đź«Ł Â Â Nearsighted Growth
⏰   Budget to Pivot
đź‘€ Â Â Don't Say It, Show It
đź«ŁÂ Nearsighted Growth
How do businesses plan for the future when it feels like we are experiencing once-in-a-generation events every other year?
From Brexit to Covid to multiple wars, not to mention the current trade war, extreme weather, and now AI. Uncertainty has become a constant.
Last week I delivered a keynote to a group of CEOs. One of the jarring symptoms of uncertainty is “nearsighted growth strategies.” Their attitude: How do you plan when markets change so often?
The CEOs’ strategic lenses were months, not years.
A shortsighted strategy is a gamble. It’s hard to invest in your business to grow when you can’t see beyond six to twelve months.
To plan with uncertainty, anchor your growth strategy on three fronts:
- Constants: What won’t change? Look for customer needs and market trends that will remain constant in time.
- Minimum Market: Small- and mid-sized companies can survive and thrive in good times and bad, because they don’t need a lot of customers to succeed. What is the minimum market your business needs to achieve its goals? It’s likely more accessible and scalable than you think.‍
- 10X Vision: Imagine your business at ten times its current size. What would its brand positioning, products and services, operations, and structure look like? It’s a lot easier to plan and act on uncertainty in the here and now when your 10X Vision is clear.
One Stat to Watch
33%
“A third of all business owners say they have no [long-term] plan or are unsure about their future,” according to a study by Gallup.
⏰ Budget to Pivot
You need three things to successfully reposition or pivot your business:
1. Cash
Cash is an obvious but overlooked ingredient. What would it mean for your business if you went six, twelve, or twenty-four months with minimal sales? Could you survive? If not, you may not be ready to pivot.
2. Time
It takes time to develop a new market and build a sales funnel. A good estimate to predict how long it will take to pivot your business is nine months or three times the length of your average sales cycle. Go with whichever timeframe is longer.
3. Communication
Repositioning or pivoting your business can tear your culture apart if it isn’t managed. This is a team effort. If you fail to communicate enough, your team’s imaginations can run wild. Rumors can start, and your employees can become disillusioned. Without clear and constant communication your staff can lose their way.
👀 Don't Say It, Show It
Marketing can be a cynical game. As soon as one competitor innovates and finds a new value proposition, everyone else starts claiming they do it too.
Even if the competition doesn’t offer a comparable solution, it is easy for them to spin their marketing to say they do the “same thing.”
Instead of focusing on what you say you can do, prove it. Demonstrate your business is working for your clients every step of the way.
For example, you feel a tingling sensation when you brush your teeth. That tingle is actually an irritant added to the toothpaste by design.
Tracy Sinclair, brand manager for Oral-B and Crest Kids Toothpaste, explains, “The tingling doesn’t make the toothpaste work any better. It just convinces people it’s doing the job.”
Proof doesn’t have to be logical, but it has to be tangible. Customers want to see evidence that their products and services are working.
Ford is a sneaky example. Many Ford vehicles use Active Sound Design (ASD) to enhance or simulate engine noise through the cabin speakers.
Your car may sound badass inside, but lame on the outside. But does that matter? From the driver’s perspective, their car sounds fast.
Customers need more than a good story and compelling marketing copy. They need an experience. They need to see or feel that your services are working and delivering on their promise.
How can you demonstrate your value proposition is delivering?
🤔  Thoughts on Today’s Issue?
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