Dr Eliyahu M Goldratt, 1947 - 2011

Dear TOC Enthusiast,

A litte over 1 month ago Dr Eliyahu M Goldratt (father of Theory of Constraints and one of my mentors) was diagnosed with lung cancer. It quickly spread and Eli passed on June 11, 2011.

I was fortunate to spend time with him in Israel before his passing. His last days were spent transferring knowledge and getting a small team ready to present and facilitate on his behalf at the TOCICO conference.

We completed that mission yesterday. And I believe it was a big success. We focused on tranferring a process to "Stand on the Shoulders of Giants". This process will ensure that the TOC community continues to thrive.

To give you an idea of how to stand of the shoulders of those that came before, check out this article: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants by Dr Eliyahu M Goldratt (big file with some hand written notes, so be patient while it downloads)

Sincerely,
Dr Lisa
President, Science of Business

Your constraint is ...

I spent this last week with Dr Eliyahu Goldratt. As many of you know I used to work for him as his Global Marketing Director. He invited me to come and check out what he’s been working on. So, here’s my take on it …

One of the key differences in his thinking is that management attention is the constraint.


While your bottleneck may move around, the only reason it moves or that you even have an internal bottleneck is because either 1) you’re not paying attention; and/or 2) you’re not focused on dealing with it; and/or 3) you’re not taking the right actions.


So the issue is one of focus (at least initially). Most management teams are not working on the right things and waste a lot of time doing what really doesn’t make a difference, most of which doesn’t need to be done.


A management team will be effective if they do the things that need to be done and don’t waste time doing what doesn’t need to be done, shouldn’t be done or multi-tasking between too many things. Doing the latter is what consumes all your time and leaves you little or no time to do what should be and needs to be done.

That is all really easy to say, but harder to execute.

Let’s say that we ARE paying attention and that we ARE focused. Now all we have to do is to take the right actions. Piece of cake, right?

No.

… because the action that you think is the right action typically is not. If you’ve been studying Theory of Constraints for a while or reading my stuff for a while you know that our intuition about what specifically to go and do is often WRONG.

Here are just 4 examples:

So, here’s my advice.


1. Understand what you need to be focused on to meet your goals. I’m assuming that you ARE clear on your goal.


2. Focus on that and nothing else (stop multi-tasking and stop your people from multi-tasking).


3. Get’er done, one tactic at time.


If you are not sure of any or all of these – get yourself one of those TOC consultant types. A good TOC expert can get you focused, help you figure out how to stay focused, and get you set up with the right strategy and tactics (specific actions to take) to achieve the results you’re after.


And the return on this investment should be fast and substantial. If you are not sure what your next step should be, contact me for a free 1 hour strategy session. There’s no charge, we’ll see if we can get you pointed in the right direction.



Wishing you success,


Dr Lisa


President, Science of Business, and your favorite TOC Consultant type!

P.S. FOR CUSTOM JOB SHOPS ONLY: The next Velocity Scheduling System Coaching Program starting soon!


P.P.S. Ready to increase sales? You need a Mafia Offer? The ON-LINE Mafia Offer Boot Camp is open for registration!
 
2011 Copyright, Science of Business.  All rights reserved.

Theory of Constraints Overcoming Resistance To Change

Here's a couple of my TOCTips from Twitter.  Both are on the subject of overcoming resistance to change from the Theory of Constraints perspective.

[TOC Tip241] Want people 2 accept change? Present THEIR + – 2 change & their + - 2 not changing. Theory of Constraints #tocot

[TOC Tip240] People do NOT resist change, they judge it. Theory of Constraints #tocot

Now here is a video on how to do it.  This video was written by Eliyahu M Goldratt, author of The Goal to promote his NEW edition of his still relatively new book, Isn't It Obvious.


Leave your comments (or questions) and let me know what you think about the video and/or about the content.  Do you agree with this video?

