Not all startups are Net startups, even when they do business via the Net.

Recently a client was faced with a dangerous situation well known to entrepreneurs who have enterprise startups or provide services (Net or real-world) and to most sales people; I’ve faced it myself in both roles.

“Lindy” is an entrepreneur and here is what she wrote me,

Good morning! So I finally reached out to my first customer via email and offered to arrange a telephone conversation discussing how their company can best use the platform to communicate with its managers (your advice!!!) – here is the response:

“Thanks for the note. We still intend to use this; however, workload has been exceptionally hectic so I have not had time to work with the site and get our staff involved.

Best intentions though!”

They have over 200,000 employees and it would be huuuge if it works out with them… Fingers crossed… Either way, great learning experience for me.

As you can see, “it” is the opportunity to land a giant account.

• For a salesperson it represents a sizable commission, tons of recognition and a possible promotion.
• For an entrepreneur it means money to move the company forward along with impressive validation that helps land more customers.

So what’s dangerous about it?

• The “egg syndrome” is dangerous to both salespeople and entrepreneurs. It happens when too much time and mental energy is spent thinking about it, strategizing what-if scenarios, daydreaming and waiting for the phone to ring or the email to appear. In short, the sale becomes an egg that is sat on, thought about, coddled and worried over to the point that nothing else gets done.
  The best way to avoid this is to first recognize and admit the symptoms—at least to yourself. Then lay out a battle plan, schedule a set amount of time weekly to follow-up or just day dream, then put it out of your mind and work on other projects/sales. It requires some self-discipline, but if you know what to do and when to do it then you don’t have to think about it and it is easier to focus on other things.
• The “swallow you whole” scenario belongs solely to entrepreneurs. In fact, it is an inherent part of being an entrepreneur and something that you continually face. Large clients require large inputs of effort and can end up utilizing all your time and resources leaving you with no ability to chase the next sale. This one has no easy answer.

Lindy is facing both; she runs her startup herself with certain functions being done by partner companies and the assistance of a few other professionals she knows, but right now it is mainly her. She said her productivity had dropped like a stone because she was “sitting on her egg.” She remedied that with a plan, a schedule and specific tasks to drive the sale forward; otherwise she is forcing herself to ignore it.

The harder decision entrepreneurs face is whether to even pursue that opportunity.

I faced one shortly after I started RampUp Solutions.

An employee met someone from Microsoft at a trade show and the result was an invitation to write for MSDN; the articles focused on hiring skills.

I thought it was a terrific opportunity to get known until I received a call from another Microsoft manager. He said he liked what he read was going to lobby to have me hired to coach MS managers.

That scared me silly; I had no resources, I couldn’t hire trainers, since my approach and philosophy were fairly unique at the time, so there was only me.

While I didn’t refuse, I also didn’t pursue it; with no active follow-up it died a natural death.

Did I make a mistake? Would I have landed the account? Could I have pulled it off?

There’s no way to know.

That is what Lindy is thinking her way through now.

What would you do?

Flickr image credit: Citizen Clark

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 1st, 2011 at 1:15 am and is filed under Entrepreneurs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Tags: entrepreneurs, opportunity, startups
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