Dan Martell - March 04, 2019


How To Apply Strategic Vs. Tactical Thinking In Your Business

Hosted by
Dan Martell
Mentioned
Stephen Covey Hail Mary
How To Tell If You Have a Toxic Culture in Your Startup How To Automate And Streamline Your Startup's Growth

Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

198.78

Word count

1,839

Sentence count

103

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Dan Martell shares how to think strategically about where you re going in your business, not tactically, so you can actually move the needle and drive your goals forward. And be sure to stay to the end where I share my precision scorecard framework where I teach you how to structure your metrics in a sequence to allow you to measure your progress towards those goals.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.080 Hey there, I'm Dan Martell, serial entrepreneur,
00:00:01.840 investor, and creator of SaaS Academy.
00:00:04.080 In this video, I'm going to share with you
00:00:06.240 how to think strategically about where
00:00:08.600 you're going in your business, not tactically,
00:00:10.960 so you can actually move the needle and drive your goals
00:00:14.160 forward.
00:00:14.960 And be sure to stay to the end where I share with you
00:00:16.720 my precision scorecard framework where
00:00:18.960 I teach you how to structure your metrics in a sequence
00:00:23.600 to allow you to measure your progress towards those goals.
00:00:30.000 So it's been said that strategy is doing the right things
00:00:42.340 and tactics is doing things right.
00:00:45.620 Now, think about that.
00:00:47.000 Essentially, it's doing the right things.
00:00:48.880 It's strategically what do we need to do
00:00:51.540 and what order to get an outcome.
00:00:53.700 And then once we know what we need to do,
00:00:55.960 then it's making sure those things are done at the right level.
00:00:59.000 That's why this show is called The Growth Stacking Show.
00:01:02.100 I believe that right time equals right action.
00:01:06.240 And to do things right, if you want to be successful,
00:01:08.680 you need to sequence things in the right order.
00:01:11.520 So what I'm going to share with you
00:01:13.020 is how I've been over the years, even from my first company
00:01:16.260 at 17 to eventually Spheric Technologies that really
00:01:19.480 was the one that succeeded.
00:01:21.020 I grew to 150% year over year for four years,
00:01:24.160 eventually got acquired, is where I figured out
00:01:27.760 how to think strategically.
00:01:29.420 Because to me, it's easy to make a list of things
00:01:32.140 we know we got to do.
00:01:33.300 But really mapping that, understanding
00:01:35.640 how those things connect and overlap
00:01:37.560 and making sure we understand what
00:01:39.600 we need to do this week, next month, or next quarter
00:01:42.240 is how we're going to get results in your business.
00:01:44.200 So here are the steps to thinking strategically
00:01:47.700 in your business.
00:01:48.700 Number one, begin with the end in mind.
00:01:50.860 Now, Stephen Covey said this, that we
00:01:53.140 need to go all the way to the end to understand
00:01:55.260 what it looks like.
00:01:56.760 But to do that, we need to go all the way
00:01:59.100 to the end of 25 years, 10 years, three years, and one year.
00:02:03.580 So to me, it is tough for anybody.
00:02:05.640 It doesn't matter what kind of goal you want to set,
00:02:07.280 personal, professional.
00:02:08.640 To think strategically, I need to understand
00:02:11.080 what your vision for your life looks like.
00:02:12.900 I need to understand where you want to bring your business.
00:02:15.340 Not in the short term, but in the medium, long term,
00:02:17.940 and in the future, 25 years.
00:02:20.800 Because understanding that will give us
00:02:23.400 a clear direction of decisions we make today
00:02:26.160 and in what order to make sure that we're on the mark.
00:02:28.740 So the first thing we need to do is begin with the end in mind.
00:02:31.820 Number two, list out the strategies.
00:02:35.120 Once we know where we're going, let's
00:02:36.780 say we have a clear understanding of the next 12 months
00:02:39.000 from a revenue point of view, from a market, the products
00:02:41.680 we want to sell into the market.
00:02:43.540 Then we need to list out the strategies
00:02:45.760 that we want to execute, and we can just make a dump.
00:02:48.040 We can just say, OK, here's our goal.
