND its customers. Formulating and clarifying this idea is not the job of the CMO, although he certainly should contribute.  That’s the CEOs job.

More so, the CEO is responsible for ensuring that everything consistent with the core idea is encouraged and everything inconsistent is exorcised. No mercy.  We call this leadership.

A great example is the way Issy Sharp built The Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts into an international stalwart. I explain this in more detail in my strategy white paper “Spitting in the Wind: A Single Obvious Insight to Focus and Sharpen Your Strategy.  Skip to section 5 if you’re in a rush.  But do go back to the beginning for the clearest explanation of strategy you’ll ever read.

And so what often happens is the CEO fails to provide the company with a clear direction, a simple crystalline unifying idea, and then expects the CMO to compensate with a variety of “creative” marketing ideas. Well, that won’t work. A band-aid won’t help your flu.

Instead of helping CMOs, and CEOs understand this fundamental structural contradiction, consulting and research groups such as Forrester offer cryptic and supercilious advice such as:

Forrester argues that the consumer-centric, all-digital, media-fragmented century means that the CMO of the future must answer to a higher calling than they currently do by becoming a brand steward and not just a marketer.

The report suggests: “In doing so, the CMO will reposition marketing as the steward of the brand experience across all parts of the company. It is the CMO who must connect the company to the consumer, based not on the company’s needs, but on the customers’ needs. It is nothing less than transforming the CMO from integrator to orchestrator.”

Smoke, mirrors and misdirection like this only add bars to the cage.

One last thought: Remember how the CIO was singled out as only ten months behind the CMO? Well, that job has similar structural perils.  Maybe we’ll get to them another time.

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Thought provoking?  Comment below.

Want more? Learn to see the bars that lie between you and your business dreams, get the audio from a seminar free when you subscribe to our newsletter at the top of this page.  It’s called “The Critical 10% of Management Skills that Make You Look Brilliant 90% of the Time.” In this recording you’ll learn many things, including how one CEO resolved an unresolvable conflict and saved hours of time mediating between employees.