My main takeaway from the book is scenarios often (but not always) seem to fall into three groups: 1/more of the same, but better; 2/worse (decay and depression); and 3/different but better (fundamental change). Although not all scenarios fit nicely into these three groups, understanding what decisions lead to each outcome is critical.
A mental model I’ve found helpful in handling high-stakes and uncertain customer situations is scenario planning. A few years ago, one of the best sales leaders I’ve worked for explained this concept as I started leading more complex multi-year sales cycles. Since then, applying it has provided clarity and elevated my sales acumen. I also consider the concept an excellent antidote to inaction.
In The Art of the Long View, Peter Schwartz defines scenarios as a tool for helping us take a long view in a world of great uncertainty. Further, scenarios are not about predicting the future; instead, they are about perceiving futures in the present.
My main takeaway from the book is scenarios often (but not always) seem to fall into three groups: 1/more of the same, but better; 2/worse (decay and depression); and 3/different but better (fundamental change). Although not all scenarios fit nicely into these three groups, understanding what decisions lead to each outcome is critical.
I’ve found it’s best to work backward from each scenario, not just your ideal scenario. This approach helps inform which decisions to avoid and which to make with conviction. Also, working backward from each scenario from the point of view of your customer or prospect builds empathy. Finally, it helps you be more consultative in guiding your customer to your ideal outcome.
A practical and easy way of applying scenario planning is using it to set agendas for high-stakes sales calls.
Here’s an example of how I used it when my team and I presented a proposal to a customer about a transformative project.
After welcoming everyone and doing a round of introductions, I kicked off the meeting by letting everyone know three possible outcomes could happen at the end of our time together.
First, they listen to what we have to say and decide to adopt one or two recommendations, which may improve their business, but nothing transformative. (Scenario 1)
Second, they decide not to accept any recommendations and continue operating business as usual. (Scenario 2)
Third, they like our proposal and commit to adopting all the transformative changes we are recommending (Scenario 3).
After sharing these possible outcomes, I noticed my nerves calm down. I even observed everyone, including my team members, relax because I presented everyone with options which gave them a sense of control. As a result, they all had skin in the game.
Furthermore, by using scenario planning to demystify the uncertainty of the meeting outcomes, everyone could now focus on the content and arrive at an objective conclusion.
When the meeting ended, the decision-maker leaned towards Scenario 3. In contrast, one or two of the decision-maker’s lieutenants leaned toward Scenario 1.
Fortunately, my team did a fantastic job leading the discussion that Scenario 2 did not appear to be a part of the customer’s future.
We closed the opportunity with the decision-maker for the transformative project a few weeks later.
I have the privilege of leading a book club for a group of passionate readers and learners at AWS. Last month, we selected BetweenBrains: Taking Back Our AI Future as the book of the month. We invited the co-author, Dr. George Tilesch, to join the conversation. Dr. George is a senior global innovation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) expert who is a conduit and trusted advisor between the US and EU ecosystems, specializing in AI Ethics, Impact, Policy, and Governance. Most recently, he was Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer for Global Affairs, the public interest arm of Ipsos, a global top 3 research firm. In this role, he led the Digital Impact and Governance research and advisory practice. Through his thought leadership, he advises governments, think tanks and corporations on AI strategy.
Dr. George co-authored the book with NASA innovation leader, Dr. Omar Hatamleh.
Below is an excerpt of my virtual interview with Dr. George. I hope you enjoy it.
There are already many books about artificial intelligence; what compelled/inspired you to write this book, and why is now the right time for everyone to read BetweenBrains?
First, when we started writing more than three years ago, the situation was wildly different re: the sheer quantity of AI Books present. As a transversal technology on the path of becoming near-ubiquitous, that also triggers fundamental philosophical/ethical questions; it is actually very welcoming to have many books on the topic, as it exposes myriad perspectives.
