The gut feel-How intuition leads to success in busines. A small e-book about using intuition to be successful in business based on the author's experience.

1. The Gut Feel:
How intuition can lead you to success in
business
Murray Hunter

2. Contents:
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Intuition and finding opportunities
Chapter Three: Intuition and the big picture
Chapter Four: Intuition and the start up
Chapter Five: Intuition and Marketing
Chapter Six: Intuition and Sales
Chapter Seven: Intuition and Growth
Chapter Eight: Intuition and Keeping (or getting) out of trouble
Chapter Nine: Intuition and Success

3. Chapter One
This chapter shows the importance of intuition in our daily life and how it is used to make most of our life
changing decisions. Various views about what intuition is; are shared with the reader. The myth that
intuition comes from some divine source is debunked. The concept of personal mastery is introduced
where the right attitude, awareness, and sensitivity is needed to develop unbiased intuition. The chapter
then looks at how businesses and organizations are really run. We see that organisational life is far from
rational, our goals continually change, and decisions are made intuitively.
Introduction
Over the last three decades management gurus have been telling us how to be successful in
business – have a bias for action, be close to the customer, get productivity through your
people, develop a learning community, stick close to the knitting, be hands on, be lean, or
become a six sigma black belt, etc. We have gone from strategic planning, to people, to
strategy, to quality, to entrepreneurial action, and landed in the blue ocean. The way we think
is common to all these methods but until recently has received little attention.
It was back in the early 1970s that one management scientist Henry Mintzberg questioned the
way we believed that managers thought, saying that most decisions made in the workplace are
intuitive and based on little deliberation because of time constraints. The reality is that we run
our businesses on intuition but ironically little is said about the subject, and there is yet little
assistance or guides to help us sharpen, focus and improve our intuition.
Away from the university lecture theatres in a time before it was necessary to have a degree to
be an executive (yes there was such a time), there were many self taught people who learned
through experience in what many would call “the school of hard knocks.” People did their jobs
on intuition. Our rush to higher education tended to influence us to shun the idea of intuition in
favour of “analysis” which we learnt, but actually had trouble implementing it at work. We still
relied on intuition, but wouldn’t really admit it in fear we would realise that a great part of our
education was irrelevant to the day to day demands of work.
I was lucky to work with a man who came up through the “school of hard knocks” and who
taught me how to run a business and undertake marketing on “gut feel.” Years later I was also
mentored by a Chinese scholar of ancient Chinese traditional thinking (yes Sun Tzu) and
couldn’t believe how much common sense it all made. Sun Tzu acted on intuition based upon a

4. whole lot of mental rules, which we call heuristics, relying on self awareness as his intelligence
tool. It was amazing how similar the two schools of thought were in their ways of thinking.
So thinking about it, only your gut feel, or your intuition is what makes you decide and move on
something. We don’t pluck daisies saying “she loves me, she loves me not”, we go by something
deep in our stomach (metaphorically of course), that gives us the confidence, the courage, the
motivation, and the energy to do it.
If you remember the 1967 film The Graduate, Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) after
graduating from college is seduced by an older woman Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), and
then falls in love with her daughter Elaine (played by Katherine Ross). After Benjamin tells
Elaine about the torrid affair with her mother, Elaine runs away to Berkeley, refusing to speak
to him. Benjamin decides that he must marry Elaine and follows her to Berkeley. The two
eventually become close again. However Mr. Robinson (Murray Hamilton) arrives at Berkeley
and tells Benjamin if he has anything to do with Elaine he will prosecute him to the full extent
of the law. Mr. Robinson takes Elaine away to marry Carl, another student at Berkeley. When
Benjamin finds out that Elaine is marrying Carl he rushes to the church in Pasadena and arrives
just after they are married. Thinking he is too late Benjamin bangs on the glass window at the
back of the church and shouts “Elaine.” Elaine turns around and sees Benjamin, hesitates for a
second looking at her parents and new husband Carl and then shouts “Ben” and runs towards
him. After a scuffle the pair run down the road and flag down a bus and travel onto their new
life. This is a perfect example of intuition over reason. All important life decisions are made
through intuition.
This book will share with you some of my thoughts on intuition and show you how to harness
intuition through some simple tools so that you can make the right decisions that steer you
venture to success.
So what is Intuition?
First of all what does intuition do? Intuition gives us a gut feeling about something, a quick
insight into issues and problems, an instinctive sense, an inner knowing, a hunch, or wisdom
about something. In psychology, intuition is described as thoughts and feelings that come to
our mind without much reflection. Intuition surfaces our beliefs about something which we
cannot easily justify through reasoning. Some describe intuition as a function coming from a
holistic right side of the brain, although recent research has shown that intuition may be much
more than that. Jungian psychology aligned intuition as a part of our personality type. The
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) tabulates different personality types where intuitive people
tend to make decisions upon their perceptions. More recently intuition has become an

5. important aspect of the creativity and innovation movement as a method or ability to solve
problems and make decisions. Cognitively, intuition is based upon little rules of the thumb that
originate from our deep beliefs that guide our decision making, called heuristics.
The reliability of our intuition depends upon our knowledge stored in our memory and
perceptions from the environment. Therefore the wider and deeper our knowledge, given that
there are no distorting forces present, the better might be our intuition. Those people who use
intuition as a means of decision making according to Jung would make good entrepreneurs,
where people must make decisions under uncertainty and little fact to reason on. Intuition is a
means of making decisions that can deal with little factual information and analysis.
Intuition is a blend of knowledge, some logical fact, some belief, experience, emotion, sub-
conscious memory, and stimuli perceived in the environment. Intuition is restrictive to what we
are good at and not a general trait. For example a mechanic will be able to very quickly
diagnose what is wrong with a car by just listening to it, where he may not be able to pick up
why a baby is crying in a daycare centre, which a daycare professional would be able to do
intuitively.
Is Intuition from any Divine Source?
Some authors, speakers, and spiritualists claim that intuition is a divine power with
transcendent qualities that spiritually guide you. Although it can be argued that intuition is
higher order thinking, it is certainly not of any divine origin coming from some spiritual source
outside our existing knowledge. To believe that intuition is from some power of a higher order
is very risky as this logic may convince people to follow their intuition when it may actually be
coming from a person’s ego, or false intuition. The power of intuition is not divine, but the
power of wisdom that emerges from personal mastery is something that can set people apart
from others.
What is Personal Mastery?
Personal mastery is a term the author and management guru Peter Senge borrowed from the
Buddhist Dharma meaning that you are practicing the kaizen or continuous improvement of
everything you do in all areas of your life. Personal mastery is about a journey in life that brings
among other things personal growth, learning, and wisdom. At this level you are able to see
things for what they are unchecked by your emotional baggage and biases. In such a state
intuition is completely unbiased and trustworthy and can assist you in your journey from your

6. current reality to your personal visions in life. As such personal mastery also generates the
energy you need to pursue your vision.
According to Peter Senge, people with personal mastery have;
• A special purpose or calling in life,
• Can see their currently reality very clearly,
• Can recognize their own biases,
• See change as an opportunity, and
• Are deeply inquisitive.
These qualities show that three elements are important in gaining unbiased intuition, the right
attitude of openness to what might really be, an unbiased awareness, and greater sensitivity.
Attitude is very important to learning and our personal growth. This influences how we develop
our mental models (i.e., built in assumptions about how the world around us works), which
creates our meaning. This means not taking things for granted and wanting to see things in
different perspectives, which will be discussed later. Sounds easy, but in reality we are usually
locked in and become a slave to our attitudes. Think about it, we are naturally creatures of
habit and like to maintain rigid routines that act as a protective screen against change. We
naturally resist change as it brings uncertainty and uncertainty brings anxiety, which we try to
avoid.
Attitude affects our sense of awareness. Some people are orientated towards the future and
others to the past. When we become orientated to the future we can develop apprehensions
and worry about what will happen bringing a sense of anxiety, thus becoming fearful about
change. If we dwell on the past we can become remorseful and set in the patterns and ways of
doing things, thus becoming rigid and fear change (an entrepreneur is someone who embraces
change, orientated in the past will prevent any action orientation of a person). Being orientated
in the future or past makes us rather insensitive to here and now, where we are at present. This
is not to say that some future orientation is good to have visions about what could be, and at
the same time to have some orientation on the past so we can learn in the present and find
opportunities that improve the future.
Likewise our awareness is also affected by our locus of control (the belief about how much we
have control over events around us). If we believe that we have no control over events going on
around us, we won’t care and we will be oblivious to opportunities around us. If we believe that
we can control everything, then we may become delusional about what we can achieve and
develop an extreme sense of over confidence.

