Thread by @JasonKanigan

I see so many #Space and #defense contractor #founders enamoured with their tech. But ask them "Who's your customer?" and guess what? They have no idea. A business without a customer isn't a business!

Every business needs four systems. Your business is no different. Don't tell me it is, because it is not.

The first system EVERY business needs is a #leadgeneration system. Eyeballs have to come from somewhere to see your offer.

The second system every single business needs is a QUALIFICATION system. Those leads you brought in from some source or other need to be filtered. Some people are a better fit for you and your offer than others. Separate the wheat from the chaff.

The third system your business, yes yours, needs is a
#sales CLOSING system. Somehow you need to turn some of those qualified prospective customers into ** buyers **. There is a huge difference between a prospect and a Buyer. A buyer buys. They take out their credit card and BUY

A closing system could be one or more of a lot of things. It could be a traditional sales call. It could be a sales letter on a web page. It could be a Video Sales Letter (VSL). Or it could be more complicated, like a radio ad that leads to an advertorial to a sales call.

And the FOURTH system that every. single. business. including. yours. needs is a fulfillment system. You need a way of doing what you say you'll do. And you need to do it in a cost-effective and timely manner, or you'll go broke. Now you may think that last point is dumb...but...

I see, for example, restaurant owners every week who don't know how to properly cost their dishes. And so for every meal they promptly and properly serve to their guests, they are going faster into bankruptcy. Think big businesses have this down pat? Think again...

As an OpEx guy and #salestraining pro I've seen inside so many businesses, large and small, over the past quarter-century. And most do NOT have these four systems down pat. They skip past several, and survive mostly because they're good at one and charge enough to cover mistakes.

Take a good hard look at your business, #founder. Are you competently executing on all four of these systems? Can you even make a process list of steps for each of them? I doubt it. "But I'm making money!" you cry. Are you so sure?

Cashflow enough to keep going, maybe. But making money? You tell me.

I recently spoke with a guy who's both a naval contract administrator and a defense contractor. And he told me something I immediately wrote down and then had put on our website:

"You operate at a higher level than most in two areas: #businessdevelopment and #Operations. So you help these companies make better promises...and then keep them." The first we do through innovative bizdev processes...

...and the second we do through operational excellence programs. I want you making promises to your clients that you can actually keep, that don't rely on puffery to get the order. And I want you executing in a predictably profitable way through four systems. Do you want that?