But you have already had revolutions now its time for a Revenuetion!

Date: Last week

Location: Large UK City

Meeting with: Large UK Firm

In Attendance: CFO, COO, CIO plus supporting managers

Purpose: Present the Revenuetion

Meeting Notes:

I am always impressed by the amount of effort and funding invested in turning one of these top firms reception areas into an inspirational and impressive environment. Great feeling waiting for an extra 15 minutes looking out over a vast skyline. 

First meetings are never awkward, in fact I thrive on them. Within the first few minutes I try and work out the personalities then as the minute develops make a real effort to gather information about what is important to them. It is 'them' that is important. 

Within 30 minutes of the meeting I had a great feel for the issues and the opportunity. They were certainly impressed by our approach and what we could deliver; then 'brick wall'. 

"The trouble is we invested a large amount of money three years ago in XXXX and on top of that we have no IT resource till next July due to other projects" commented the COO.

"What are the other projects consuming your IT resources for nearly a year" I asked

"The other projects are really not your concern" added the CIO

"You are right, I apologise for asking. But you should not be concerned you should be in a state of panic" I added.

"What!?"  interrupted one of the managers, who clearly saw an opportunity to demolish and slaughter a supplier in the presence of his masters. Interestingly the CFO remained silent all the way through. 

"I apologise, I do not what to be confrontational and there is no intention to be. I am often amazed why sometimes these initial meetings can be so prickly, but I recognise my unconventional approach can cause friction. My point is I have looked at your financials, which are public domain. Net profits are down and PPEP is stagnant, you are being overtaken. I know we can work together and save £million within the next 6 months. You assume I need a lot of IT resource so block me with the lack of availability. The reality is I need little. We know the systems you use and are not planning to replace them at all, just add bits around them. We understand the data and already integrate with them. If you leave this for a further 12 months your losses continue. What other projects do you have that can be delivered within a few months and can give you £x million back?"  I do my hit or bust comment in hope it resonates. 

"Bold statement from you. If correct we would need to review and prioritise projects accordingly. We have no budget in place for such a project though, that would be a big problem" said the CFO finally.

"I understand. First if I gave you £1M now and asked for £xk in return would you take it? I guess you would. Secondly we work on a model with you, you pay us when you get the benefit".

I send the NEXUM Revenuetion project team in to them in two weeks time to discuss details prior to contract. 

Barriers are used by people afraid, they try to keep danger out, but their previous projects that were high cost and high resource caused a revolution. They soon dropped the barriers and were no longer afraid when they realised that were The Revenuetion - We work with you not against!