Conventional wisdom isn’t the answer to getting unstuck. Try this...

Last month, we relaunched this newsletter, and I appreciate all of the greetings and all of the feedback on the new direction.

This month, we’re launching a new website. At its heart is a framework to help people build early-stage initiatives into thriving businesses. Not by assuming the path will be smooth, but by recognizing that we’ll get stuck. And realizing that we need different tools to move beyond stuck and toward growth.

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Unconventional wisdom unlocks business mysteries

It’s been more than ten years since I learned the first lesson about conventional wisdom being wrong. I was working with a telecom company that was trying to become the leader in the market. We’d gathered all kinds of customer data on why people bought our brand versus another. Our team could recite the purchase decision factors in priority order. We were sure our calculations about how to win over customers were on target and went full steam ahead toward our go-to-market strategy….but we were losing customers at breakneck speed.

When the sales data came in, we were elated. Yes, our conventional wisdom about market projections tracked perfectly with top-line revenues. Our first response was, great–we’re on track for growth.

The problem was, while our sales were growing, we were losing customers at a record pace. Turns out, as we grew our customer base, we stressed our infrastructure, and people were not pleased.

They were leaving in droves.

Figuring out how to move beyond our conventional models wasn’t easy, but letting go was the secret to stopping the bleeding sales. 

I learned that it takes different muscles to get past “stuck” than it does to follow an existing business recipe.

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When conventional wisdom wasn’t working, we did this instead:

1. Had an "Emperor's New Clothes" meeting with everyone on the team.

– What evidence did they have?

2. Sat down with people inside the company informally. We listened first; solved later.

3. We talked 1:1 with the customers who had left.

– Learned about lots of insights about what to focus on to stop the bleeding.

4. Put a hold on bringing in new sales.

5. Fixed our service issues.

By trying something new, with guidance from people with experience, you can learn how to get unstuck. That’s the core of all of the tools and stories in From Stuck To Scale: specific things to try at every stage of bringing an initiative to life. 

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Try this…

Assume there’s a part of your business that’s stuck right now. Stage a meeting to take the pulse of your team. Apply unconventional wisdom like this:

1. Ask your team what matters most for your new initiative.

a. Then, ask them what metrics are in place to track progress.

b. Compare the two. Are you measuring the wrong things?

2. Are you too invested in driving top-line revenue without digging into where you might have a leaky bucket that's leading to lost customers?

3. Are you stuck in a mindset about “the problem”, for example, blaming poor performance on the economy? 

If you want to see an even more dramatic story on a telecom company’s rise and fall, watch Blackberry.

What kind of unconventional wisdom can you start applying today?