Last week I was meeting with an entrepreneur and he described a number of projects in flight. They were raising money, launching a new product release, hiring two new VPs, and the list went on and on. We were about to drill into a few things he mentioned when he said, “With all that said, we have one main goal for the year: raise gross customer retention to 85%.” Then, he shared how everyone is driving towards that common goal.
If there are too many priorities, there are no priorities.
If there are too many goals, there are no goals.
For this startup, everyone was 100% aligned that raising their retention metrics was the most important thing.
For sales, it was was selling better-fit customers (won’t reflect in this year’s numbers but will in subsequent years).
For marketing, it was more messaging around value and ROI.
For support, it was improving customer satisfaction scores and going deeper than just resolving a ticket.
For product, it was prioritizing bug fixes and more difficult edge cases.
Every team, and every team member, was completed aligned around raising customer retention rates as the main goal for the year.
The next time the desire emerges to have more goals and more priorities, fight the urge and focus on one thing. Achieving one critical goal is more important than chasing multiple less important ones.
What’s your main goal for the year?
Entrepreneur
via https://www.aiupnow.com
David Cummings, Khareem Sudlow
