It happens so quickly. I’m not talking about a $1Bn corporation. I’m seeing $5m businesses where the CEO has lost touch with her business.

What are the symptoms? Well ask yourself theses questions as the leader or senior member of the management team, and if the answer is NO – you’ve lost touch. In the last 3 months:

  1. Have you spent a full morning with a key customer understanding their usage of your product?
  2. Have you listened in to at least 3 calls from each sales professional on your team?
  3. Have you taken out each of your key managers for coffee to check in on the big stuff?
  4. Have you used your own product as a new customer would to test its user friendliness?
  5. Have you reviewed all key pages of your web site and reconciled the messaging with sales scripts?
  6. Have you sat in on key recruitment interviews to hear the story a prospective employee hears?
  7. Do you understand the three hottest topics on your company’s blog?
  8. Have you reviewed the movements of your quarterly sales forecast?
  9. Do you know the sales person with the highest growth in his business and the lowest growth compared with last year and why?
  10. Have you reviewed the trend line for all major balance sheet ratios especially Accounts Receivables?