7. This quad-directional frame is surrounded by our emotions which can distort our awareness.
Emotions such as envy, greed, lust, anger, depression, and persecution distract us from seeing
the environment clearly and affect our interpretation of what exists. In mild forms a little bit of
ruthlessness might be necessary to survive out there in the world, but too much greed for
example may influence a person to undertake strategies that are too ambitious, and put a
company into cash-flow problems.
Being balanced within the awareness plain is very important to having an unbiased intuition
(shown in figure 1.1.).
Future Orientation
Emotional
Disturbances
Strong Locus of Control
Weak Locus of Control
Optimum Region
of Awareness
Past Orientation
Figure 1.1. The Awareness Plain.
We also need to have emotional sensitivity so we can pick up what is happening around us.
Emotional sensitivity runs across a continuum from mindlessness to mindfulness.
Mindlessness numbs individuals’ senses to the outside environment and patterns them into
seeing situations as absolutes. Whereas mindfulness is a state of psychological freedom without
any attachment to any point of view and being attentive to what is occurring at present. Many
peoples’ emotional sensitivity is inhibited by their past categorizations, rules and routines that

8. cloud the ability to view any current situation with novel distinction. Therefore the more
mindful a person is, the more open to the environment they will be.
Ability to see the environment in different ways
No Sensitivity High Sensitivity
Figure 1.2. Our emotional sensitivity.
How Business is Really Run
One of the great myths of the 20th Century was that firms and organizations were run rationally.
Anybody who has seen some of the British “Carry on” series, “Monty Python”, or “Yes Minister”
and worked in any large organization will laugh at the idea that organizations are anything
resembling rational. Organizational life is probably something more akin to the episodes of
“Absolutely Fabulous.” Although we believe we are rational beings, we actually go about things
in the most inconsistent ways. We probably still have a lot to learn from the ant species that we
share the Earth with.
This is especially the case in entrepreneurs and new venture formation (or new marriages for
that matter). We try things in an exploratory way to see how they work. If they work, we keep
doing it, and that becomes our behavior. Those parents reading will know that this is how
children learn. So the journey of business and life is more akin to sailing a yacht along a bay
against the wind tacking every few hundred metres to reach some upwind point, at some
optimum angle against the wind. Although we may set certain goals at the beginning of the
journey, most probably during that journey we modify them and end up at a new destination as
well. Firm rules don’t work, it’s more about seeing and feeling what happens and making
decisions accordingly. The journey of life is therefore guided by intuition, and the better we
understand it, the better it can work for us.

9. Wind in the case of a yacht or
environmental turbulence in the
Vision &
case of a firm.
Goals
Actual Path &
Performance
Modified
Vision & Goals
Figure 1.3. The journey of life is like sailing a yacht upwind.
The rest of this book will show you how to use intuition when all the facts are not available to
find opportunities, start-up and grow a business.
The next chapter will look at how intuition helps us find opportunities. You will see how not too
many people look into the future and outside their own set geographical areas. Most people
see opportunity through their own aspirations and often mistake their personal interests for
opportunity. Different types of opportunities have different types of characteristics and
intuition helps us to construct them into new business models. Finally we will see that curiosity
and interest are two very important ingredients in the ability to see opportunities.
Chapter three is about seeing the big picture of opportunities which can be intuitively tested
through checklists which help us to examine each element of the selected opportunity. As you
will see most entrepreneurs never start with any formal business plan, and even if they did,
they would undertake this intuitive due diligence.
Chapter four is about intuition and the start-up phase of a venture. Entrepreneurs are usually
strapped for resources and only have time to do what is immediately important to get the start-
up going. They have little information to go on, so they must use intuition to make the
necessary and important decisions. You will also see in this chapter that one must be very
careful not to mistake ego for their intuition which is a deadly trap for young players.
Chapter five concerns intuition and marketing. Entrepreneurial marketing is very different from
conventional marketing practices due to the lean resources an entrepreneur has. Start-up
ventures usually lack market information and must therefore rely on intuition to make

10. decisions. We will also see that what entrepreneurs envision for the market and what
consumers will accept may be very different and entrepreneurs must reconcile these
differences. Intuition on the run in the marketplace helps to reconcile entrepreneurial visions
with consumer realities. The chapter concludes with an outline of how a new firm can find its
place in the market by either attracting consumers away from existing products or creating new
value to consumers.
Chapter six is about intuition and the sales process. Sales are vital in the start-up phase of an
enterprise and most of the entrepreneur’s time will be concerned with this issue. The chapter
outlines the basic principles of sales, how to build up sales skills, and how to put up your case to
the potential customer. Empathy, a form of intuition is very important in the initial sales
process and for meeting later objections that potential customers may raise.
Chapter seven concerns intuition and growth. During the life of a firm there will be times when
big decisions may have to be made that alter the destiny of the enterprise. These potential
paths can be looked upon as potential moves that can be made in the game of chess, where any
move will have specific consequences.
Chapter eight is concerned with intuition and keeping (or getting) out of trouble. There are
usually a number of crises during the life of a firm where getting out of trouble is about
intuition as much it is about following management philosophy. There are multiple perspectives
about any situation that need to be appreciated before decisions should be made. Different
perspectives can be discovered and appreciated by the use of lists. This helps to support
intuition. Another problem with any crisis is the stress it brings the entrepreneur, which
potentially blocks unbiased intuition.
Finally, chapter nine summarizes the issues involved with intuition and business. The blocks to
and distortion of intuition are revisited as well as the relationship between intuition, creativity,
and action.
Summary
• In reality business decision making is done intuitively.
• Our life changing decisions are also made intuitively.
• Intuition can be defined as thoughts and feelings that come to our mind without any
reflection.
• Intuition is an important part of creativity.
• Intuition is the only way to make decisions where factual information doesn’t exist.

11. • Intuition is based upon our current knowledge, experience, beliefs, and from what we
see in the environment and has no divine sources.
• Personal mastery is a continual journey to self improvement, through learning, personal
growth, and the source of our wisdom.
• Attitude, awareness, and sensitivity are very important to get insightful and unbiased
intuition.
• It is important that we live in the present and not the past or the future.
• We must be realistic about our sense of control over events within the environment.
• We must be aware of emotions that can burden us with bias.
• Business and organizations are far from rational entities.
• Organizations rarely pursue their goals directly, as strategy and action is more about
trial and error, and the resulting learning.
Some More Introductory Tips:
• Thought Audit: Most people are not aware of what is contained within their thoughts
and what emotions influence them. We can discover the influences on our thoughts by
recording them down in a dairy. For example you have a thought about “being the
person to kick the winning goal in Saturday’s football match,” After your write down the
thought try and think what emotion and motivation is behind it. Back in this example
the thought of kicking the winning goal might be associated with “the need to achieve”
or “the need to seek attention and be noticed” – this could come from feeling inferior to
others, or just a need to be competitive. After a day or so of recording down your
thoughts and emotions, one may begin to see consistent patterns about the types of
emotions you feel and if any particular set of emotions dominate your thinking. You may
find that your emotions have multiple motivations. In the above example your thoughts
may show you that there is both a need to achieve and a need to be competitive. There
may even be some feeling of a need to make a difference. On the contrary, your
thoughts may show that you have a strong desire to be noticed. Being forced to think
about the types of emotions you feel may give you some insights into yourself that
surprise you and help you to build up unbiased intuition.

