Change it up now, not tomorrow

A couple of important thoughts from an HBR note this morning thanks to “To Innovate, Think Like a 19th-Century Barn Raiser,” by John Geraci and Christopher Chavez ....
"Next time you’re tasked with an initiative, start by deliberately seeking out different perspectives. Recruit the people who will be affected by your new product or service, and pay special attention to those who provide support services or add-ons. Having the right people is more important than having the right idea. Bring this curated group together either in person or virtually to trade ideas, share perspectives, and contribute to the initiative".

The critical sentence above "Having the right people is more important than having the right idea.".   In my life as a manager, as a venture capitalist, as a professor and as a coach, the quality of the sales individuals and having the right mix of players on the sales team is far more critical than the technology.  Very rarely as an investor do I experience that the stuff just doesn't work.  Lots of pivots, unexpected changes, and unwanted additions, but 95% of the time, the stuff works.  I wish that I could say the same for the selecting of the right sales and marketing people on the senior management team.   

Calculate your MTBL.  As an engineer or quality technician, figuring out your MTBF, "Mean Time Between Failures" is critical to the overall integrity of the design and its manufacturability. 

Do the same with your "Mean Time Between Leaves".  Do the math on when you hired a sales manager, when you first suspected that there was a fit problem and when they left, either by resigning or by termination.  Take that number and then objectively go back through the stats to figure analytically out what broke down in the hiring and onboarding process.  Our data shows that we unfortunately hire primarily on skills, but that we typically fire on attributes, or more correctly, the lack of attributes.

Ultimately, the realization of success and the velocity of the revenue curve always comes back to the quality of the sales and marketing managers we hire!