The best way to get up to speed quickly is to make mistakes early. You have to learn the hard way: by doing, making mistakes and redoing. It's your ability to fail and fail quickly that lets you make the best use of your runway. The faster you can learn how not to sell your product, service or solution, the greater your chances for reaching takeoff speed before your runway ends or it's too rough to continue.

To manage your sales runway, start by keeping these points in mind:

?P Make sure you're on the right runway! What is it that you're actually selling? Are you absolutely positive about what it is the customer is getting when they do business with you? Do you know what's in it for them and why they would do business with you?

?P Changing the length of the runway doesn't mean you get to take off. It just means you get to taxi for a longer period of time. Getting financing may buy you more time, but you still have to find out how to get customers to pay a fair and sustainable price for what you're providing. Consistently repeating a learned sales process creates momentum and builds speed.

?P Having a perfectly smooth runway isn't required for takeoff. The runway will never be absolutely smooth, and competitors will always seem to have better runways. (Microsoft's runway in the early days wasn't in the best shape, and arguably still isn't.) Begin where you are with what you have, and start making your way to the end of the tarmac. Focus on selling what you have today to those that will buy it, and build up as much speed as you can.

?P At all times, know where you are and how fast you are going. Refining what works for you and your business is what's needed here. It's your unique sales process and sales cycle that must be refined over time. Repeat what works; change what doesn't. Track your success and your failures, and adjust your approach.