12. Chapter Two
This chapter looks at the characteristics of opportunity and the role intuition plays in finding and
developing them. Our personal aspirations influence the types of opportunities we see. There
are basically four types of opportunities; those that are imitative of other businesses, those that
rely on consumer markets and established supply chains, those that are entrepreneurially novel,
and those that come from some form of breakthrough technology. The concept of mindfulness is
introduced which helps us see opportunities at various depths or levels. Finally the chapter
shows how to construct an opportunity using the method called concept extraction.
Intuition and Finding Opportunities
The central aspect of opportunity is being able to see it in the first place and act upon it before
others. This relies upon how we see the world and process information. The resulting vision,
insight, discovery, or creation is an idea that upon evaluation may become an opportunity. This
ability is not evenly distributed among people as people have different orientations towards the
world around us, as figure 2.1. shows.
Space
Global
National
City
Neighbourhood
Sectional Interest
Today Next Next Next Life Children’s Time
W Week Year Few Years Time Lifetime
Figure 2.1. Peoples’ different orientations towards the world.
Most ideas have their basis in some old idea, something seen or experienced within the past, so
from this point of view most opportunities are not truly novel. For example, an old type of

13. business can be given a new business model and professionalism like McDonalds did for
burgers and Holiday Inn did for motels. New technologies can be applied to old products and
processes like desktop publishing and email and domestic business models can be expanded
internationally like Coca Cola and Pizza Hut.
Many people mistake their personal aspirations for opportunity. For example people put their
money and efforts into a boutique, restaurant or spa for the wrong reasons because they like
fashion and shopping, food and cooking, or aromatherapy and massage, only to close down a
few months later because there was no real opportunity. In SME’s the values of the founder
and the firm are the same in many cases. The way we look for business opportunity is to a great
degree influenced by a hierarchy of personal and family aspirations and concerns that cannot
easily be separated from business goals. This can be dangerous if one is unaware of their
influence upon thinking. This hierarchy of personal, family, and business aspirations are
depicted in figure 2.2.

14. The Individual & Family
Family history, Current family
livelihood, Current Family Status.
Family Values
Self Assessment Strategic Business
(Self-efficacy) Analysis
Resources, networks,
Decision Making Skills capabilities, competitive
The Vision Aspiration
Knowledge environment, etc.
Personal Goals Family Goals Business Goals
Business Aspirations Family Asset Future
Competencies Considerations Fulfillment (Retirement)
Self view
Knowledge Generational Value Time horizon
Income needs evolution
Production & Type Investment
Operations Time Horizon Grooming options
successors Needs
Marketing View of Risk
retirement Family aspirations Wants management
Personnel
Opportunity Lifestyle Liquidity needs Tax planning
Financial cost of doing
other activities Attachment Alternatives Opportunity
Risk Management cost of doing
Passion other activities
Horizontal and
vertical expansion Exit barriers
Motivational Origins
Figure 2.2. This hierarchy of personal, family, and business aspirations
Different types of opportunities in various market environments display different types of
characteristics. Imitative businesses like milk bars, flower shops, newsagents, and automobile
mechanics require a very low level of analysis and intuition to see these opportunities. Formal
strategy and tactical moves are also much less important for these types of businesses because
they tend to rely on passing trade and offer similar products to their competitors. The only
question requiring an intuitive answer that an entrepreneur will ask here is; if he or she opens a
business in a particular location, will there be enough business coming in to make it viable?

15. Opportunities in established markets served by medium to large companies like in the grocery
or hardware trade may require more analysis to identify opportunities with little use of
intuition. For example, one will analyse the market for unfulfilled gaps and seek to fill them
with new products, or move to new markets with existing products. Formal strategy plays a
much more important role in this arena, although tactical moves tend to be low. The important
intuitive question here is; whether there is enough demand for the new product?
Opportunities that are based on the discovery of new markets due to changing industry
structures or demographics for example, require high intuition to find them, using a low level of
analysis. For example although a growing aged population can be observed very easy, new
opportunities will tend to be intuitive rather than analytically based, i.e., this segment likes 50s
classic music, so will new businesses based on this idea be successful? The answers can only be
found out through trial and error. Entrepreneurs tend to carve out their product and market
niches using tactical moves rather than utilizing formal strategy.
Finally in markets where real technology breakthroughs occur, require high analysis and also
high levels of intuition are to identify opportunities. New products come from intuitive ideas
from what the technology can do. For example when Texas Instruments developed LED, the
researchers developed as many products they could that could utilize the technology like
calculators and watches, etc. New products come as ideas rather than from any market
analysis. Formal strategy is very important but a fair degree of trial and error is also required.
You saw that how tactical moves were important when plasma TVs and 3G mobile phones were
launched, and we are also seeing this with the advent of iPads and internet TV.

16. Low Intuitive High
High
Large Companies & Breakthrough
Consumer Type Technology
Markets
High analytical and high
High analytical & Low
intuitive opportunities, high
intuitive opportunities,
strategy & high tactical
Analytical
high strategy & low tactical exploitation Growing
exploitation
importance
Imitative Business Entrepreneurial of formal
Low analytical & low intuitive Low analytical & high intuitive, strategy
opportunities, low strategy & low strategy & high tactical
low tactical exploitation exploitation
Low
Growing importance
of tactical moves
Figure 2.3. The various characteristics of different types of opportunities.
Opportunity construction primarily relies on a person’s intuitive thinking to tap into a person’s
creativity and imagination. How any idea will be developed will depend upon what information
a person knows, their life experiences, and how they connect all the pieces of information
together.
Curiosity and interest are two very important ingredients that help drive a person’s opportunity
awareness. Without these two ingredients important bits of information from the environment
may be missed or glossed over. Usually specific opportunities are spotted by people who work
within a particular industry or have related hobbies or interests. For example, Nike was formed
by track coach Bill Bowerman and middle distance runner Phil Knight who both had a passion
for their sport. They were able to see opportunities that others outside the running fraternity
may have not been able to see.
However occasionally people within an industry may become complacent and so accustomed to
the ways things are done that it becomes difficult for them to see any other ways of doing

17. things. Time and time again industry outsiders are able to spot these points of complacency and
become industry leaders within a very short time. The most famous story of recent times are
the young upstarts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak who started Apple Computer and changed
the whole structure of the computer industry under IBM’s nose, which was focused on the
large commercial users. Likewise Kemmons Wilson saw that motels in America lacked quality
and consistency and formed Holiday Inn to provide the quality and consistency he felt they
wanted.
Many successful ideas are based on intuition and end up changing the way industries operate.
Microsoft, Dell, Disneyland, and Jims Mowing here in Australia are all good examples of that.
Mindfulness allows a person see the environment more clearly and become more sensitive as
we develop our personal mastery. Recent New York University research has shown that when
our mind relaxes part of our brain called the default neural network activates and processes our
thoughts unburdened and unencumbered by emotions and other cognitive biases. The closest
thing to explaining how this works is when we daydream, or when we are relaxing over dinner
or having a shower and suddenly get that ‘aha” thought that solves a problem that we haven’t
been able to fix all day. The more mindfulness, the better the perception of opportunities,
however other facets such as our experience are still vitally important, which without any
individual will not be able to perceive opportunity for new ventures, products, and services.
Mindfulness may enhance the ability to perceive and shape new opportunities through five
components that have been empirically tested by cognitive scientists;
• Openness to novelty – the ability to reason with relatively novel forms of stimuli,
• Alertness to distinction – the ability to distinguish minute differences in the details of an
object, action, or environment,
• Sensitivity to different contexts- tasks and abilities will differ according to the situational
context,
• Awareness of multiple perspectives – the ability to think dialectically – see different
perspectives of the same thing (we will discuss later), and
• Orientation in the present- paying attention to here and now.
One would assume that the degree of mindfulness an individual possesses will also influence
the depth of opportunity that can be observed within the environment. The table below shows
the different depth of ideas that can be observed and associated forms of thinking involved in
seeing and creating them.
Table 2.1. The different depth of Ideas
First Level Imitation See and belief, little intuitive thought

18. except for viability- logical thinking
Second Level Creative Imitation See and enhance, maybe with some
connection, logic, intuition and holistic
creativity
Third Level Creating a new Connectivity of different pieces of
business Model information, intuition, some imaginatively,
or through creation.
Fourth Level Creating something Complete holistic, intuition, imaginative
new to the world construction, building from deep and
sparse pieces of experience.
Concepts can be extracted and synergized from unrelated locations, objects and other business
models. For example, a person may secure a particular rental location and wish to create some
form of business model that would serve potential customers within that location. Potential
young customers around the precinct of a university like to gather at near campus restaurants
or coffee lounges for snacks and social gatherings. The general characteristics of a generic fast-
food business is that it is cheap, has a good standard of hygiene, good service, fast and efficient,
specializing in a particular food, people know what to expect and a meeting place for people.
After study of the situation some of the characteristics of a generic fast-food business can be
extracted according to what the potential entrepreneur feels are most important to the
potential clientele of the potential location and a new concept constructed. A hypothetical
result might be a charcoal BBQ Burger Grill which is conveniently located, cheap and
affordable, has good service, a unique and tasty charcoal grill, and is a convenient meeting
place with Wi-Fi, etc. This is called concept extraction where the potentially successful elements
of a concept are synergized together to create a new idea. This is shown pictorially in Figure
2.4.

