Businesses in every industry are facing this question. Have the impacts of the pandemic changed how we will do business permanently? Will we move back to the way it was – more or less?  The answer is different for each business and industry and related strategic planning has been (or should have been) in high gear since March of 2020.

The impact of the pandemic is not unlike the impacts felt by particular industries or countries in the past, it is simply much larger and happening on a global scale. In 2001 I was President of Crystal Group Inc., a business that designed and manufactured rugged computer architecture for primarily the communications / telecom industry. Ending the year 2000 at over $40 million in revenue with 78% growth, it was apparent that 2001 had a different feel. It was pretty clear that rising interest rates were starting to impact the kind of financing required by telecoms to continue that trajectory. And by March of 2001 telecom buildouts slowed dramatically, catching many by surprise. An already softening stock market started a historic drop, exacerbated later in the year by the 9/11 attack. Our business ended 2001, a year in which we predicted at least 20% additional growth, more than 50% down from 2000. We reacted faster and better than many in our industry to accommodate the immediate reduction in demand, but we did something else. We looked at alternative markets where we had developed some traction to understand the opportunities to diversify or even pivot in direction. This led to our expanded efforts with the Department of Defense (DOD), a market that had similar hardened architectural needs, had been investing in our products for multiple years, and was far less impacted by the downturn.

Compounding the situation was that during the 2001 / 2002 market crash, the technological architecture used by telecom that required our products to deliver evolved from hardware to software. With that transition, when telecom began building out after the crash, the need for our products disappeared as we were replaced by larger commodity architecture providers like IBM. The impact felt in 2021 turned out to be permanent in our primary market. If we had not diversified our efforts as quickly as we did, our business would likely have failed. Instead, with refocused marketing efforts and additional technology development, the business grew past our record year 2000 mark and with ongoing investment and diversification continued to scale in the years to come. In 2001, a stellar management team, while cutting their teams by nearly 50%, earned virtual MBA’s as the company was saved and put on a trajectory for growth. What started out looking like short-term impact turned permanent, and that was a point in time, like this point in time, where initial adjusting to remain vital coupled with the right strategic planning and execution made the business excel in the coming years. Many that simply waited for the old to come back faltered.

Every business is a living entity that must be constantly nurtured and properly guided. Every employee that makes a business successful relies heavily on leadership to make strategic decisions that allow for them to continue to learn and grow. This pandemic has offered up significant obstacles as opportunities, and every business leader owes it to their team to make sure their business is taking the strategic action necessary to allow for such growth.

Critical driving a successful business is the leadership team itself. Throwing a quality game plan in front of a group of players that don’t understand their role in the game is reasonably sure to end in failure. Quality execution comes from having the right talent in the right place at the right time. The sports world understands this concept as do those that excel in the business world. Those that do not grasp the idea fail to reach their potential or simply fail altogether. Quality business talent comes from a combination of the necessary disciplines, capabilities, experience, and proper balance. Whether you need hundreds of people or only a few, building the right talent will make the journey to success smoother and faster.

Disciplines: There are six key disciplines needed to perform optimally. They include marketing, development, sales, operations, information technology, and finance. Marketingis the process of planning and executing the creation, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services that mutually satisfy customer and organizational objectives. In other words, marketing provides the overall vision and direction of the business as well as the market awareness of your products or services. Development provides the actual design and creation of the product or service offering based on input from marketing. It transitions the design to the operation and support teams and provides ongoing input to marketing regarding new products or enhancement opportunities.

Sales provides prospect identification and management, executes the sales transaction, transmits the customer requirements to the business, forecasts sales revenue, and provides ongoing input to marketing for product enhancement and development. Operations is responsible for the delivery of the product or service to the customer on time, on margin and with the level of quality promised. And in many organizations, operations also supplies post sale customer support as well. Information Technology (IT) is responsible for providing data and communications services that allow a business to operate effectively and efficiently both internally and for your customers. Finance provides guidance in the areas of financial planning (capital, budgets, etc.), operations (COGS, PPV, etc.), banking, investor relationships, and risk management. It manages overall business accounting, and in many organizations, HR and employee benefits as well.

Capability and Experience is a summary of applicable experience, expertise, and the ability to engage effectively with other team members. Creating the title for a particular discipline without the proper capability or needed experience will cause your business more harm than not having the position to begin with. In my experience, people who are very talented in particular professional areas tend to believe that they can be equally successful in other areas with limited training. Hiring experienced and capable talent that can’t play well with others is also equally non-productive. Each one of the six disciplines outlined requires significant dedication to master, and if you want a successful business, make sure you fill those roles with capabilities and experience you can confirm through past performance.

