Thursday, July 22, 2010, 11:00pm CDT | Modified: August 16, 2010, 11:00 PM

Discipline and staying focused key

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As I and an optimistic young entrepreneur sat at a café table and the steam curled from our coffees, I asked a simple question: When it comes to running a business, what’s more important, effectiveness or efficiency?

While the answer was both, the question led to a discussion of the key to balancing them: discipline.

Entrepreneurs must have the discipline to be effective (doing the right things) and efficient (doing things right), no matter what temptations may arise. A truly healthy company grows because its leaders display a fanatic’s devotion to sales and directs key resources — such as time, thought, effort, dollars, etc. — into that core goal. To avoid the insanity — or loss of perspective — that can accompany fanaticism, and minimize the discouragement that can set in over the course of an extended effort, it’s essential to employ consistent measures that can indicate progress toward success or away from it.

Peter Drucker, the renowned scholar and expert on organizational management, said “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” And experience has consistently proven him right. Time spent nailing down key metrics, including annual, quarterly and monthly revenue goals, frees a leader’s mind to project the number of sales opportunities necessary to achieve success. With that target in hand, one can line out just how many essential sales elements one must complete to generate those opportunities. A leader should know how many mailers, email blasts, tweets, calls, meetings, presentations and proposals are needed for a given day, week or month.

Although nailing down the essential metrics is tough. They’re just letters on a piece of paper until they’re brought to life by the “e” word: execution. It’s not human nature to pick up the phone and talk to friends, neighbors or strangers about a business pitch, so clear metrics must be tied to proper motivation. It’s tough to motivate any salespeople to overcome their hesitations, so the example must start at the top with leaders who sell. Time spent in the sales trenches will keep leaders dialed into the sales challenges, more aware of the product, and better connected to the customer. This awareness helps leaders better motivate their teams.

The last element of discipline is monitoring. Edwards Deming, father of total quality management, nailed it when he said, “You can expect what you inspect.” This is true in the wild world of sales, where inspired leaders must monitor sales metrics like a hawk. Salespeople are human, so they’re as tempted as anyone to cut a few corners, skip a few calls or watch a midday soccer game. Unfortunately, once a key calling period slides, it becomes easier to let a day’s activities slide and then watch as a week’s work migrates into the next week. Before long, a whole sales cycle is lost and the really uncomfortable conversations start.

Although many companies start with a diagram on a napkin, it’s wise to integrate sales technology sooner than later and invest in a good customer relationship management system. The right technology tools enable leaders to track sales activities and opportunities against agreed-upon metrics.

With good data on the desktop, a leader can then make adjustments based on metrics, because they rarely lie. They may reveal that everything is on track or that the organization is consistently falling short. Those realizations can drive a leader to modify targets, change motivational approaches or find people better suited to the company.

Robert Beasley is CEO of ThisQuarter, an Austin-based sales strategy and training consulting firm.