We recently connected with Kevin Lawson and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kevin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear your thoughts about family businesses.
I grew up in a family owned and family run business and, not surprisingly, in my work career I’ve always felt a calling to serve the family business owner as a customer type and go to market focus. Experiencing the challenges and battles that founders, owners, second and third generation family businesses fight and wrestle with, has offered me a unique perspective on how to not only serve their needs but also how to help them thrive and cultivate the next wave of leaders, especially in the vein of sales leadership and management. One of the pitfalls I specifically try to help owners avoid is the lack of a sales system. Being able to systematically approach revenue generation is the cornerstone of business succession planning whether to the next generation, employees, or to another ownership group. Systemizing the sales process allows the business to not only replicate the owner’s approach to selling, but also paves the way for onboarding new salespeople and training, then refining, the process for additional successes.
I worked with an organization led by the original founder and, nearing the end of his work career, had a desire to sell the business as part of his retirement funding. He had poured the better part of 40 years into this organization and now was looking forward to harvesting the fruits of his life’s work.
Upon receiving a less than flattering valuation of his business, he enlisted my help to do 3 major things to help improve the valuation. we first tackled the sales process and market-facing message used to generate revenue. This included documenting the process in a CRM and becoming disciplined in the use of the CRM. The second major undertaking was to build a lead generation machine to support the growth and build a funnel of leads and a backlog of won deals via our CRM tooling and process. The final land largest initiative we had to engage was getting him out of the sales role and into a coaching role. That meant hiring people to do the sales work inside the systems we built.
The initial, lower than desired valuation stemmed from the inability of outsiders to see how the revenue was generated if the principal was the main salesperson. Further, a lack of a defined sales process limited an outsider’s ability to understand the business and sales timelines that produced revenues and profits. Simple, the owner had a reduction in commercial value placed on the business because outsiders to the business could not rationalize paying a high price for unproven, and undocumented systems. It’s a story that is unfortunately common. Fortunately for my customer, we were able to delay his retirement timeline slightly to allow us the time and ability to prove out these systems and increase the valuation.
Family and private businesses need systems and controls for their businesses so that they are able not only to compete with the others in their competitive space, but also compete for those premium dollars at the time they are ready to exit the business. It requires planning, work, and especially grit; of which every family business I’ve ever worked with has a ton of grit to tackle change management challenges like adding systems to their organization’s sales function.
Kevin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
After nearly a decade with Fortune 500 companies and having a wealth of mentors pouring into my personal and professional successes, I spent almost another decade and a half working with family owned businesses in strategy, operations, procurement/ supply chain, executive and sales leadership roles. In that time with family owned businesses, the idea that businesses have a universal set of challenges in their revenue generation efforts. In understanding that through the lens of an abundance mindset and opportunity, it seemed as if the market was demanding tools, strategy, and coaching on building better selling systems. At the core of sales exists a few fundamental areas or domains that every business needs to operate effectively and to a greater degree, efficiently. The clear and present market opportunity is to serve business owners to provide a structure they can personally adhere to, repeat, and hire into. Requires focus in 4 key areas: sales strategy, sales methodology, key performance measures and analysis, and a sales organization structure,
None of these areas are built to 100% effective so they require constant and persistent attention and refinement, which is where I add value to organizations. I’m able in whole or in part to focus on these areas individually or holistically to drive change and success in a business. I am frequently asked about how to professionalize an organization as a reason to have a first conversation with a business owner, with the second most frequent conversations are a two way tie for compensation plans for sales people and hiring salespeople more effectively. All of these opening challenges are rarely the reason people hire me. Instead, they hire me because the connections of these challenges to the lack of systems and processes and unified value propositions and market strategy are what they find the most value in. And, for founder led sales organizations, being accountable to do the sales activities regularly that will grow the business are largely what individuals find a great deal of value in.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Growing my practice is a direct output of being intentional in attracting the right type of client that allows me to partner, serve, and grow with them. The strategic direction for growth in my first and second year efforts in my business building phase focused on finding my niche, then exploring the personal fit and value to my niche market. I was acquiring and building client relationships based on high touch and high value impact approach.
An aside; very early in my network building efforts, I offered so many services and package variations, it diluted my value and ability to focus on the specific value clients were looking for. Not surprisingly, I stumbled a few times with my initial clients. It was in this formative phase where the lightbulb turned on and I was able to define my niche and the problems they are experiencing along with how those challenges impact their businesses. It was a watershed moment for unlocking the mechanisms for growing my client list and their longevity with me.
More tactically, my approach to business development has always centered on connecting with individuals in my market space who have both trust and influence with founders and leaders of business and providing them value and insights they can use with their clients. Simply, show them the value I bring them and their clients.
In client coaching, I share this approach with this success-driving key: do not keep score in relationships. No one will owe you anything for investing your time in their business. There is never an expectation of getting back from someone when I give anything that their clients may use. This strikes some people as odd when I am taking them through a coaching workshop because they are thinking about business development but find this approach to be at odds with their expectations of relationship development.
By focusing on the person and their client, it releases us from wondering what reciprocal value will return. In doing so, you become part of a trusted advisory team that is always value focused. If you help enough people reach their goals, you will naturally surround yourself with people who will do anything to help you achieve your goals. It has the added benefit of never looking desperate or needy in a sales situation, which is the leading reason bad deals are made on inflated scope, promises, or expectations, or decreased prices just to keep people busy. Bad deals are always bad deals, having the ability to recognize that early saves everyone heartache and headache.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
Teams who perform at a high level have a few core traits of competitive and collective drive, incremental and reasonable goals, capability thinking mindset, appropriate support and tools for the goal to be achieved. If you are reading this and thinking about how to build a high performance team, focus on the people and mindset only after identifying the tools required. Then you get to the meat of why teams are high achieving; leadership. People want to be led to victory and they want to be a part of the journey and the winning moment so we, as leaders, are required to foster that type of environment.
For any leader of a team, whether you built it or have inherited it, my universal rule is try to catch people doing things right and winning. Also, when they are not winning, it’s never okay to push them down further, leaders must lead, especially when tough times are present. It sets the tone for accountability and fosters a capabilities focused environment. When high performers are not performing, they are likely their own worst critic. They need wise counsel and solution focused thinking to repoint their efforts toward success.
For teams that are achieving greatness, the advice I give all leaders is to monitor the team’s balance and attempt to anticipate roadblocks and hurdles that could trip or slow progress. Balance is key, first as a means to prevent burnout. High achievers seem to have an endless supply of energy, until they do not. Guard against burnout. High performing teams can extend successes when leaders are scouting ahead of the progress and feeding them with insight and wisdom about next steps. When leaders try to revert to doing, that’s when problems erupt. Avoid the doing-mindset as a leader. There will always be a time to pitch in, but only as a last resort or when asked for help or input. You have a high performing team, help by getting out of their way.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lighthousesalesadvisors.com
- Instagram: @Lighthouse_Sales_Advisors
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kwlawson/
- Twitter: @K_Law_513
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@two-tall-guys-talking-sales