A Pound of Rocks or Feathers--Part II

There is another side to the equal weight of a pound of rocks or feathers. I argued in a previous posting that many people spend too much time over thinking the choice of what types of foods to eat or diets they should follow to reduce body fat and get in optimal physical shape. At the end of the day, you will gain or lose weight based on the ratio of calories consumed versus calories burned no matter what strategy you employ.

In short, rocks are foods that are of high caloric density and feathers are those that are not. If you set an upper limit of calories per day, simple arithmetic will tell you that you that you cannot eat very many of rocks before you reach your limit. It is a better strategy to eat plenty of feathers throughout the day to control your weight.

What if we applied this concept to business development? Does it apply? Surprisingly, it does, but in completely the opposite fashion. This is especially true for professional service providers such as lawyers, bankers, accountants, doctors and venture capitalists where business development time is at a premium. The fact that they have to practice as well as develop business puts an extreme premium on their time.

First, I will switch all the terminology and metaphors around so that they pertain to generating new revenue. Second, I will create a new simple formula to follow for successful rainmaking. Finally, we will show how this all applies to the real world of business development for a busy professional.

The Terminology
Remember the point of the food analogy. A pound of rocks and feathers are equal when it comes to calories. Rocks symbolize high-density calorie foods and feathers symbolize low-density ones. For example, you can eat four Big Macs (rocks) or 35 apples (feathers) and still take in the same amount of calories. Let us leave what is better for your arteries out of this for now!

However, think about this in terms of time. If you wanted to eat many calories as quickly as you can, Big Macs are the way to go. In about 20 minutes, you could get all your calories for the day. You would probably be miserable, but there is no arguing that it would take a great deal longer to eat 35 apples!

Business development for the busy professional is all about managing their time. You want to be able to generate a certain amount of new business in the shortest amount of time. Since they may only have 5-10 hours a week to spend on revenue seeking activities, high density is the way to go.

You can divide such activities into rocks and feathers as well. Rocks would be face-to-face meetings with prospects and clients, phone calls and other one-on-one type activities. Feathers would be passive marketing activities such as writing articles, giving speeches and engaging in other mass communications efforts. Both are very important, but they also have different densities in terms of generating revenue.

One-on-one interaction with clients and prospects by an individual is much more effective per hour than passive marketing when you look at generating actual revenue (not awareness or recognition). If you set a revenue goal for yourself and have a certain amount of hours to spend attempting to achieve it, you must pay attention to the mix of activities you are engaging in. For purposes of illustration, we will assume that spending one hour in front of a client (a Rockhour) is three times as effective in generating revenue than an hour writing an article (a Featherhour).

So, here comes the math portion of our discussion. Let us take the analogy a step further and say that every Rockhour generates on average $75 of revenue and every Featherhour can produce $25. I bet you can see what direction this discussion is starting to take…

The Formula
If you are going to manage the mix of your activities to maximize the effectiveness of your limited business development time, you need to keep in mind this formula:

(Rockhours)($/Hour) + (Featherhours)($/Hour) = Revenue Generated/Hour

By adding the sum of your Rockhours times how much revenue they typically generate to the number of Featherhours times revenue they generate, you get a measure of total dollars per business development hour according to your mix. Here is a quick example:

(5)($75) + (15)($25) = ($750)/20 = $37.50 generated per hour

Simple, right? Now look how the results change by manipulating some of the variables:

(10)($75) + (10)($25) = ($1000)/20 = $50 generated per hour

By spending a greater portion of time on activities in front of potential clients, you can spend the same amount of time and have a 33% increase in effectiveness AND generated revenue! For someone that has finite limits on their non-billable time, this is a critical concept to know.

The Point
Time is the enemy when it comes to business development. While marketing and communications activities are essential in helping to develop face-to-face opportunities, you need to spend as much time as possible in client-facing situations to maximize your results. These are the “rocks” of business development: high-density efforts to get to the revenue goal as fast as possible.

