July 1st, 2003

Dear Lee,

Perhaps it's the fresh perspective that we bring to a client situation, but we continue to be surprised by significant opportunities that go unnoticed by savvy management teams.

So in my absence (I'm out training for the Pan Mass Challenge), here is a simple question that you can pose to your sales manager, your channel manager, your best customer, a new prospect, even your spouse or children.

What am I missing? What is the obvious business opportunity staring me in the face that I'm not seeing?

You'll be amazed at the responses.

When we posed this question to one management team, employing a simple tool to spur their imagination, we identified more than 30 new opportunities at existing clients for this company.

Ka-ching!

We spent the next couple of hours exploring and prioritizing these opportunities, ultimately coming up with a W³ Action Plan to address the largest ones.

The management team individually knew of these opportunities, but hadn't focused on them. This little exercise highlighted the opportunities and brought the team together to talk about how they could capitalize on the opportunities.

The result? We identified seven opportunities worth more than $50,000 each and more than 20 additional specific opportunities. We estimate that this simple question brought some $650K in business to the table and focused the management team on what it would take to win that business.

Tell me about your application - without any industry jargon...

We recently met with the management team of another emerging company, one who has a great customer list but who hasn't yet found its sweet spot in the market.

When we posed this question to the team, we learned that their software application was useful in environments that they hadn't already considered.

A simple question, but it got the management team to thinking outside the box...thinking about new and different uses for their application. Their next step is to validate these ideas through some simple market research.

Do it today...

So pose this question to your VP of Sales, your CEO, your reseller marketing manager, the CEO of your best channel partner or your spouse.

Let us know what you come up with...

And about the PMC...

Over the next month, when I'm not working with clients on their marketing, sales and channel strategies, or watching Lance Armstrong win the centennial Tour de France for a historic fifth victory, I'll be training for the upcoming Pan Mass Challenge. The PMC is an annual fundraising event for the Jimmy Fund. In its 24th year, the event is expected to raise $16M for cancer research, totalling $100M raised over the past 24 years.

I've been involved in the Pan Mass Challenge for the past 5 years, and have personally raised $15,000 for cancer research. I'll be riding again this year to support friends and relatives who have had to deal with cancer or who have supported those affected by the disease.

Donate to the Jimmy Fund...click on the eGift button

Thanks for reading!