NSM 252: Teoria martwego konia, czyli jak przestać ładować energię w coś, co nie działa? + Premiera

Podcast NSM. Modern sales and marketing. Cut of episode 252. Hi, I'm Simon Negac. I've been helping B2B from the beginning of the HOS business and I've started to grow smarter. From this passion, Wwisegroup.pl was born. The ecosystem of the company that helps to integrate the strategy of marketing sales, HR, technology, finance and law. In the podcast, modern sales and marketing share practical knowledge and system approach, based on real examples. If you are developing the marketing and marketing of B2B and you are looking for specific solutions, not only the theory, but also the podcast. Don't be bored. This episode is a theory of the dead horse. How to stop charging energy in something that doesn't work anymore. Hi, welcome. I welcome you warmly and heartily in the next episode of the podcast on marketing sales and marketing. At the very beginning, I have to say hello to the second edition of Wwise strategy camp. Sometimes, it's much longer than a quarter meeting with a dozen entrepreneurs, where together through quarter or longer than through quarter we create business strategies for participants. This is also a bit of a theory and a lot of practice in common work and development of these strategies. And now, literally a few days ago, because today I'm recording on Saturday, in the afternoon I have one of the next days, that's why Mastermind. And we started to discuss about today's famous dead horse. And about how many entrepreneurs have a problem with it. And about the fact that in total, this problem with dead horses is very common. And the method and technique, which I also use for such things, is that I won't say to resist, because it's probably impossible to resist. However, such things that I can handle, thanks to this method, taking into account is just a lot. And many changes in the year 2024, which took place in my business, resulted from the method that I will talk about in this episode. So if you have the tendency to load something into energy, which doesn't work anymore and you shouldn't do it, or you know someone who does it, or you don't even know it and you don't do it yourself, but you're developing, it's a great chance that one day this syndrome will hit you. Therefore, in this episode I will explain, without further ado, what the theory is, how it works, I will tell you how to recognize that something has a chance to develop in the future, and then to know that it is better to throw it away, instead of getting bored. And in addition, in this episode, I will talk about the place of the prime minister, because as a listener, you will learn about it first. A new course from Staini Selwais, which I think will be revolutionary and that the whole mass of the company will help absolutely much. So, without further ado, I encourage you to listen to my rhetoric part. The theory of the dead horse. Listen, I was looking and it turns out that there is no one, no official author, who could have come here. This is a kind of metaphor, which is an unknown origin, and for years it worked as an organizational joke. However, mainly in the United States, that's why there is a great chance that many of you have not heard about this theory. Sometimes, it's not wrong to say that it was written by an American, that is, it's the old term "the dead horse", but there is no proof of origin of this theory from this place. It was probably developed as a permanent form of satyr, on absurd activities, especially in large organizations, and sometimes it started to function as a tool for training, especially from the management of leadership and strategy. And now the theory of the dead horse is one of these metaphors, which, as I mentioned in the introduction, can happen to each of us, even if it hasn't happened yet. Especially during conversations, even with difficult clients. Fortunately, it appears then, when we desperately try to react to something, which has long stopped making sense to me. And now both of what we would not talk about, whether we are talking about a business line, whether it is about the whole business, whether it is about shares, whether it is about products, whether it is about clients, whether it is about partnerships, whether it is about the sales model, whether it is about everyone with whom we can grow in business, whether something that used to work well, but today no longer works and draws us down, the basic idea of this theory is that, if you think that you are riding a dead horse, the best thing you can do is just sit down from it. I know that it sounds trivial, I know that it is tourism, but the problem of this dead horse is even very, very, very well-known, good and well-known entrepreneurs. Because in practice, instead of sitting down from a dead horse, something completely reversed happens. Because instead of letting the managers or teams try to rescue a dead horse, there are really, really, many ways, and it is more absurd than the previous one. Because now, one day, for a dead horse, they buy a new saddle. So, for example, they invest in better tools, CRM, automatization, advertising, everything in order to save something, which in fact has stopped working for a long time. In business, the dead horse changes very often, the driver changes, and it is estimated that he will survive. For example, the manager, the head of the department or the director, and we assume that a new man will bring a miracle in his pocket, he will take it out and the dead horse will be able to get out of the dead horse, he will be able to go on. Well, the horse, just like he was dead, yes, it is still. Sometimes it happens to me and here it happens to Selweiss, that we change the coach of the horse. So