How to Fail

Posted on February 4th, 2010 by tim bursch. Filed under business, sales, story.

This is my story for #FAILweek. How to Fail. Don’t Plan.

The State: I was working with a partner in the investment business. Big dreams. Lots of ideas. We were targeting clinics and hospitals for new clients. Our project was a big conference down south at a hotel/casino. I was responsible for marketing and running our booth. Our goal was to find (big) clients and build relationships. I was hopeful that running a golf contest (Doctors like golf right) would work.

The Fireball: I walked away with one or two leads. Boom!

The 3 main reasons I failed:

I didn’t have a good plan. It was generic.
I wasn’t offering anything of value to prospects. Except golf balls.
I didn’t engage with people where they were. The potential clients were there for education. I stayed at the booth.

The Lesson: Looking back it’s pretty obvious. I got zero results because I didn’t have a plan. I am learning more and more to start at the goal and work backwards. Break the big mountain into small hills. I also learned to bring something of value to a prospect. It could have been a resource or a connection.

Failure is not fun, but I’m slowly learning that it’s part of being human.

Have a story about failure? Add yours to the comments. Or head over to #FAILweek.

Image by: PhotoDu.de

Tags: fail, plan

Cali Harris

Good lessons, Tim.

I'm a planner by nature (cursed type-A quality!!), but I'm continuing to learn the importance of thoughtful planning. Spontaneity certainly has its place--even in business--but planning is the framework for success.

Kudos to your failure! :)

timbursch

Cali,
Thanks for stopping by. I heard recently that goals are just best guesses. Does that make plans hopeful thinking? I agree, planning is necessary in any successful endeavor. The challenge, like you allude to, is planning with room for flexibility.
Cheers,
Tim

Jason Markow

Ouch! Running trade show booths can be brutal. I have one coming up in March myself and have been planning strategy a while. (look for a #thinkhere post to share the results soon!)

My favorite line is "break the big mountains into small hills". I truly believe this is the single best way to tackle any problem.

Thanks for sharing and participating in #FAILweek.

Jason

(Love the image BTW... great ending to a great week)