Post 2: Most Businesses Don’t Have a Strategy Problem—They Have a Consistency Problem
Most businesses don’t have a strategy problem; they have a consistency problem.
It’s easy to attribute blame and growth challenges on anything out there—market conditions, competition, pricing, even the sales plan itself. And sometimes those are real. But more often than not, the issue is simpler.
The plan isn’t being executed consistently.
Sales follow-up happens… sometimes.
Production hits deadlines… occasionally.
Communication is clear… depending on the day.
That’s not a strategy issue; that’s inconsistency showing up across the system.
Consistency is doing what you said you would, when you said you would.
And when that breaks, even in micro ways, it compounds fast.
A missed call becomes a lost customer.
A delayed job becomes a annoyed client.
An unclear handoff becomes rework.
Over time, work starts to feel harder than it should. Not because the strategy is wrong, but because the execution isn’t reliable. How quickly do we not want to work with a co-worker…because we aren’t sure they will get the deliverable completed.
And here’s where people get tripped up.
Consistency does not mean being stuck in a rut.
It’s not about doing the same thing forever and avoiding change. It’s about creating a stable foundation so you can change with intention. Consistent innovation is always part of being in business. Challenging your processes, systems, products, client experience and pricing regularly to ensure your providing the best.
In fact, the most consistent businesses are often the most innovative.
Because they don’t rely on bursts of energy or “when we have time.”
They build innovation into how they operate.
New product development shouldn’t be something you do when there’s extra cash sitting around or when things slow down.
It should be consistent.
A regular rhythm of testing ideas →Improving offerings→ Listening to customers and adjusting.
Not reactive, not occasional, consistent.
The same goes for your team.
Training, mentoring, and developing employees isn’t something you get to “when things settle down.” It is the work, and should be seen as such. Employees stay around at business that invest in them. Want to constantly hire and have turn over; don’t invest. Want reliable and competent team players? Invest, either way you’re going to do the work, its your choice where how you want use your time and resources.
Consistency in development builds capability and capability produce capacity. Repeatable ways to increase capacity, allows for growth with out breaking.
The equation of Repeatable process + Robust Systems + Trained Employees = Scalability. The result of the that equation is how fast and how large you can grow.
“Do we have a good strategy?”
It’s:
“Are we consistently executing the basics?”
Like what was said last post:
Communicating clearly.
Showing up when we said we would.
Doing a good job.
Not once.
Not when it’s convenient.
Every time.
Because a simple strategy, executed consistently, will outperform a great strategy executed inconsistently.
Every time.
This is where most businesses unlock their next level—not by reinventing everything, but by tightening what already exists. In lean manufacturing, its called squeezing before shifting. Usually it is easier to tighten process performance then to dramatically shift a processes performance.
In the next post, we’ll talk about what consistency builds when it’s done well—and why it shows up as something every business says they want:
Trust.
Word. I was just having a conversation with a client about this very topic this morning. (She wasn’t hearing from someone who could potentially sign her as a client.) Missed opportunities are sad. But if people don’t follow up, it makes you feel like they’re just not that into having you pay them.