Samantha's challenge

Samantha started her business – Customer Success software - four years ago. She had a tremendous amount of success, growing like crazy, building out her team, expanding the product. It had been challenging at every step, but the success just kept coming, and it was fantastic. 

She raised money from investors and continued to focus on expansion. The company was looked at in the market as a leader and a model for success in the space.  Articles were written.  Interviews were given.  Samantha was the genius behind it all and she deserved plenty of accolades for building what she had built to that point.  Her vision and perseverance had been on regular display, and she always seemed to know exactly what was next.

The Wall

And then over the past year, things started to slow. It got harder. Nothing was coming as easily as it was before. It was the same concept, the same business, the same core product, but it just wasn't the same. The business was still growing but the pace wasn’t the same and they were encountering friction everywhere they turned.

Execute Harder

Samantha, who always had the answer, suddenly wasn’t sure what the problem was exactly.  She put more pressure on the team. 

“How do we get more out of what we're doing?”

“What are the things that we can do differently?” 

They looked at their marketing. They looked at their sales. They looked at ways to enhance the product, to expand what was going on. They really looked at every aspect within their business asking, 

“Where can we improve this?” 

“How can we move the needle? “

The deep analysis and extra push did improve things a little bit. But it still wasn't the kind of traction and momentum that she was really expecting, and they were hoping for, and so the frustration continued to build. The pushing became harder.  Sam even started to question whether she had the right people in place.  There was also increasing pressure from investors who had come to expect consistently strong growth from the company and now were seeing stagnation.  

A Different Way To Look At The Problem

It was right around that time that she and I got introduced.  I listened to what was happening and the incredible frustration she was feeling.  Her vision hadn’t changed.  The company was executing as aggressively as possible.  But the company wasn’t growing much and getting new customers was an increasing challenge.

Their approach had been to stick to the things that had gotten them there.  Made sense because it had worked extremely well for a long time.  

Unfortunately, I could relate to her pain and frustration.  I’ve been in her seat before and have many scars from it.  Building a business is like sprinting your way through a marathon and it can be exhausting and lonely.  Everyone is looking to you for the answer.  Sometimes you just need some help to look at things from a different perspective to get you through the next mile.

I told her, “I don’t know exactly what the problem is, but I know how to figure it out”.  I suggested that we take a different look at what they were doing. Take more of a look at their strategic obstacles - what things were getting in the way that they may be overlooking. Because clearly, they were on to something, and they were working extremely hard, but they just weren't getting the results that they needed to. 

She told me she couldn’t invest a ton of time in any process, and I assured her she wouldn’t.  And so, we agreed to get together and do a 5-3-1. We booked the five sessions over a 3-day period and got her and a few members of her team together in a room, and we went through each one of the questions: 

1. What's the problem you're solving? 

2. What's the customer that you're solving it for? 

3. What's your solution? 

4. What's the right strategic positioning? 

5. What's the plan and execution to get there?

The Problem Revealed

When I do a 5-3-1, I typically take a team through the first 3 questions on the first day.  Those 3 represent the building blocks for the positioning and ultimately the plan.  As we answered those questions to figure out exactly what was happening with their business, several things became clear. There was a tug-o-war going on inside of the business that was driven by their success.  Something that had happened gradually over time but was now impacting their path forward.  

They have a great product that customers love, and many of their customers have continued to use it to help drive their own growth.  So, the company continued to add and expand features based on the growing needs of those customers. However, those upgrades, in addition to providing more capability, also added more cost and complexity.  Those additions opened the door for competitors to enter the market with more basic solutions. 

Effectively, what was happening was that all the ‘improvements’ they made to their product, eventually shifted who it was best suited for.  Their product was initially right for a certain size and stage of company, and as they've expanded, as they've built it out, the ideal target customer (for that specific solution) changed.  But they weren’t changing anything else to reach that new type of customer and were instead continuing to push their evolved product into the same target markets as before because of their knowledge of the markets and their history of proven success.  

They had a strategy alignment problem.  The product had become the driver of everything.  The problem they are solving, the customer they were solving it for and the product they offer were no longer working together.  

How To Fix A Strategy Issue

The challenge with strategy misalignments is that they usually happen gradually.  You start in the right place and then the pieces shift apart.   What’s needed are periodic ‘step backs’ to check where you’re at and realign the strategic elements so that you can get back to executing your growth plan without friction.  

In Samantha’s case they were now solving the same problem but for a different customer with a newer solution.  And so, the question became, change the problem that you’re solving to fit this different customer group with a product that keeps evolving in that direction? or solve the original problem for the same customer you've always been trying to solve it for with a product that is more basic? 

The choice drives their entire strategy, impacts their positioning in the market, and their plans from that point forward.  We needed to land on one of those solutions before we could move forward to tackle the strategic positioning.  And so, the difficult but honest discussions began around what the company should do.  

What would you do?

A Difficult Decision

There were many opinions internally about how best to proceed.  The arguments were good for both paths.  Samantha thought about it.  She knew they had been expanding the product but didn’t fully realize the extent of the impact on the root problem and customer.  She considered the options and decided to go back to where they started.  They had set out to solve a problem for a group of customers because the opportunity was significant, and they were having success doing that.  Pressure and opportunism caused them to deviate slightly from the plan and now they were paying the price.   

They'd gotten off track developing the product for a different customer. And so, as a result, they didn’t need to change who they are and who they are serving but they had to go back and revisit the product roadmap to figure out what things they must do better to keep winning with the core customer. 

A Happy Update

Samantha did a great job of communicating how they got off track to both the internal team and her investors.  They doubled down on the core problem and core customer and the barriers that were holding them back began to disappear and the business started growing more quickly. They are super focused. That focus and alignment has allowed them to move much faster and regain internal clarity.  Everybody is on the same page. Decisions happen more quickly. There's less of a focus on chasing revenue, chasing growth, and more about doubling and tripling down on the core strategy – trying to solve the problem better each day.

Samantha’s decision wasn’t easy, but it turned out to be right.  As soon as they removed the obstacles (complexity and lack of focus), the business took off again.  And now, if she runs into issues again in the future, she has a whole new tool to lean on to help her rapidly overcome the problem and ensure the company becomes the massive success it should be.

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