00:02:49.780 What are all the possible things that we
00:02:51.580 could do to achieve that goal?
00:02:53.160 We just make the list, OK?
00:02:54.700 That is it.
00:02:55.320 We just want to dump, because I really
00:02:57.080 believe one of the biggest challenges people make
00:02:59.340 is they don't separate the ideation part
00:03:02.260 from the prioritization step, OK?
00:03:04.600 When we're ideating, when we're being creative,
00:03:06.880 we just want to make a dump.
00:03:08.460 And this is where it's great to have a team.
00:03:09.960 If you have a mentor, because a lot of people are like,
00:03:12.140 well, I don't have anybody that can give me these strategies.
00:03:14.820 I don't even know how I would grow my business.
00:03:17.160 That's where advisors and mentors
00:03:19.720 and doing a lot of internet Google searching.
00:03:21.800 The challenge with that is that there's a lot of information.
00:03:24.120 There's no insights.
00:03:24.900 So ideally, find yourself a mentor.
00:03:26.640 Somebody who's been there before.
00:03:27.640 And I have a video on that that you
00:03:28.860 can find to understand how to approach them
00:03:31.240 and the things to ask them.
00:03:33.120 But at a minimum, advisors, people in the industry,
00:03:36.400 they can give you some thoughts as to people in your market,
00:03:40.220 at your stage, what are the things
00:03:41.740 that they did in the year one or two,
00:03:43.300 depending on where you're at, to actually move the needle
00:03:45.480 and get the growth that you want to achieve over the next year.
00:03:47.960 Number three, ICE them. 1.00
00:03:50.760 ICE is an acronym.
00:03:52.320 So now we want to essentially quantify each strategy
00:03:56.520 for their effectiveness.
00:03:58.000 And I stands for impact, confidence, and ease.
00:04:02.000 And the reason why is impact is if I do this,
00:04:04.820 what's the potential impact from a revenue point of view
00:04:07.820 to my customers?
00:04:08.660 So for example, if I'm going to do a referral program, which
00:04:11.520 is at the bottom of the funnel, meaning that as I get a customer,
00:04:14.200 I get a referral, or I'm going to do a Facebook ad campaign,
00:04:17.780 which is top of the funnel, meaning it's going to drive
00:04:20.120 new leads into my business.
00:04:22.160 I would argue, if you don't have either of those in place,
00:04:25.280 that working on a Facebook campaign
00:04:27.640 to drive new customers into your funnel
00:04:30.080 is probably a best first step so that you actually
00:04:32.800 have enough customers to get and amplify your referral program.
00:04:36.620 So it's kind of like understanding
00:04:38.760 the impact of the strategies, the confidence
00:04:42.040 that you have to actually get that kind of outcome,
00:04:44.580 and then ease of implementation, the resources, the time,
00:04:48.500 and the effort that it's going to take for you
00:04:50.260 to actually deploy that tactic.
00:04:53.320 And this is where it comes down to a tactic
00:04:55.340 to make sure that it's the right thing for you
00:04:57.380 to put into your business.
00:04:58.380 So we just want to quantify those on a scale of 1 to 10.
00:05:02.360 1 to 10 for impact, confidence, and ease.
00:05:05.100 That's a score out of 30.
00:05:06.560 And then we've got our list measured.
00:05:09.140 Number four, prioritize.
00:05:11.560 Once we've got the list, OK, we know where we're going.
00:05:14.200 We've got the strategies.
00:05:15.380 We've iced them.
00:05:16.440 So we have impact, confidence, ease.
00:05:17.980 Now is we want to sort them based on those scores.
00:05:21.680 So it starts to give us a sense of what actions
00:05:24.580 do we do today versus next week versus next month.
00:05:27.700 And that's all about the right time, right action,
00:05:29.800 or growth stacking, in my language,
00:05:32.800 so that you can have the biggest impact.
00:05:34.360 Because the way growth works, it's kind of like compound
00:05:36.600 interest.
00:05:37.440 If I can get some low-hanging fruit out of the gate today
00:05:41.580 that continues to pay off dividends over time,
00:05:44.500 and I get those going right now, and I can get my growth up
00:05:47.220 to 5% per month, 10% per month, 15% per month, 20% per month.
00:05:53.100 It compounds over time versus what 0.65
00:05:55.320 I see a lot of people mistake is these frigging long lobbed
00:05:59.420 Hail Mary passes.
00:06:01.200 We're going to go after enterprise customers.
00:06:03.340 We're going to go do this big partnership.