We got inspired to research and write at a point in time when there was an explosion in both AI capabilities and AI investment. Those days were characterized by boundless techno-optimism and the ecstasy of exponential returns. This period was the time of big bets on AI, and almost nobody talked about dangers or risks. Even those who did were talking about the dangers of a very distant future. What has changed since is that the media exposed the topic as something that is much more mainstream. Unfortunately, AI automatically became part of various mainstream black-or-white narratives circulating in our low-trust, high-tension world that is primarily digital now. As such, people became equally concerned and curious about AI but without the general, unbiased understanding that would enable taking stances based on the thorough proper analysis in the right mindset.
When we started to write, we were pretty explicit about a few principles and the mission. We wanted to write a balanced book applying critical thinking and thorough analysis, but also with a strong and uncompromising moral anchor. We wanted to write a beautiful mixture that is full of accurate and relevant data on how our world has already changed because of AI but is also timeless in a sense because of fundamental philosophical questions it inevitably raises. We thought it essential to provide a peek into our field experience that we gathered while working with world leaders and top executives to make some aspects very practical and human at the same time. We wanted to cover the now and the near-term. We believed much of the AI narrative was being captured by notions of Superintelligence, Singularity, or Robot Rights. These notions had way less relevance and impact on our lives than the AI technologies that were already out or ready to jump, near invisibly to most.
And most importantly, we wanted to ask the questions both profound and hard that would enable humanity to define the purpose and steer the course of a beneficial AI Future for our civilization. We wanted to expand the horizons of those AI practitioners and stakeholders who mostly see one slice of the enormous AI pie. Also, talk to the broadest possible audience of informed digital citizens increasingly seeking answers to the myriad question marks that even AI’s current power and promise triggers.
What excites you the most about the potential (future) of Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI)? What scares you the most?
On the one hand, we expressly wanted to avoid getting into ASI territory in detail. It is a lure that is very hard to resist since I am convinced that many people, including myself, first got excited about AI as kids when reading sci-fi books. ASI captivates the mind and deserves much dialogue, but in our present setup having too much talk on ASI is happening at the expense of questions much more urgent and impactful. The book serves that sense of urgency that we, as authors, have gathered from the field.
However, I want to answer your question. ASI – only if crafted and bound successfully as a tool and companion to humanity – can lead to Utopia and bring about a currently unimaginable quality of life for our civilization. However, the viability of such an outcome is hard to foresee at this point. So much needs to change in our mindsets, values, and institutions…Therefore caution is very much in order, echoed by many concerned luminaries. I think it is still worth doing but proceed with maximum caution and foolproof models because we are toying with forces unprecedented and highly explosive. A fully autonomous general machine intelligence is trained to maximize its capabilities to exploit weaknesses for overcoming hurdles on its path of fulfilling its objectives – and we can easily become those hurdles. My biggest fear is the mere seconds or minutes a newborn AGI needs to explode in myriad directions and become ASI: I worry that we as humans may not be prepared for such a jump. Foresight is not our core strength.
Flashback and then fast forward to the present, what has surprised you the most about your journey thus far (in writing and publishing this book)?
The most positive surprise was that while I saw many AI stakeholder leaders are hampered – or even trapped – in the organizational logic they serve as employees, they share many concerns and fears as citizens, consumers, parents – human beings. These concerns open up connecting people, seeking consensus, and collaborating on a shared vision on the true civilizational purpose and stewardship of AI. The other side of the coin is the sense of helplessness many of them have – the mainstream AI narrative has been that of “inevitability” for too long, so people don’t think they have a say in its shaping. Many leaders still treat AI as pure hype or “just another Industrial Revolution,” we firmly disagree with that, demonstrating our thesis with a set of AI Power Principles that show why it is wildly different this time. Coming together for reining in the future in a human-centric way is therefore a very much aspirational goal and an uphill battle, but achievable.
What is the best actionable advice that you’ve received that continues to be a source of inspiration in good times and challenging times?
For our times of distrust, disinformation, mindless partisanship, and social fragmentation, the anchor for me has always been “strong opinions, loosely held.” It means that we have to have firm moral convictions, deeply informed factual perspectives, and courage to speak up. At the same time, it needs to be met with an equal amount of empathy, critical thinking, self-checking, and wisdom. The very core of our social cohesion is being attacked every single day by overwhelming forces. The final battlefield is within our minds; we all need to do a ton of homework, both individually and as a society.
