Why Aren't We Growing Faster?
It seems like a simple question but it often comes with a complex answer. Being a consultant requires you to have a good deal of humility and patience.
Humility that the person hiring you wouldn't be hiring you if they could avoid it.
Patience that things don't often get turned around overnight.
Still, there are common reasons for growth challenges, some of which I will outline here.
* Your brand doesn't have a clear reason to exist.
* You don't have a clear picture of who your growth consumer is.
* Or why they buy from you.
* Your offer isn't attractive (anymore).
* Growing "faster" implies both a plan (which you may not have) and an expectation (which may be incorrect).
* Someone else could be taking better care of your desired customer better than you. Or you haven't given then a compelling reason to switch.
* Or, you haven't stuck to the same plan for long enough to see it through.
* Wrong people working on it.
* Sometimes, doing some good things, but not enough of the right things consistently enough.
* Or you've investing but not enough to hit your goals. You could be underfunding your business.
* Your team could spend most of their days fighting fires. Sometimes because of technology challenges, but it also could be organizational politics.
Notice most of these reasons have nothing to do with technology. Great brands were built decades ago and did not require the latest tools to succeed.
If you are finding the latest tool in search of your silver bullet, chances are ... the only person you are fooling is yourself. Technology has gotten really good and there are often many paths to the same goal as long as you don't find yourself in an unsupported platform situation.
Pick a stable, well-supported, growing ecosystem and you will end up in a pretty decent place. If you don't fall into one of the (many) traps above. Still, diagnosing organization and process problems is tricky business.
Someone needs to want to hear the answer. In fact, that is usually the last question I ask before I sign a contract with a new client: "Who wants to hear it?"
The answer to that question will often determine your destiny. Being willing to try new things that are outside your comfort zone is the key to all of us learning and getting better over time. Especially when the answer isn't what you want to hear.
It's very easy to buy yet another platform or application. Much harder to change people or process.
