The "Over the Side shot - The importance of speed in sales.
I want to talk a little today about a simple and old naval tactic the premise of which I think can be applied to all areas of life. The tactic is called the "Over the Side" shot and consists of the following.
Older naval surface vessels were equipped with externally mounted torpedo
tubes, normally consisting of three tubes mounted in a triangular fashion.
(These were installed on ships built as recently as the 1970's. They,
or some similar version, may still be installed on newer vessels. I
don't know as I left the Naval Service in 1994 and burnt that bridge.) The
tubes were mounted on swivels so you could point them in any direction on
the side of the ship they were mounted on.
These tubes fired Anti-Submarine torpedoes, which are more advanced
anti-submarine weapons than the depth charges you see in all the WWII
movies. The torpedoes have homing devices in the nose and "look" for a
submarine when they are in the water, which, while not fool proof, is better
than the randomness of dropping a depth charge pattern when you go a
submarine hunting.
Submarines are hard to find. In fact, with all the technological
advances in submarine design, propulsion and weapon systems, it is usually
the surface ship that ends up losing the battle. In exercises this happens
almost 100% of the time as the submarine usually finds the surface ship
first and gets off a shot before the surface vessel even knows it is there.
Hence the reason for the "Over the Side" shot.
Modern day torpedoes are usually wire guided. After you launch the
torpedo a wire spools out behind it, connecting it with someone back at the
submarine who is steering the torpedo to the target until the homing system
in the nose of the torpedo "locks" on. After target lock the wire is
jettisoned and the torpedo does the job it was designed to do.(Very
effectively I might add. You DO NOT want to be on the receiving end of
a modern torpedo!)
Surface ships may have trouble finding submarines, but they have no trouble
at all detecting torpedoes in the water. The high-pitched whine of a
high-speed propeller is very distinctive and once detected, you can quickly
identify the direction the torpedo is coming from. Your first reaction
is to launch one of your own torpedoes "over the side" right back on the
bearing the torpedo is coming in on. By doing this you are hoping to
disrupt the fire control solution of the submarine by forcing them to react
defensively while the wire is still attached to the torpedo. In other words,
you are trying to disrupt your opponent by forcing them to react. You
are attempting to take back the initiative.
I am always saying to my dealer’s "speed is your friend". In most
cases the person or company who gets there first is rewarded with the job.
Especially in today's hectic world people want a response or an outcome now,
and the first person that can get it to them comes out ahead. On the
flip side of this, we can sometimes "steal a march" on our competition by
reacting quickly to their actions and disrupting their plans and
assumptions. This is an example of an "Over the Side" shot in
business. Do the unexpected and do it quickly.
Someone familiar with John Boyd's work, as
Tim Birch is, would recognize
this as operating within your competitor's OODA loop. We do this by
moving faster than our competitor and in an unpredictable manner.
This is one reason I keep a lawyer on retainer, so I can react very fast to
any legal action. It is defensive and my initial reaction might not be
the best course of action that I can take, but I have seen time and time
again where a fast reaction, even if not perfect, can trump a slow
methodical approach. It is the same approach we are being advised to take in
our internet businesses. Try something and fail fast.