we make it difficult for another agency, another consultant, a freelancer, to work on something that the foundations do not exist anymore. And especially when we, as an external director, say that, well, hey, the horse is not alive, we rather meet with a big dose of hate and aggression, that it is not difficult for us not to say that it is not possible. Well, because here I, Mr. Szymoni, listened so much to the podcasts, that I did not expect such amateur approach to the matter. Well, in many cases, listen, there is also a strategic meeting on the horse, to think about what is next with the horse. And some, listen, for months they create presentations, models, roadmaps, they analyze data, well, and after six months of analysis, data clearly say that the horse is still alive. Nothing has changed. Still others extend the life of the horse. Listen, I will change the definition of the horse. Well, hey, it's not exactly the horse's horse. He just rests, he lies down. Or he usually needs more budget, or more food, so we buy it. Redefinition of the concept of the horse is also very popular. And besides, you can start comparing to other companies, which also have a dead horse. And to calm down, saying that hey, other horses are now lying down and resting. Let's wait. You can also establish a new investment in the history, of course. We have already put so much into this horse, that it is a pity now, it would be a pity to sit down from it. This is the so-called "Sung-Cost-Fallacy", that is, the catch of utopian costs, which often makes us want to carry these costs even more. Well, my favorite, we have a training for the dead horse. That is, we send the dead horse, we take him to the workshop of sales, marketing tools, individual results, everything in order to finally say that the horse is still alive. Nothing has changed. And the theory of the dead horse really talks about it. If you ride on the dead horse, you should sit down from it. However, in life, life is different. Because, for example, the company has an unpaid share of products, because it used to be the main source of income. Although today it is 3% of sales and 94% of problems. This happens very often. Or the trade team is trying to get rid of the wall in Cyslów, call the cold leaders, because once we called and the president, I don't know, saved the company six or eight years ago, although the market is buying today in a completely different way, for example, in a given industry. Or the boss in marketing changes the marketing agency every quarter, because campaigns do not work, but no one asked themselves questions if the product itself is no longer needed by the client. Or the president keeps some non-operative partnership, because we once built a company with this partner. At the same time, one partner draws, and the other only puts support. And another startup, for example, for three years, develops a function that no one wants, but it continues to develop, because it is our core and we must believe that it will work. And I will tell you that from my perspective, the lesson from this point of view is that when we go to different companies and observe how they work, especially that it seems that, at least in a few percent of cases, we are too much into trying to save the dead horse, to, you could say, crush something that simply does not live, and we are not able to survive it. We are not creatures. And therefore, when we see these attempts, I have the feeling that the biggest cost in the business is not errors at all, but just such late decisions. Because the theory of the dead horse, if one of you, now listening, has a bit of trouble, then it is brutal, but it is also brutally simple. And that is very true, because it is not about that, of course, to immediately emphasize something when there is only difficulty, because I think that we, as Poles, are absolutely perfect in this, that when there is difficulty, we just grab the sword and go with them to measure with these difficulties. But the point is that each of you can share what is difficult from what is without a chance. I will repeat this, so that we can learn to share what is difficult from what is without a chance. And I will tell you that it seems to me that, among other things, the true leadership is among others. Because the true leadership is also the courage to say, it does not work, we close it, we start to grow. And now we have to discuss a little about where this border is between difficult and this without a chance. Because if the distinction between difficult and what is without a chance is simple, then I would not have to record this episode, and the theory of the dead horse would not exist. Because everyone would come and assess it well. This is impossible, this is difficult, we engage there, we let go. So I prepared a few examples of how to recognize them. There are ten of them. The first is lack of real results, despite the next attempts at investing. That is, you invest time, you invest money, you invest people, and there are no effects as it was. From the return of investment, it still falls, and the number that appears around this something are the facts that are more and more difficult to explain. The second way is to keep something, because it has always been so. That is, if you catch yourself that, for example, the action that used to be crucial, and today there is no reason for it, but no one has the courage to say it, so we will continue to do so. If you just touch something that stops having a justification, but it has always been so, then it is a big chance that we are talking about the dead horse. The third point. People stopped believing, but they do not say it loudly. That is, in the kulu war, everyone believes that it makes no sense, because it is a beloved