There is always an opportunity. However, there is not a step by step method. Innovators, Start-Ups, and even Scaling Businesses look for that formula and try to think of an effective and efficient way to go about it. The problem that exists is that most opportunities are not created they are discovered. You have to venture into the unknown, and most of us are just not Captain Kirk.
In Kata, we think of the Target Condition we want to reach. We discover the obstacles along the way and work through the PDCA cycle to overcome them. In the non-profit world, we may look at Impacts and the desired outcomes we need to achieve to get there. With both of these methods, though uncomfortable at first we get accustomed to not having to have a defined path towards the end result. We learn that it is a journey, and though uncomfortable at first, it is something that we can learn. I will mention that it is not easy to go at alone and for both I recommend a coach.
Both of these processes lend themselves to sales and marketing, and I have used both in my consulting practice. There is another approach that is adjacent in thinking and may take a better o alternative approach to discovery. That is the role of an explorer. I go back to explorers of the past that old Columbus, Magellan, Lewis and Clark and Leif Erickson model you might say (And just so we are on the same page lets define the act of exploration as the searching for the purpose of discovery of information or resources). What did they do that others do not? They relinquished the idea of controlling the outcome. When we think of opportunity, it often equates to uncertainty, loss of control. The space that most of us try to define and manipulate others on some desired path to reach/accomplish.
In sales and marketing, we think we can create opportunity. We construct Marketing Funnels, Process Maps, Service Blueprints and other tools thinking that we can create a customer/opportunity from it. I am not saying any of this is wrong because just be the actual application of a process of some type we are going to focus and become more effective and maybe even more efficient.
Successful companies do not have a magic formula. If they do, it is a matter of trying more things that put themselves in a better position to recognize or not to recognize opportunity quicker. It is about acting and trying different opportunities along the journey. Explorers are also masters of saying no or preventing from getting to far drawn off. They are grounded in reality. This reality of understanding their own capabilities allows them to seize a moment when it exists. This is often called skill or luck, but it is also about being prepared. And as a side note good salespeople intuitively can “smell” a lost opportunity. They are seldom wrong.
How do you go about exploration in sales and marketing? Begin where you are is my first advice to most companies. Formulating that current state not only of your present capabilities but also the knowledge that your customers have empowered you with. Their markets and the way they make decisions. Then start exploring opportunities based on what you have learned about present customers. It is sort of like cold calling from our customer’s perspective. Remember action precedes knowledge most of the time, so in essence cold calling may not be dead just refined. See these 2 blog posts for more details, Funnel of Opportunity and The 5 Rs of Growth. What about exploration at the top of the funnel, not at the bottom? I would argue that adjacent customer behaviors and needs will allow you to explore more than you can handle and is the quickest and most effective way to gain new business. It really becomes that yin and yang approach where both ends eventually meet.
The most important thing we can do to create opportunity is to set a path and move to action which most of us do in a sales and marketing process (just in the wrong direction). We need to be effective and efficient and opening doors, evaluating and monitoring along the way. In more present day terms, testing the edges of our customer’s markets with business development clustering whenever possible. What we don’t do is the third thing; relinquish the idea that we can control the outcome. When we can leave that idea go, we accept and evaluate opportunity based on our capabilities. What is so wonderful is that it expands our understanding by letting go. We see things that we have never seen. Opportunities that we have never seen. It’s practically telepathic. It reminds of an old Zen saying, “to take a deep breath, you must first exhale.”
