Drive Revenue Through Collaboration

As executives grow their businesses, they often experience a lonely road of solitude and don’t think to reach out to others for support.

We spoke with Jenny Adams, chairwoman 12 Mavens, about how executives can collaborate to drive revenue and propel everyone forward to mutual benefit.

The Idea of Collaboration

12 Mavens is an invite-only group of typically 12 like-minded risk takers who voice issues and allow themselves to be vulnerable. They are executives who, “Seemingly have it all together. And they don’t have it all together,” Jenny said.

As chairwoman of 12 Mavens in Denver, Jenny interviews many highly successful CEOs and entrepreneurs every month and has found that there is a correlation between growth in success and being part of a collaborative group, like 12 Mavens. Jenny notes that as more people start businesses they try to do it by themselves. “Of those that do it by themselves, there are very few that actually succeed,” Jenny said.

The Importance of Face to Face

Although the internet and phones can provide us with unlimited information and connections, there’s no substitute when it comes to being there in-person. “The human connection is extremely important,” Jenny said. “The more off the rails a CEO gets from the human connection, the more they lose track of what their customers want. They can lose track of what their clients and suppliers need because they’re looking at a screen.”

When we work alone we tend to get wrapped up in our own echo chamber. Having a sounding board to bounce ideas off of is crucial to growth. “Sometimes it’s just a look on someone’s face in a meeting that says ‘that’s not a good idea,'” Jenny said.

Another invaluable aspect of face to face collaboration is getting more out of other people’s issues than your own, because they might be coming from different industries and you might not even realize you have the same issues. “That’s how disruption happens,” Jenny said. “It’s not from inside the industry.”

What is Most Effective When Someone is Trying to Sell You?

We like to ask our podcast guests this question. Here’s how Jenny answered:

“One is to keep it short and simple. People who are running their own companies don’t have a lot of time. If you send too much too fast, it just is overwhelming and we click away from it, or walk away or don’t schedule a phone call. You need to find something to make their lives easier and provide a solution for that. And part of that is selling to them. Are you making their lives easier by selling to them in a long email? Probably not.”

Acceleration Insight

In every episode of the B2B Revenue Executive Experience, we try to pull one nugget of wisdom from our guests that they would impart on a sales professional. Here’s this one:

“Stop doing this by yourself. You don’t have all the answers, you don’t even have all the questions.”

This post is based on a podcast interview with Jenny Adams, chairwoman of the 12 Mavens Denver chapter. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to the B2B Revenue Executive Experience.

If you don’t use iTunes, you can listen to every episode here.