Phoenix Entrepreneurs

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They are hosting an Intro to Whale Hunting at 12:00 - 1:00 pm.  This is a free event with light refreshments served.  You can register for this event here: Open Registration--Free Event

Later in the same day you are invited to cocktails and hors d'oeuves at Capital Grille from 4:30-5:30 pm.  This event requires a $30 registration fee for food and beverages.  You can register here: Open Registration

 

Rosemary Brehm, president of turningpoints2results, is an entrepreneur and expert in helping organizations accelerate their potential into profitable results by focusing on five key shifts in their businesses: strategic business performance; leadership alignment; team dynamics; customer intimacy, and competitive positioning.   In addition to her consulting services, Rosemary is certified as a Professional Facilitator (CPF) through the International Association of Facilitators.

Rosemary was founding Chair of the Tampa Bay Women President’s Organization and served that group from 2003-2009. She is a member of the International Association of Facilitators; the Senior HRD Forum; ASTD; and the Organizational Development SIG.  She holds a Certificate in Training and Development from New York University and a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the State University of New York at Geneseo.

With over 22 years of experience in leading business development and sales efforts for Technology, Software, and Outsourcing solutions, Brian Zaas has a background in business operations optimization, systems integration, custom application development and technology leadership.  He has been responsible for driving global business development and professional service efforts for leading Fortune 500 corporations including Fujitsu, CA, and MCI-Worldcom as well as start-up growth for Pilgrim Software, Best Programs Telcordia, and most recently is leading efforts for Enterprise Solutions with Avineon.

He has led strategic and innovative solution areas for Fortune 500 and emerging growth customers in need of IT, technology, outsourcing and the infrastructure management.  Brian has also consulted with market leaders across a number of industries on leadership, pipeline development, innovation, and sales in new product development and market penetration focusing on large, complex deals. 

The Whale Hunters are proud to introduce these new Certified Whale Hunters Patners who will provide services to the Tampa business community.

 

Anita is a native of Phoenix and has been Chief People Officer for Jokake Construction for the past eight years.  She specializes in strategic planning, training and development, and business development.  Recently she undertook a leadership role in business development for one of Jokake's major lines of business.  Jokake is a whale hunting company!

Anita is passionate about helping business owners be successful and achieve their goals. She has worked with numerous entrepreneurs to help them grow both business and talents.  She also works with college students who are preparing for their careers and their first job.

For more information about The Whale Hunters Chapters, please click here.

By their nature, whale-sized accounts are complex. Invariably, delivering your products and services requires the coordination of many people in your company with many more people in the whale company. You have an opportunity to greatly improve your internal processes and controls each time you serve a new whale.

The most important thing for members of your team to remember is that their counterparts on the whale side are accustomed to a very high level of formal communication, which is the norm in a large, most likely bureaucratic, organization. In contrast, communication at your company is likely to be much more informal and delivered in meetings or emails rather than formal memos or documents.

Even if you do a good job of managing the account, failing to manage the formal communication of your control processes can do you in. Here’s how to plan:

·         Determine the key people on the whale team who need to be informed of progress on the account

·         Establish a regular reporting schedule, weekly or bi-weekly, with an internal “owner” on your team.

·         Ensure that each team leader on your side reports key progress, issues, or hold-ups to the internal owner on a clear deadline.

·         Develop a simple template for the “controls” report or project update.

·         Distribute to your team and to the whale team on a predictable, regular basis.

This discipline will accomplish two very important things. First, it will keep your team on track with the deliverables and on the same page regarding the entire deal. Second, it will communicate to everyone on the whale team that you are a professionally managed company that understands and accommodates their need for information. 

When problems are called out in a regular, routine report, they become routine—not cause for alarm but simply for action.  It's one more example of how the sale will not result in business development unless you deliver at the highest level.  Your business growth requires a balance between the sales cycle and the delivery.

One of my long-time business friends called recently with a whale hunting problem. He is in the software development and training business and has had several whale-sized clients over the years.

This time, however, the prospect refused to sign his company’s standard contract in favor of their own. And this contract was onerous. In particular, it stated that the whale company would own all rights to any materials created for them or modified for them. The seller would technically no longer have the right to re-sell templates or standard software that had been customized in any way for this customer. They would also lose the right to include this customer’s bugs and fixes, anonymously, in their ongoing FAQ materials available to all customers.

Furthermore, the small company’s hesitancy on this contract was making the whale angry and the deal seemed about to slip away.

He asked what I thought he should do? Here are a few ideas I offered:

1.    It’s very common for a big company to have a very different view of contracts than the small company does. Sometimes you will have requirements in your standard contract that no large company is going to sign, period. Other times, you will be faced as my friend was with a contract that frightens you. If you want to complete your big sales, you’ll have to find a way to come to terms quickly.

2.    Big companies have staff lawyers; maybe you don’t. If not, be sure that you consult regularly with an attorney who specializes in entrepreneurial ventures and will come to understand your business. Have your attorney review the contract with an eye to any pitfalls. Now is not the time to save money—invest in some good advice.

3.    If the attorney’s advice is ambiguous, you’ll just have to decide how much you want this business. Is it likely that the customer could or would cause you real trouble down the road contractually, or are they just using boilerplate language to protect their own interests? If there seems to be real danger, now is the time to say no. But if any danger is remote and unlikely, and otherwise you want to do the business, get the contract signed.

4.    Once you begin doing the work, be scrupulous about following the rules of the contract. If issues arise that are not clear-cut, negotiate them and get agreement in writing.

Contracts between big and small companies are tedious because each faces different kinds and levels of risk, regulation, and responsibility. If you routinely have problems negotiating a contract with a large customer, work on your own contract to make it more familiar to the whales.

Have you ever lost a job through contract negotiations? Have you signed a contract that proved to be a mistake? Post your comments below.

• First, Frances Hesselbein spent years at the Peter Drucker Institute, helping to translate Drucker's business principles into leadership strategies for nonprofit and public organizations.  I believe that leadership lessons for your company are best derived from lessons learned in each economic sector--from the private sector we learn best about markets and competition, from the public sector we learn best about national interests and service, and from the nonprofit sector we learn best about social responsibility.  The better we can become at aligning these lessons, the more powerful and successful we will be as leaders in every sector.
   
• Second, it is very good to see the US Armed Forces continuing on their path to a broader definition of "leadership" -- one that goes beyond military strategy to embrace a deep understanding of language, culture, and place as key elements in a military engagement.  Increasingly, these are key elements of a business engagement in the global economy.  We should expect lessons learned from this alliance that will enlighten business leaders in new ways.
   
• Finally, I am pleased to see Frances Hesselbein recognized in this way for her phenomenal career's work.  Formerly head of the Girl Scouts of America, she has been a beacon for leadership education that embraces women and girls yet is not exclusive to women and girls.  She is a powerful role model for women business owners and entrepreneurs, demonstrating that collaborative, team-based strategies have their own source of power and can supersede top-down directive strategies.

• Value is in the eyes of the client
• Fees should be based upon fulfilling value, not performing tasks.
• Time unit billing will always be less than your true value.