What Matters Most
The questions you need to answer
R. Greg Bohrer
Marketing Manager
Precision Door Service
Voyages of Discovery
Voyages of Discovery
Questions sailors must ask:
Where
Now?
Where
Want
to Be?
Mission
How
Get
There?
When
Know
Arrive?
Focus
We are time-crunched, info-overloaded,
constantly-stressed
• Companies are losing focus
– We focus on too many things
• Nothing has really changed
– We’ve lost sight of why it matters
Focus
Focus on your Purpose/Mission
• Why in the beginning you launched your business,
your project
• Find your North Star
• Visualize it
• Start with Why
• Simon Sinek
Focus
• “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.
Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Where are You Now?
• Observe
• Gather the relevant information
• What do you see?
• What is our current position - as of now...
• Assess how the winds are changing before
setting sail.
• Anchor to good decision-making
• Easiest one to ignore under time pressure
Where are You Now?
• Research
• Most companies have an incomplete
or even wrong understanding of who
their customers are, how they perceive current
interactions, and what they want and need in the
future. - Forrester Research
• Less than half use data for Customer Insights
• Cannot take a guess on data
• Your Data:
• Sales data metrics – competitive info
• Resources
• Internal data, Marshall Marketing, Scarborough,
Pew, NRF, Forrester, AMEX, US Census, Blogs
Where are You Now?
• Questions we ask ourselves
• Who is our competition?
• What are they developing?
• How do we keep customers from using us?
• What do we do that is unique?
• Is it sustainable?
• Are we really who we say we are?
• Why?
Where are You Now?
“Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run
over if you just sit there”.
Will Rogers
Where Do You Want to Be?
• Orient
• Process information and position
yourself for a decision.
• What are the implications?
• Identify opportunities and create alternatives
• What are others doing?
• “Never interrupt your enemy when he is
making a mistake.” Napoleon
Where Do You Want to Be?
Research & Ask Why
• Look back where you’ve been.
– Where would that course take you?
– Does that align with your North Star?
• Will narrowing or expanding your focus create a
promising opportunity?
– Precision – Home Street - CoinStar
• Challenge your assumptions
Gap analysis
• Decisions are Choice Between Alternatives
• What are the missing's?
Difference =
Opportunity
Situation
Actions
Where Now
Causes
Alternatives
Where Do You Want to Be?
•
•
•
•
Decide on your course of Action
Choose between available alternatives.
Articulate what you won’t do
The Tie Breaker question:
– If overnight your biggest problem/issue was
solved: What would you do differently tomorrow?
What’s the first sign that you see or notice when
the problem is gone?
• Visualize it.
How Will You Get There?
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road
will do”.
Alice
How Will You Get There?
Act
•
•
•
•
•
Focus on the gap.
No perfect answers.
Identify any barriers.
Narrow options.
Don’t play it safe
How Will You Get There?
Act
•
•
•
•
•
•
Commit to them.
Clarify the target
Identify tools that can be used on each barrier.
Customers should be your guide
Don’t Assume
Start moving.
• Adjust.
How Will You Get There?
" We cannot direct the wind….
But we can adjust the sails."
Bertha Calloway
How Will You Get There?
Adjust
• Narrow Focus
• Partnerships
• Match Media to
Message
• Focus on what works
• Don’t Assume
• Results:
– Average of 10-12%
growth each year
for the past 3 years
Visualize
• If you or your team are
more visual in nature.
• Patti Dobrowolski’s book
Drawing Solutions
Patti Dobrowolski
How Will You Know When You Arrive?
• What is your finish line?
–
–
–
–
Can you measure progress toward it
KPI’s
Analytics
Call Tracking
How Will You Know When You Arrive?
• Call Tracking
How Will You Know When You Arrive?
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and
not everything that counts can be counted."
Albert Einstein.
Key to Success
•
•
•
•
Rinse and repeat
There is no finish line – Only beginnings
Celebrate
Go back to step one
– Where are you now?
– Where do you want to be?
– How will you get there?
– How will you know when you arrive?
What Matters Most?
" The important thing is to never stop questioning."
Albert Einstein.
Where
Now?
Where
Want
to Be?
Mission
How
Get
There?
When
Know
Arrive?
Thank You
R. Greg Bohrer
Precision Door Service
bohrerg@precisiondoor.net