A “Bad Economy” & the Elimination of Mediocrity

Over the last 300 years, technology has continued to advance at a pace that has been alarming, overwhelming and to many, scary.  The automobile killed the buggy business and machines that once required human power are now operated by the machines themselves.

Yes the economy sucks but that is all for those who have been eliminated. This morning I was spending my usual 15 minutes catching up on the lastest news, gossip, and really important industry blogs  when I came across analytics data where my visitors where searching for “Funnel Science Definition” on Google.

In 2009 I coined the term Funnel Science , a process which I incorporates computer science, analytics, and the scientific method to test online business models and marketing. With information now at the touch of your finger tips, your customers are now able to quickly research and make decisions based on others test results (i.e. recommendations). Something truly unique about internet usage is visitors leave a trail of data which is measurable, predictable, and when leveraged can be incredible beneficial to both the visitor and the business.

Which leads to a natural fear of that very information. In science, the world is based around theories and formulas which must be tested and measured with data that can be analyzed and validated.

There are many formulas for successful businesses and they typically come boxed up in the form of a franchise and at the end of the day there’s a science to it, like most everything else.  However, the age of information has transformed business cycles and can bring an immediate impact to your growth or failure.  The access to information your customers have will expose your shortcomings when you are compared side by side next to your competition in the search engine results.

The bad economy is only bad for those who are in the process of being eliminated.

There are formulas for business success. Some of them need to be applied before you invest your first dollar into any enterprise. T. Harv Eker says “The businesses that fail are the ones that fail to specialize, differentiate, and segment their core customers.” Those that fail to deploy analytics and truly measure what matters will miss their business cycles and will quickly become eliminated from the marketplace.

Online businesses have access to more insightful data which first must be collected and next must be interpreted. Google Analytics, IBM Web Analytics and SiteCatalyst are 3 premier tools which collect and report on the data and even allow limited testing.

Data Driven Companies Have Larger Profits

A really smart mentor Gene Blanton at the Semper Fi Leadership Institute told me about M3: Measure Monthly what Matters. In each business the “measure” and the “matters” are variable which absolutely requires Specialization. And the first dollar you should spend is updating your business data collection technology  which will give you better balance sheets and Profit and Loss statements.

The second dollar spent should be on customizing analytics to track what matters and feed that data into your weekly business meetings and plans.

In the last few years I have firsthand witnessed, tracked, tested and measured the growth of more than 3o brands.  Some were failing,  but most didn’t know what to do with their data or how to make better decisions.Specialization means you specialize in a particular product or service; a particular market area; a particular industry or geographical area. You target this like a marksman and address what you specialize in? What is your focus?  Leverage the analytics to learn how your customers find you to increase sales.