19. C Constructed Concept
Concept Extraction Charcoal Burger Grill
A (location) + B (characteristics) 1. Location near young people
= C (constructed Concept) (university): convenient
2. Cheap and affordable
University 3. Good service
4. Authentic charcoal BBQ
burger grill (western style)
5. Convenient meeting place
A with WiFi etc.
Location
Fastfood
B
Concept Extraction
(General Characteristics)
1. Cheap
2. Good standard of hygiene
3. Good service
4. Fast and efficient
5. Specialize in a particular food
6. Know what to expect
7. A meeting place for people
Potential success
parameters
Figure 2.4. A constructed concept of a charcoal BBQ Burger Grill.
Remember opportunities aren’t static and continually move. This is a major reason why
companies like Blockbuster Video faced financial problems in the US with the move to new
multimedia formats, Angus & Robertson faced financial problems here in Australia with the
increase of purchases of e-books and through websites like Amazon, and photo kiosks are
desperately trying to survive with the digital camera revolution.
Summary
• Finding opportunities is about being able to see them.
• The ability to see opportunity is not evenly distributed through the community because
people have different time and space orientations.
• Most new ideas have basis in old ideas.
• Many people mistake their own aspirations for opportunities.
• The way we see opportunities is strongly influenced by our personal and family
aspirations.
• Different types of opportunity have different types of characteristics.

20. • Constructing new opportunities requires creativity and imagination.
• Curiosity and interest are important in developing our opportunity awareness.
• Opportunities are usually spotted by people within that industry.
• Sometimes people from outside an industry see an opportunity that changes the way
things are done in an existing industry.
• Mindfulness allows you to see the environment more clearly and the more sensitive we
are, the deeper the type of opportunity we will see.
• New opportunities can be created through selecting and synergizing different attributes
of other ideas through the method we call concept extraction.
• Opportunities are always evolving and changing and we must align ourselves with this
evolution to survive.
Some More Intuition and Opportunity Tips:
• Attribution Scanning: Sometimes intuition has to be developed or triggered by what we
call attribution scanning. Attribution scanning involves looking at one small area of a
market; say a product segment of interest. Select a product, e.g. laundry detergent, and
start looking at all the different variations that can be made, i.e., form - liquid, solid, gas
(aerosol), variations – odour, formulation type, etc, attribute incorporation – with fabric
softener, with stain remover, with bleach, organic, etc., size, channel of distribution, use
of products, etc, etc, etc. Some ideas may be discounted because they are just plain silly,
while others may have already been taken up by other competitors, but eventually you
may find some combination that may look interesting as an opportunity. By focusing
during the day on something intensively, when you relax at night further ideas may
come to you without conscious thinking. Who knows, one of these thoughts may be an
insight that brings you success to the market.

21. Chapter Three
Although the business plan is a major part of business and entrepreneurial education, very few
ventures actually start with formal business plans. This chapter looks at how important it is to
have a big picture of what you want to do. Any big picture that has been elaborated upon can
be checked for its viability by going through mental checklists. The chapter breaks down
opportunity into its individual elements which can separately be validated through these
checklists. Checklists will also highlight to an entrepreneur how well prepared they are to exploit
any said opportunity.
Intuition and the Big Picture
Picture Robert de Castella winning the Commonwealth games 1982 marathon in Brisbane, and
again four years later in Edinburgh, Cathy Freeman winning gold in the Sydney 2000 Olympic
Games 400 metres, and Ian Thorpe winning the gold medal in the 400 metres freestyle in the
pool at the same Olympics, and again in Athens in 2004, all proud moments for them, and
proud moments for us as Australians. Each of them before stepping out onto the road, track, or
into the pool had a big picture in their mind about what they were going to do.
The visualization of your future business as a big picture in your mind is no different. It’s like an
artist painting a masterpiece on a sheet of canvass, which in your case is your mind. A sketch
visualization may occur very quickly like some form of great insight into something, but the
details may take some time to slowly build up until you have a full mental business model in
your head. This imagery, mental picture, imagined model, represents a desired future that we
would like to see. We in fact see ourselves inside of this model as its founder, creator,
entrepreneur, and steward. This model is built out of pure imagination, based on our intuitive
sense of the world around us. A picture of how we can convert the world we live in to a much
more desirable one (see Figure 3.1.).

22. Young &
invigorating image
Internet Bookings
An exciting low
Young good looking cost airline to fly
air & ground crews
Modern and trendy
on
aircraft interiors
Advertising image Limited use of
Baggage travel agents
Standardized aircraft to
No baggage transfers cut down on
No connection with maintenance costs
other airline baggage Fast Aircraft
services turn-around times
Baggage surcharge General savings on
overheads Extra means of
Auto-check with no
revenue
baggage
Not burdened by Paid snacks & meals
Seating
traditional air and ground Low landing charges
Blankets
crew procedures and terminal fees Computerized ticketing
No connection with other Headquarters located methods
airlines at airport terminal Related businesses -
hotels
Figure 3.1. The big picture of Air Asia.
Starting any venture or enterprise without a mental picture is just as dangerous as a pilot flying
across the Simpson Desert in a small plane without a map or any navigation instruments. The
pilot will get lost in the Simpson Desert and the entrepreneur will get lost in his or her
enterprise.
After an opportunity has been found, it must be evaluated to determine whether it is viable as
a venture and worth putting in your time and resources. Viability is relative to the resources,
skills, and networks you possess, so what may be viable to you may not necessarily be viable to
someone else.
The Business Plan you have when you don’t have a Business Plan.
The author’s own research has shown that most entrepreneurs don’t actually develop any
formal written business plan before starting out on a new business, but instead rely on a well
thought out mental model of the enterprise they want to develop, the products they want to
make, the potential customers they want to service, in a manner consistent with the resources
they either have or can acquire from somewhere. It’s all in the big picture.

23. The big picture resembles a business model, laying down the strengths and taking account of
the weaknesses that the entrepreneur must compensate for, highlighting what already exists
and what needs to be procured to make the opportunity something of a success.
When a person is not affected by overconfidence and can look at a situation clearly, the
entrepreneur will have mental checklists of questions underlying the big picture that require
intuitive answers. It is the sum of these answers, that enables the entrepreneur to make a “go”
or “no go” decision about the venture. These decisions can only be made intuitively as no
means of analysis will assist in arriving at this “go” decision, as there are too many factors
which cannot be analysed rationally involved. This is the time when entrepreneurs must trust
their intuition.
Underlying any opportunity is a structure which can be examined through a checklist of
questions. These checklists of questions are basically the same for a delicatessen, a burger
restaurant, a boutique, a cosmetic manufacturing enterprise, toy distributor, or produce
importer. Positive answers to the checklists enable an entrepreneur to exploit it with some
confidence. Negative answers show where weaknesses lie. Again, it is not necessary to write all
this down as for many people these are mental processes, but sitting down and going through
all these questions makes a lot of sense before one makes a final decision.
Networks
Competitive Skills,
Field Capabilities
Strategy Resources
Time & Making
Space Connection
Vision
Platform
Figure 3.2. The elements of opportunity that must be examined.
The questions that can confirm the big picture is viable would include;

24. Time & Space:
Is this the right time to be launching a product or engaging in this type of business?
Are people ready for this?
Is this the right location for the business?
Do people in the location I am thinking of use this type of product, service, or event?
Vision Platform:
Are there any issues that are clouding my thinking?
Am I seeing this opportunity because I want to see it?
Where am I biased here?
What do my emotions tell me?
What is my ego telling me?
What does my reasoning tell me?
Making Connections:
Is what I am seeing truly viable?
Do the idea connect in a way that other people will see the value and become enthusiastic
about? i.e., a product idea.
Does this new way of doing things (new business model), or new product, service, or event
provide new value to customers?
When I work back from my intuition, does the reason support the intuition? Why? Why not?
Resources:
Do I have the resources to pull this venture off?
If not, do I have access to resources that will enable me to pull off this venture?
Are the resources I need generally available?
Do I have, understand, or can acquire any forms of technology required to exploit the
opportunity?
Will I be able to get resources I might need in the future?
Are there any resources I need that are scarce?
Are there any particular resources I can use that give me some form of advantage over other
firms?
Skills & Capabilities:
Do I have the skills and capabilities necessary to undertake this venture?
Can I learn the required skills and develop the required capabilities during the early stages of
the venture?

