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[Re-sent] #86: Constraints can be a powerful tool to use in your business.

[Re-sent] #86: Constraints can be a powerful tool to use in your business.

Learn this one thing from the Beatles to improve sales

October 30, 2022

Reading time: ~1 min

Proven strategies to grow cyber security sales

Enjoy this email….because who doesn’t want a bluebird every week???

The Beatles used constraints to improve and you can too. Here’s how…

In January 1969, the Beatles created the bulk of the songs for their "Let it Be" album. Some of their most well-known and liked songs are on that album, such as Let it Be, Get Back, I've Got a Feeling, and The Long and Winding Road.

What's fascinating to me is that they gave themselves two constraints:

Time: the songs had to be ready for a live performance in 20 days (and they started on January 3rd with pretty much nothing!)

Live: the songs were going to be played live, so they could only use the instruments they could play simultaneously (i.e., no multi-tracks, dubbing, additional instruments, etc.)

In the end, they took 23 days and roped in a keyboard player (Billy Preston) to play alongside them.

On January 30th, they played the new songs live on the roof of the Apple Corp offices in Jermyn Street in London (the famous "concert on the roof"). This was the Beatles' final live performance.

Sometimes we view constraints as a bad thing. But we shouldn't! Like the Beatles, we can use constraints to move forward faster. To bring clarity to decisions and ideas. And to help us get better.

Here are NINE ideas to use constraints today

Only THREE discovery questionsIf you conduct long, tedious, meandering, and inconsequential discovery calls with prospects (be honest now!), what if you could only ask your next prospect THREE questions? What would they be?
Only target FIFTY companies this yearIf your team is losing sight of your ICP and getting distracted chasing after less-than-ideal prospects, ask them if they could only target FIFTY companies for the next year; which ones would they pick?
Only talk about TWO differentiatorIf your team wants to talk about ALL the ways your product is different, ask them if they could only talk about TWO; which ones would they pick? And how would they describe them?
Only have a FIFTEEN-minute sales callIf you book sixty-minute first meetings with prospects but find they could be more productive, challenge yourself to imagine how you would run the first meeting if you only had FIFTEEN minutes.
Only use THREE slidesIf your marketing team gives you a fifteen-slide sales deck to use, challenge them to come back with the THREE-slide version of it. (you should also limit them to thirty words total!)
Only spend ONE minute on each slideIf your team spends too long on the slide deck, challenge that if they could only spend ONE minute per slide, how would they use each slide?
Only deliver THREE features next quarterIf there are too many feature requests from the product team, ask them which THREE they would pick if that's all that could be built.
Only go to FIVE eventsIf your team is asking to go to many events in the coming period, tell them they can only go to FIVE and ask them to pick them.
Only book ONE order this quarterIf your team is not maximizing deal values, challenge them to think they can only book ONE deal this quarter and still get to quota. Ask them how they will grow the size of this ONE deal.

Constraints can be a powerful tool to use in your business.

As you look at the rest of 2022 and plan for 2023, how can you use constraints to get clarity on an aspect of your business?

Time for a dad joke break...

Q: Did you hear about the cheese factory that exploded in France?

A: There was nothing left but de Brie!

-Yan Guerif, Senior Account Manager @ Bugcrowd

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