The Three Lanes of Strategy

I have spent many years taking my son to swimming competitions.

Recently, as I watched him and his competitors line up in their respective lanes, ready to dive, it struck me how similar this setup is to growing a business.

Every business is comprised of lanes. While in business the lanes are meant to support each other than compete, too often they do end up out of sync.

Can you imagine the pandemonium if one of the swimmers went rogue and swam diagonally across the other lanes?
The same can be said for a business. If one of your lanes isn’t aligned with the others, your business won’t be able to move forward.

These are the three lanes I believe every business should be focused on.

 

Customer journey

From the moment they first see your logo, your customer goes on a journey – ideally one that they will happily take again.

The biggest issue businesses face is not putting enough energy into perfecting their customer journey, which will inevitably cause a gap to form at the bottom of your funnel.

When this happens, your pool will start to drain.

Many business owners think the solution is to keep pouring in new leads, but if you haven’t plugged the leak, your business will continue to haemorrhage customers.

Ultimately, businesses will get exhausted by the never-ending pursuit of finding new customers to try to replace the ones constantly flooding out the bottom.

While new acquisition is undoubtedly important to the growth of a business, retaining those customers is key to an organisation’s survival.

 

Sustainability strategies

Business sustainability is something that has become paramount in our pandemic-ridden world.

With daily lives being overturned and business operations being reinvented, organisations now need to implement strategies that will ensure sustainability for at least ten years into the future.

Part of this might include:

• Looking at the size of the market, the number of competitors, and what a business’ share in the market is.
• Determine if or how a business should diversify.
• Looking at expanding product ranges or services.
• Exploring new investment opportunities.

 

Pricing and value management

Part of the overall growth strategy will also require a review of a business’s pricing.

Businesses should be asking, “Should prices be increased?”, “Should discounts be removed?” and “How do we increase brand equity?”

It is vital for any business to recognise that value goes beyond a dollar.

While there’s power behind a dollar, there’s even more power behind a brand.

Leveraging the power of your brand is a step towards embracing a customer-centric approach. Establishing a message, a mission, that will encourage customer retention is key to plugging the leak.

Increasing a business’s value will provide you with stickier clients, meaning less money has to be spent pouring leads into the top.

 

Conclusion

As a business owner, you’ll have more responsibilities than just overseeing these three lanes, which means it can be challenging to ensure they are all aligned.

This is where a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) comes in.

A CRO will sit outside the pool with a birds-eye view of all three lanes, ensuring they are running smoothly and aligning these lanes with strategies that will move a business forward.

They will understand how to carry out the delicate balancing act of customer retention and new customer attraction.

They will have the capacity to explore and identify sustainable business opportunities that will insulate a business over the next decade.

Finally, a CRO is highly customer-centric focused, which means you won’t have to worry about leaks springing out of your pool.

Engaging with a CRO is one of the most effective ways of growing revenue and instilling efficiency in your company, and we can help.

Get in touch with Attain today to see how we can help grow your business.

Sharn Piper – CEO
M: +64 27 733 4333
E: sharn@weareattain.com

Having successfully led numerous sales teams, built multiple successful businesses I know what it takes to create a sales process that is robust, repeatable and produces consistent results when applied in a consistent way.