If You Want to Grow Your Business, What Are You Willing to Change?
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Seriously. In a world that is constantly shifting underneath our feet, more companies are going back to the basics.
Building their networks one meeting at a time. Counting handshakes as a KPI.
And here’s something that’s always been true but resonates even more right now:
If you want to grow your business, what got you here won’t get you there.
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I should clarify: if you want to grow your business by more than, say, 15% year over year. If you’re after, slow, sustainable growth that edges out wage increases and inflation—and you have a system that currently works—you can keep on keeping on. (And that’s great.)
But most of my clients, and most of the companies that come to Crews & co., want more. They want scalable growth, and they have an eye toward a profitable exit down the line.
To get more, you have to do more. Test more. Risk more. Try more.
- Run experiments in sales and marketing and treat them as true R&D.
- Invest dollars and time into activities with unknown outcomes.
- Find the leaders willing to deal with uncertainty as they shoot for ambitious goals.
Your Growth Approach should be a combination of the Known activities that work and the Unknown activities that are still unproven.
What you know works - double down, triple down, quadruple down until the well is dry. Invest until you get diminishing returns. Because not only do you have proof in the results; but you also have the skills and company “muscle” to execute these activities well.
And what you don’t know? There’s only one way to find out. Place your bets wisely—look at what works for your competitors, align your experiments with your audience’s behaviors and preferences, and choose activities where your spend can reasonably be expected to produce results.
Then…test it. With team alignment and full commitment. That’s key. If you half-ass the initiative, you’ll never know if it could have worked. Think through the process. Plan the follow-ups. It might be manual, but give your experiments your full care and attention.
Until you decide if they’re working or not. Then, cut quickly. Stop immediately. And turn your attention somewhere else.
That’s what people mean when they talk about smaller companies being agile. Not the shiny object entrepreneur syndrome. But the ability to go all-in for a short period of time, evaluate the results, and then turn off the tap if it isn’t working.
I should add…something not working isn’t a failure. At least, not in any value judgment sort of way. If the experiment failed—the campaign didn’t generate leads, the tradeshow didn’t generate conversations, etc.—that’s information. One less thing to worry about. You take in the data and you move on.
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The question to reflect on is this: Are you doing the same things to grow…but expecting different results?
If the answer is yes…even if it’s a feeling down in your gut that doesn’t match the company’s plan on paper, here’s what to do next:
1. Get really clear about your growth goals. How much do you want to grow? Do you really want to hit that target, or is it an aspirational number? And is your team bought into what it might take to hit that goal?
2. Get really clear on your growth plan. What activities are working today? How can you double down on your investment in those activities? Money, people, time…you can’t double down without doing more, spending more, or expanding your team.
3. Get really clear on your experiments. Not spaghetti at the wall. A few experiments at a time, with clear metrics for success and defined time periods for testing. Then go all-in until it’s time to pause and evaluate.
Another cliche that’s also true: If nothing changes, nothing changes.
What’s going to change for you?
