This summer, I hardly had a chance to ride my horse. Last weekend I was blessed to ride 21 miles on Saturday and 13 miles on Sunday. They were very different rides. Saturday was a slow and steady pace. I had time to look all around me and even stopped to take pictures. I rarely ride like that, and I don’t think that is the typical experience for business owners either. Nothing seems slow. Everything is fast and furious, and it is hard to get a breather. On Sunday, I rode less mileage, but it was a blow and go type of ride. When your horse is going on a windy trail, in and out of trees, taking tight corners, it is your job to look ahead and see what is coming and the horse’s job to manage its feet. Lucky for me, my horse is trained to verbal cues. I can say “muddy” and he slows down, I can say “step” and he picks his feet up a bit higher to go over a log, I can say “rocks” or “downhill” and he slows down. We are still working on “head” which is when I see something coming like a branch that could potentially knock me off—I am guessing since it is not in his way, he doesn’t see as much need to respond! Regardless, it is a great partnership. Someone is the navigator, and someone is the operator.
My question to you today is twofold. First, are you the navigator? Typically, the leader is the navigator for the company or their team. It is their job to look down the road and see what might be coming. That means knowing what customers want now and how it might change more in the future, are they “healthy” customers or is retention in question, what competitors offer, how the economy might change and impact business, and how technology is changing the world around you and potentially your business. We all need navigators. They can help us avoid the rocks but sometimes they also must figure out how to maneuver through the rocks. Do you change course? Change speed? Change approach? The operator is busy working on today. Executing what is immediately in front of them. Following the process, taking the order, putting out customer fires per today’s protocol. It is very difficult for one person to wear both hats.
The second question is how far down the road do you look? There is no one right answer. I counsel companies to look far enough down the road to get in front of their next cycle. That may mean their product development cycle, their sales cycle or similar, but in essence you want to get in front of each subsequent wave of change. For most it is at least two years and could be five, depending on the purpose of the company and the industry they are in. Sometimes, things like Covid extend the cycle and other times, things like technology shorten it. A one-year look is not enough for anything except a good operational evaluation.
To be able to “see” down the road, we often need help. When riding, I use maps and figure out things like where there are water stops, when will there be mountains to climb, where we can move out and when we will have to go slow down. In business, we need to actively use analytics to give us a heads up. I am not talking about monthly or quarterly sales numbers although those could certainly be analyzed for trends over time. Those near-term looks are for the operator to make the short-term adjustments needed to cover current ground. The navigator analytics can come from multiple places, CRM’s, customer sales records, customer research, competitive actions, industry associations, macro and microeconomics, etc. but we need systems to aggregate the data. With today’s AI capabilities that can be done. We can not only use our own data but the data from public records to identify how the winds are blowing and establish early warning systems on product relevancy, competitor impact, customer loyalty, and other key strategic data. In order to create a navigator system of strategic information, evaluate what data you have available and what form it is in. For middle market organizations, data is often one of the things that is often overlooked because the day-to-day operations take precedence, particularly when the world is moving fast and time is limited. However, that can be one main reason organizations run out of road. They finally look up and realize that they are no longer as relevant as they would like to be or growing as fast as they used to. Here are some areas that tend to be challenges for many of the companies I work with:
1) A quality CRM system that they regularly use to input critical data and manage workflow. I would rather you have a system with fewer bells and whistles that you use, than a system that is not supported.
2) Customer health records. Which customers are loyal, order product breadth or have a high share of wallet, and are growing, and which customers shop for price, have stabilized, perhaps decreased orders, etc.? Use that to determine services to offer and which customers to align resources with.
3) Know your competitors. Few of my clients can tell me much about their competitors and many feel they are not that good. Unfortunately, how good they are only matters in the eyes of the customer. If the customer thinks they are good than they are. How do you position your message to take advantage of competitor weaknesses? Do you know competitor’s strategies, pricing approach, inventory positions, culture, etc.? If not, start collecting that data. This previous blog could help: https://breakthroughmaster.com/what-every-growth-oriented-company-needs-to-know-about-customers/.
4) Know what your customers want, not just what they buy. Is your information actionable or is it anecdotal? If you haven’t conducted quantitative customer research in the last 2-3 years, there is gap in your understanding. It is like riding without a map.
We can certainly help you analyze what data you have and what you are missing, so that we can identify key next steps in building a worthwhile navigation system and then using that to build a trail map to where you want to go! Please reach out with questions, or check out this GrowthDNA™ diagnostic and action plan to take the next step: GrowthDNA-Diagnostic-and-Action-Plan.pdf.