Learn How to Improve Now from a Great Futurist (No, Not Me)
9. Image. When pillars 1-8 are all there, people want to be associated with you, he said. Know who you are and what everybody thinks about you and what they’re willing to do.
10. Urgency. With all pillars in line, “get on with it,” Libey said. “But nobody can make a decision because the owner or the people in charge in the country that owns us might get all bent out of shape and I may get fired. But when all the pillars are formed right, you just get on with it. This isn’t the dress rehearsal, it’s the play.”
11. New customers. There are two types of companies, Libey pointed out: those that get a few customers and keep them forever and those who get many customers, but don’t keep them very long.
“If you believe you can abandon your catalog or scale back circulation and survive,” he said, “look at new customer acquisition today more than ever before. It’s more difficult than it was just six months ago, and far more difficult from 10 years ago. If you do it the same way you did five years ago, you’re dying.”
Analyze your customer base, have models created, allocate dollars. “It all takes very hard work, smart people, and trusted advisors to come up with small tactical changes to grow your business,” he noted. “Invest in prospecting, ramp up your investment in prospecting. If you’re a second or third tier company, there’s a first tier company doing this, taking marketshare away from you. If you don’t respond, you won’t grow.”
12. Analytics. Zero in and have the finest reporting of analytics, Libey advised. “Know the answers to almost everything; don’t refine anything. Don’t retrofit anything or import anything. Be built for the next five years and know how to use it. Run effective dashboards and develop competitive wisdom.”
