What happened next was kismet. I was working for a company where I became involved with manufacturing operations. This involvement compelled me to read about Henry Ford's breakthrough at the dawn of the twentieth century—the mass production of automobiles. Ford's genius lay in his ability to embed the intelligence of mass auto production within the process itself, and to put to rest the craftsman model. In effect, Ford made the leap out of the craftsman model of making the horse and buggy to a revolutionary production method. That's when I experienced "pure inspiration!" and wondered to myself, why couldn't Ford's mass-production process be applied to sales? As I reflected on his initiative, I saw a commonality between Ford's situation and the one that contemporary companies were facing. The genius of top salespeople was that they followed a sales process without fail.
The craftsman model dictated that each piece of work be treated as a solitary event that presents one-of-a-kind challenges, an approach that lacks an overall guidance system. Continuity doesn't exist between one piece of work and another in this kind of system. The craftsman—or in my case, the salesperson—labors intensively without an overall game plan that links one selling event to the next. This model fails to provide a process for companies to give them a multiplier effect in sales, because traditionally, the intelligence of sales work lies not in a process but in the individual brain of each salesperson.
Ford's automakers knew the steps needed to produce completed Model T's as they followed the mass-production procedure. They resolved production problems that arose, but never strayed from the basic auto making process. Monitoring production effectiveness was inherent in the process itself. If the automakers didn't follow it, they made mistakes; if they adhered to the process, they caught or avoided mistakes and everything worked as it should. Best of all, sticking to the accepted procedure meant that Ford could deliver higher value to the company's customers and sell cars in greater volume at lower cost than anyone else.
All of this begged the question I had asked myself: If the concept of mass-production could work for the manufacture of autos, why couldn't the concept work for sales? My firsthand experience with lean manufacturing earlier in my career showed me the power of kaizen, just-in-time manufacturing, cost of quality, and radically improving a continuous process. To me, these methods seemed a natural fit with the process of sales production that I had begun formulating. I sensed that it was time to apply lean manufacturing to sales, and enable salespeople to lift themselves out of the outmoded craftsman method of selling.
This new approach to sales could reduce the huge variance that existed between the performance of "A" players and others. Let me hasten to add that my plan was not to have every salesperson become an A-level player; rather it was to empower and enable 80 percent of each sales team to sell more effectively. I calculated that even a 25 percent improvement in this area could have significant impact on the top line.
Another five years passed from the time that I initially conceived the sales production system to when I actually took action on it. It was clear from the start that launching such a system and founding a company to carry my vision forward would take far more than a grand idea. Business ideas, no matter how good, can fizzle unless you can create close business relationships with people who resonate with your concept. They feel in the marrow of their bones that your creative vision rings true and know that the time and business environment are right for your idea to take shape and grow well into the future. People and timing are everything.
The first person I needed to convince was my wife, Saman. To start this business, we would have to use every penny from our savings, remortgage our home, and use up our kids' college funds. After listening for a few minutes, she said, "Razi, go for it. If we don't start a business now, when will we ever start one?" This meant we were now fully leveraged. As they say in America, we had bet the farm.
To give a voice to my idea, I evangelized at every opportunity I could find. I spoke with scores upon scores of friends, colleagues, presidents, and CEOs of companies large and small. I engaged angel investors, executives, and sales gurus and other experts whom I wanted on my company's board of directors and advisors. No matter whom I spoke with, the reaction was the same; everyone intuited the magnitude of positive change that a sales production system could have on the way companies sell. These same people offered their moral support—as well as their intellectual acumen—to help me get started.
In particular, I remember my accountant calling one day to inform me that I had $2,000 in the bank, and that we needed more than $15,000 to make payroll. Late that afternoon, I drove out to his office to discuss our options. During my meeting with him, he said, "What options? There are no options. We need the money to make payroll." As he continued to spell out the reality of shutting down our operations, a person I didn't know walked into his office. Since I was sitting with my head resting on my hand, my body language may have indicated that I appeared to be down. As this person started talking with my accountant, I overheard the discussion and found that my accountant was renting space in this person's larger office. While they were chatting, I looked over and noticed that this person was holding a brochure in which I could see a photo of a beautiful beach. I interrupted the conversation and politely asked him to show me the brochure. The content was about luxury beachfront villas in Belize called Belizean Dreams. It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen.
