Continuing from the previous post titled "Another Costly Business Experiment"…
So how much is random experimentation costing your business? Yesterday we learned that one business spent over 50K on an employee with no tangible benefit to the business.
If you want to minimize risk and maximize performance begin by applying the Level Seven Principles of Defining Results, Knowing What’s True and Creating Replication.
First, get very clear on the outcomes or goals you want to achieve.
So let’s pretend you are going to implement a new advertising and marketing campaign.
First determine what results you really expect to produce. Perhaps you expect to get 30 new qualified leads over the next 6 month period. When you do that you will generate enough revenue to make 10 times your investment.
Next put in place a way to track and evaluate regularly. So let’s say every month you put a score card together and review performance.
Next your determine if the campaign is on track. Now at that point you might need to assess incremental results but you should have determined that all upfront. But for simplicity sake let’s say you expect 5 new prospects per month. What do you do when you learn that the first month you only got 2. You must stop and evaluate the system or process. Maybe you need to tweak the approach. Not necessarily can the idea altogether but certainly look at it more carefully.
By taking the approach of identifying your goals, setting up benchmark or tracking points to measure and then making incremental adjustments to you plans along the way then you can minimize the possibility of costly experiments and innovation in your business.