Chalk Talk: Karen Edwards - owner of McPadnet

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I’m a sucker for “how I did it” stories – there’s little arguing with success. Tom Heath’s "Value Added" column this week in Monday's Washington Post about Karen Edwards, the owner of McPadnet, is a great read for any entrepreneur. I won’t rehash Karen’s sales tips emphasized in the article; instead, I’ll emphasize some of the other great points:

1) Karen carries a business card that says VP of Sales. Hopefully this isn't the only card she carries (I trust that she has one that says CEO as well), but this was a tip I learned from listening to a talk by Kevin Plank, the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Under Armour. When he was doing the sales for his fledgling company, he had a card that simply stated that he was a salesperson. In his case, it gave him negotiating power, because he could always leave the room with a prospect and say, “I’ll have to check with the boss to see if we can do that…” There are other advantages to this, too, which is why I have 2 cards. The danger of this is if Karen doesn't consider herself a CEO. ALL (not some – ALL) of my business owner clients, from $500K to greater than $25M, did not call themselves CEO before they engaged us. The problem is that someone has to be the CEO, and if the owner doesn’t act like a CEO, chances are excellent that he/she is working many hours “doing” and fewer hours “leading.” So, hopefully Karen considers herself the CEO of McPadnet!

2) She understands what many entrepreneurs don’t understand: every business is first and foremost in the Sales and Marketing business. So, yes, she is in the printing business, but did you notice how almost Tom’s entire column focused on sales? Karen’s innate understanding of this principle has brought her business success. There are lots of printers out there; the ones that will be successful are the ones who understand how critical sales and marketing is.

3) She is a REAL networker. Every time that I think that I’m a natural networker I read stories like this that put me to shame. We tell our clients that “revenue is in the relationships.” Maintaining solid relationships and altruistically helping other business people is one of the keys to long-term revenue growth (and probably more fulfilling relationships, too).

Notably absent from the column was what Karen is doing to make her business sustainable and scalable, and therefore worth a fortune when she sells it. In other words, what steps has she taken to create a company of mini-Karens that will do ALL the sales and marketing for McPadnet? Sustainability (operating without a hitch if she is sitting in the hospital with a broken back for 4 weeks) and scalability (grows because the owner does not micromanage sales transactions closed by others) are keys to developing a valuable business.

So, although the column doesn’t tell us what steps Karen is taking to “get out of her business,” perhaps you can use it in your own business as a case study to brainstorm a little. What steps would you suggest Karen take to make her team as successful in sales and marketing as she is, and then how would you suggest that she pull herself out of the day-to-day operations of McPadnet?

Read the column here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/21/AR2010022103863.html

GrowStrong!

Coach Grev

The Growth Coach