Sell first, ask questions later
This article looks at the instinct that gets many founders into trouble: always saying "yes".
You'll know what I'm talking about.
It's probably entrepreneurship boiled down to its simplest form - a willingness to offer solutions and try new things, paired with an utter repulsion for saying no to anyone with a budget.
Let's look at the trouble it can get you into.
It's not a problem at first
At first this is just faking it until you make it.
It's not a problem, it's how businesses get started.
The problems start when your habit of doing this carries on into you agency's next growth phases.
As you form a team, you will meet people who don't want to keep jumping into new things and instead want to get very good at the main thing.
This is an excellent complement to your approach.
Dedication to a craft is where true, high-quality work comes from.
When you ask someone who's an expert practitioner to do something that hasn't been thought through you're signalling to them that you don't respect their process and that it's okay to do a quick and dirty job.
Your putting your needs before theirs.
Your progression relies on a great offering and more sales.
They're building a career that requires them to be respected for doing a good job.
If you normalise random requests for new services with no current standard operating procedure, good people will lose faith in you.
This is going to impact your growth. You need good people on board to do amazing work. Amazing work gets results. Results prove your value. Proof increases your reputation, and your reputation leads to more opportunities.
That selling that you are trying to do gets easier when these geniuses are working their magic in your business.
Creating an environment where excellent people can do excellent work is as important to sales as your ability to improvise an offer.
Now the problem is clear. The mindset that got you started is clashing with the mindset that's going to grow you.
You need to work it out and it won't happen naturally - you have to change.
Recognise your influence
If the change you needed to make was a 180-degree turn away from saying "yes” a lot to only doing things properly, we should just change you.
We would take one of those specialists and put them in charge of the agency.
Luckily for you, that wouldn't work.
The agency has to keep evolving. The part of you that wants to try new things is still very much required.
We have to retain some 'let's just do it' spirit and make it harmonious with the 'let's do It right'.
To make this a healthy conflict we first have to recognise it's not a fair fight.
Your voice carries a lot more weight.
However approachable, level-headed and open to debate you think you are, you're the boss.
The pull of new business is also always stronger too. It's a steely mind in any market that doesn't get nervous about turning down work.
So to find this middle ground you have to find a way to adjust for this influence.
Otherwise you'll win the battle and the project will happen, but you'll lose the war.
The work will be average, it won't attract more clients.
Your best people will be stressed and they will leave.
What to do
You got here by thinking on your feet and improvising solutions 5 minutes before the presentation was due.
Turn some of that quick thinking into coming up with a process you could put in practice next week to start addressing this issue.
There's two key things to do
- Reduce your influence
- Understand the team's tolerance
Firstly to reduce your influence distribute the decision-making power of what the agency says yes to.
Get agreement about what is an acceptable promise to make, and what isn't.
Whether this is a forum where these things are discussed or a documented decision tree, that's up to you.
Secondly make sure there's a safe space for the whole team to share their feedback.
You may not think any of this is a problem for your ‘can do’ team.
And maybe it isn't.
Or maybe they aren't telling you.
Every individual will have a different appetite for making it up as you go.
You need to know the level they thrive on.
It's a question of your different hats.
You with your leader hat need to pay attention to this balance.
You need to let your salesperson hat run wild knowing there's a filter that will stop the more damaging promises from impacting your amazing team.