00:06:05.060 We're going to do all these lofty, crazy things
00:06:08.060 that may someday materialize.
00:06:10.060 But for the most part, from a confidence point of view,
00:06:12.680 to me, they're about a 10% or 15%
00:06:14.840 versus all these other things that are tried and true.
00:06:16.980 We know if we do them, we have a higher confidence,
00:06:18.940 a higher perception.
00:06:19.980 We want to stack those towards the top,
00:06:21.780 get those out of the way to build our base
00:06:23.680 so that we have the capital to reinvest in growth.
00:06:26.800 And that is strategic thinking.
00:06:28.620 Because at the end of the day, if you don't have profit
00:06:31.080 from your business ASAP, then you
00:06:33.660 have nothing to reinvest to innovate and grow your market.
00:06:38.300 Number five, add resources and timelines.
00:06:41.360 So one of the biggest mistakes that founders make
00:06:44.040 is they've got this crazy plan and strategy,
00:06:47.420 but they never allocate budgets, which is money, resources,
00:06:50.880 that are needs to be funding these projects initiatives.
00:06:53.680 The other thing is hiring the key people, the people plan,
00:06:56.580 to make sure that you have the resources from a horsepower
00:07:01.260 point of view to actually execute these projects.
00:07:03.500 So if you need to build out a sales team,
00:07:05.760 you better have a recruiting step in Q1 or 2
00:07:08.760 to make sure that you have the people ready to actually
00:07:11.100 sell what you're selling.
00:07:13.200 So it's adding both of those, the resources from a people
00:07:16.620 and a capital point of view to fund those initiatives
00:07:19.300 and also mapping those to the timeline
00:07:21.780 because certain things have dependencies.
00:07:23.960 I can't build a sales team if I don't have enough leads.
00:07:26.580 So I need to make sure that I build my lead gen program first
00:07:29.340 and then I can introduce a salesperson
00:07:31.380 or maybe start off with an SDR sales development rep
00:07:34.380 initially.
00:07:34.920 And those are sequencing activities
00:07:36.860 that need to be mapped out over time only
00:07:39.540 after you do step one to four.
00:07:42.400 So quick recap on how to think strategically
00:07:45.440 versus tactically.
00:07:46.460 Number one, you have to begin with the end in mind.
00:07:48.640 You need to know what it looks like.
00:07:49.800 Have a vision for the outcomes.
00:07:51.460 Number two, list out the strategies, all of them.
00:07:54.260 Be creative that could get you there.
00:07:56.260 Three, ice them. 0.99
00:07:57.640 Give them a score from an impact, confidence,
00:08:00.500 and ease factor.
00:08:02.140 Number four, prioritize them.
00:08:04.600 It's all about right action in the right time.
00:08:07.460 And then five, add the resources, capital and people,
00:08:10.620 plus the timelines for those dependencies
00:08:13.280 to be executed over time.
00:08:15.060 So if you implement those five steps,
00:08:16.560 you'll be thinking even more strategically in your business.
00:08:19.580 As I mentioned at the beginning of this video,
00:08:21.200 I want to share a really incredible resource called
00:08:23.040 the Precision Scorecard.
00:08:24.240 It's a framework I created for not only managing my companies
00:08:27.300 and all the investments that I've made over the years,
00:08:29.040 but every one of my coaching clients
00:08:30.680 deploy this into their team so that they
00:08:33.320 can monitor their strategic thinking and activities
00:08:36.940 over a quarter, a monthly, and a weekly basis.
00:08:39.580 Yes, measuring on a weekly basis for all the different metrics.
00:08:42.920 In that template, I give you the different metrics
00:08:47.120 and data points that you should be measuring in your business
00:08:50.100 for companies that are less than a million in revenue
00:08:52.860 and others that are million plus.
00:08:54.300 So you can click the link below to download your copy
00:08:56.860 of the Precision Scorecard.
00:08:58.160 And if you like this video, smash that like button.
00:09:01.040 Subscribe to my channel.
00:09:02.040 And if there's anybody that you care about that you think
00:09:04.100 this video could serve, feel free to share it with them
00:09:06.380 directly.
00:09:07.040 As per usual, I want to challenge you to live a bigger life and a bigger business, and I'll
00:09:10.560 see you next Monday.
00:09:13.500 You know you got a strategy.