I was watching the Six Nations rugby international between France and Wales last night. At half time, France were winning 20-0. The commentators pulled up the traditional statistics, showing possession, territory, line-outs won and lost, and so on. Looking at these statistics, there was very little between the two teams, and yet the most important facts, the score, suggested that France were doing something very different to Wales.

Talking this over at half time, the difference seemed to come down to two points, France had had two lucky breaks, and seemed to be passing the ball out of the tackle more than Wales. And yet neither of these were included in the statistics shown on TV.

If lucky breaks can change the result of a game, then they should be counted and analysed. Do lucky breaks just happen? Or can a team prepare and train to spot them and take advantage of them?

In business, do we look at the statistics that really tell us what is going on? The amount of cash in the bank, or profit, are easy to measure and give us one indication of how we are doing, but they do not explain why the result is what it is, or whether it is better or worse than reasonably expected.

Whether as a Finance Director, or the coach of a national rugby team, I always look for the information and data that tells me what is really going on. Traditional statistics tell one story, but is it the most useful one?

This question was asked at a recent conference for new entrepreneurs and sole traders. It struck a chord; not just with those in the audience, but also those on the panel, and with others who have been asked for their thoughts.

A client of mine actually describes themselves on their website as “self-effacing”, and see this quality as helping make them attractive to potential customers, by being seen as not pushy. Others I have spoken to, talk about how they struggle with collecting money due from clients, and how they are worried about being rude. On the other hand, we can probably all think of someone who succeeds through relentless salesmanship.

As usual, I suspect the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

I would suggest that you can be incredibly persistent without being annoying; by being polite, or by pointing out the (potentially mutual) benefits of getting what you want, for example. In theory, with humour and good grace, it may be possible to be rude, without becoming annoying.

In business, and to an extent in our personal lives, persistence is a key skill to getting what we want.

The point of being persistent is to keep asking for something you want, until you get it. Becoming annoying suggests that the person you want it from has reached a point where they don’t want you to have it.

How do you get the best out of your staff? I was talking this through with a client recently, and stumbled across something that I called the Martin Johnson Syndrome.

My client was without doubt employing some of the brightest, most knowledgeable, people in their field. But he was frustrated by their unwillingness to demonstrate through actions that they had bought into his vision, to take risks, or to stop “playing it safe”.

He acknowledged that the organisation’s culture was changing, from being fairly autocratic, to one of empowerment and delegation of responsibility, but he couldn’t get his team to take the initiative.

After talking with some of his managers, I had one of those “light-bulb” moments. I knew that my client was well respected, in his field, as well as by his colleagues, but I hadn’t realised just how well he was respected. His managers were afraid of failing, and in particular, of failing in the eyes of their boss – my client.

I had read recently about the poor results of the England rugby team. There was little debate about the quality of the players, and how their collective ability was, on paper, excellent. But they were lacking that something special, that bit of magic, which turned them into a winning team. The writer surmised that they were in complete awe of their manager, Martin Johnson. Johnson is an inspirational leader, who has achieved the ultimate goals in the game (including captaining the England team that won the World Cup). The players, so the theory went, were afraid of taking risks, of trying something adventurous, in case they failed.

My suggestion to my client was simple. He needed to convince his team that he had trust and confidence in their abilities. Telling them was not enough. He needed to demonstrate through examples what his reaction would be when they failed. I even suggested that he create a situation in which one of his staff was “set up to fail”, so that he could show them how supportive he was.

Empowering people who are not used, or willing, to fail is not easy. Demonstrating your trust and confidence in them requires a special kind of management. I hope for England’s sake that Johnson has cracked it. Have you?

I have heard a few New Year’s Resolutions in the last 48 hours, and have a formed a fairly good idea which will succeed, and which won’t. How? Because the ones that will work are SMART. This old method of establishing goals is as valid now as it ever was, and here’s my logic:

Specific
“Joining a gym” is too vague, as is starting jogging. Ask yourself, why am I doing this, what is my objective – is it too lose weight (how much?), to give yourself some “me-time” (again, how much?).

Measurable
As above, how will you know when you have achieved it? If you want to “get fit”, how will you know you are fit? Is there an event you can take part in to demonstrate you have reached your goal?

Achievable
Do you want to run a marathon in 2010? Unless you have already started, you aren’t going to suddenly be able to complete the London this spring… Don’t set yourself up to fail. Pick one in a few months time to give yourself a good chance of succeeding.

Relevant
Why do you want to do it? Why is your goal important to you? Doing something for someone else is not as powerful a motivational force as doing it for you. It may be of benefit to others (as in “I want to start volunteering”), but what will you get out of it?

Time
When will you start, when will you aim to finish, are there milestones along the way to show that you are on track to succeed?

Succeeding in business uses many of the same principles we use in our personal lives. Sometimes you can succeed on your own; sometimes you need a little help. The trick is to know when to ask for help…

None of us knows what is going to happen in the future. And yet we are constantly making decisions that are based on what we think is going to happen in the future.

I was talking to a client today about how they should structure their companies (they operate a charity and a trading company). The answer lies in what they want to achieve, and to work backwards from there. The answer may be wrong, but the premise they base the decision on will be right.