Here's to Maximizing YOUR Profits,
Dr Lisa

P.S.  If you'd like to follow my daily TOCTips on Twitter, go here:  http://www.Twitter.com/TOCExpert

Theory of Constraints POOGI Part 63 Getting Jobs Through Engineering

We are continuing our series based on The Goal by Eliyahu M Goldratt and the Theory of Constraints. {This series was co-written with Brad Stillahn.}


Brad: It’s been three years since we joined NTMA as National Associate Members. Shortly after we joined, after seeing the benefits Theory of Constraints (TOC) could have for NTMA members, you developed the “Velocity Scheduling System.” It is for scheduling machine shops (and job shops) to help them improve lead times, due date performance, and to reduce the ensuing chaos that results from the 9 Challenges of Scheduling A Machine Shop* they contend with daily. You’ve had 35 small, medium, and very large shops attend—online—with a 100% success rate. Why create a program for engineering?
*You can download that free report here: www.VelocitySchedulingSystem.com/ebook

Dr. Lisa: Many machine shops also cope with problems in engineering. A job comes in, and it goes into the queue. It can be feast or famine. When it is feast, engineers are multi-tasking between hot and red hot jobs, and put the shop under real time pressure when they are late with their designs and prints. They need a good solution, too, so I developed the Project Velocity System, and there is a software package to support it.

Brad: Engineering is like graphic design in printing. When new orders start coming, it is easy to have them pile up, starving the shop. It can be a real bottleneck. And when it is slow, that’s an expensive resource to have idled. Very few other people know how to do their job, and engineers don’t seem to do other jobs well, either.

Dr. Lisa: Yes, that’s exactly what happens. Engineering or design starves manufacturing. And, many of the companies that participated in Velocity Scheduling System went on to create a Mafia Offer with our on-line Mafia Offer Boot Camp. This put even more pressure on engineering because with an outstanding market offer shops started bringing in more NEW business which means more load on engineering.

In addition, even without a Mafia Offer, you typically do not want engineering to be your constraint. Engineering needs the capacity to feed the shop, so the company can meet its sales goals, and maintain short, responsive lead-times with 100% due date performance all of the time.


... to be continued.  Part 64 will continue with Getting Jobs Through Engineering
 
What are the challenges YOU face getting jobs through engineering?  Tell me your 2 biggest challenges in the the comment box!
 
Here's to maximizing YOUR profits (and selling price of YOUR business)!


Dr Lisa

(c)Copyright 2010, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.

Theory of Constraints POOGI - Part 52: Dr. Goldratt’s book The Choice is better than The Goal

We are continuing our series based on The Goal by Eliyahu M Goldratt and the Theory of Constraints. {This series was co-written with Brad Stillahn.}

Most of you have read The Goal. Most of you enjoyed reading it. And most of you have lent or given a copy to someone you think will benefit from reading it. Today, it still sells as many copies a month as it did when it was first published.

Dr. Eli Goldratt’s newish book The Choice (his newest you will also find on this link) is even better than The Goal. It’s about thinking clearly and having a full life.

For those of you that follow Eli and the Theory of Constraints, you may know that when he was about twenty years old he chose as his goal in life “to teach the world to think”. What you may not know is that his daughter, Efrat, now a psychologist, chose as her life goal “to teach people how to be happy”.

Once again, he chose the format of a novel. In this one, Eli and Efrat have an ongoing conversation. Now 63, in this book Eli is summarizing their collective progress toward their respective goals.

In their conversation, Eli and Efrat chart the course for anyone and everyone to think clearly and have a full life. And in doing so, they reveal Eli’s unusual beliefs:

1. People are good. Rather than thinking that people are good, people tend to blame other people, or as Eli says “I want you to realize how careless we are in relating derogatory characteristics and intentions to people”. Once you blame someone, your ability to think clearly is blocked. “Blaming another person is not a solution… Blaming points us in the wrong direction, into a direction where we will not find a good solution. Even if the person is removed, in most cases the problem will stay. You will be able to refrain from blaming people when you are convinced there is no reason to blame them. Harmony exists in any relationship between people.”

