Spending more time thinking

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As Demographica has grown, we’ve been faced with many challenges in scaling the company. Employing more people means more meetings, more meetings means less  “Warren” time and I find that I spend the majority of my time motivating, coaching and collaborating with the Demographicans.

Whilst this is critically important when running a company, the side effect of this is that I have very little time to think.

Thinking is one of the most underestimated skills of today’s business leaders. It’s not that we don’t think – it’s just that we don’t prioritize “thinking time” because it feels unproductive.

Some of the most creative and innovative people of our time literally set time aside each month to do nothing else but think. During this time they make sense of what is going on inside their companies as well as in their industries and furthermore, the world – I strongly believe that this “thinking time” is a real competitive advantage.

My commitment this year is to spend more time thinking.

Business books that have inspired me

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I often get asked my opinion on what books to read by people who are either starting or building a business. The truth is that there are a plethora of amazing books that are available, the difficulty is finding the ones that offer a solution to your problems. The even bigger challenge is actually knowing what your business or personal problems are.

Here are some recommendations that have truly helped and inspired me:

  • I was struggling to find experiences on how passion and love could be commercialized – Pour your Heart Into it by Howard Schultz, the founder of Starbucks solved that problem.
  • How often does it happen when somebody shows you the work that they have produced and you approve it because it’s “good enough”? Purple Cow by Seth Godin taught me how “good enough” is simply not good enough. The companies that consistently succeed strive for excellence, or how Seth Godin puts it – companies that are remarkable.
  • Those of you that know me and have had experience with Demographica will know what a huge believer I am in a strong company culture. In my opinion, the Demographica culture is our single biggest competitive advantage and we continue to invest significantly in preserving and enhancing our culture. Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, the founder of Zappos, delivers the worlds greatest case study on how a superb company culture built a billion dollar business.

Enjoy and good luck.

How to motivate a sales team

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I am incredibly proud that the Demographica sales team won “Best Sales Team” at The Bookmarks Awards in 2012.

During the year we tested various incentives to see what type of incentive would drive a sales team to bring in a higher volume of deals as well as higher value deals.

This is what we learned:

  1. One type of incentive does not motivate all types of people
  2. You need to figure out what type of incentive drives each and every sales person
  3. Very often, a “high five” achieves more than monetary incentives

The take away from this experience is that a real understanding of emotional intelligence (EQ) is the primary skill set that a sales manager needs and public “high fives” are underestimated at your peril.

They key to sustaining a startup

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Here are three lessons that we have learned whilst starting Demographica.

  1. How ever long you think it will take you – double it
  2. What ever you think it is going to cost you – double it
  3. No matter how much you plan, it’s simply not going to turn out like that

The take away from these lessons are that being resilient is key to sustaining a startup.

Here is the definition of the word ‘resilient‘.