How would you advise executives, government agencies, and political leaders to use AI (for good) while eliminating bias?
We are at a point in time when a new, integrated socioeconomic AI vision and models need to be built, tough questions need to be asked, and both citizens, leaders, and institutions need to be brought up to speed. Regulating AI in a way that is both cautious and consensual is very much desired but does not do the full job. Getting from AI Ethical principles to fluid, agile AI Policy will be a long trek that should be revisited and adjusted every single day. The next few years will see a proliferation of AI predictive and decision support systems that will have a lure of relinquishing our best judgments and our mandate to decide and overrule. You will hear a lot of “AI made me do it” at all levels of society. Especially at this level of maturity, the growing cases of AI mishaps will at least partially be rooted equally in human action or omission as well as data and model biases. This new paradigm of in-betweenness vis-a-vis machine and human intelligence will last for a long time, actually, hopefully, forever, in a balanced way. Our generation must consciously lay down the foundations for this era that brings about less Artificial but Augmented Intelligence for our whole civilization. To achieve that beneficial outcome, we have no time to lose.
What is the biggest mistake you see when executives/companies/governments try to develop and implement an AI strategy? How would you advise them to change/augment their approach?
Well, it’s different in each sector – and even inside organizations, simply because each executive function sees AI in a different light. There is very little trust between sectors and a lack of understanding of each other’s interests. We need to build new frameworks of understanding and shared interests between the researchers, owners, regulators and users of AI.
If I really have to point out one factor is definitely this kind of fragmentation, turfs not talking to each other and lack of cross-organizational strategic thinking and execution about AI. There are lots of smaller but important pieces that are barriers: lack of data sophistication within the org, lack of an experimentation-type mindset that is essential for AI, lack of the right internal talent or being stuck in “eternal pilot mode”. We have to understand that for most organizations, the challenge of mastering AI landed on top of a big luggage they’ve carried for decades now, that is affectionately called Digital Transformation. For many leaders it constitutes an external pressure while they are trying to keep the house together and deal with Data Strategy et al. If the “Let’s get AI” directive lands in the CTO’s office too soon, many others will never accept AI as their own. So my best advice would be to have an uncompromising focus and shared understanding on the board and C-Suite levels on what AI can reasonably deliver to your business strategy and what strategic segments can be driven by it.
Also, my pet peeve: AI Ethics is only an afterthought to many. Less than 20% of AI developers have received any kind of Ethics training. Especially during tough times like this one, it is tempting to perceive AI Ethics as a barrier and a speed bump. The near future will see unprecedented scaling of Narrow AI solutions, and without the right, conscious safeguards implemented, things can get ugly and lead to huge competitive disadvantages for organizations who moved too fast and broke too many things. A lot of my work is focused these days on proving to leaders that being “AI-ethical’ equals competitive advantage and pays off considerably.
When asked what makes a great story, Beau Willimon, showrunner for House of Cards, gave a simple answer: “The most important element in a good story is conflict. It’s seeing two opposing forces collide with one another.”
As I have progressed in my sales career from selling T-Shirts as a college student to negotiating technology agreements as a Senior Enterprise Sales Executive, one thing remains consistent: a good story drives action. Trying to convince a broke college student to spend $25 for a T-Shirt required some artful storytelling. Displacing an incumbent and challenging the status quo means gaining executive consensus and painting a better future through stories.
Telling a good story requires knowing what makes a good story, and from the comment earlier, the most critical element in a good story is conflict. A known supporting cast in any good commercial story is data, which is also a catalyst for conflict and debate.
The key to using data in a story is that it needs to inspire action and accelerate decisions. In Nancy Duarte’s HBR article, she explains that for data to inspire action, they need to do more than make sense – they have to make meaning. If your audience can internalize the purpose of the data, it becomes more actionable, which leads to a faster decision.
Let’s assume you are trying to explain to your audience that your solution could save $2,000,000 over 12 months.
The HBR article shared three strategies you could use to have your data make meaning:
Connect data to relatable size – comparing length, width, height, thickness, or distance. Using our $2M in savings example, you could say to an audience in Seattle: two million dollars stacked up in one dollar bills is about the height of the Space Needle with some change to spare. Guess what happens when next they see the Space Needle from their downtown office? You guessed it, the two million dollars they could be saving with your solution.
