I messed up! Yesterday a message went out that was incomplete and confused many of you. Sorry! You see, I write Think Daily and Think Daily for Businesspeople messages in batches when I have time. I can’t sit down on a weekend and write ten messages for the week because I may not have ten ideas in my head at once. So I collect ideas for things to write about when they come to mind by writing “WRITE THIS” in the title box and then but some cryptic incomplete notes or words to remind me what I was going to write about.
Well, obviously I missed getting back to complete one and it was in the queue to go out yesterday – and go out it did! Whoops! Austin Marcum got it because he wrote a comment filling in the blanks of exactly what I was going to say! I’ll take another crack at it.
So in business, you have an offense (sales and marketing) and defense (operations and accounting). Offense puts points on the board, and defense ensures you are (cost) efficient and maintain quality.
If offense is highly dominant in your business, you’re are getting lots of sales and gross revenue, but you need it because expenses are high. If the defense is highly dominant then you are trying to cut cost and could be cutting in the wrong places. If “spending less” is a goal that you apply wholesale in marketing, then you won’t be marketing much at all. If you apply it to people, then you’ll be left with low performers. If you apply it to raw materials and components of your deliverable, then you’ll be delivering low quality.
Of course, right and wrong places to save money depends on your overall strategy. If you want to be the low-cost provider, that’s one thing – and only one company in each industry can be that. The rest of us have to compete by being the value-added provider or innovative provider, and that means we can’t let defensive thinking prevail all the time.
That’s what I meant to say! I’ll try not to let it happen again!
Let that one go. We’re all expected to dork something up now and then. Most of us just appreciate the candor. Keep up the good work Larry. Your messages are greatly appreciated.
Offense scores points, defense wins games and special teams win championships. In business your “special teams” is client service. It is also THE most controllable aspect of your business. We all immediately know the difference between a poor client service experience and an exceptional one.
Hi Larry,
Loved your recovery! And, business is just like that… being completely transparent when we’ve slipped up. And being transparent / honest with clients is an integral part of the culture found in successful, growing businesses. And that applies to inside the company, as well as outside the company.
Here’s a follow-up question for you: What is the recognized or recommended percentage of revenue allotted to marketing, in our industry (Home Performance)? Thanks Larry!
Bob Bird
As Paul Harvey would say “and now we know the rest of the story”
Don’t sweat it, I look forward to your posts every day.
Nimble save Larry. No worries
I would have never known Larry. Your “uncompleted” message triggered many of my own thoughts, specifically regarding investing in my people. You say more on accident then most say on purpose. Thanks for clarifying and adding to the thought pool!
you do an Awesome job and i read both your musings daily, i look forward to them! Your Baja racing got me hooked, hoping there are more chapters to that story!
Thanks!
I understood yesterday. I assumed you were teaching us economy of words.
Thanks! I spent 10 minutes trying to decode that yesterday…failed LOL!
It was provocative, so valuable. Thanks for the daily double injection, my vitamins for the day!
I had assumed that was where you were going and that you knew that your audience was incredible intelligent and would extrapolate the rest?
Your first (incomplete?) version was thought provoking enough to me! I spent time thinking about it, and it spoke volumes to me! Thank you for BOTH words of wisdom!
You are awesome keep up the great work. I appreciate the time and consistency it takes to do this daily.
Good stuff…keep it coming.
Now its actually pretty funny.
I must of read that thing 5 times just to see if I was missing some sort of point.
lol
Got the 1st one as it was short and to the point lol. Wonderful that it happened the way it did though as I think it caused us all to ponder the concept much longer than we would have otherwise.
Love the related photo! We can all relate to that one.