How many people does it take to say “yes”?
As a business development guy by trade and a revenue creation fanatic by heart, I’m becoming obsessed with how many folks have to be involved in any path to “yes”. That “yes” could be for a contract, or for a hire, or for a strategic decision, or for a lunch location. It could be for anything, but it sure seems to be the most important indicator of bureaucracy and a significant contributor to the “time to close” for any deal or any decision.
I’m going to spend the next few days watching, listening, and tracking the number of people that need to be involved in decisions that I need to get things done – both inside and outside my own organization. I’m curious as to how we stack up, and very interested in how my clients, partners, and peers rate.
I’m going to go way out on a limb here and say that at least one time in the next 3 days it will take a minimum of six people to get to a “yes”.
In the framework of an organization’s OODA loop (observe-orient-decide-act), if it does indeed take six steps to get to “yes”, the opportunity may be gone or the passion may be muted before anyone that can actually does give the go ahead to do something smart!