25. Are there any skills or competencies I don’t have?
Is there a difficult learning curve for me to master these skills and competencies?
Are there any particular skills or competencies that may create a barrier to entry to the
business in mind?
Can I acquire the necessary skills and capabilities needed for the venture?
Will I be able to manage the venture?
Networks:
Who are the key stakeholders?
What are my relationships to them?
Do I have the necessary networks of friends and associates to enable me to run this venture?
i.e., in securing goods, materials, services necessary to exploit the opportunity, in the
marketplace, in the financial markets.
Can I acquire the necessary network to enable me to run this venture?
Competitive Field:
Are their customers for my product, service, or event?
Who are my competitors?
How do they operate?
What are their strengths and weaknesses?
Can I match or better them?
What do I have that they don’t have that would make a difference in the market?
Is there room for another competitor in the market?
Or do I have no competition? Why?
What are the existing competitors in the market do when I enter the market?
Can I handle this?
What are the barriers to entering the market? Can I overcome them?
Can I create barriers for others following me?
Is the market large enough to sustain my business?
Strategy:
What strategy is needed to succeed?
Do I have the resources, skills, capabilities, and networks to pursue this strategy?
Will I emulate others, or will others be able to emulate me very easily?
Are there alternative strategies that I can switch to if the initial one fails?
Checklists are nothing new. An airline pilot flies a passenger airliner from Melbourne to
Brisbane on checklists, just as the crew of the lunar module of Apollo 11 did in July 1969, when

26. humankind made the first landing on another celestial body other than our own, the Moon.
New Coles and Woolworths stores are developed and opened using checklists, just like the
McDonalds store in your neighbourhood is operated through procedural checklists.
What hasn’t been said much before is that making the decision to “go” with a start-up is
usually an intuitive decision making process, where the entrepreneur should touch base with
the types of questions listed above. Nobody is less astute or less of an entrepreneur for doing
so; in fact this is how good decisions are made. The former Harvard University (Now Tufts
University) Professor Amar Bhide said that entrepreneurs who make quick intuitive decisions
are usually more successful than entrepreneurs who take time to analyze the issues involved
before making their decision. Surprised, just ask any Ford executive involved in the launch of
the Edsel. By the time they had made a thorough analysis of the market, the market changed
and the Edsel was launched into a completely different market situation than the one that was
analysed at the time.
Everybody Does it
It isn’t necessary to formally write down all the information and create a beautiful business plan
(unless you need it for other purposes like raising equity finance). What is important is that a
person considers all the issues honestly to themselves. If writing it down on paper helps to
organize your thoughts then by all means, write things down to organize your thoughts.
Your checklists link the opportunity to action. After going through the checklists, you know
what you need and what to do. You now have enough knowledge to guide you through the
start-up and initial strategy direction you will take the new firm. Mental checklists enable a
person to make a number of decisions based on subjective information very quickly. This is
what an entrepreneur would call decision making on the run, and the strategy gurus call
flexibility and agility. Analysing mentally issues through checklists is part of developing
entrepreneurial competency and personal mastery, depending upon what you want to call it. I
call this guided intuition.
Using mental models of the big picture and breaking them down into the critical elements is an
exercise in intuition that can enhance your chances of success. Through the big picture model,
resources, timing, place, skills, the adequacy of networks, the competitive field, and strategy
can be examined more closely to determine whether the entrepreneur is ready to take on the
opportunity in question. Failure to develop a big picture of a proposed venture with the various
mental checklists involved will usually lead to shocks and surprises that may jeopardize venture
viability and even lead to venture failure. It never ceases to amaze the author of how many
people are willing to spend their savings on leasing expensive premises and equipping it to

27. produce food, cosmetics, or plant fertilizers, etc., only to believe that customers will appear out
of nowhere to buy their products.
A big picture model will alert entrepreneurs to potential problems. Solving these problems
before they happen will save a lot of money and heartache needed to get out of an expensive
lease if the venture fails due to problems that could have been easily foreseen. On the contrary,
those who have visualized the big picture and intuitively gone through all the issues, asking the
right questions have a much greater chance of success. The thought of being successful is half
the journey.
Summary
• Successful people need to see the big picture of what they want to do. Ventures are no
different.
• The big picture is used more by entrepreneurs than business plans.
• The big picture is a way of responding to an opportunity. The opportunity can be broken
down into specific elements. Through examining each element through a checklist and
questions, an entrepreneur can determine both the viability of the opportunity and
their preparedness to exploit it.
Some More Intuition and the Big Picture Tips:
• Evaluating your competitors: Using the big picture diagram (figure 3.1.) you can
evaluate your competitors’ products and services attributes, benefits to consumers,
strategies, strengths and weaknesses, and capabilities, but constructing their business
models.

28. Chapter Four
This chapter examines the chaos of start-ups and the importance of intuition in helping to set
priorities. Reasoning is sometimes too logical for start-ups and intuition is better. The concept of
false intuition where your ego gangs up with your reasoning is discussed, where rising above
this trap by using your interpretation of the big picture is a sign of personal mastery.
Intuition and the Start-up
If any of you have been involved in a start-up you will know how chaotic and stressful it can be.
There are so many important things to do, so many issues to attend to, along with the need to
absorb all things going on around you, and come up with the priorities of things to do. What
makes it even more difficult is that you are learning as you go along about what is important
and what is not so important. Money is going out, with none coming in and the clock is ticking.
And in most cases this must be done “on the run” without time for planning.
Successful start-ups require you to find the path that is most important, most effective, and
most efficient in influencing the outcome of what you want, called the “critical path” in project
management. This must be done with minimal use of resources so they are conserved and can
be utilized across the board for all things necessary during the start-up phase. The start-up
period is difficult to plan because there are so many unknown issues and surprises ahead, that
can’t adequately be planned for in advance. As the saying goes “you must fly by the seat of
your pants” intuitively, feeling your way and hopefully moving ahead in a manner that allows
your start-up to be successful.
In a start-up situation there is a “critical thread of activities” that will position you where you
want to be in relation to the big picture you envisage. There are many matters that require your
attention, including matters like designing your business cards, picking the colour of your chair
(if you buy them), to much more important matters like who will be your customers, What
equipment will you require in the warehouse, what materials should be used in product
packaging, or how should your services be divided up and charged to the customer. This all
requires serious time and resources management. You don’t want to wear your resources down
too thinly by applying them to the wrong things. No point having flashy business cards and
beautiful office chairs if you don’t have packaging for your product and customers don’t come
to your office. It’s a matter of priorities. Don’t laugh, in a situation of the chaos of a start-up it’s
so easy to spend in the wrong areas, leaving you short later for the things you really need. It’s a
really common story.

29. This is where intuition becomes so important in what you do, as we all know it’s better to have
a tight gut, rather than a loose gut, for health reasons, if not anything else. In this case it’s
about the health of your start-up enterprise. One has to know what resources to acquire, i.e.,
should I spend the whole day travelling across town to pick up some unwanted office furniture
or warehouse racking and organize transport back to my new premises, or not? Where finance
can be obtained (if necessary); and yes you may have to use the credit card and pay the extra
interest to make ends meet. Good intuition helps you prioritise all these things, which
minimizes your outlays. Intuition, don’t leave home without it. You need it to maintain self
buoyancy throughout the chaotic start-up phase.
In a start-up you have to allocate the time between setting up your administration, product
design and development, production, marketing, and sales. There is no correct formula about
how to allocate this time, however the author has always found that about 60% of the time was
spent in initial sales, 30% in product development, and the remainder in setting up
administration. However where the product and production processes are more complex and
products might be made for order, the majority of focus and time may be put into the
development of production facilities, maybe even 80-90%. Every business will have its own
specific optimum time allocation.
What compounds problems in a start-up situation is that there is no historical budgeting to fall
back on, so start-up budgets are really about your gut feelings on the matter. No doubt, this will
change regularly. I have never met an entrepreneur that has been able to keep their start-up
costs according to the laid down budget set before the start-up. Matters requiring spending are
often missed, unaccounted for, under-estimated, or the implications misunderstood. This is
where the sense of intuition is so important to help prioritise where the time and money should
go.
The author has found that during the chaos of start-ups, there are three distinct influences
upon what we do. The first is our reasoning, where for example we can reason logically “that
we need business cards because our customers expect them and we must show our corporate
image.” Another example may be that “we should buy the office furniture we need to be
comfortable because we spend between one-third and one-half of our life at work.” Reasoning is
good, but reasoning alone can make us broke, because it’s all too logical.
This is where intuition comes in. Intuition is not logical and takes a wider perspective than
reasoning. Intuition decides a sense of importance and priority against all the other outstanding
issues. However don’t mistake your ego for intuition. You may want to have a beautiful
business card because it makes you feel good. You may want that executive chair because it
makes you feel in control. But this is not intuition.

