putting constraints on your business (on purpose)
On a recent client call, my client and I dug into their sales process.
They had just finished putting a lot of time, money, and energy into overhauling their marketing. Yet, they still weren’t seeing the results they were hoping for in new business.
Just as we were about to wrap up the call, I pointed out to them:
“You’ve successfully moved the constraint in your business from MARKETING to SALES.”
I could sense the relief for them..
It took them from “it’s still not working” to “we’ve made significant, measurable progress”.
Here’s the reality…
Every business will always have a constraint. The question is…
– Do you like who’s imposing the constraint?
– Do you like where the constraint is?
REGARDING WHO:
If you don’t intentionally choose where the constraint is, you’ll let it be determined by the market, seasonality, vendors, employees, banks, or anyone else who can impact your business!
If you make an intentional choice, you can direct the business to move the constraint to where YOU need it to be for the season you’re in.
REGARDING WHERE:
This comes down to a simple question:
– do you prefer to hustle to make sales to keep your people busy?
– or do you prefer to have a backlog of customers waiting?
And if it’s the former, you might take a look at how you can hack your own motivation (or the motivation of your sales team)…
But again, up to you…
Bottom line:
1 – if you move your constraint to operations..
2 – it means you have a lead time / wait list..
3 – allowing more measured, controlled growth
And as long as it’s justified in the customer’s mind (premium provider, etc), it’ll improve your position within the market.
Conversely, overbuilding fulfillment can be a major time & money drain. True for startups. True for companies looking to scale.
LOTS of nuance here…
Because strong fulfillment is a prerequisite for retention & referral…
But it still goes back to…
It’s not about IF you have constraints.
It’s about WHERE
and WHO controls them.
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