Balance: If you balance your disciplines, experience and capabilities, and the amount of each, you will build teams that perform smoothly, and cause your business to excel. Do not let budgets hold you back. Raise more money, get advisers or board members with the required talent, but get what you need because balanced input maximizes output.

Building a leadership team with the proper disciplines and the necessary capabilities in proper balance creates the opportunity to maximize your overall success. Think of your talent like a wheel on your car, the further it gets out of balance, the rougher the ride!

LEADERSHIP: Leader & Manager are titles often used to describe common positions, although the difference between the two is significant in definition, as well as performance. Managers administer and maintain, where leaders innovate and develop. Managers rely on systems and controls, where leaders rely on people and trust. Managers seek compliance, while leaders seek results. Leaders understand that their success is in the hands of a team that will follow and perform out of respect and desire, not fear of retribution. And they know that such respect must be earned, and that it is never a byproduct of job title.

By definition, leadership is the ability to build, develop, and motivate a team of diverse, talented individuals to effectively attain goals / objectives. And although it sounds simple, there are many traits that separate true leaders from everyday managers.

Leaders provide vision and focus. They see where they want to go and they set the direction confidently. They communicate it clearly, consistently (in both word and action), and they do it often. Leaders keep their team focused and on track.  They reduce roadblocks and resist creating ones of their own. They focus on long-term strategy, not micromanagement.

Leaders know that people are their most important resource. They understand that people are their most defendable asset and their best form of market differentiation. They know that daily work enjoyment and company performance are closely linked. They embrace the fact that people are individuals and treat them accordingly. They abhor politics at any level. And most importantly, they put their trust in people over processes.

 Leaders know that customers are the company’s lifeblood. They listen to their customers often. They support their customers with every available resource. And they create a corporate culture that rewards unwavering support of customers at every level in the organization.

Leaders surround themselves with talent. They understand and acknowledge their own weaknesses and they build teams accordingly. (NOTE: Managers see little weakness in themselves and build their teams with people who will comply accordingly.) Leaders listen to and seek challenge from their teams, understanding that better decisions are made accordingly. They understand the dynamics of leading high performance individuals, and they produce significant results accordingly.

Leaders cause decision to be made. They gather and trust facts. They seek consensus because they know that buy-in maximizes performance. In the absence of consensus, leaders act timely and confidently in the best interest of the organization. And they understand that “no decision”, is always the wrong decision!

Leaders know that corporate culture means everything. They provide passion and the guiding principles on which their company is driven. And they lead by those principles daily without exception.

Leaders have a strong sense of self and are not easily influenced by popularity. They are not “born that way” and the skills are not innate. Leaders are made of hard work, unbiased self-analysis and daily dedication to results through the performance of those around them.

As a final note remember that you can’t be promoted to “leadership”, but you can be promoted because of leadership capabilities. And while someone else can make you a manager, only you can make you a leader.

If you were to ask a group of 100 health care practitioners how much sales experience they have, the overwhelming majority would say little or none. Yet health care practitioners have been trained more than any sales representatives I know in the most essential component of a successful sales transaction – diagnosing the problem before writing a prescription.

People invest in products or services to solve a need and in many cases, to resolve a specific problem. The average sales representative never bothers to determine their prospect’s problem. Instead, they simply launch into their “pitch,” outlining the many wonderful features (and benefits) of their product or service, in the hope that the prospect will see something in the presentation that will compel them to buy. Unfortunately, most sales representatives rarely take the time to diagnose the prospect’s problem/need before they start prescribing their solution. This approach results in low close rates and a tremendous waste of personal and company resources.

Practitioners, on the other hand, never prescribe a solution without understanding as much as they can about the patient/client need. They accomplish this task by asking questions designed to elicit answers that can lead them to a proper diagnosis. Then, they can confidently prescribe a course of action to solve the problem.

This process is precisely what professional sales representatives do every day. They ask questions that allow them to uncover the prospect’s problems/needs before they prescribe their product or service as a solution. In many cases, professional sales people learn through the questioning process that their product/service cannot solve the prospect’s needs, saving both of them valuable time and money.

The true science of selling is based upon solving real needs through effective solutions, allowing both the client and the seller to “win.” The key to creating this win/win situation is based on the ability to diagnose the need before starting the prescription process.

So, the next time you have the opportunity to make a sales call, make sure you take the time to properly diagnose your prospect’s needs. Ask pertinent questions that will allow you to determine whether your prospect is a qualified candidate, and if so, how your product/service might benefit or solve your client’s needs. If you master this process, your close rate and income will improve – along with a more efficient use of your time and company resources.