2. Every conflict can be removed. “People’s perception is that conflicts are a given and the best we can do is to seek a compromise. When we face a conflict, especially when we cannot easily find an acceptable compromise, let’s do exactly the same thing scientists do when they encounter a contraction; let’s insist that one of the underlying assumptions is faulty. If, or should I say when, we pin down the underlying assumption that can be removed, we will remove the cause of the conflict; we solve the conflict by eliminating it.”

3. Every situation is exceedingly simple. “There is nothing wrong with people’s brainpower; there is something very wrong with people’s perception of reality. People believe that reality is complex, and therefore they are looking for sophisticated explanations for complicated solutions. Do you understand how devastating this is? The key for thinking like a true scientist is the acceptance that any real life situation, no matter how complex it initially looks, is actually, once understood, embarrassingly simple.”

4. Every situation can be substantially improved. “The undesirable effects people complain about are the result of a conflict—a conflict between the parties in cases of relationships, and an internal conflict in cases of individuals. People, and companies, lower expectations when they use protective mechanisms to camouflage from themselves the big chronic problems; the problems that they already gave up on resolving. Those who are not prepared will be blind to the stream of opportunities life presents them.”

5. Every person can reach a full life. “You claim that the only things standing in the way of me thinking clearly are some specific obstacles and practice. Rather than leaving it to chance—what people call good luck—my chances of living a full life will be much greater if I learn to think clearly. I’ll be able to generate, or at least to recognize, the right opportunities for me, and I’ll be better able to have more stamina to persistently follow enough of them to fruition.”

6. There is always a win-win solution. “For every relationship there is a change that will cause the parties to each achieve what they need from the relationship. Compromise is the attempt to share a finite cake. When do we find an acceptable compromise? When the perception is that the cake is not very important, or that it’s not too small to start with. But when the cake seems too small, seeking a compromise is a situation in which the more you win, the more I lose; seeking a compromise is, by definition, a win-lose approach. If we want our win to be bigger we have to ensure that the other side’s win will be bigger.”

To get The Choice at a price even lower than at Amazon, click on the book title. After you read the book, you may be interested in learning the TOC Thinking Processes. These are the tools Eli developed to help the rest of us systematically develop solutions to problems through rigorous cause and effect logic, just like he does in The Choice. The Management Skills Workshop will help your management team to learn and apply the Thinking Processes to your company. We’d be happy to point you in the right direction, so just call, email, or leave a comment below.

Here's to maximizing YOUR profits!

Dr Lisa Lang

(c)Copyright 2009, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.

Theory of Constraints International Certification Organization (TOCICO) 2009 Conference

The annual TOCICO conference is in Japan this year and it's proving to be a very big deal. If you are a Theory of Constraints consultant, practitioner, professor, software provider, or just interested in learning more -- you should not miss this event.

Let me tell you why.

First of all, even though it's in Japan, it will cost about the same as attending last years conference in Las Vegas. Room rates are actually lower than Vegas – including breakfast. Airfares from the US are around $800. So the cost is affordable.

Second, there will be not one, but FOUR Living legends presenting!

Dr. Eliyahu M Goldratt is once again kindly donating his time to the TOCICO for a two day upgrade for members. Dr. Eli Goldratt will also close the conference with his provocative thoughts on the future. The opening keynote will be by the Director General of the largest of the government agencies in Japan - the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism. The MLIT director general will talk about TOC acceptance and a remarkable success case and future on-going Kaizen efforts using CCPM. This approach has created a win-win-win public works management transformation that is good for the taxpayer, good for companies and good for the government. The impact of TOC on the country of Japan is so significant that immediately following the TOCICO conference there will be a MLIT conference in the same hotel. The TOCICO is a major sponsor for this conference and has arranged so that you can attend this half day conference at no additional charge - 5 days of conference for the price of 4! Plan on staying through November 20.