Connect data to relatable time – we measure time in seconds, hours, minutes, days, months, and decades. Two million dollars comes out to $7,692 per working day, so each day we delay the decision costs the business $7,692 or $320 per hour or $5 per minute…a minute later in the meeting, you could interrupt yourself and say, wow, there goes five bucks, with a smile.
Connect data to relatable things – more digestible to relate to things people are familiar with. To an environmentally conscious decision maker in Silicon Valley, you could say: two million dollars could get you and your team of 20 engineers a brand new 2019, Tesla Model X. #SaveTheEnvironment (assuming they don’t already own one 🙂 )
When crafting a story, take advantage of opportunities to insert data into the storyline and use the strategies described above to master the art of having the data make meaning. If your audience understands the impact of your data, they would be inspired to use your meaning in internal discussions to navigate conflict, drive action and arrive at a decision in your favor.
I started life as the son of a policeman and a typical upbringing in South Africa – at the time the country was divided along racial lines with major divisions and inequalities. Although my father was a policeman in the old government, he taught me the value of the human being, and treating people of all walks of life with the same focus on potential rather than circumstance. I attended a local university studying B.Comm Law – a unique combination of law and commerce. I completed my LLB (Honours in Law) as well as my MBA along the way. Seeking knowledge, interacting with people and being curious about the world around me has driven my work experiences. I started out as a commercial lawyer (largely the fault of the portrayal of lawyers in a US TV Show of the mid 80’s, called LA Law). I soon realized that life was more precisely worded contracts and endless hours in courtrooms and meeting rooms. I joined BTS in 2000 and started a life of consulting. Working for BTS over the last 18 years has presented me with an amazing opportunity to work with some of the most inspiring people (both internally as well as our clients and partners) and continually satisfy my curiosity on how the world works, how strategies are translated into reality and how great leaders inspire and motivate people to be their best.
Flashback and then fast forward to the present, what has surprised you the most about your career trajectory and what tips do you have for other embarking on similar path?
My career trajectory had me as a managing director of a company at the age of 26 and partner in a global consulting company by 35. A couple of learning along the way:
People are as important as performance – care about your relationships with people as much as you care about results.
Never say “no” to learning opportunities that will stretch you.
Focus on your faith, your family and the future – having something that you deeply believe in, that drives your decision-making and value system creates stability and direction in your life, finding purpose in a cause bigger than you and your meager existence helps keep you humble and grounded in the course of life – focusing on family and the future (and not varnishing the past) helps me understand the reason and motivation for getting through the tough times, and for celebrating the small victories in life. Work and life in general would surely be of little or no value if you only lived for yourself and had no cause or direction
Know your values…never sacrifice or trade your values – no matter what your victory, if you have traded your values, you will always feel empty
Know your value – don’t settle for less than you are worth. People will pay you for the job you do – this is defined by market value for the services performed – but never let your job define your worth.
Why is the cause you are pursuing or problem you are solving the most important for this generation?
Helping people do the best work of their lives by providing them and their organization with the required alignment, mindset and capability ultimately helps build more sustainable businesses, and a better planet. By helping leaders see the long-term impact of their decision-making, and then equipping them with the business, leadership and functional acumen to make the right decisions faster will shift not only companies, but countries and markets. The Middle East and African market contains some of the biggest differentials between the “Have’s” and the “Have nots” – reducing this differential and increasing people’s opportunity to actively and meaningfully participate in a global economy lies in developing people and companies in these markets to continue to grow in competitiveness. What we do at BTS helps accelerate this by innovating how companies and their leaders change, learn and improve.
Why is now the right time for the world to pay attention to the Africa market?
The growth in Africa, as with many other growth markets, is not evolutionary – but rather revolutionary. The biggest misconception about growth economies is that they follow the same learning curve as more mature economies. The rate of learning in these growth economies is accelerating and tends to be more “step-changes” and skipping technology and learning curves as the global economy becomes more integrated and virtual. Companies will be able to immediately introduce new products and solutions – removing some of the barriers for smaller companies (and making markets more accessible). At the same time, Africa is an extremely entrepreneurial continent with amazing diversity of people and thinking – and the global economy now affords a more global contribution both inbound and outbound.