When faced with a difficult decision, I learnt a long time ago that the best way of deciding was to toss a coin, having decided what to do if the coin lands heads up (it works best if there are only two possible solutions!). The hard bit is to listen to the little voice in your head that tells you whether you are glad, or sorry, with the result. Rather than go with the coin, always trust your gut reaction to the result.

This would suggest that we know what to do all along; it’s just that too often other factors crowd our thinking, making decisions harder to reach.

Even in business, unless there are compelling reasons to take one course of action over another, there seems to be a lot of sense in going back to the reasons why you are in business, remembering what you want to achieve, and start from there.

If there is one radio show guaranteed to make me change channels, it’s the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2. Not because I have anything against Jeremy, it’s because, generally, the views of the public aired in response to the issues raised infuriate me. A couple of days ago, Jeremy conducted an excellent interview with a BBC correspondent about the Afghanistan non-election – a well informed, concise, detailed explanation of the issues. This was then ruined (for me) by uninformed points of view that added little or nothing.

Much has been written about the “demise” of the Birmingham Post, and the genuine concern at what will happen to the journalists who are losing their jobs. I sincerely hope that those skilled at writing will find new employment, albeit in a different market. I would far rather read, or listen, to someone who knows their subject and can present it well, than someone who writes and broadcasts just because they can.

The proliferation of Blogs, and the ability for anyone to write when, and on whatever subject they choose, has been cited as the end of quality reporting. I would disagree. I have more faith in readers and listeners exercising their choice to read and listen to what they like, and to switch off what they don’t like.

I also believe that there is a duty for those who know what is going on to share their knowledge and expertise.

As anticipated, my last blog about a simple web site related topic like the conversion rate between visitors to your web site and the number of potential customers engaging with you (for example by completing a contact form) created quite a bit of correspondence.

The vast majority of comments emphasised complex and (to be fair) quite interesting ideas about how to get the best out of your website. But I felt they missed the point. Most businesses are run by hard working individuals who have not got time to understand and implement subtle marketing ploys.

Which brings me to the question of how you eat an elephant. The answer is, of course, a mouthful at a time. To try and take too big a bite out of a problem leaves you with bad indigestion.

You need a website for two reasons, to increase your brand awareness, and to generate sales, and not necessarily both at the same time. Whatever tactics you use to achieve your goal need to be SMART (Google this if you can’t remember the acronym!).

I believe that life is complicated enough without making it harder than it needs to be.

The next time you want to make your business better, talk to someone who can talk to you about it in simple “plain English”.

Identify the problem, break it into manageable chunks, and deal with it! Life is hard enough, without it being taxing.

I was talking with a client about the amount of business they were generating from their website. The key interface between the business and the customer is the contact form, that tells the business about what the customer needs, as well as a contact name, number and email.

A brief look at Google Analytics revealed some interesting statistics:

• In the last month, their website had received just under 6,000 hits, and
• In the same period, only 54 click through’s to the contact form had been generated by the website, meaning that
• Less than 1% of visits had resulted in a request for a contact.

This was pretty depressing, but it explained why the business felt that it wasn’t getting much benefit from the website.

By looking at each page, it became apparent that there was no obvious “call to action”. Even if the visitor was keen to make contact, it wasn’t clear how they should.

I’m no web-master, but I do understand the importance of making sure the link between you, your product, your “shop”, and your customer, is seamless.

When was the last time you asked someone to give you honest feedback about how easy you are to locate, find out about, and to buy from?

Problems are not always what we think they are. Take walls for example. You bump into them all the time in everyday life, and the same is true in business. You hit a problem that just won’t budge, or get resolved.

I have a thought – walls are not always what they seem. Maybe the wall is in fact the vertical face of a step.

In order to check whether you are looking at a wall or a step, you need to step back and look at “the big picture”.

Businesses do not grow in straight lines, and the size of step required to get to the next level can be daunting.

The climb may leave you puffing and panting, and probably wondering if it was worth the effort.

We all need the occasional leg-up to help us climb up, but the effort is always worthwhile. To work out if a wall is really a wall or the vertical face of a step needs perspective and experience.

Climbing steps can be hard. But it takes you higher, which has to be better than hitting your head against a wall.

I heard a speaker recently who gave an example of too much choice being a bad thing. The example involved offering free samples of jam to customers in a shop, and then offering them the option to buy a pot.

The research found that beyond a point, more choice led to lower sales. Some choice was good, too much was not so good.

So how much choice is good?

I am sure the supermarkets have worked this one out but, as usual, I found myself thinking laterally. When looking for a solution to a problem, how many options are there?

I reckon that, with enough time and resource, there is no problem that doesn’t have a limitless range of possible answers. Ask an academic if you are unsure about this one… The problem is that we don’t have limitless time and resource, and have to make do with a small number of options.

Unless you have a “no-brainer” of a question, possible solutions can be grouped into categories. For example, the obvious, the wacky, the seemingly stupid, the clever, the smart.

However you face challenges, the trick is to not let the question become overwhelming. Which leads me to a favourite saying: How do you eat an elephant? Answer, one mouthful at a time. The saying neatly illustrates the point that a complicated question, with too many possible answers, could probably be simplified if it was broken into smaller pieces, so you don’t get indigestion…