30. Intuition as we have seen is related to the big picture and is more concerned about your needs,
rather than your wants. In a start-up situation you buy what you need, not what you want. Your
ego will support your reasoning and disguise itself as your intuition – your false intuition. It
works very hard to convince you, sometimes burying your intuition into the background. Be
aware that it is your intuition working for you and not your ego.
Rising above your reasoning/ego combination with your big picture based intuition is a sign of
personal mastery, promoting the wise old steward within you. Don’t have it any other way, go
for the old wise steward over a rampant ego advising you any day. Be alert to the signs of false
intuition. False intuition excites you and placates your wants. Your true intuition is concerned
about your needs.
Intuition helps you determine which advice is in your best interests. That’s why it’s important to
step back in pressured situations and identify who inside you is really talking. Is it your true
intuition or is it your reasoning and ego ganging up on you?
Finally, intuition is a way of organizing your knowledge and applying it to situation to situation.
Without intuition your knowledge carries little weight in decision making until your intuition
tells you which knowledge is best to use. Sound intuition is wisdom, which is what you need in
the start-up phase of your enterprise.
Summary
• Starting a new venture is a chaotic time where it is very difficult to prioritise what needs
to be done.
• During the start-up phase intuition provides you with “personal buoyancy” which helps
to see order in the chaos and do things according to priority.
• Reasoning is sometimes too logical for start-ups.
• There is no set formula about how to allocate your time and resources in a start-up.
• It is very easy to mistake our ego for our intuition.
• In start-ups reasoning may not necessarily be the best way to make decisions.
• Rising above your reasoning/ego combination and following your big picture is a sign of
personal mastery.
• Intuition is a means of applying knowledge from situation to situation. Intuition gives
weight to knowledge. Sound intuition is wisdom.
Some More Intuition and the Start-up Tips:

31. • Learning to trust your intuition: Try and find situations in your life where it has been
better to follow intuition rather than your reasoning. For example, you don’t do the
washing or mow the lawn today because it “feels” like it is going to rain. Was your
intuition sound in the cases you found?

32. Chapter Five
Entrepreneurial marketing is very different from conventional marketing in that resources and
information are lacking to make informed decisions. Intuition is thus very important, where
most breakthrough ideas are the result of intuition rather than market research. The key to
entrepreneurial marketing is flexibility and experimentation until one has found the best
combination of the best products, services, events, and strategies. To achieve this flexibility
stubbornness and ego must be transcended with intuition. Finally to develop one’s place in the
market, an entrepreneur must examine the opportunity they have seen carefully, and configure
their strategies with relevant resources to support it.
Intuition and Marketing
Marketing for an established firm and an entrepreneurial start-up is as different as chalk and
cheese. Established firms usually have recognised brands, stable channels of distribution,
dedicated marketing personnel, and fixed budgets to carry out their activities, while
entrepreneurial start-ups usually have none of these at their disposal and are starting from
scratch. An entrepreneurial start-up venture with very limited resources must create what
established companies already have under very vulnerable conditions. If your competitors
notice that you exist and you look like being a potential threat, they are likely to come down on
you like a ‘ton of bricks’.
Entrepreneurial marketing has become the flavor of the month where the general message is
that ‘you have to get more with less’. Most of you would have heard of terms like viral
advertising, viral marketing, and guerilla marketing. All these methods are aimed at getting
publicity and into the market in ways that require small amounts of resources. You have to go
back to the basics of doing your own brochures and distributing, giving out samples where
customers are, using social and other free forms of media, getting publicity in some way or
another, generally undertaking activities that require time as the major resource. These are
very effective where your market is localized or specifically segmented and less effective as the
market spreads out to the general community.
An effective entrepreneur marketer is someone who thinks in creative ways about how to
maximize publicity and get promotional mileage for the new venture’s products with very
limited resources. Again this requires imagination, and intuitive innovative approaches to
marketing and promotion.

33. As we saw in the introduction of the book, one has to really understand the market, products,
customers, competitors, the supply chain, methods of promotion, etc., to really develop any
reliable intuition. This means rolling up your sleeves and getting down to the market until it
metaphorically ‘runs in your blood’. Then you begin to develop the wisdom about the market
that will give you advantage over those snotty nosed MBA types employed by the large
companies who are more interested in the next rage over the weekend than why customers
buy their company’s products. This is called the intuitive advantage that gives deep insight into
the market that larger companies have lost and don’t have (in many cases, not all).
With the intuitive advantage you sense your moves rather than think about them. New ways of
promotion, new products and product extensions become something you sense rather than
something your rationally think out. I watched my father think up the concept of a continuous
air freshener with a silk flower on top, which he named Flower Gel which today would look
corny. Many doubted him, but the launch went ahead and it for a while became the best
selling air freshener on the Australian market. There was no way that any rationally based
market research could have told him whether the concept would be successful or not. Winners
like this can only be the product of intuition.
Excuse the pun, you smell success and you go for it – there is no way of rationalizing it out.
Please rationalize for me why one restaurant can be incredibly successful, while another next
door can be a terrible failure. We have landed on the moon, but we are still not sure why one
concept can be successful while others are dismal failures. Thomas Edison, John Rockefeller,
Henry Ford, Ray Kroc, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Michael Dell, Jerry Yang and
David Filo, Jeff Bezos, and more recently Mark Zuckerberg all have one thing in common. None
of them did any formal market research before they started their ventures. All were acts of
intuition.
The process of being an entrepreneur is about moving from being a market outsider where
things look all mysterious to take the inside running of the market where you make your
decisions from the gut; just like all the above did. This is where the big changes can occur. Who
would have ever thought that milk we drank at school (yes it got quickly sour in the sun) would
one day be “sexy Big M” (go and have a look at the original ads on You Tube) or one of the
other adult brands now in the market. This could not have been a rational act, only an intuitive
one. Who would have thought that one day we would use our mobile phones to take the family
snaps. Who would have thought that we would have 24 hour news, movie, sports, drama, and
educational programs coming down by satellite into our homes. These ideas didn’t come from
detailed market analysis, they came from the gut. This is the power of intuition in the market.
Intuition Matches Dreams with Reality in the Marketplace

34. The aim of marketing is to either attract consumers away from existing products, or create new
sources of value. Therefore the key to success is finding new sources of value consumers will
accept. This is heavily dependent on intuitive thinking but not a straight forward process.
Before any start-up an entrepreneur usually visualizes something they have in mind for the
market. When an entrepreneur launches a new product, rarely if at all, do consumers “beat a
path to your door.” Extensive modifications to products are usually required during the initial
marketing process, both before and after introduction to the market.
This difference between what the entrepreneur visualizes and what the consumer will accept
can only be bridged through intuition. Intuition drives an entrepreneur’s flexibility to change
their ideas about the products, events, or services they offer to the market. Without this
intuitive flexibility, there would be many more failed ventures because of stubbornness to
change when original ideas are not accepted. To do this successfully means transcending the
ego.
This is how entrepreneurs learn what consumers really want through the trial and error
process. One case in point is a boutique handmade chocolate manufacturer in Collingwood
called Mámor Chocolates. The company was recently established by the proprietor Hanna
Frederick producing the most superb Hungarian style handmade chocolates. However sales
through retail outlets and markets were very poor around Melbourne. Hanna started organizing
tasting events which really became an instant success and today Mámor is a very popular “word
of mouth” promoted organizer of events which sell lots of chocolate.
Intuition is what guides the entrepreneur about what the consumer wants, as very little
meaningful market research can be done to assist in making these types of decisions, especially
with the types of concepts outlined above.
Developing Your Place in the Market
As mentioned in the last section, marketing is about attracting consumers away from existing
products, or finding a new niche or position where “new” value can be created for the
customer. Once this opportunity has been identified, one can go about creating the strategy
chain that will best serve your purpose based on what resources, skills and capabilities, and
networks you have available. The steps in this process are shown in figure 5.1. below.

