What’s your FOTS plan?

Sometimes startups need to engage in good old fashioned hand-to-hand combat and hit the streets to get customers. Twitter and Foursquare launched this way at SXSW. A friend of mine introduced me to FOTS recently which stands for Feet On The Street and the idea behind it is to set up a points system for your team members along with relevant goals (e.g. 100 points per quarter). Here are some examples:

• 1 point for each business card collected
• 3 points for each scheduled meeting
• 3 points for each targeted referral
• 5 points for each book delivered
• 10 points for each face-to-face meeting completed
• 40 points for serving on a panel

Now, activities should not be confused with results, but this is the right idea. These types of activities are more closely associated with professional services firms but can be applicable to a variety of startups.