So, a pound of rocks and a pound of feathers still weigh the same. However, when you need to make choices as to which ones will help you get to the end goal quickly and efficiently, pay attention to the mix. Using rocks will tip the scale quicker.

A pound of rocks or a pound of feathers?

What weighs more, a pound of rocks or a pound of feathers? This common riddle is actually quite easy to figure out if you just take a moment to think about it. The answer, of course, is that they both weigh the same. So why do people over think the answer?

I use this riddle as an analogy on how people view their diet plans when trying to shed a few pounds of excess baggage, also known as fat, from their aging bodies. People over think the question of what is the best method of losing weight by participating in extreme diets such as Atkins, South Beach or even Jenny Craig. All claim to have the secret formula. However, there is only one formula that you need to learn:

Calories consumed – calories burned = X

If X is a positive number, you will gain weight. If it is negative, you will lose weight. If it equals zero, you will maintain your current weight. There might be some people that have to watch specifics such as their sodium or saturated fat intake based on their current health condition. However, for the majority of us, this simple formula will be all you ever need.

In past years, fat was the culprit—don’t eat it. Then carbs were evil—stay away. Many doctors also are concerned about what too much protein will do to you over the long haul. As a result, people keep switching from diet to diet looking for the magic formula. Guess what? There is no secret formula.

Food is not bad for you. Eating too much of any one thing is not nutritionally sound, so you should not exclude anything or try to force a eating lifestyle on yourself that cannot be sustained for the long term. You should be eating a balance diet of the most natural foods you can get your hands on and monitor your caloric intake.

Most people get fat from doing things we know will make us gain weight. We dine at restaurants too much. We eat too much in frequency and in portion size. We skip workouts. We partake of a little too much alcohol. Everyone knows this makes you slip into an unfit state. So, why is it so many people are perplexed on how to lose the weight you have gained from doing it?

So, if you are looking for the answer to this problem, simply do the opposite of what made you heavy. Eat less. Reduce portion sizes. Exercise more. Reduce the number of drinks you have a week and times you go out to restaurants.

Trying to find the secret formula of what types of foods to eat or what diet program to follow is like arguing over whether the pound of rocks or feathers weighs more. It all equals out in the end. Think of rocks as food heavy in fat, sugar and calories. You do not get to have many before you get to a pound. However, foods low in fat sugar and calories are feathers. You can have a lot more of them before you reach that pound. Concentrate in reducing your caloric intake by eating many feathers, combined with burning more calories for exercise and you will feel more satisfied. You can make that elusive X a negative number and find that your diet plan works every single time.

Like Finding $20 on the Ground

Need a reason to finally break down and get serious about that exercise plan? You have no idea how it will feel to put on a three or four year old suit (once known as your tight suit), and it be loose. Let me say that again. You have NO idea how good that feels. Every time you sit, stand, move, it just feels great. And, it is now free because you get to live that way every minute of the day.

Maybe you haven’t been there in a while, so it is hard to imagine. I equate it to the same feeling someone gets when they find a nice crisp $20 bill in the middle of nowhere on the street. It is an instant thrill and makes you smile whether you are a millionaire or fighting for every dollar that comes you way.

Exercise and discipline is a pretty inexpensive method of feeling that way. And, luck has nothing to do with it.

Keep Your Head Up

Sometimes, you just don't have it in you. There is no shame in that. If you are a hard charging person, giving your all day after day, it should not come as any surprise to you that you need a break every now and then. That may be in the form of a day of light effort or perhaps no effort at all. This goes for both your work life and exercise.

You can overtrain in both areas. Remember how we talked about momentum before? That same momentum can also push you right into injury in the gym. It could also take you on some wild tangent in business development, which you don't notice until you have wasted quite a bit of effort.

Putting your head down and working your butt off is admirable. But, hey, oxen can do that. Be smart about it. You have to occasionally, stop, look around, readjust, regroup and then reapply your efforts.