Forced Elephant Hunting Is Never A Good Idea

Well, it’s that time of year, when you have a pretty good idea how revenue is going to add up. We are about halfway through 2014 and, as a business owner and operator, you are doing one of three things:

While business owners always should use the midyear point to make hard decisions regarding what is working and what is not and then begin the planning process for the next year, hopefully you are on the right course or tweaking your strategy slightly. If you are in situation No. 3, that is not a good place to be—what tends to happen in most cases is the hole gets deeper and things get worse before they get better. It also puts other business at risk.

First off, in this economy there aren’t as many elephants to hunt. The big deals are fewer and farther between and organizations are holding on to their cash tighter and taking longer to make big purchasing decisions. The buying cycle has most certainly increased. So even if there is an elephant to be had, the chances of bagging one in time to save the year is growing slimmer by the day.

Secondly, when sales professionals are backed into a corner and need a big win to salvage their year, the building blocks of fundamental business start to fall apart. Smaller, more frequent and loyal customers tend to get ignored. It’s like trying to hit a grand slam with no one on base. Business always needs to be built customer by customer, deal by deal. Being in a position where certain size deals are being overlooked and large scale proposals are being offered instead because those are your needs and not the customer’s is futile and bad business. You end up isolating your current customer base and digging a deeper hole.

The danger of elephant hunting is ignoring the business that got you to where you are in the first place. Instead, organizations need to regroup, face the music, make some changes if necessary and reforecast their business plan to be more realistic with current market dynamics. Sometimes this involves cost structure and process changes, but every decision should be with long-term objectives in mind.

Relying on that one big deal to come in is not a solid business model. The 80/20 rule most businesses find themselves in is unhealthy. Having 80 percent of your revenue or more coming from 20 percent of your customers is dangerous.

So, as the midway of 2014 approaches, evaluate where you are and start making realistic preparations for 2015. You don’t want to have to be elephant hunting next year, either.