I started asking questions about the villas and the resort, and the gentleman started to explain all the details and mentioned that he was building this resort. As we talked, he asked me to join him in his office, and we walked over to an exquisite, spacious room with his desk on one side and a conference table on the other. We sat at the conference table, and he asked me what I was doing. I explained my idea of developing a sales production system, and he asked about the opportunity to invest in the company. I told him that I was taking investments; at which point he got up, walked over to his desk, pulled out a checkbook—and wrote me a check. When I looked at the check I couldn't believe it. It was written for $50,000. "I haven't even shown you our business plan!" I said.
"I'm not investing in the business plan," he responded. "I'm investing in you. I'm investing in the 'Razi factor.'" Just then, his brother walked in, and he asked him to write me a check as well. His brother did, for $25,000. About an hour before, I had been sitting in my accountant's office, unsure of how to make payroll. I now had $75,000, enough for five months of payroll.
After this incident, support flowed from family members, friends, and angel investors—$1,000 here, $45,000 there, and hundreds of thousands more from sources almost too numerous to count. After seed funding came a number of financing rounds with venture capitalists.
I knew in my heart that my venture would help companies build world-class sales organizations. Because of this certainty, I thought about it day and night, energized as I was to make this a reality.
Our company took the name of Landslide Technologies to symbolize what we saw as the avalanche-like power of the Landslide Sales Production System. We envisioned a torrent of energy inherent in the system that would sweep away useless and worn-out methods of selling and usher in a new era of success for everyone who made a living by selling something.
Since we launched our sales production system in 2007, hundreds upon hundreds of salespeople have rallied and continue to rally around it. They use the system to create greater sales growth and to do it faster than they've ever been able to. On average, our customers have seen new sales opportunities more than double within a single quarter—from 59 percent to 136 percent, as the number of their wins has jumped from 64 percent to 152 percent. What's more, the system reduces by half the number of days it takes to close a deal, while the average dollar value of wins and sales ratios has more than doubled. Best of all, companies using the system experience on average a 140 percent increase in revenue.
Landslide is now gaining top recognition in the industry. For three years in a row, the leading analyst firm Gartner Group has placed Landslide as a visionary company in its famous "Magic Quadrant" report. And we have received "Innovation of the Year," "Product of the Year," and "One to Watch" by a number of leading magazines.
Our progress to date has been an exhilarating and gratifying ride; in retrospect, the groundswell of acceptance for our sales production system has surprised even me. When I started, I felt as though I were leading the charge with my concept. But over time, the idea has taken on a momentum of its own. My original product idea—to provide a sales process all salespeople could use and win with—has transformed itself into a movement of unstoppable energy. In 2009, we hired a new CEO to lead Landslide into a hyper-growth stage. I now support the company as the founder. Following the success of Landslide, I now returned to my scientific roots to create a new company in the nanotechnology and energy field.
On a final note regarding Landslide, let me recount a significant Junoon experience in the form of synchronicity. As we developed our software, we ran into serious performance issues. We started receiving complaints and threats of cancellation. As I was struggling to solve this problem, I researched the Web for a software engineer who was an expert in improving performance of software products. I came across someone who had solved this problem not once but several times, and who was also mentioned in a Harvard Business Review case as the engineer who had saved a company by fixing its performance issues. He was known in the industry as the premier engineer who solved major performance issues. I tracked down his name and resumé; his name seemed familiar to me. When I reviewed his background I couldn't believe it. Could this really be the person I knew long ago in Kuwait, I wondered?
Yes, it was indeed the same Chander Sarna who had helped me in Kuwait. We had not spoken for more than 30 years. I picked up the phone and called him in San Jose, California. When he answered the phone, I said, "Hi, Chander. This is Razi." After a moment of silence, he said, "I don't believe this! Is it really you?" Immediately we were transported back to Kuwait, talking about old times. I brought him up to speed on what had happened over the last 30 years, and he shared with me his incredible accomplishments.
Here was the person who guided me at a time when I was vulnerable, lost, and confused. The universe aligned again, and reintroduced Chander who helped to solve a business challenge that could seriously have hurt our company. Such is the power of Junoon!