35. Newly identified
Opportunity opportunity
What strategies are
required to successfully
exploit the new
Needed opportunity and meet the
Strategies organizations new goals?
What type of
organization and
Needed business model is
Organization needed to support the
selected strategy?
What skills,
competencies and
technologies are
Needed needed to support the
new business model
Skills & capabilities and strategy?
What resources are
needed to support
skills, competencies,
Needed technologies, new
business model and
Resources strategy?
What networks are
needed to exploit the
opportunity, acquires
Needed skills, technologies and
resources, support the
Networks new business model
and strategy?
What goals are
needed to exploit
Goals the newly identified
opportunity?
Figure 5.1. The steps involved in creating your place in the market.
If one is able to match the opportunity with the right strategy correctly, there is little direct
competition, and there are a sufficient number of consumers who see the product or service as
providing some new form of value for them, then the new venture may have a rapid rise to
success. Just look at the success of the iPad.
Marketing is about flexibility which allows evolution, but the big breakthroughs are made
through intuition. Undertaking market research to determine that more people like red rather

36. than blue packaging will never create any future breakthroughs that intuition will. After all the
automobile, airplane, motorbike, home computer, notebook, Pizza Hut, and KFC, were all
products built upon intuition rather than analysis. The second issue is that stubbiness blocks
intuition and evolution of the market which is where new opportunities come from.
Summary
• The modus operandi of entrepreneurial and conventional marketing is very different.
• Entrepreneurial marketing requires imaginative and intuitive innovative approaches to
marketing and promotion.
• Entrepreneurial marketing can be a very effective tool in a local area, but becomes more
difficult as the market area grows.
• You really have to develop an in-depth understanding of the market to operate with
intuitive advantage within it.
• Most of the great market successes were based on intuition.
• The aim of marketing is to either attract consumers away from existing products, or
create new sources of value.
• Entrepreneurs have to work hard initially to get consumers to accept new products and
usually have to modify their concepts through trial and error and intuition.
• To be flexible in the marketplace, you must transcend your ego and stubbornness. This
is where entrepreneurs really learn what consumers want. Market research is of little
help in this matter.
• Entrepreneurs must find new niches to establish themselves within and then align their
strategies with the opportunity, with coordinated resource, capability, and network
support.
Some More Intuition and the market Tips:
• Learning the Market: The more intricate your knowledge about the market is the better
intuition you will develop about it. Learn in detail; who are the competitors? How big
and powerful are they? What products do they have? What range of extensions and
varieties do they have? What are the price ranges? What positions are there in the
market? Where can you buy the products? Etc., etc, etc. Learn the market until you start
to feel it and sense what changes are happening. After some time you will be able to
anticipate what will happen – this is when your intuition kicks in.

37. Chapter Six
Intuition and Sales
Sales build a business and the art of sales requires specific skills, experience, and practice to be
effective. Intuition is paramount through the sales process as an aid to guide the salesperson in
making successful sales. Intuition can be developed through knowing the basic sales steps and
practicing them to build up experience.
The importance of sales to the start-up company
Most companies begin on simple ideas. It is the success in bringing these ideas to reality and
their consumer acceptance that determines how successful the company will be. Therefore if a
company’s ideas in the form of a product or service are not successfully sold to the consumer,
the company will not exist for long.
Where would have Thomas Edison been if he had not been able to sell the concept of electricity
to the general public in the 1880s?
Where would McDonald’s be today if Ray Kroc in 1955 did not sell the concept of standardized
burger quality and family orientated surroundings for dinning?
Where would have Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos been if they did not sell the concept of
Nutrilite to the public, later forming AMWAY?
In each case it is not the invention or idea that is important, selling the product or idea to the
public is what makes or breaks the entrepreneur. There are plenty of failed entrepreneurs with
brilliant ideas or inventions in the trash-bin of history who were not able to sell their concept to
others.
In the majority of cases, start-ups are about sales and nothing else. In a start-up company, the
entrepreneur has to work harder and smarter than established companies just to survive the
first six months to one year. It’s a steep learning curve for one with little experience, but a
person can become very competent very quickly if they know the basic sales steps.
Sales are the frontline of all the plans you have for your idea and venture. It’s make or break
and no other company functions can be sustained long without sales. Sales are the driving force
of the company. The wellbeing of the company and everybody within it is dependent upon the
sales function.

38. When I first joined the family business as a junior salesperson, one of the veterans pulled me
aside one day and told me in no joking a tone that “a company is like a cricket match…..the
salesmen are the batsmen, the production people are bowlers, and the accountants are the
scorers.” Being a salesperson is a noble profession just like being a sportsperson, a samurai, or
a commando – all having a number of important things in common; skill, practice and
experience, with intuition as the guiding light.
The Noble Profession
Indeed sales is a noble profession, often forgotten about in the entrepreneurship and
management books, even with the importance it has to the wellbeing of the firm. It is through
sales that people know your company. Sales are almost a totally unsupervised environment
where tact and social intelligence are important assets. Most of your and employees pressures
and stresses will come from the sales area, and instant decisions have to be made on an almost
daily basis. Sales requires problem solving skills, respect and like for the products you sell, a
high level of self confidence, a willingness to sell and learn, an ability to get on with all types of
manners and personalities, and the ability to take the hard knocks on the chin. One also needs
high energy, patience, perseverance, a slight competitive tendency, and an ability to empathise
with others. Least to say, sales is not only about working hard, but working smart, as one has to
think all the time. Sales are about the abovementioned skills and above all, intuition which
luckily can be built up and developed, as we will see.
Here are the Basic Principles
Before moving onto the basic sales process it is important to understand some of the basic
principles of sales. First, it is important to understand that very few sales are actually achieved
through rational decisions. Customers will generally not be very enthusiastic at first about the
products or services you offer. One must always remember that sales are not an argument and
winning any argument will generally not win any sale. Likewise, a sales interview where the
buyer does not engage the seller with any objections, will also rarely result in a sale. Sales are
created through systematic work, flexibility in approaches, tact, pleasantness, but with a
dynamic and forceful approach.
Most sales approaches fail because we fail to communicate directly to the customer,
understand how the customer really thinks, and don’t bother to follow up. Rarely on the first
interview will you get any sale. Sometimes we blame our failure on anything else but ourselves,
and remain too rigid in our approach, believing what we are doing is best. Intuition can help

39. prevent these types of failure if it is cultivated enough to help us understand what is going on
with the customer.
The product or service is actually of secondary importance. We don’t sell the product but
actually stimulate the customers need for it, or in the case of a trade or B to B customer,
stimulate the need for sales/profit.
Fortunately our ability to sell can be improved through knowledge, experience and a constant
will to improve. The more we learn, experience, and practice, the more our intuition will grow
and guide us through the whole process.
Building up Sales Skills
Generally customers have little interest in new innovations. Habit is a major part of our lives,
where in the buying domain, risk and change are generally avoided. The customer is afraid of
taking risks and wants to avoid extra effort. He or she may not want to improve present
conditions and dislikes being criticized by those around them for making any “wrong” decisions.
This is a major barrier to the entry of new products, services, and suppliers to the market. This
attitude has prevented many new products succeeding in the market. We must portray our
products and services as simplifications or developments that will fit easily into existing habits,
rather than being something radical. We as salespeople must make allowances for these
reactions and must recognize and influence customers if we are to be successful. The less habit
is changed – the better the chance of gaining a sale. Again intuition is the tool that tells us our
progress and guides the whole case we put across.
Presenting Our Case
The key in presenting any sales case requires the salesperson to;
1. Convince any customer that they are not the only one. Customers will welcome proof
that the product is practical and many others use the product.
2. Convince any customer that new product acceptance requires no special effort, by
offering help, instructions and advice on the introduction of the product.
3. Listen to criticism about the product, where one must be sensitive to any justified
resistance based on the need to change habits. Don’t force people to change their
habits. It is very difficult to convince someone of something he or she doesn’t want to
be convinced of. He or she must go through a change. We must allow time for this
process and develop the new idea, step by step (it can take weeks or months
sometimes). Don’t take it head on and don’t find fault with the customer’s attitude.

