In this transcript, Deedra Determan (PR Consultant/Guru) and Clay Clark (U.S. Chamber National Blue Ribbon Quality Award Winner) discuss the importance of avoiding unnecessary failure on Thrive15.com, the best sales training program.
Clay: Moving on, here’s trait number 7 that will cause dysfunction and failure. The entrepreneur does not have a clear vision for the direction of the company. His example, Thrive is for entrepreneurs. If you want to start a business or you own a business, it’s for you. This is who it’s for. If you do not have any entrepreneurial interest, it’s not for you. We have a vision for this. 918 Moms, what was the vision?
Deedra: Going after moms, giving them information.
Clay: Serving as a tool for moms.
Deedra: A tool for moms.
Clay: What about dads?
Deedra: Right, and we had that. We’d have a couple of people say, “Well, you’re not against dads. We are going after a niche.”
Clay: What about 918 Dads? You responded by saying?
Deedra: This is really made for moms. This is a niche going after moms.
Clay: What about sexism, Deedra? What about dudes?
Deedra: I have actually had customers say that. What’s your target? Is it women, 25, 35, that range? Yeah, and older and younger and men, you can’t be everything to everybody.
Clay: You can’t.
Deedra: I think you have to decide who your target is and stick with that niche.
Clay: Next, character trait number 8 for reasons for dysfunction and failure. The entrepreneur refuses to delegate. Gosh, I’m guilty of that.
Deedra: I’m guilty of that, too.
Clay: I hate myself. I know that for me, I always try to work better at it, but I’m like, I want you to do this task. I give it to them. I write it out. I feel like it’s so detailed. I get it back and it’s not the way I want it. I’m like, “Well, fine, let’s do projects moving forward of this kind.” They’re like, “Dude, that’s sales. You can’t do that to all the sales.” Fine. What we have to do is, we have to give good direction, follow up, be kind, be patient, all the things that I’m not. We have to delegate because if not, there’s only so much we can do.
Deedra: I think it’s hard for most entrepreneurs because you are a doer, you’re used to doing everything yourself and then when you do grow, that’s when you have to go, okay, what can I pass on?
Clay: What was the hardest thing for you to delegate at 918 Moms?
Deedra: Sales is hard for me to delegate because I think I can just go in and get it and come out.
Clay: Easy, in and out.
Deedra: Yeah, and it was my site. Selling it as my site is different than someone else selling it. They might say it wrong. They’re not getting it right. You have to train.
Clay: You ever think about recording your voice and then when they would walk in they could open their mouth? [inaudible 00:02:38]
Deedra: I never thought about that.
Clay: That’s something that would be a bad idea. That would be a quick decision that you made there. Moving on to character trait number 9. The entrepreneur is involved in a niche that is not scalable. Example. This actually happened. The person came to me and said, “I have this business idea.” I said, “What’s the business idea?” “Well, what I’m looking at doing is I want to focus an online niche business that’s going to help communicate the value of this city versus other cities, so it’s a travel site. People want to come to this city. I don’t want to sell adds, though.”
What are you doing again now? “I’m going to have a site developed telling people about the history of this city and how much better this city is than people give it credit for.”
How do you get paid, bro? If we get enough subscribers, money won’t even matter. Facebook, do they worry about it? No. It’s a weird niche. Or maybe painting ancient sea turtles while they’re alive at sea would be a weird niche. You have to find something that’s scalable. Have you seen this with business owners? Thrive15.com can teach sales training. They have this weird …
Deedra: Yeah, or it’s maybe their passion but do the masses want it? Is it solving a problem for someone? You know?
Clay: I remember I worked with a medical business years ago, in a land, far, far away, near [Tantaween 00:04:05], over there by [Degaba 00:04:07], is an interesting place. This person has a whole host of products in their lobby that they are passionate about. No one in their right mind would buy from a doctor. It’s like, Eddie’s doctor, Dr. Smith and stuff. The stuff, just like everything that Dr. Smith likes, like this garage sale in front. I’m like, not only does that not inspire confidence, it freaks people out that you’ve got this collection of garage sale items in front of your medical clinic. Do you see this a lot? Is this common?
Deedra: I think it’s because people think it’s their idea, it’s what they like, rather than what the customer likes.
Clay: Choose a niche that people want to buy, solve a problem. Moving on to point number 10. The entrepreneur is unable to handle confrontation. Deedra, I need to talk to you about some things. No eye contact. You’re doing pretty good, overall. You’re a good employee. Thanks for the meeting. You’re like, “What was that meeting all about?” Then, it gets time now, where you’re like, you’ve done something horrible. You’re fired. There’s got to be a way to deal with the confrontation without firing her. There’s got to be a way to do correction. Do you see this a lot?
Deedra: Yeah, I had a hard time with confrontation until I owned my own business. I think that’s always, I want to be everyone’s friend, you want to make it amicable. You have to as a business owner, set that tone of this is the way we’re going to be and if it’s not, [inaudible 00:05:43] to the front. I don’t have a problem today doing that because I’ve gone through that. No one should ever be surprised that they’re fired. They should have been sat down and talked to about what they’ve been doing wrong. It should never be a surprise.