Chasing the Whale

The allure of the big catch, the promise of the exponential growth that will happen if you can reel in the big relationship and the inevitable starvation of a business that does not bring in food to keep themselves running while working on the big opportunities.

There has to be a balance. Every entrepreneur knows that hauling in the 80 pound Marlin would be huge for their business and most entrepreneur's can at least get in the door, or on the boat. The problem arises when they take an all or none approach to business.

Having small successes will get the attention of the larger relationships, not to mention that when you give them your pitch the first thing they will ask is "who are you doing this with now?". If the answer is no one, there will be no deal because they will not be the test dummy.

In every sales, business development and product meeting I repeat the same question "what can we control?" Where is your business able to have the most control over the outcome? The more control you have to give up to get something done the less likely it is to happen.

When deciding which paths to pursue for short term gains with long term value I put the options into a matrix to compare the following;

• Time and resource commitment required to bring the opportunity to a close
• Projected time to close
• Short term revenue potential
• Long term revenue potential
• Sector revenue and growth potential
• Long term value of relationship with principals
• Strength of successful use case for new opportunities

Taking an extra week to make a decision will rarely kill the deal, but making the wrong decision could kill your business. Take your time, make the best choice based upon the information that you have and execute!