Buffett’s Success Metric; Newest Centibillionaire; Works Every Time; Emplify March 26

Hello ScaleUps, 

Hope it’s been a productive and purposeful week. Here are some insights/opportunities to help you outlearn/outthink the competition.

Scaling Up User Conference May 23 Atlanta –
Practical experience sharing from top mid-market firms using our Scaling Up tools to grow (why struggle to implement). More below, but first… 

New Partnership in Employee Engagement – Webinar 26 March 1pm ET
Knowing the people side of the business is critical, Scaling Up has partnered with the employee engagement measurement platform Emplify to provide insights, best practices, and tangible tools for scaleups. Emplify CEO, Santiago Jaramillo, and I are hosting a webinar to discuss how business leaders worldwide are scaling their organizations while creating a culture of high employee engagement and how those two transformations go hand-in-hand. Join us March 26th at 1pm ET by registering HERE. 

Best Sales Hint –
One idea Avaneesh Marwaha picked up at our CEO Boot Camp last week added 10% value to a new SaaS contract and extended it from 3 years to 5 years, returning 100x the cost of the camp. Notes Avaneesh, CEO of Litera Microsystems, “the deal I closed last Friday, the CIO emailed today (Tuesday) with a bunch of issues. Instead of emailing back, I picked up the phone (as Verne suggested) and talked to him directly and actually got him to agree to a bit more on the subscription value by listening to his needs and concerns. We structured the deal differently to match those needs and concerns which ended up giving us more up front as well.” Avaneesh, congrats on your “bias for action.”

Phone vs. Email in Critical Sales/Negotiation Situations –
The idea I shared with Avaneesh and the other CEOs came from Northwestern Univ. Professor Dr. Victoria Medvec’s “High Stakes Negotiation” course. When you’re in the middle of closing a big deal and receive emailed questions from the customer, never, ever respond back with an email. Instead, ALWAYS “pick up the phone” and address their questions. There is often more behind their questions than is obvious; you get a lot more interaction time; and you’re going to structure a better response/deal. This both improves the outcomes and strengthens the relationship.

Warren Buffett’s Measurement of Success –
Would people hide you (yes, hide – it’s not a typo)? Watch this 3-minute excerpt from a Warren Buffett presentation to get the context for his measurement of success – they go purchase a new mattress (just watch the video – and find out what you can’t buy!). Thank you, Rabbi Stephen Baars, for posting this important reminder.

Vitamin C Might Reverse Stress-induced Driver of Breast Cancer –
Nature’s natural antibiotic and chemo, Vitamin C, continues to garner attention as the latest clinical research shows it’s ability to reduce the size of tumors. As a precaution, and to boost energy, I still get a high-dose 50-gram IV C, with a 2-gram glutathione push, every few weeks (now going on 20 years). It’s the equivalent of an oil and filter change every 30,000 minutes!

Now There are Two (Fun Fact for the Weekend) –
Besides Vladimir Putin, there are now two official centibillionaires – Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.  Even after giving away $35 billion, Gates wealth hit exactly $100 billion this week, driven by Microsoft’s continued stellar performance as the #1 most valuable firm in the world. This Fortune article highlights the achievement.

Scaling Up User Conference May 23 Atlanta –
A separate and popular third day to our ScaleUp Summit, the Scaling Up User Conference provides an opportunity for you and your team to learn best practices directly from top firms and their coaching partners using our one-page Growth Tools to successfully scale. I open with an hour update and Q&A followed by a series of breakout sessions organized around the 4 Decisions: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash.

Wear Black and/or White with a Splash of Red –
Aligning with our “Scaling Up in Action” Summit theme, we’re hosting Atlanta’s top’s 80s MTV band Electric Avenue for a fun evening of music and networking with 1000+ leaders of mid-market scaleups. Register you and your team for the ScaleUp Summit now.

CEO-BOOTCAMP: spend 3.5 days with Verne, serial entrepreneur John Ratliff, and 6 other CEOs in a beautiful retreat setting, addressing the constraints holding back you, your business, and your industry. Jun 4 – 7, 2019.

EXITING: Thinking about selling the business for $40 million or more? Want to get 25% to 200% more than you thought? Request the whitepaper from the Exit Strategies Summit at Harvard from Denise Richmond at (610) 299-6466 or email at [email protected]  

COACHING:

Have you ever wondered if working with a coach might accelerate your company's growth, exponentially? Do you have what it takes to move the dial from good to great? The Scaling Up team is prepared to support you. We have helped 40,000 other organizations over the past 30+ years, in scaling up their organizations through coaching, workshops, online training and more. 

We would like to offer you a complimentary, personal follow-up from our Scaling Up team to share how we can support you in scaling your organization.

YES! I WOULD LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT COACHING & RECEIVE A COMPLIMENTARY FOLLOW-UP (CLICK HERE)

For questions or more information contact us at [email protected]

TECHNOLOGY:

Create Accountability – Drive Execution with Align, cloud-based software designed to scale up your Rockefeller Habits implementation. www.aligntoday.com – on your computer, tablet or phone. Click here to watch an introductory video.

Better Book Club — What's your team reading? Increase your books read per team member. Easy, Proven, and in the Cloud at http://www.BetterBookClub.com.