What is the best piece of actionable advice you’ve received that continues to be a source of inspiration in good times and challenging times?
The best advice I have received is to focus on your passion and what ignites your soul – money, fame or other worldly achievements will follow. Do the work you love, and you will never work a day in your life.
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” Henry Ford
Salespeople enjoy reliving their victories play by play; in fact, it’s hard to contain their enthusiasm when they get going. However, when talking about a lost deal, the story tends to get abbreviated. I’ve been guilty of this! 😉
Losing is tough, and one could lose twice if no time is spent learning how and why it happened. As such, it’s important to be deliberate about your next moves following a lost deal. Here are three common actions I’ve observed successful salespeople take after losing a deal:
1. They Reflect: Taking a few minutes to reflect and process the events that led up to the loss allows them to draw insights while the event is fresh in their minds. The process of reflection is two-fold:
Self-reflection: The key is to not sulk in the loss. Rather, with self-compassion as guard rails, they jot down their mistakes, trace every step, and commit to refining their approach the next time. This simple act of self-reflection can be the difference between winning sporadically versus winning consistently. An example of the power of self-reflection occurred with a top salesperson I interviewed. After losing a deal she worked hard to win, she felt defeated and decided to do some self-reflection. After reflecting, she realized she didn’t spend as much time as she should have on enabling a key influencer who at the last-minute swayed the decision in favor of her competitor. Following this realization, she committed to creating stakeholder maps to ensure she invested adequate time with all the key decision makers and influencers.
Team reflection: According to research by Alison Reynolds and David Lewis published on HBR, the best problem-solving teams treat mistakes with curiosity and share responsibility for the outcomes. The idea is to be solution-oriented in the reflection instead of pointing fingers. Successful salespeople realize that one should never lose a deal alone. And if a loss does occur, the team collectively comes up with ideas to improve and hold each other accountable.
2. They Research: Successful salespeople connect with customers to understand their decision to go with an alternative solution. These top salespeople are diplomatic in their request and make it a point to understand the perspectives of all the key stakeholders involved in the decision. This process is difficult, but it’s also rewarding, especially when the customer is candid with their feedback. If it’s a product, service, or pricing issue, the salesperson can route the feedback directly to the team responsible which could be the catalyst for change within their organization. Research is especially valuable in technology sales because if a customer decides not to select your solution because of a missing critical feature, the salesperson can work with the product team to influence the product roadmap which could help win back the deal.
“Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers (and salespeople) ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business.” – Zig Ziglar
3. They Re-engage: Change is the only constant in business, and if the customer chooses a solution to solve a problem they have today, the successful salesperson anticipates problems the customer could face tomorrow. They re-engage the customer with new business models, industry insights, case studies, and innovative ideas to improve the customer’s business. They add value in their follow-up and follow-through, which often leads to them winning back the business. A good example of this was a Sales Leader who always followed up at least once a month to ask how things were going with the vendor the customer selected. He asked questions such as: are you achieving the goals you intended, is the vendor delivering on what they promised, are you achieving the right business results, is your team happy with the decision, and where / what are the gaps in the current solution. This Sales Leader has won back multiple deals by being persistent and consistent in delivering value even after losing the initial deal. He encourages salespeople not to assume everything is okay with the customer; instead, focus on anticipating challenges and positioning your solution to solve those challenges.
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to try just one more time.” – Thomas Edison
When next you lose a deal, don’t fret, just remember the three R’s: Reflect, Research, and Re-engage!
I had coffee with the CEO/Co-founder of a Silicon Valley based tech startup that has raised well over $50M and asked him:
“What needs to happen before you take a meeting with a salesperson for the first time?”
He said he looks for three things:
1. The salesperson was referred to me by someone I know and trust
2. The salesperson intends to share something new and innovative that could help me accelerate my roadmap
3. The salesperson needs me more than I need them
I was struck by #3, so I probed further.
