John Linton Perhaps things have been too tough for too long and really enjoyable 'business' weeks have become so rare that periods like the last five days stand out so starkly. However, for once, everything that we did went far better than we expected or had any 'right' to expect....given the ways things had typically gone over the past two plus years.
The highlight of the week/month was that by 4.30 pm yesterday afternoon the bell had rung for the eighth sale for the day and we had reached 100 business/corporate sales for a month for the first time and by 5.30 pm we had reached 101. With four full days of the month left it seems likely that the final number of business sales will reach as high as 120 which will well and truly put the '100 sales in a single month milestone' behind us. An added benefit of this month's sales is that the average sale value has increased by well over 20% since I last 'looked' and suddenly the next mile stone of $100,000 in new business revenue in a month seems much, much closer than 'predicted'. Almost all too good to be true but, if the current sales teams can continue to produce results like this in the coming months life for many people within Exetel will become much easier which will be a welcome relief after the past years of unrelenting pressure.
Earlier in the week we completed our first third quarter review of our current financial year's business plan and finally see some very real light at the end of the very long, very dark and very confining tunnel we have been journeying through for what seems to me to be an 'eternity'. It is looking like the year will finish very strongly in the fourth quarter with the huge efforts we have made (and not a few 'gambles we have had to take) finally beginning to actually produce very positive results. Anything can go wrong in this strange business and I'm very definitely not counting any chickens prior to their egg exit but it seems to me that we have managed to move the company out of the dreary conditions we have been subject to for so long into a far more enjoyable looking 'future'.....at least as far as something as soulless as a business plan's financial prognostications can make anything look enjoyable.
A very pleasant event was a largish percentage of the Exetel people who work in North Sydney going to see River Dance because one of the first corporate sales people we hired used to be a principal dancer for several years with that company before coming to work for Exetel. Even allowing for personal bias most of us agreed that Niamh was easily the best female dancer in the company and also by far the best looking. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
On Friday we received the second of two 'approaches' from the latest people expressing interest in buying Exetel. Perhaps there is some sort of sign somewhere that indicates Exetel is for sale? I have lost count of the number of approaches we have received over the past two years alone but its well into double figures....including three from ISPs larger than us, two from ISPs smaller than us and an assortment of of other companies not in the communications business at all or at least not in Australia. I doubt that anything will come of these latest enquiries as most approaches seem to be based on a belief that we are boneheadedly stupid and can easily be conned into giving away the results of seven years of intensely hard work by a group of highly skilled and creative people for 'nothing'.....or for so little it may as well be nothing. However it's always interesting to talk to people who think they are so much knowledgeable about your own company and infinitely more intelligent than you are. I hadn't realised how stupid I was until I had spoken to such people....that should really be - spoken to by such people....I don't recall ever doing much talking myself.
We also got a series of improved 'offers' from our suppliers during the week that will in turn improve almost all of our current services to our customers. I suppose it continues to indicate how difficult the Australian communications markets continue to be when major suppliers 'reduce' their corporate/wholesale sales personnel by two thirds in a matter of a week or so which results in them being unusually accommodating in their dealings with even modest sized customers such as Exetel. There appears to be very little doubt that this is an end of an era in our industry.
My personal week ended on a high by having one of the most enjoyable birthdays I can remember. Apart from the nicely written cards and thoughtful presents we had a fantastic Japanese dinner with some truly great food and great sake.
I look forward to more weeks like this one.
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