Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

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Start Ups

Age of the Customer Prospecting Rules for the Age of the Pandemic

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Since 1993, control of the three major elements of your customer relationships – product, information, and buying decision – has shifted from your business to your customer. This marketplace transition is, by definition, a Biblical proportion paradigm shift from the original, 10,000-year-old Age of the Seller, to the new Age of the Customer.

This shift has created many disruptions across the marketplace, but none more than to the discipline of professional selling. More specifically, the element that has been disrupted most is business-to-business prospecting.

If your sales effort isn’t getting the job done, it’s probably not because your sales team isn’t working hard enough or has forgotten how to close – a process that has not been disrupted. It’s because the rules of prospecting have been turned upside-down. Here are four facets to this prospecting shift: [Continue Reading]

Don’t Drag A Stinking Fish Across Your Future

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For centuries, one of the great pastimes of the English landed gentry was foxhunting. Part of that fun involved the occasional need to distract the hounds away from the scent they’d been following, which was accomplished by dragging a red herring – a real fish on a string – across the trail of the little furry guy.

Since this smelly practice was essentially lying to the hounds by leading them in a false direction, in time it produced a handy and enduring metaphor. Today, instead of being associated with horses, dogs, and stuffy English nobility in red coats, a “red herring” is more likely to represent someone attempting to divert attention from the real issue at hand in a conversation, debate, or negotiation. Magicians call it sleight-of-hand, and politicians call it politics. My grandmother would have called it lying.

Sorry, Grandma, but there are examples when introducing a red herring into a conversation doesn’t have to be sinister. For example, in a negotiation, it can be a handy defensive tactic, and in sales, it can confirm how important an objection really is to a prospect.

But there are other conversations when we introduce a red herring without realizing it – the ones we have with ourselves. And in those cases, since we know both sides of the debate, the result is what Grandma said: we lie to ourselves. I call that the personal red herring. It’s one thing to use red herrings as a communication tool, but when we use them on ourselves, it’s unproductive at best and disastrous at worst.

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Five Post-Pandemic Rules For Business And Life

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Almost a half-century ago, a list of rules really caught on. Without the benefit of the Internet, email, or social media, but with no less an endorsement than syndicated newspaper oracle, Ann Landers, “Ten Rules For Being Human” quickly circulated around the globe.

Initially, the author’s name didn’t make the trip, resulting in attribution to “Anonymous.” It remained that way even when Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen included The Rules in their original Chicken Soup For The Soul book in 1993. Still attributing it to “Anonymous,” they somehow didn’t know that the wisdom of The Rules came from their long-time friend, Dr. Chérie Carter-Scott.

Chérie has been my friend since she first told that story to my radio audience over two decades ago, as she launched her first book based on The Rules, If Life is a Game, These are the Rules. Using Chérie’s numbering, here are five of the ten Rules that are handy for small business owners any time, but especially so just now. And, of course, each rule is followed by my thoughts.

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The Key To A Successful Post-pandemic Banking Relationship

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One of the most interesting relationships in the Main Street economy is the one between business owners and their banks. It is at once powerful and essential. Let me tell you a short story about where this dynamic has been in order to explain where it’s going.

Unlike our big business cousins, small firms have limited capital sources. Indeed, the lion’s share of our growth funds come from a bank loan, with almost 60% being made by a community bank (ICBA). Yet, since 2008, more than half of small business CEOs have consistently reported not needing to borrow money (NFIB).

A dozen years ago, a kind of perfect storm began for Main Street businesses: the 2007-09 recession was made “Great” by the Wall Street-induced financial collapse, which was followed by our economic lost decade during the Obama administration. In survival response, small businesses tightened their belts and deleveraged on a scale not seen in generations.

This deleveraging phenomenon resulted in small businesses retaining more earnings which, by definition, produces stronger balance sheets and reduces loan demand. And it produced a silver lining we didn’t know we had or needed – until last year.

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Prepare for 2021: Five Critical Questions for Business Startups and Veterans

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Let’s play “What’s wrong with this picture?”

DATELINE: New York – December 11, 2020: Millions of small businesses hanging on by a thread after being shut down by state and local politicians reacting to the coronavirus pandemic.

DATELINE: Chicago – December 11, 2020: Thousands of small businesses closing for good after being shut down by state and local politicians reacting to the coronavirus pandemic.

DATELINE: Washington – December 11, 2020: “There’s a business startup boom. The third quarter of 2020 records the highest new business applications we’ve ever seen.” (U.S. Census Bureau).

That was a softball, wasn’t it? Next time I’ll throw you a real curve.

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The New Regular: The Pandemic Paradox of Business Growth

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This is the 22nd edition of my New Regular series, which is devoted to helping your business survive the rest of 2020 and grow in 2021. Normal was last seen looking for hanging chads in Palm Beach County, Florida.

One of the greatest professional accomplishments is to start a business and grow it successfully. And just now, emerging from the pandemic punch-down, millions of pathologically optimistic small business owners are doing their best to transition from survival mode to growth.

But we all know the post-pandemic marketplace will impact growth differently than ever before. Indeed, many coronavirus veterans are watching their business models being reset in front of their eyes.

Meanwhile, millions more Americans have responded to being unemployed by morphing into that exciting entrepreneurial quark – a startup. And it’s part of my tough-love act to point out that members of this group likely have no concept of what it takes to grow a business.

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