He went on to explain that it’s always good taking a sales call when you’re not desperate for the solution/service they’re offering. He only takes meetings with salespeople representing something that is a nice to have. He prefers to have ‘must have’ conversations under his explicit control.
Someone on responded to the above post on LinkedIn with the following:
“Interesting…smells of “group think” and “yes men” mentality. Would you like feedback? If there are any sales folks feeling a bit discouraged, here are my thoughts: #1 Um no. I’ve worked directly with C-suite execs for a long long time. They’ve all been open to meeting me for the first time without a personal referral…unless I count some great EA’s who’ve booked us meetings. #3 Wut? A bit creepy. Good thing I’m a sales professional who works with buyers who need solutions, because I’m a horrible co-dependent. Here’s the rub…startups need to do a lot of selling themselves to make good on their funding…most veteran sales professionals will pass on calling a startup based on their employer count (easy to find online). Who “sells” on the first meeting anyway? 🤔 Don’t worry, I’ll wait…😴 That said, Veteran C-suite execs understand #2, because this is where a conversation/dialogue starts to establish whether a solution is worth evaluating.“
Below is my response to their comment.
Thanks for taking time to read this and reply with your thoughts. You make some very good points. I believe one should feel inspired rather than discouraged. Here’s why:
In the book “Selling to the C-Suite” by Nicholas AC Read and Stephen Bistritz, their research confirms that “a full 84% of Executives said they would usually or always grant a meeting with a salesperson who was recommended internally.”
On the other hand, “Cold calling ranked the lowest, with only 20% of participants (Executives) saying they would usually grant a meeting as a result, while 44% said they would never respond to cold calls.”
The idea is not to feel discouraged but to use research to increase your odds of getting a meeting with CEOs. Also, it’s a better experience to work smarter than harder. The #3 point is not about co-dependency; it’s about control. To your point about “who sells on the first meeting anyway?” many have, and many will continue to do so. Every interaction is a “selling” opportunity…you’re selling an idea, a service, a reason for them to take a second meeting…you’re always selling, from the first meeting to the last meeting to the next meeting… 🙂
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Send me an email (ozisco at gmail.com) or a tweet @ozisco
Jeffrey, CEO of GrowingStartup.com, beams with charisma and passion. A conversation with him is highly engaging and inspiring. I was fortunate to cross paths with him during a networking event organized by the African Technology Foundation at the Google Campus in Mountain View. The event featured talented entrepreneurs from all over Africa and the diaspora pitching their ideas to members of the Black Google Network and other invited guests. After conversing with Jeffrey for a few minutes, I knew I had to feature him on the F.I.V.E Questions project.
1. Briefly describe your background and how you got started. What is the most exciting or rewarding aspect of what you do? What could make it even more exciting or rewarding?
I grew up in Ghana for most of my life. Both of my parents are entrepreneurs so I grew up in a home where the drive to school was peppered with pep talks on how to spot business opportunities. One time my mom came home with some doughnuts and proceeded to say “I bought them for this amount, you should take them to school and sell to your mates.” I was too shy at the time but I wish I’d started my mini-doughnut business at the time.
After high school I worked as a business to business salesman on the streets of London. The compensation was only commission based so I didn’t get paid if I didn’t sell anything after twelve hours of work. That taught me that products are a commodity in most markets but the ability to sell is what defines the success of many entrepreneurs.
I started GrowingStartup.com because I wanted to help entrepreneurs make better decisions and to give them a proven system that attracts customers and increases sales.
The biggest problem for struggling business owners is wisdom. The ability to know and do what is right consistently is what I provide through our apps and content. Within the next decade, we’ll be the destination fight for business owners who want to know how to attract paying customers and boost sales.
What I love about what I do at GrowingStartup.com is that I get to help people turn their ideas into profits. It’s a calling for me almost the same way a pastor sees his ministry. Having hundreds of millions of aspiring and early stage entrepreneurs using our products and services to start and grow profitable businesses would make it even more exciting. We plan on creating other forms of content such as video games and TV shows for entrepreneurs so that’s something else I’m really looking forward to doing.
2. Flash back and then fast forward to the present, what has surprised you the most about the success in your business? What advice do you have for others looking to take a similar path? Is there something you could have done differently to get to where you are quicker?
