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M.J. Barney Associates has become the nation's premier provider of feasibility studies, business development, market research, implementing new sales strategies, and coordinated management consulting services. Here is a recent article which we hope will benefit you and your business in developing and implementing a profitable sales strategy addressing our present economic conditions.

(Part 1 of 2)

Many companies are not only succeeding, but flourishing - with more sales, higher profitability, and more new market penetration in 2009 than you could imagine – not despite today’s harsh economy, but because of the economic challenges now in play.

How? Why? Why not my company?

When interviewing more than 150 company executives and owners regarding their business strategies, since September 2008, we found that only a small percentage of companies are flourishing in what they make, sell or provide.

We hear and read daily that “business doesn’t work the same way anymore,” and that the “usual” ways of doing business no longer apply. Sadly today, these distasteful summaries are generally accurate.

Additionally, merely stating we operate in a changed business world doesn’t come close to an adequate description. As one exasperated CEO lamented recently – the sore truth is clear – we are in a completely different business universe right now.

But why are a few companies seemingly immune to these changes? What’s their secret?

Do these few high performers really have a secret? Maybe. Can we learn it? Possibly. Will most companies take the simple steps to understand it? Probably not. The secrets of flourishing today will likely elude most of us – unless we begin to think like a fifth-grader.

Ask A Fifth Grader

The secrets of creating a flourishing business in 2009-2010 are so well hidden that a fifth-grader can quickly and easily find them. Maybe that’s why it seems so difficult for the rest of us. We have forgotten how to really think things through.

Remember when we believed our sales problems simply represented sales solutions in the making? Now, for many, sales problems have become walls high enough to block the sun.

Our success motivation and “positive thought” training tells us that if we are truly committed to hitting that wall hard enough, and long enough, the way we always have, that this monolithic obstruction will crumble, because, well, because we really want it to.

Not a realistic business development strategy in today’s business environment upheaval.

So go ask a fifth-grader for his secrets. You will be surprised immediately.

When a group of fifth-grade boys lose their baseball and bat, they find a broomstick, duct tape and an old tennis ball to enjoy the new “stickball” game they just invented – with new rules, new plays, and even more fun to play.

When they are told their computer gaming privileges are revoked for a day, they find an old board game, take a few dozen old toy Army men, find a pile of dirt, and develop the rules for their new, hands-on version of Army Excavation Patrol.

Fifth graders can teach us a lot about business secrets right now. Their methodologies can tell you in three pragmatic steps how to find needed business solutions. We’ll save discussion of the three specific steps for our next article, but we thought you might like to peek ahead to see some of the business rules and conclusions an average fifth-grader would make.

A Fifth Grader's Basic Rules

Do any of the following fifth-grader, gamer axioms make any “business sense” in view of what you and your company are experiencing today?

Rule #1 When the old way doesn’t work, or if it only makes things worse – stop doing it !

Fifth-Grader Conclusion #1: Stop complaining about it, move on, and develop a new way that does work – it will probably be even better, anyway. The longer you wait, the less fun you will have. (Couldn’t you see this 25 tries ago?)

Rule #2: Know exactly what assets, resources & abilitiesyou have, and know why they will or will not work,and when they will or will not work.

Fifth-Grader Conclusion #2: Honestly determine how strong you really are, and how to become stronger, before the game/battle draws you in too far. When you appear to be losing ground, seek outside professional expertise to fill in what you don’t know about the game/battle. (The neighbor kid who started playing this game long before you did can tell you what to do and what to avoid – so why didn’t you just ask him weeks ago?)

Rule #3 At the end of the day, finding new ways to become Bigger, Better and Stronger are always more fun than becoming Smaller, Worse and Weaker. Always.

Fifth-Grader Conclusion #3: Any fifth-grader will stand in absolute awe, wondering why you can’t or won't "get it." (What’s not to understand about Bigger, Better, Stronger?)

In a game, fifth-graders are focused on what they have, what they want, and how they will get it. They are typically honest in acknowledging their abilities and weaknesses. They don’t feel it is a weakness to seek input from others with more experience.

In fact, in their mindset, if you knew that someone else may have had the answer or secret you needed – and you did not try to get it before wasting so much time – that’s their big-time sign of weakness.

Ouch. Fifth graders can be brutal at times, too.

Secrets Of Flourishing

In our recent business research, the core differences defining the now-flourishing companies are not their products or services per se – but that their owners and managers are exceptionally well focused on what they realistically can do, how they do it, what their customers want, and what their customers’ new spending environment parameters are.

In short, they have acknowledged, analyzed and responded to the new game, its rules and financial boundaries. They went on offense. They took an accurate, offensive position and charged a path. They did something positive in changing a poor situation.

We discovered that they started, and will continue, their homework. They sought internal and cost-effective external business counsel when, and for areas where needed. They acted. They changed because their business world changed.

Meanwhile, the disheartened wall-bangers we spoke of earlier are now finding an easier plan in simply emulating the ostrich. All will be safe when this eventually passes ... is now their comfortable mantra. Unfortunately, "wait and see" means "wait and perish" in this new economy.

Summary

The flourishing companies found in our research saw early that the impending 2009-2010 economy had turned into a new game – one certainly not wanted, nor attractive – but nonetheless evident and unavoidable.

They modified, restructured, regrouped, repackaged, traded assets, and have done everything else necessary with their company strategies, products and services, to play this new game well, with new rules, for new sales. Their new battle cries might include “proactive,” “change or die,” or “new game, new plays.”

It was time for something new. Time to move on.

By the way, in case you are wondering, the flourishing business owners and executives are not necessarily happy about all this yet – nobody really likes change it seems – and one CIO intimated he now cries about it, all the way to the bank, every Friday afternoon.


The Logical Next Step Is ...

M. J. Barney Associates offers no magic elixirs or canned approaches, and we know your business is not a game of any sort, at any time.

But, doing business in this economy can be a battle, and we can typically help an already good company start to increase sales very quickly in the short term. We'll work with you to better target and reach longer-term sales. We can help you understand and play this new game well. We can help you define and implement your new offense to flourish in today's harsh economy.

If what we have said here makes sense to you, the next logical step is for us to spend about one hour with you. We can show you how we work, what to expect, and how soon to expect sales results.

Thank you for thinking this through with me. Call me or email me to discuss now - before the fifth-grader momentum you-didn’t-know-you-still-had-inside-you fades away!

Michael J. Barney, CMC

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