child of the boss or the owner. What is interesting is that it is silent, but it makes frustration and fatigue, and that is also the rotation of the team. The fourth point. You still change people, but problems do not solve. I have repeatedly told you about the fact that a free trade man will work for another, a free boss will sell you, a change of director, marketing, in general, all the changes make a difference. However, if a new boss, a new consultant, a new agency does not change anything, then the problem probably does not lie in people, only in the horse. The fifth point. Often there is no market, or it is, but it is not yours. That is, customers do not want this product and services anymore, or they want it, but from completely different companies. Trends have changed, needs have changed, and you as a company, or you as a listener, or a listener - no. And this is also a very strong point. The sixth point. It is not clear the answer to the question - what are we doing? If there is something that has a great potential to be a dead horse, and you try to ask yourself a question - what are we doing? Then if the answer begins to be that there is no shame, or because we have already invested so much in it, then it is very often a sign that the horse has been lying for a long time. The seventh point. Everything around it turns into a repair, and not a scaling, or a loss of profits. Or satisfaction. That is, every day there are no fires. There is no development, only the rescue of what is possible. And I will tell you that this point is the eighth point, the seventh point, taking into account all these difficult decisions that I made in 2024, were focused on this point. That is, everything in the topics that I have changed very much turned into repair. Non-stop. Every day there were no fires. And there was not. Of course, in every business, there are months where there are fires, there are months where it is super cool, we develop, we grow, and they can overlap. However, if everything around something turns into repair, it hardly means anything good. The eighth point. The constant deployment of a budget without a clear strategy of exit. That is, every quarter we add one more chance, and simply add another means. And there is no point of limit that will stop. Now, if you would learn how to become a good guild investor, you would quickly get to know such a rule as stop loss, i.e. loss of profits. And investors set these stop losses in many different ways. However, the question is, do you have a stop loss with your potential for a dead horse? Because if I pumped a million into it, and now it has no good result, then where do I set the limit? Because if I don't set it, it's a chance that I will continue to move it. The ninth point. Your business environment has been moving on for a long time. Pay attention. Other players have made similar actions and have moved to new models, and you are in place with the hope that it may work. This is just a big indicator. And the tenth point. You make decisions only because you are afraid of losing your face. That is, you know in depth that this is the end, but you are afraid to admit yourself, to yourself, to the team, to the supervisor, to the government, to LinkedIn, that it just didn't work out. And I think this is the most expensive kind of nonsense, because in fact I know at least a few cases of the film, which fell down exactly because of this. There was a startup like this in Poland, near Wroclaw or even in Wroclaw, which moved beautifully and escalated. He was treated with such a mark, that it is a super-cool, escalating startup. And it is almost like a star coming down. And at some point, the founder, as he has already seen this sticked, I don't know, opinion on his head, he started doing everything to make it work. Even then, when the business stopped growing, as it did, he began to take more and more risky decisions. Decisions that were more and more brave, but the tasks had to be kept, to keep the opinions that were created on their topic. And basically, after years, I listened to an interview with the owner, who said that it was a pursuit for public opinion. In fact, it killed the company, because if he had dropped out in time and stopped engaging in the part of the dead horses, it wouldn't be enough for the business to survive. It would probably move to today, although it wouldn't have been glued to the whole map, that it is a super-growing startup, that would be a big, cool, profitable company. However, please note that all these ten points, however, they were all quite soft points, because they are certain indicators, but it is hard to say that they would definitely make decisions, so I have five simple tests for that. The first one is the test of the white card. Imagine that you are starting from scratch, and now would you make the same decision again? If today you were going to have a clean card and zero historical burden, would you start this project again, the product, the business, the cooperation, the partnership? Because if the answer is no, then you probably have a dead horse. If you didn't make this decision today, and the white card test is a test for me, when I had a difficult moment in one of the cooperation, and I told myself that hey, but we owe so much to each other. I don't know if the other side owes me anything, but I had the feeling that I owe so much to this person. And I explained to myself many problems for many years, although maybe not many, for a few years I was like hey, but we owe so much to each other. For me, the white card test was a test in which I asked myself if I would start from scratch, if I would make the same decision again. And it came out to me that no, I wouldn't. So basically, this cooperation, this partnership, was