What has surprised me is the effectiveness of content marketing. Even while I was working as copywriter for an advertising agency, I started out cold calling small businesses that I knew I could help with branding and web design services. As a matter of fact I did not even have a company name or website at the time. I just went and pitched the value of my services and I had over 90 percent conversion rates. What happened afterwards was that I realized consulting did not scale and what many small businesses needed was a system to increase sales and multiply their conversion rates. I started blogging about marketing and sales and that brought in clients from all over the world.
My advice for people who have a job but would want to start their own businesses would be to focus on a need or problem that they can solve better, cheaper or faster than anyone else.
My success would have been accelerated if I had learnt how to market and sell better at the beginning. The second thing is faith. I have learnt that what separates the top performers in business from the others is a mixture of boldness and understanding. Those two pillars are the keys to exponential growth.
3. What is your unfair advantage? What would your colleagues or clients say are the main reasons that make working with you rewarding?
My unfair advantage would be two-fold and that is having the boldness of faith and using love as my business strategy. By God’s grace I don’t believe in impossibilities like most people do. I also know that the less excuses you have the easier it is do what’s necessary.
With regards to love I believe the easiest way to innovate and get paid more is by giving more value to your customers than anyone else in your market. People always buy things at a discounted price to the real value so giving people magnitudes more than they are paying for is good.
I reckon that’s what people will say is rewarding about working with me. For example, the last time I sold an online course, I noticed one of the students needed help. I conducted special consulting sessions for free just to help her. She’s now a lifetime client.
4. Reflect on all of the key sacrifices and trade-offs you’ve had to make to get to where you are today. Which of these would you say was the most pivotal and why?
The most pivotal sacrifice would be how much time I spend reading and imbibing knowledge. Many of the advice out there is tactical. There are a lot of do’s and don’ts that don’t produce results. I found out that understanding how to create the best products and most importantly how to get the right people to buy them makes up for the 50 steps to success that we see and hear all around us.
5. What is the best piece of actionable advice that you’ve received that continues to be source of inspiration in good times and challenging times?
It’s biblical. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (amplified version) talks about how to use love in daily life. It’s not the emotional or sexual high the movies paint it out to be. In my business we make it a point to out-give (and out-love) everyone else. That’s invaluable advice.
Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth]. Source: https://www.bible.com/bible/8/1co.13.4-8.amp
Jeffrey Manu’s Bio
Jeffrey A. Manu is a Marketing Strategist and the Founder of Growingstartup.com, a media and technology company. At Growingstartup.com, he builds technology and content that help aspiring and early stage entrepreneurs to start and grow profitable startups.
He enjoys reading business books, biographies, Christian books and watching movies and TV shows. He particularly like shows like The Profit and Billions. Above all else, spending time with my wife is his greatest pleasure. In addition to this, he enjoys playing basketball and reassures himself that he could have played in the NBA league 🙂 #Baller
I’m excited to launch the “Find Insights Via Engaging™ (F.I.V.E) Questions with an Entrepreneur” series. The series will feature answers to 5 unique questions posed to an entrepreneur. Their answers will enable every reader to learn how they got started in their venture, discover how they mastered their unique set of skills, and gain from any piece of advice that has continued to deliver dividends. It will be fun, insightful, and inspiring. The goal is that you are able to take at least one actionable tip from each conversation.
1. Briefly describe how you got started and what is the most exciting or rewarding aspect of what you do?
It was early 2012 and my very pregnant wife was at the store getting groceries for the week. I received a phone call that no one wants to get, the kind of call that stops your heart. “David, I am in the line to check out and none of our credit cards are working. Do you know what is going on?” You see at this point, I had been nursing along a startup that had zero revenue for 8 months, in the heart of the Silicon Valley. Every credit card was maxed and we had a baby on the way in a few short months. To say I was desperate would be an understatement…
The one thing I did right while starting my first company was I focused on the digital side of the business. I knew that growing a business online would be better than going door to door as I had done to start my career. So I started devouring Internet marketing training for hours on end, reprogramming the way I thought about marketing and scalability. The 2 trainers I had been listening to were Jeff Usner and Hans Johnson and you will never guess who called me just about a week after we hit rock bottom financially…Jeff Usner. I had met him a few times at some business training / personal development events but didn’t even know he remembered me. He offered me a job in Texas and I took it.
