Estimating Your Sale Cycles

As most know, I think a few of the mapping methods used in the process fields are somewhat ludicrous when applied to sales and marketing. One of my favorites, of course, is Value Stream Mapping. It is, one of the applications that I see people try and try again to use thinking it can be Read More …

A Reason For Extending Your Sales Cycles

One of the common message these days about sales cycles is that you are not invited to the table till 60%of the sales cycles is over. Of course, ideally we would want to be in earlier in the cycle and be part of finding the solution with the customer. All that co-creation, collaboration and trust-based Read More …

Will Learning Cycles Replace Stage Gates

The differences in Design between Lean and Six Sigma are not in the tools that they use but in the paths, they have chosen to take. The initial paths of each into the design fields were driven by the fact that most cost and problems to include quality and variability were designed into a product/service Read More …

Developing Fast Competitive Cycles

The resurgence or maybe recognition of the use of the The OODA Loop as a basis for much of the current ideas surrounding Iterations, Rapid Development Cycles and Decision Making. What makes the OODA Loop such a popular subject? When we first think of the OODA Loop we think of fast competitive cycles needed by Read More …

Lean Learning Cycles

The concept of Learning Cycles is not just something for innovation. I think it is a mindset that is needed  to replace the traditional marketing funnel. We should be building learning experiences with our customers. Tim Schipper and Mark Swets give a brief introduction to Learning Cycles below. An expanded version is available in a Read More …

Lean Sales and Marketing Cycles are Knowledge Building Tactics

When you discuss Lean Sales and Marketing, PDCA Cycles and how Continuous Improvement can be used; people jump to a couple of basic conclusions. When you throw in additional words like quality, effectiveness and efficiencies they dig deeper and more often than not forget to take a ladder with them. Many of my writings even Read More …