just a dead horse. The second simple test is the alternative cost. And I will tell you that this one is even more difficult for me, because it is also very frustrating, and this is exactly the alternative cost test. What could we mark the same money? People, time, maybe energy. If something is burning you and you are sitting in the evening, burning, tired, frustrated by the TV, and God forbid, with some kind of wine, alcohol, or drugs, a better wine lamp than all of that, then what could we mark the same money, time, people, engagement with a greater probability of success? Because each dead horse eats resources that could fill at least something much more exciting. If you see other areas where the same budget would give several times more results, or several times more results, it is at least an alarm that you probably have a dead horse. And that the alternative cost, which may be clear to you to describe this test, is simply huge. The third test is a test in which we often help, i.e. it is an outsider's test. It means that if someone would look at the situation from the outside, without emotions, what would he do? You yourself are an outsider, you have no feelings, you are not afraid of losing your face or being a client to sit down from that horse. Because sometimes we talk about it. At the beginning of the episode, I mentioned aggressive reactions, and that some people are frustrated, but I did not buy the diagnosis of a dead horse, I wanted to buy food for it. Of course, among these people, there are also people who say, "Thank you, that's how it really is." And it just helps them. And it is very nice when we see, as an outsider, that moving and engaging our client in a different place does not bring the client more success in the financial field, it also means something else, because it often brings more success in the general life field, that these entrepreneurs start to function better, they start to smile better, for example, return to despair, I don't know, to running, to the things they threw away, because there was a big problem, stress and so on. So the final account, both personal and business, is additional. And this is just a huge, huge thing. Such an outsider test. And it doesn't even have to be a consultant, it doesn't even have to be us, it can be someone, maybe friends, someone who is, of course, without this emotional burden, someone who won't tell you what you want to hear, but what is objective. The fourth test is a test, if it weren't for you, that means if it weren't for your project, or, I don't know, an idea, what to do or if you defend it. Because ego and attachment, in a word, is very thick, of course, to your own children, is probably the most common cause for which we keep the horse dead. So just a test, what would you do if it weren't for you? And the last fifth test for six months ahead, do you imagine that in six months, it will suddenly start to work? And if so, what miracle? Ask yourself or the team a question, what would have to happen to make it work? And now, if the answer and this scenario requires miracles, it's not a plan. It's just a fantasy. And I know that it might not be a nice episode, but I didn't promise anyone that I would record the very nice episodes. So if I find out that there is something that can be helpful and useful in a very large number of listeners, I would like to record this episode, because if we are building a business strategy, because taking this conversation, that is, from one of the cases in which, in sum, nothing is locked up, we don't have any rules, we don't have a market, we don't have time, we don't know how, in sum, we don't have anything. And it turns out that we are doing something like we used to do, only because we used to do so. And it came out from the discussion that one of the business strategies is a dead horse, instead of trying to feed it, or changing its saddle, its food, its trainer, or changing the definition of what a dead horse is, in general, to decide and look for training for a horse, then you just have to get away from it. And you have to devote yourself to building a second strategy, which will simply help us in building something valuable, which will have a much greater chance of winning. Well, that's it. And before we move on to the summary, the strategy is related to new training, cellwise. As a listener, I think that for a few months, you have noticed that, or even for a year, I think for a year, more or less, that I talk a lot about business strategies, about business models and the management teams, and it turns out that, of course, I have learned a lot about these topics in recent years. And in the last year, our method of work was created, over business strategies and business models, which are very consistent with everything we have learned so far. So with Bayer-Personami, with everything we learn in the machines. And this method was first very strongly tested. That is, it took place until the time of the two editions of the Wise Strategy Camp. Now, the third link in the description starts in Czerwcu, where with several dozen entrepreneurs on this basis we set up a business strategy company. However, in addition to this, we use this very importantly in many, many of our clients. And that's exactly what the training was about. You will find out about it as the first, because the premiere will be on Monday. This podcast has its premiere on Sunday. The link to this training is in the description. And now, why do I tell you earlier than the rest? Well, because the first 100 buyers will get access to 4-hour Q&A for 3 weeks after the training. So the first 100 people who will enter, will be able to consult their cases after 3 weeks after the training, ask questions and see also how I answer other