At that MLIT conference, we are honored this year to be joined by one of the last living students of Dr. Taiichi Ohno. Mr. Ohnishi, is currently Chairman of Chubu Quality Association. This is the association that annually awards the highly coveted Deming award in Japan. He was the executive managing director Toyota. Mr. Ohnishi will be presenting "Lessons from Dr. Ohno, father of Toyota Production Systems"

Mr. Suehiro Nakamura, past executive vice president of Sony and a direct student of the two Sony founders, Mr. Akio Morita and Mr. Masaru Ibuka has agreed to present "Lesson learned from two founders Sony, Akio Morita, Masaru Ibuka --Total Value Stream Innovation to make win-win-win holistic supply chain management". He will show us how he managed holistic supply chain management in Europe and Thailand with was amazing results including having only 7 days of inventory - not only within Sony but including all retail stores including small shop) bring win-win-win to whole supply chain which he calls "value stream". You can also visit the Sony museum!

Airfares are at the lowest level in years. When you check, you will discover that you can get a round trip to Tokyo for under $900. The hotel room cost is lower than the cost at the 2009 TOCICO International Conference in Las Vegas. The conference fee is the same as 2009. Even in this tough economic time, this is a trip that will payback quickly. Can your company afford to miss this opportunity?

And my favorite part of these conferences is networking with all my TOC friends and meeting new ones. If you decide to go, please let me know so we can meet up!

The 2009 dates:
November 15—Certification exams
November 16 & 17— Dr. Eli Goldratt will conduct a TOC upgrade workshop for TOCICO members
November 18 & 19—Keynotes and breakouts
November 20—MLIT win-win-win conference at the same hotel. TOCICO conference attendees are cordially invited to attend the MILT conference on Nov 20 at no additional charge and hear Mr. Ohnishi, Chairman of Chubu Quality Association, ex-executive managing director Toyota, “Lessons from Dr. Ohno, father of Toyota Production Systems”

To register, please visit www.TOCICO.org.

Hope to see you there!
Dr Lisa

Learn Goldratt Theory of Constraints with access to ALL the Videos for 1 Month

Some of the best self learning materials for Theory of Constraints are in video format. The problem has always been that they are expensive. The Goal video DVD (movie version of The Goal book by Eliyahu Goldratt) is $895 and the 8 CD set of the Self Learning Program is $999.

But for the month of September you can get both of those and a whole lot more of Goldratt's genius for only $499. Here what you will have access to:

Videos:

• The Goal movie on DVD (sells for $895)
• Necessary & Sufficient Series (10 CD set sells for $149)
• Goldratt Explains is a set of videos excerpts of past and/or unreleased conference presentations, where Dr. Eli Goldratt shares his analysis and developments on specific topics.
• TOCICO Conferences (sell for $249 for each conference and you get ALL of them)
• Goldratt Satellite Program (these are the 8 CDs that sell for $999)
• Realization Project Flow Conference of Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM)
• Goldratt Webcast Series on Critical Chain Project Management

Those videos cover all these topics (and more):

• Finance and Measurements
• Operations / Production
• Project Management
• Distribution
• Supply Chain
• Marketing
• Sales and Buy-In
• Managing People
• Strategy and Tactics
• Thinking Processes
• Change Management
• Buy-In
• Health Care
• Personal development

This one time opportunity provides full access to ALL videos on TOC.tv ONLY during the month of September, 2009.

HURRY! The sooner you get the access the more days you have it available. Access ends September 30th 2009.

To order and check started, click here:

Goldratt Theory of Constraints Videos

Patterns: How we schedule our machine shop?

Our patterns affect what we can accomplish. We use patterns to schedule our machine shops and job shops. If you're not getting the results you want, you may need to change your patterns!

Check out this blog post on patterns and how they affect your scheduling: Machine Shop Scheduling

On that same post you will also find a video interview Dr Eliyahu M Goldratt (founder of Theory of Constraints Drum Buffer Rope) did on patterns at the bottom of the post.

A Process Of On-Going Improvement (POOGI) - Part 37

We are continuing our series based on The Goal by Eliyahu M Goldratt and the Theory of Constraints. {This series was co-written with Brad Stillahn.}

The PQ quiz below is deterministic, with one correct answer. You have only ten minutes to take the quiz once you have familiarized yourself with the data provided. This quiz has been given to CEO’s worldwide for over 20 years. Over that time span, less than one percent of CEO’s get the correct answer. Will you?