40. 4. Continued service through regular meetings will help initiate the required change in
habits.
Patience, enthusiasm, time, and especially intuition are required to effectively put a case across
to potential customers.
Gaining New Customers
As mentioned, potential customers usually provide resistance to buying new products. Some of
these reasons can be summarized as follows;
1. There is a general tendency for customers to test a salesperson’s will and strength. With
experience, intuition will tell you when this is just a game or a much deeper hesitancy
on the part of the customer.
2. Customers like to observe salespeople before buying from them. Intuition makes you
aware of this observation period and to develop empathy with the potential customer.
3. Customers are also busy people and intuition will tell you, when to persist and when to
back down.
4. In B to B buying many businesses have a number of formal steps they must go through
before dealing with the new supplier and buying a new product. Opening a new account
takes a lot of work and one must also identify who is really the decision maker. Also
remember a customer may have a limited budget or be thinking about the next stock-
take.
Steps in the First Time Sale
Now let’s have a look at the basic steps required to make a sale to a new customer. The biggest
success factor is your willingness to call on new customers. The best time to call on new
customers is when you are having a good day and on a psychological high.
The first step is to determine the potential of the new customer. Can they use the product? Can
they afford the new product? Do they use enough of the product to make it economical to call
on them? The answer to all these questions usually has to come from a mental summing up
through intuition.
With a B to B customer, one must determine the type of purchasing system the customer uses.
In many cases where an outlet may be a branch, purchasing is conducted from a central office,
etc. These issues may require some inquiries, so be friendly to all, as this will help you find the
correct person. People generally like to help someone with a pleasant demeanor.

41. Plan your visit – anything not planned is likely to fizzle. Remember your sales arguments before
you meet the potential customer. If possible, have samples, or in the case of a service all the
necessary printed material to help you explain. Try to get the best impression across to the
customer, especially when the customer is busy or distracted – body language counts. Try and
use a little humor (not dirty) to build up some rapport and empathy. Anticipate the objections
the buyer will put across and how you will deal with them. Plan how to start you sales meeting.
You are like a samurai who must improvise according to the circumstances of the meeting.
Intuition is your only friend during this process.
Empathy is a very important ingredient in the sales process. Empathy is a capacity we have to
connect to others and feel what they are feeling. Empathy helps a person know emotionally
what others are experiencing. Empathy is a type of imagination where we imagine what and
how another person feels. Through our sensitivity we pick up other people’s body movements,
facial expressions, tone of voice and narrative, as a means to sense their feelings, emotions and
beliefs. Through empathy we reduce interpersonal ambiguity.
However we must be very careful to the differences within the various signs we read and pick
up from others. For example a parent may have an aspiration about further education for their
children, but what are the sub-conscious reasons behind their aspirations? This is not
necessarily easy (even for trained psychologists) to determine without time to compare
narratives and other signs given at other time by the parents. The potential motivations for a
parent’s aspiration for their child’s higher education are shown in Figure 6.1. The reality could
be any one or combination of these reasons.
Attempt to Deny an unhappy
impress listener Keeping Face family life
Keeping up with the
Narrative device of “Jones”
optimism
“We would be very
happy if our
children undertook
higher education”
Cultural
Could be the truth
expectations
Showing off

42. Figure 6.1. Possible reasons why a parent has aspirations for their
child to undertake further education.
Often the potential customer may put up a last reason why they don’t want to buy the product,
sort of like straw resistance (discussed under objections). Once answering this objection, don’t
be scared to ask for an order as sometimes it is difficult for the customer to conclude the
discussion and it will just continue. Intuition will tell you when to ask, and when it is time to
conclude, successfully or unsuccessfully.
If you are turned down (and this maybe 50% of the time) – evaluate. Sit down and go through
his or her objections and how you handled them. Think about what to do next, listen to your
intuition immediately after the meeting and record it in your dairy. Plan the next call and follow
up.
Objections and How to Overcome Them
The sales meeting is primarily about objections a potential buyer will put up and how you
handle them. Objections are a normal part of the selling process, and without them, sales are
rarely made. The salesperson must identify the objections if he or she is going to persuade a
customer to buy and make a sale. Objections actually help the salesperson as they indicate a
show of interest from the buyer. Once again you tool of trade is your intuition.
The only type of objection that is dangerous is one that the salesperson doesn’t pick up, and/or
doesn’t have any answer for.
The basic types of objections are:
1. Unspoken objections where the customer is not too sure how to express themselves (or
is unable to because the salesperson does not give them a chance). You need your
empathy here to pick these types of objections up.
2. Prejudice and preconceived opinions that are usually illogical and emotional objections.
Reason and logic cannot counter them and your intuition is required to see where the
customer is really coming from. Highly refined intuition is needed here.
3. Malicious objections where the customer puts the salesperson under discomfort, which
may arise from the temperament of the customer. Intuition and patience is required
here.
4. Simple requests for information that require further information to make a decision.
You need intuition to read this need from the customer.

43. 5. Prestige objections without any factual foundation which are usually raised just to show
off to try to impress the salesperson and other listeners. Intuition will tell you when to
placate the ego of the customer.
6. Objective objections about the proposal itself are requests to negotiate, where intuition
is very important to read what is required to gain the sale.
7. General sales resistance that has a general prevailing negativity towards the
salesperson. This usually occurs at the beginning and experience and intuition will guide
you through handling this type of resistance, and finally
8. The “last stand” where a final objection may be raised shortly before the customer
decides to buy. Intuition will tell you that the tone of voice will indicate that the
customer is ready to buy once this objection is settled.
Dealing with Objections
With experience, intuition will tell you the right time to answer any objections. This is just as
important as the answer itself. You can answer any objection;
1. Before they are expressed: especially if you sense the customer is about to make a
particular objection. It may be a good tactic to forestall the customer by raising the
question yourself. This saves you contradicting the customer and reducing the risk of an
argument. Otherwise you may purposely wait for the customer to raise the objection
and choose to answer it immediately after it has been raised.
2. Answering the objection immediately: is the most natural time to answer the query and
may enable the salesperson to run on with the presentation arguments in a smooth
manner. This may go like …”I’m glad you brought this matter up as most customers had
that worry until….”, using the objection to reassure the customer that he or she is not
the only one. Again intuition is the tool of choice here.
3. Answering all objections later: delay your answers if you can’t come up with a
satisfactory answer immediately. Delay your answer if you don’t want to contradict the
customer directly. Delay your answer if the objection is not important, and delay your
answer if you feel the objection is irrelevant. Get the idea of the importance of intuition
here?
4. Not answering objections: Leave objections alone if you feel they will disappear during
the progression of the presentation, and certainly leave them alone if they are made
from anger. Don’t take the bait. Don’t answer the objection if you think there is no harm
in letting the customer think he or she is right. This is where advanced intuition comes
in.

44. Approaches in Dealing with Objections
Some simple rules about dealing with objections are as follows;
1. Identify the type of objection as this will help you understand how to deal with it.
2. Answer in a friendly manner to prevent getting bogged down on any single objection.
3. Never directly contradict the customer unless you don’t want the sale, use “but”.
4. Show respect for the buyers views, nobody will buy from a person who doesn’t respect
them.
5. Agree with objections that increase the buyer’s prestige and status to maximize the
“feel good” factor.
6. Refrain from giving strong opinions, leave that to people running for political office.
7. Reply concisely so the customer understands what you are talking about. A customer
who doesn’t understand the salesperson is not likely to buy the product.
8. Don’t deal with the objection longer than necessary. If you like hearing your own voice,
take up public speaking.
9. Here, use your intuition to gauge how your answer if affecting the customer. If he or she
is convinced “shut-up”, if he or she isn’t convinced, quickly change tact.
10. Finally prepare yourself thoroughly to deal with objections, remember you are a
samurai, ready to repel any moves against you.
Techniques and Methods to deal with Objections
There are a number of techniques or methods that can be used to deal with objections and
which one you utilize will depend upon your intuition in deciding which is most appropriate.
1. The preventative method: Prepare your presentation in a way that the customer doesn’t
feel any need to bring up any matters.
2. The “yes but” method: Agree with the customer as much as possible, however groveling
is totally ineffective. People don’t like to buy from wimps.
3. The boomerang method: see if you can turn around the objection to favour your
arguments. Use any objections as starting points that can lead to closing the sale.
4. The deferring method: defer any answers until there is a more stable moment when
both of you are settled into a real dialogue. Deferring any answers also gives you more
time to find the most appropriate answer. If you don’t understand the objection, ask the
customer to repeat it or even give a better example. If the customer is forced to put the
objection in more concrete terms, he or she may even withdraw it.