I love dogs. They are clever, loyal and petting them relieves pain (yes really) but there are two dogs I particularly remember; a spaniel in Beijing Airport and an alsatian in Pakistan.

Gifting is important in Asia so on my way to China on business I always bought tins of Harrods biscuits as gifts. The tins were posh, high value and importantly in Asian gifting etiquette, from my homeland. Alas, the contents were attractive to the spaniel searching baggage for drugs at Beijing airport. The duty-spaniel ran hither and thither over the carousels, so after a few minutes it was exhausted and had to be replaced. But each and every spaniel in the long chain of replacements found my biscuits. I had to unpack and repacked my bag about six times. The spaniel was cute, energetic but highly inefficient. You really would not be confident it had searched every bag, especially after each had spent so much time on my biscuits!

The other dog I met was an alsatian completing its training prior to entering Afghanistan to search for landmines. Think the film Kajaki. Finding landmines is very dangerous work for humans let alone dogs, but this alsation had method. Presented with an area where landmines might be, it zig zagging back and forward with discipline and rigour. When the alsation found a landmine it sat and indicated it. The explosive smell of old landmines gets stronger as the explosive sweats so it is easy for a dog to detect. More impressive was that the alsation found and indicated trip wires which were invisible to the human eye, but were often set up to detonate a landmine. I was awestruck. Search dogs have off-days but on this day you would have been confident to follow the alsatian into a minefield. The confidence came from the method, not the energy.

I often think about the contrast between those dogs when I meet people doing sales. Most entrepreneurs start as spaniels, running about using their charm and energy. Spaniel-like behaviour yields treasure but is exhausting and leaves too much of the market uncovered which then has to be revisited. Repeated uninvited spaniel visits are annoying and thus the sellers brand is damaged making it less likely the customer will eventually engage.

Alsatians also find treasure but their method offers more confidence they have covered the area. There is a choice between spaniel-effort and alsation-method.

Sales is the same. As entrepreneurs at spaniel-stage charge about, meeting as many people as possible and having enough success to keep going. However, eventually the size of a company, its need to control costs and predict revenue, calls for more structure. This leads to data driven marketing to generate well qualified leads and systemisation of well managed sales pipeline. We all start as spaniels but eventually become alsatians; the sooner the better.