Trim Risk Exposure

I caught a radio assessment of how self-help groups are forming around Britain to provide support and community for suffering servicemen.

Unsurprisingly, the armed forces have historically provided nothing in the way of preparation and remedy for the horrors of war that those at the sharp end experience.

Thankfully this may be finally changing. In part inspired by the success of recent voluntary initiatives, training and awareness is growing around a tool known as Trauma Risk incident Management, abbreviated to TRiM.

As well as the therapeutic value of sharing ordeals, this aims to flag any event that is likely to cause issues in the future at the moment it occurs on the battlefield. This is beneficial as often it seems torment only begins once home again some time later (for instance as the difficulty of adjusting to the surreal existence of supermarket shopping takes its toll) by which stage a fix may be very tricky to achieve.

Judging by the accolades from those troops exposed to this tool, it is a worthy and winning mechanism.

In our totally different solutions selling sphere, our risk is much less life or death of course, yet in career terms there are of course parallels.

What I gathered particularly useful were the procedures in place to spot an incident right away. There was no sweeping it under the carpet, no ignoring it in the hope that its impact would be immaterial.

How stark a contrast is this to many a bid management mindset.

This strikes me as an essential addition to any sales process. Consider the types of events that can reduce your chances of success, and institute a method of both flagging them the instant they happen and knowing what your course of action will be.

You can even create a scale from minor delaying influence to all out total deal derailment.

Examples can include the fallout from a specific competitor tactic, a key relationship breaking, or hijack from a outside influence.