I Know It When I See It

In the 1964 U. S. Supreme Court case of Jacobellis vs. Ohio, Justice Potter Stewart described his threshold for obscenity and pornography declaring, “I know it when I see it.” 

Business strategy is a little like that.  Well, not like pornography, exactly.  But it is important to know it when you see it. 

One of my TEC members had been struggling for several years with sales growth.  He created any number of sales plans.  He hired and fired numerous sales people.  He brought in a consultant.  He read books on sales management.  He increased advertising.  Devised a social media campaign.  Went to every “networking” event imaginable.  He bounced his ideas off his TEC group.  He worked hard.  Sales, however, did not grow. 

Then one day my member met the CEO of a firm that could have been considered a competitor, but was significantly larger is size.  The CEO of the larger competitor lamented the fact that his firm had “outgrown” several smaller customers.  The smaller customers demanded an inordinate amount of time.  They were more of a distraction to his organization.  He wanted to fire some of them, but feared the mess the process could leave behind. 

These messy little customers were right in my member’s wheel house.  He worked with his larger competitor to assume responsibility for these unwanted “C” customers and transitioned a few with little or no selling effort at all. 

It was then he recognized the potential shift in sales strategy.  He developed a simple ABC customer analysis and an elegant transition process that resonated with larger firms in his industry that had similarly “outgrown” some customers.  He promoted the process locally.  Then, rolled it out nationally.  Sales grew.  Dramatically. 

As a TEC chair, I would like to say my member developed this strategy through a formal and effective strategic planning process…like the one we talk about a lot in TEC.  On the other hand, this member recognized strategy when he saw it.  It didn’t fall out of a SWOT analysis, but it did beat working harder.  To paraphrase TEC Resource Specialist Chuck Reaves, “Strategy trumps hard work.”  Be prepared to know it when you see it.