questions. This number of people is limited, because doing Q&A for a larger group of people would be simply impossible. And I know with such a group of people, that often questions are repeated, so answering one, many of them answer, and I will be able to do it in more than 4 hours. So for the first 100 people who join the training, there is a free Q&A for 3 weeks after the live version. The training itself will be on July 15. Of course, traditionally, if you can't be on July 15, everyone gets a recording with access. And what's important, during the training, you will learn three main things. You will learn to build a business strategy, define a business model and build a structure with a team managing. And this is incredibly important, because first of all, you will understand how the business strategy works. That is, as far as you have heard, that it is nice to have a business strategy, but you have never found a way to build it well. This is the work of my life, I have an impression. Secondly, this is probably more important for some of you. You will analyze your business model and find the uncertainty where you are losing money. You will build a team managing which will take responsibility and operational decisions to improve your strategy. And in the first part of the business strategy, first of all, we will answer the question how to create a strategy that connects all the most important parts of the company, but also how to check if the current strategy is appropriate, what is the different strategy from the business model, in which capacity to design a strategy, then how to measure the effectiveness and how to update it, how to test a strategic connection on the market and how to use it in everyday management. After that, we will move on to the business model and we will think about what is the meaning of Bayer Persona in the model and strategy, i.e. what you did on other of our trainings, what are the three most important features in the business model and how to use it, how to connect the product of the price channel to the joint system instead of tying the holes, where most often they run away, how to adjust the cost of the development of the company and what models are worth benchmarking and designing something else. The third part is the part of the team managing, i.e. how to do it so as not to be with this simple and self-sufficient strategy. The address is always.pl/CEOMyśnikmasterplan, because that's exactly what the training is called, CEO Master Plan - the business model and the team managing. The training costs 2490 PLN netto. And now the important information. All those who were on Wwise strategy camps of course will get this training for free. And those of you who buy this training and after some time decide that they would like to go to our quarter Mastermind, we will take away the price of this training from the Mastermind price. i.e. whether you already have it or not, everyone who was on the camp will get it. Everyone who buys this online training and decides to go to the camp will be able to buy it cheaply for the value of this online training. What seems to me to be extremely educational? Proposition. And listen, that's probably it. I am extremely proud of this training, that it is being created. 15 July is not long. I am also curious when these 100 people will fill in, who will be able to participate in this additional Q&A three weeks after the July term. I am extremely happy that this training will appear. That is, when I started business and I was trying to learn how to make a business model, I will tell you that there were no delicate things or there were such books that promised that they would teach me this, but they did not teach me this delicately. And what is important, the method we have, whether we have people who start a business on the camps, and this is their first company, and we also have people on the camps who have a few hundred people who have worked in their company. So what is important is the method that works both for small and for small people. I will not exaggerate, listen, you will find the link to the training in the description of this episode. And that's it. See you in July. And now I encourage you to listen to the summary, where there are a few, but this time I will make very short announcements. [Music] Well, okay. So, listen, in the description of the episode, there are links to both the CEO of Masterplan, with a full agenda of the purchase possibility, and there is also a link to the Y-Strategy Camp, which is starting at the end of June. So the premiere of this online school will be during this third edition of the Y-Strategy Camp. There are 16 places on the strategy camp, which I know that a few are already occupied, so these places have been very small. In the words of the summary, currently, we are looking for people who are coming to our clients. For the company that provides information for the teachers and the boys, we are looking for a trade fair for hybrid work in Krakow. We are looking for a financial director for a quickly developing company from Olkusha, which works in international markets. And for delivery of packages dedicated to the company, we are looking for the leader of the RADZIAŁ BOG, who works in the RUDZE ŚLĄSKIEJ, BOG is of course a short-term customer service office, and KAMA is for the production of wooden products for hybrid work in Łódź. We are looking for Senior Marketing Specialist, who will be responsible for social media in one of our business lines, who will be responsible for recruiting specialists, who will be responsible for recruiting processes for high-rise clients. That's all for today. Everything is today at highrise.pl, broken for work. And I wish you a successful job in identifying dead horses. Good bye.