The Simple Company makes just 2 products: Pens and Quills. The goal of the company is to maximize profitability. The company has 4 resources that are not interchangeable: Abby, Bobby, Christi and David. The work week is 40 hours (meaning each resource is available for 2,400 minutes per week).

Unlike reality, the environment of the Simple Company has perfect information. Everything is fixed, and every piece of data is precisely known. There is no scrap, no set-up, no worker breaks or absenteeism, no downtime; this is just an idyllic company. We have removed all the uncertainties. Our marketing department is the best, and we know the exact weekly demand for each Pen and Quill.

Operating expenses are $6,000 per week. These are all the fixed costs which include labor, benefits, utilities, interest, SG&A expenses, etc. Labor is paid at the rate of $10 per hour for all resources but remember that labor is included in the $6,000 of operating expense. The raw material (RM) costs and processing times are shown in the diagram of the production process of the Simple Company below.

What is the maximum net profit (or minimum net loss) the Simple Company can earn in 1 week with the current demand?

Please email your answer at any time. You will receive back an email with the correct answer, as well as the methodology for arriving at the correct answer for more complicated real-life scenarios.

...to be continued.Here's to maximizing YOUR profits!

Dr Lisa Lang

(c)Copyright 2009, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.

The pens and quills problem was adapted from the Haystack Syndrome.

A Process Of On-Going Improvement (POOGI) - Part 17

We are continuing our series based on The Goal by Eliyahu M Goldratt.

Let’s apply this to your business. In order to do so, you’ll need to make some calculations. First, write down your annual sales. Second, subtract the Truly Variable Costs (these include raw materials, outsourcing, freight in and out, and sales commissions). The difference between the two is your dollar Throughput.

From throughput subtract all of your fixed costs which we call Operating Expense. The difference is your Net Profit.

For example:

Sales $1,400,000
Truly Variable Costs -$650,000
Throughput =$750,000
Operating Expense -$615,000
Net Profit =$135,000

Let’s further assume that you have lathes and mills in your machine shop. You have identified that milling is your constraint resource. You have only two milling machines operating one shift. You have calculated the available capacity as:

Number of mills 2
Hours per year 2,080
Percent available 70%
Available hours 2,912

The 2,912 hours is how many “Constraint Units” you have available.

The Throughput of $750,000 divided by 2,912 hours is $257.55. That is your “Throughput per Constraint Unit” (T/CU).

What is the meaning of this number? The Throughput per Constraint Unit is the amount of margin needed per operating hour of your limiting resource to cover Operating Expense and achieve your Net Profit. It is the rate at which you make money.
...to be continued.

Here's to maximizing YOUR profits!
Dr Lisa Lang

(c)Copyright 2008, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.
Next GROUP Mafia Offer Boot Camp is June 25, 26, 27 2008!
Also check out our FREE Theory of Constraints videos. New videos added very week! http://www.scienceofbusiness.com/free-stuff/free-videos-audios.aspx

A Process Of On-Going Improvement (POOGI) - Part 16

We are continuing our series based on The Goal by Eliyahu M Goldratt.

Dr. Goldratt says it this way: “If a process of ongoing improvement is what we are after, which of the three avenues of Throughput, Inventory, or Operating Expense is more promising? If we just think for a minute the answer becomes crystal clear. Both Inventory and Operating Expense we strive to decrease. Thus, both of them offer limited opportunity for ongoing improvement. Both of them offer only limited opportunity for ongoing improvement. They are both limited by zero. This is not the case with the third measurement, Throughput. We strive to increase Throughput. Throughput does not have any intrinsic limitation; Throughput must be the cornerstone of any Process Of On-Going Improvement (POOGI). It must be first on the scale of importance.”

Therefore, to make decisions according to Theory of Constraints (TOC) and Throughput Accounting, we need to quantify a decision’s impact on these three measurements and then we will be able to determine the change in net profit and return on investment.

The role of the company’s constraint is fundamental for quantifying the decision’s impact on the three measurements. Thus, to identify which products contribute the most to the company’s net profit, TOC also advocates the use of the measurement of “Throughput per time of the constraint (T/CU)”. This method is much simpler than the product costing and it allows for fast decisions that are directly linked to the bottom line.

