There is a famous Mike Tyson quote "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth". Today, barely into the month of January and beginning the new year my company was "punched in the mouth."
Not the way we hoped the new year would begin.
Our organization has lofty goals. We have an aggressive growth plan that will take a tremendous amount of focus and effort to hit. So starting the new year with the bad news we received today is not an ideal way for us to kick off 2019.
Right now, all over social media I see positive posts about goal setting and making new year resolutions. The reality is if you are just starting now, in my opinion, you are behind the eight ball as the next punch is just right around the corner.
What I'd prefer to see is more posts about what happens when everything does not go according to plan.
That punch could be the next flood of the century (like Madison, WI had in 2018), it could be losing a key client, or losing a key employee. Either way, the best laid plans sometimes do not go "as planned". In football, the best offensive play is only as good as the defense lines up against it. More times than not, after the first quarter, half or even series of downs, coaches call an audible and modify their plan.
It does not mean they change it entirely, and in many cases the plan is to change the plan as most well laid plans have a contingency plan.
So my question is what's yours?
Other organizations might opt to throw in the towel after they have a bad month, quarter or year. But we do not, we will not. Why you ask?
Because we had a plan. We had a contingency plan for this type of scenario. Our strategic plan was developed with a scenario like this in mind.
When it all comes down to it, we know behaviors drive results. We know the results will improve our attitude, and our attitude will improve our technique thereby improving our desire to do the behaviors, so on and so on…It's easy to sulk, become an "at-leaster" and think "woe is me" but that doesn't get us anywhere. Instead, we act. We come together as a team, strategize, align and act. Tomorrow is a new day. Tomorrow we will rise to the occasion and look our opponent in the eyes and fight back.
We know our numbers. We know:
- Our average client tenure, and what we are trying to drive that to
- Our average client value on an annualized basis and life time basis
- How many clients on average we can serve at any given time
- How many clients we can serve until we have to hire again
- Who our ideal client is
- Where our ideal clients "hang out"
- How much activity we need to gain an opportunity to have a conversation
- How many conversations we need to go move to a proposal
- How many proposals we need to have to close an opportunity
- Etc.
Do you?
If not, it is ok. You are not alone.
Either way, if you want to be Mike Tyson before Buster Douglas…before the "punch in the mouth" or if you need help getting back up after the punch, it might make sense to give us a call.
Matthew Pletzer, Founder & CEO of Lift Consulting, LLC, is an experienced sales and marketing leader. Matthew has a passion for helping organizations grow. He works with a wide array of organizations with a focus on construction services, IT Sales and Professional Services. Organizations typically come to Lift Consulting, LLC because they are experiencing frustrations with their top-line growth and are looking for help addressing it.
