Category Archives: Helpful Hints

July 19, 2016 · 11:31 am

Playing It Backward

I spend a fair amount of time working with startup companies. By definition, these businesses have a lot of planning and building to do. What problem are we solving? How will we make a product or service that accomplishes that solution? What will that cost and what’s the financial plan? How do we gain enough traction to scale? It often seems overwhelming, even to someone with my years of experience. When I can see that there is a fair amount of frustration on my clients’ faces, I’ll usually ask if they know how great golfers think about how to attack a hole.

Stay with me here – this isn’t yet another excuse to talk about golf here on the screed. Great golfers will play a hole backward. They start by thinking about where the pin is on the green (front, middle, back, left, center, or right) using the pin sheet every caddie and player carries. That sheet gives them the location – how many feet on from the front, how many feet from one edge. That allows them to figure out the best angle for the approach shot, which then dictates where they want to land the tee shot. Backward.

I think great business people often play their businesses backward. Some might call it starting with the end in mind but I think it’s more than that. For example, I think it’s a better and more accurate method if you begin with what number of customers get you to sustained profitability and go backward to find out how you’ll scale to that number (I generally use 10x growth per year) than to begin with where you think you might be now and guess at growth rates. The former gives you targets that will get you where you want to go and an ability to formulate marketing and other budgets to support that growth. The latter is reacting to where you might find yourself without a clear path or guidance for budgeting.

I try to play most decisions backward. Where is the pin (my goal)? Where is the best place from which to attack it and how do I get to that place? Execution then becomes simpler – I’m only focused on the next shot – the next task – because I know I have a plan. Do you?

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July 13, 2016 · 10:41 am

Hi. What Do You Need?

I bet each of us has someone in our life from whom we never hear unless and until they need something. You know the type. When you’re in touch with them everything is great and you’re BFF’s. The problem is that the only times you’re in touch come when they are having a problem. When you reach out just to say hi, it’s crickets.

Many of us conduct our customer activities in exactly that mindset. They never hear from us unless we need something (generally we need them to buy something). A recent  Salesforce survey of nearly 4,000 marketers highlighted the fact that many marketers are increasingly focused on customer satisfaction and customer engagement as their top measures for success, and the way to spur those measures is through an ongoing presence that is customer focused. In addition, high-performing marketers are creating journeys for customers, with 65% saying they’ve adopted a customer journey strategy and 88% saying it’s critical to their marketing success.

This is what the CEO of Salesforce had to say about the results:

The rise of the connected customer is forcing marketing to evolve from delivering outbound campaigns to managing personalized experiences that engage the customer from day one and guide them through a seamless journey with the brand. The results of our research show that high-performing marketers that change their mindsets, tactics and technology to embrace a customer journey strategy will reap the benefits.

In other words, we can’t just show up when we need something. Think about something as simple as the Amazon Dash button. If you’re not familiar, Amazon describes it a Wi-Fi connected device that reorders your favorite product with the press of a button. If you run out of Red Bull, push the button and Red Bull shows up. It’s always there, ready when you need it. Is that walking the customer through a journey? I think it is, in a very simplistic manner.

When the phone rings and it’s this particular guy, I know I’m going to be asked for something. How do customers feel when your email arrives? Any differently?

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July 7, 2016 · 8:33 am

One Ear At A Time

Today’s screed comes courtesy of my mom. While I’m doing the writing, she provided the inspiration for some business thinking. Isn’t that what moms do? 

I’m in Florida with my folks. My mom is having a procedure today and they’ll need a little help while she is recuperating. There was a little drama late yesterday about what time we are to go to the hospital. At one point she had a cell phone in one ear and a landline in the other as she tried to speak with a doctor and the doctor’s nurse. These were entirely separate conversations, mind you, and not some mashed-up form of a conference call. Combine that with my dad’s kibbitzing from the couch and it was quite a scene. Her attention was quite divided and it was actually comical listening to the circular conversations and the obvious lack of progress.

I described the scene to someone afterward and they remarked that you really can’t hear either conversation when you’re not focused, which is our business thought today. How many people do you know who claim to be great a multitasking? I’m here to tell you that they’re lying:

The short answer to whether people can really multitask is no. Multitasking is a myth. The human brain can not perform two tasks that require high-level brain function at once. Low-level functions like breathing and pumping blood aren’t considered in multitasking, only tasks you have to “think” about. What actually happens when you think you are multitasking is that you are rapidly switching between tasks.

In other words, we really can only pay attention to one ear at a time or one task at a time yet many of us insist on trying to do several contemporaneously. My guess is that each task takes longer than if we’d paid full attention to it and that the quality of the result is lower as well. I’m just as guilty as you are of trying to do too many things at once but I’m going to remember my mom and a phone in each ear as I try to change my ways. You?

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