...to be continued.

Here's to maximizing YOUR profits!

Dr Lisa Lang

(c)Copyright 2008, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.

Next GROUP Mafia Offer Boot Camp is June 25, 26, 27 2008!

The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt MOVIE is on sale!

The best selling business book in the world was made into a movie. The DVD typically sells for $895. However, until February 29 you can purchase it for $447.50. The video is a great way to introduce the concepts in The Goal to your entire staff in just 55 minutes.

This video takes The Goal book and shows you how to put the theories to work in your company.
Based on the best-selling book by Eli Goldratt, The Goal tells the story of Alex Rogo, a plant manager facing the threat of his plant's closure. The video follows Alex and his team as they use the Theory of Constraints to transform their mediocre division.

The first obstacle standing in the way of implementing a major change is reaching a wall-to-wall agreement on the direction of change. A powerful tool that can be used to create such agreement is "The Goal: The How-To Version” video. The use of this video is not limited just to the beginning of the implementation process. Reaching agreement on the change in direction is not a one-time effort. As the company moves in a new direction there will be some unavoidable diffusion. To prevent too much diffusion there is the need to repeatedly realign interpretations and periodically use the movie.

If you're interested in purchasing send me an email. The video also comes in Spanish and in PAL format which may be of interest if you're outside the US.

If you're looking for Goal!, the soccer movie, click here.

Here's to maximizing YOUR profits!
Dr Lisa Lang
P.S. The next Group Mafia Offer Boot Camp is in Denver March 25, 26, 27 in Denver.
(c)Copyright 2008, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.

Mafia Offer Boot Camp Preview Video

Our Mafia Offer Boot Camp is based on Goldratt's Theory of Constraints. Mafia Offers or Unrefuseable Offers were first introduced in It's Not Luck. This is a video preview of the one and only Mafia Offer Boot Camp. Enjoy.

A Mafia Offer is the key to exploiting a market constraint or sales constraint. It could also be called an unrefuseable offer, an irristible offer, a market offer, a touchstone, a competitive advantage, a value proposition, or a unique selling proposition.

However, when most people are talking about a touchstone, a competitive advantage, a value proposition, or a unique selling proposition (USP) these are actually quite different from a Mafia Offer. They basically take what you already do and state it succinctly and with more specificity. A Mafia Offer typically requires that you do something different to actually deliver something unrefuseable to your customers and something that your competition can't or won't do because they are not willing to or don't know how to make the change.

In this way, a Mafia Offer is a longer lasting competitive advanatage instead of just a positioning.

Here's to maximizing YOUR profits!

Dr Lisa Lang

P.S. The next Group Mafia Offer Boot Camp is in Denver March 25, 26, 27 in Denver.

(c)Copyright 2008, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.

2008 Goldratt Webcast on Critical Chain Project Management

Brad and I spent last weekend in Miami with Eli Goldratt reviewing the upcoming Critical Chain Project Management Webcast. This is the first in what will be a series of webcasts. This first series will be five 2.5 hour sessions starting on February 13, 2008. There are a number of viewing options including purchasing a link for $2500 and purchasing a seat at a group session in Denver for $500. There is more information at:

http://www.scienceofbusiness.com/Events/2008GoldrattWebcastSeries/tabid/140/Default.aspx

This link also includes a FREE 60 minute preview VIDEO by Dr Eliyahu Goldratt. Just click on the link and scroll to the bottom of the page for the video. You will need to register (which is free) in order to view the video. This free registration will also give you access to:

• A free preview video on Session 1 of the Mafia Offer Boot Camp. This video is located under the Events tab.
• Access to our archives of Theory of Constraints articles, success stories, good blog posts, etc.
• Access to our FREE Stuff, located under the Products tab which includes a job shop game (DBR game), thinking process software, and a few other items.

Both videos are worth you time to watch and I hope you enjoy them.

Here's to maximizing YOUR profits!

Dr Lisa Lang

(c)Copyright 2008, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.

How to Sell Your Mafia Offer - Part 10

Who should we target with our offer? and How should we roll it out?

