[WR #10] What to Do When Results Aren't Coming Fast Enough...
"I'm spending all this time on business development but nothing's closed yet. Cash flow is feeling tight - something's gotta hit soon..."
Three weeks ago, this was the start of a conversation I was having with my client and friend, Jason.
(Maybe it feels familiar to you? You're here reading this so my guess is that it does, in which case this story will be helpful...)
When we started working together, Jason's biggest goal was to create a way to bring some consistency to his revenue generation.
He was tired of riding the revenue roller coaster he'd been on the last several years and wanted to bring in enough money so he could bring his best friend and former business partner back into the company.
We set a simple trajectory six months ago with a stretch goal to double his revenue by the end of this year.
Once we had our trajectory in place, we determined that the fastest, easiest path to that goal was to focus on his highest value offering - an annual retainer.
If Jason could book just five of these before the end of the year, he'd double his revenue and be able to bring his partner back.
He - like most of my clients - was skeptical at first about whether it could really be that simple.
But he was willing to believe it could be, so off we went.
Over the next six months, we systematically started tightening up Jason's activities, so as CEO he was only focused on things that were highest leveraged and highest value.
For him - as with most of my clients - this meant networking, and building and nurturing relationships.
Everything else Jason had been doing got either delegated, downscaled, or eliminated entirely.
Meanwhile, Jason got to work talking to lots and lots of people.
Fast forward to this conversation I mentioned at the beginning of the newsletter.
While he'd picked up plenty of one-off projects from the flurry of conversations he'd had over the last six months, none of the bigger retainer deals had closed.
Yet.
There were several in the pipeline, and plenty were looking *this close* to closing, but they'd also been hanging on in that state for what felt like for-eh-ver.
Ever-patient as Jason is, as cashflow started tightening, his faith in our simple strategy started to waver.
He was tempted to start moving in another direction, even suggested he might throw a new offer out to try and generate some quick cashflow wins right away.
From his chair, all he could see was the balance in his bank account getting smaller and smaller with each passing day.
But from my chair, with nine years of experience helping companies just like his to scale, I knew that the results we were looking for were right around the corner.
Things were happening in the background that Jason simply couldn't see that I was certain were going to lead to at least one of those retainer deals closing any minute now.
Jason just needed to keep the faith, and do three super simple things to help him ride the wave of discomfort he was feeling about the results not showing up yet.
The punchline to Jason's story?
He did what I suggested, rode the wave, and within one week called to share some good news...
That retainer deal I was certain was just about to close?
It had :)
...along with three others.
And the total revenue they were bringing in combined with all the one-off projects he'd booked with his consistent, focused activity, more than doubled his revenue YOY.
And it's only October.
Now Jason's on track to tripling his revenue before the end of the year.
Jason's predicament is not unique, which is why I'm writing about it here today.
My sense is that if you're reading this right now you can likely see a little bit of yourself in Jason's story.
What follows are the three super simple things I helped Jason do on that phone call.
Next time you find yourself feeling impatient about results not coming fast enough, try this for yourself:
1) Decide if your strategy is still the right one.
Here's how Jason and I did it. Our original strategy had to check all three of these boxes - If it didn't, we'd recalibrate:
- Does it feel good to execute?
- Is it effective at getting the result?
- Is it still the shortest path to the goal?
Ultimately, for Jason, all three boxes still checked out so our simple strategy stayed.
But since he was so close to it he needed a little help from me to see that this was still true and didn't end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater and head off in a new direction unnecessarily.
Don't be afraid to ask for help with this one if you're concerned you're too close to it to be objective.
2) Assess if you're spending your time most efficiently and effectively.
Here, we looked at Jason's calendar and the activities he'd been focused on to be sure his precious CEO time was being spent wisely.
As I mentioned above, building relationships is often the highest leveraged, most valuable activity for the founders I work with to be focused on.
What we figured out was that while his conversations were plentiful and certainly yielding smaller results, he wasn't always talking to the right people, and many of his convos were just too long.
We also found that he was still engaged in several activities that could be delegated, downscaled, or eliminated.
We got those out of the way and free'd up more time for him to focus on follow up, which we determined was lagging - and a critical factor in closing those for-eh-ver open deals.
3) Don't deviate when it gets uncomfortable.
This part is the trickiest.
It requires faith and trust that it's working and that results are coming imminently.
And a willingness to ride out the inevitable discomfort that shows up when results aren't showing up in the timeframe we'd like them to.
For Jason, this was a little easier since he's got me there to relentlessly remind him to "chill, dude. It's all happening - I promise."
If you don't have someone like me in your corner to remind you, create a practice of some sort for yourself so you'll:
1) notice when it starts to feel wonky
and 2) sink deeper into your faith and trust that it's all coming together in the right timing.
---
Back in the 80's, those Heinz Ketchup people said, "The best things come to those who wait."
Gravity and inertia do their thing in perfect timing.
Forcing it only makes things messy and yuck.
Same with business results.
Jason proved to himself this is true to the tune of tripling his revenue this year.
Maybe you'll do the same?
I'd love to celebrate with you when you do :)
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