This was the start of my career in the Internet, but I started at the bottom making almost no money. To me it didn’t matter, anything was better than what I was making with what I was currently doing, and I would get to learn the skill I passionately wanted to learn, Internet Marketing.
I worked with Jeff for 3½ years and created multiple online products, marketing funnels, and web properties that made millions of dollars. I received hands on experience, and built valuable confidence and belief in my abilities to take an idea and bring it to life online.
In October of 2015 I was laid off from my work with Jeff’s company as they moved out of Texas and back east to Pennsylvania. After a few months of consulting for companies, I decided to launch my own agency, Redemit One. It was one consulting client who pushed me over the edge to go from floundering consultant, to full-fledged marketing agency. This client, Manny, was a non-profit who had a vision to help kids coping with cancer feel like rockstars for a day. Manny had some great material on coping with cancer, and wanted me to create a marketing funnel to promote it. So I sat down with him and created a lead generation funnel that could not only help more cancer patients, but also bring in new and reliable donors to fund his charity.
This is the type of work that keeps me going. I love taking an existing business and creating a way for them to have predictable, scalable revenue. There is so much misinformation out there about getting rich on the Internet, and I like going in implementing simple, proven strategies that drive revenue. That is what excites me. Creating something like this for a client, then handing them the keys to the system and letting them run with it. I don’t want to be the company that creates a system that is dependent on Redemit One. I want my clients to be able to walk away from me at any point and continue to grow their vision and company. As short-sighted as that may sound, my client’s businesses were never mine to start with, so why should I hold them ransom just because I help them grow revenue in a new area?
2. Flash back and then fast forward to the present, what has surprised you the most about mastering your unique set of skills and what advice do you have for others looking to learn a similar skill?
I think the most surprising part of looking back at my journey in this business is how simple what I do really is. With all of the complex training and courses out there, it is easy to get bogged down and never actually do anything online. The key to learning this skill set is something Jeff taught me, find what works and copy that. You always want to emulate success. There are other smarter, more patient people out there who have tested and perfected a business model Online, so find out what they are doing and do your best to copy that.
3. What is your unfair advantage?
My clients will tell you that my unfair advantage is that I have already been there. I have done it. I know how it looks to start with an idea and turn it into scalable revenue, so every project I take on, I have the end in mind for the client. I also never sell them on their own idea. Most new prospective client meetings are me telling them why their idea won’t work and how a few minor tweaks in their perspective will make all the difference. To me, if the idea doesn’t produce recurring revenue for the client, I will not take the project. It is not worth it for anyone…
4. Describe the results a potential client could expect when they do business with you and how do you plan to WOW them?
The result a client will see when they work with Redemit One is a revenue machine will be created. They will get a completed mechanism that brings them new leads and converts those leads into money. Pretty simple really. I specialize in lead generation, and that really is the heartbeat of what makes clients happy. They are flooded with new leads who convert to cash. That will motivate any business owner to refer Redemit One. I think what wows clients is that I am not afraid to walk away from taking their business. If I can see at the start that the project is not going to produce results of the client, I am happy to walk away from the money upfront and point them in a different direction, or to a different company for the work. The only thing worse than no clients, is unsuccessful ones…
5. What is the best advice (or quote or insight) you received that gave you the confidence to launch your business?
The best insight I was given to launch my company came from 2 different clients on the same day. I was waffling between the idea of going back to work for a big company and continuing to hone my skills and the idea of staying on my own. Both clients challenged me and asked, “With the skill set that you have and all that you know how to do, how could you go back to work for anyone knowing they could never pay you what you are worth?” The advice I would give any entrepreneur looking to going out on their own is this, never let your ego get in the way of your journey. You have to be able to take an honest step back and evaluate whether you need to continue developing your skill by working for someone, or if you really have all the right pieces to be your own boss.
“Never let your ego get in the way of your journey.” – David McMenomey