STEP 3

Your marketing and sales core team generates a list of prospects for your mafia offer roll out:

• Mapping current prospective clients (existing, past, new) creating a wide list of prospects belonging to the preferred market sectors.
• Defining prospects for test launch (representative clients salespeople can approach as soon as possible); Prospects which are already in the pipe line and that are quite suitable for the offer; Existing clients with substantial business yet to be gained suitable for the offer; New prospects which are best suitable for the offer and have a short internal decision time.
• Defining prospects to become key accounts. Based on Returns: Barriers assessment, the company should focus its sales efforts on winning a big share of their business.
• Giving high priority to reduce the risk of losing key accounts.
• Warning: if a client is responsible for a high share of the Company business – do not increase its share.

If you follow the 3 Steps outlined, you now have a good list of prospects for both near term and longer term development.

In this 10 Part series we covered how to sell your mafia offer. How to present it, to whom to present it, how to get in to present it, who to target with your offer and what to watch out for along the way. The first step, however, is to create YOUR mafia offer. Mafia Offers were first introduced in Theory of Constraints by Eliyahu M Goldratt's It's Not Luck and you get some idea of how to create one. However if you need more guidance, you may want to consider a Mafia Offer Boot Camp!

Here's to Maximizing YOUR Profits!
Dr Lisa Lang
(c)Copyright 2007, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.

NEW We have developed a REMOTE (on-line) Mafia Offer Boot Camp. Click here for an informational video and a FREE Preview of Session 1: http://www.MafiaOfferBootCamp.com/

Next GROUP Mafia Offer Boot Camp in the US is January 30, 31, February 1, 2008 in Denver. Sign up today, registration is limited to 5 companies. $10,000 per company.

How to Sell Your Mafia Offer - Part 9

We started this discussion about how people are more interested in avoiding (or reducing) pain than they are in increasing pleasure. We discussed how to present a Mafia Offer (based on Goldratt's Theory of Constraints) consistent with that desire.

Because mafia offers are business deals we also discussed how to get in to the right level to make your offer. See Executive Access Boot Camp below.

The next questions likely are: Who should we target with our offer? and How should we roll it out?

Here are some guidelines:

STEP 1

•Examine the different market sectors you serve, evaluating the extent which your mafia offer solves solves a significant problem for each market sector. What are the consequences of not solving that problem for each market?
•Examine 3 (prospective) clients per market sector (less than 3 may risk looking at extreme case, more are not needed).
•Based on the above identify the preferred market sector(s) to leverage YOUR offer.

STEP 2

Having looked at where the problem (that you solve) is the greatest, now let’s look at other considerations:

• Is there a market(s) that yeilds higher Throughput than others?
  Past experience can point to the type of clients/market-sectors/product-types that yield better Throughput. A particular client may yield less Throughput initially but would enable you to win good future business (penetrating a client, establishing reputation, gaining experience, steady annual income).
• Is there a market(s) that are more quickly accessed or has shorter sales cycles than others? Some big organization clients have decision processes which prolong significantly the sales cycle. To win the business of some types of clients/market-sectors/product-types, you may need to invest in qualification. In some regions/market sectors, you have much less sales infrastructure than in others.
• Is there a market(s) that are bigger than others?

Based on your answers to these questions, your marketing and sales core team should evaluate returns and barriers to create a proper sales plan - a plan that aims at increasing business in the short and medium horizon while preparing the ground for bigger sales in the future.

... stay tuned for STEP 3 in Part 10

NEW We have developed a REMOTE (on-line) Mafia Offer Boot Camp. Click here for an informational video and a FREE Preview of Session 1: http://www.MafiaOfferBootCamp.com

Next GROUP Mafia Offer Boot Camp in the US is January 30, 31, February 1, 2008 in Denver. Sign up today, registration is limited to 5 companies. $10,000 per company.

Next GROUP Executive Access Boot Camp is February 28, 29, March 1, 2008 in Denver.

$1,875 per person for all 3 days.

Here's to Maximizing YOUR Profits!

Dr Lisa Lang

(c)Copyright 2007, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.