Imagine yourself as a surfer on a beautiful beach, waiting for the perfect wave to ride. The ocean is vast and full of waves, but only a few are worth catching. You must remain focused, scanning the horizon for signs of the right wave.🏄♀️☀️🌊
In the distance, you spot a pod of dolphins jumping playfully out of the water. They represent the distractions that can easily pull you away from your goal. If you allow them to grab your attention, you’ll miss out on the perfect wave. You must remain “focused” on the desired outcome—the ‘perfect wave. Focus—it’s a powerful tool.
What is the focus?
It’s about doing one thing really well instead of trying to do too many things at once. It’s about focusing your energy and abilities on something specific, rather than trying to do too much at once instead of spreading yourself too thin. In other words, be a rockstar in one area instead of mediocre in many!
Whether you’re a politician, military general, marketer, customer experience professional or belong to any other profession, applying this principle will help you succeed. By focusing on what matters and avoiding the distracting noise, success can be found more easily.
A politician needs focus. To gain more support from voters, candidates are decisive and bold in their positions. That’s how they win the hearts (and votes) of the people! If you take a clear stance and passionately attack the opposition, prospective voters will know exactly who you are and what you stand for. But if you try to please everyone, you won’t win many votes. Politicians need focus.
A general needs focus. A military general must focus on the strong points and exploit the weaknesses. Taking a diffuse approach will only lead to defeat, while focusing on one target at a time will give your troops the best chance of success. A powerful leader knows how to channel his resources so they are used effectively and efficiently. Focusing on the weak points of your enemies can often lead to victory!
Sun Tzu, a prominent Chinese military strategist, and philosopher, famously advised: “If he sends reinforcements everywhere, he will everywhere be weak”
Your business needs focus. Developing an effective corporate strategy can be difficult if the management believes that they have to target the entire market. This can lead to a lot of money being wasted on trying to reach out to people who are not actually customers of the company. This is often done through ‘line extension’, but in reality, it can be an expensive exercise in futility.
Your branding needs focus. By narrowing your focus, you can differentiate yourself from competitors and own a unique Position in the minds of consumers. By concentrating on one aspect of a brand, businesses can create a more powerful message that will stick in the minds of consumers. While narrowing focus is crucial, it’s equally essential to have a big enough market to sustain.
Al Ries the father of Brand Positioning and winner of the most prestigious Marketing Hall of Fame award, wrote: “The key is to find a large market that’s narrow enough to let you establish a leadership position. Then stay focused on that market.” In fact, he wrote a book called ‘Focus: The Future of Your Company Depends on It’ to explain how focus benefits areas such as finance, operations, and branding. And this also applies to Customer Experience!
Prioritization is the secret sauce of being a ‘Focused’ organization in the CX field. When you have a strategy that lets you pinpoint your segmented customers and their needs, you can chart a course with the resources at your disposal. After all, a wise strategist knows resources are scarce. While enriching customers’ lives is an important goal, you can’t stretch your resources too thin. By trying to satisfy everyone, you may end up not satisfying anyone at all. (So, please take Al Ries’ words to heart).
To better serve the target segments, CX leaders must come up with ideas for which products, journeys, or touchpoints to prioritize for investment. An idea might seem good, but it needs to make money too. If an idea doesn’t make money, it will not work - even if people love the idea. That’s where success or failure is measured.
In other words, your job as a CX leader is to make both customers and management happy. To reach such a goal, you need to stay sharp, scanning the horizon for signs of what will work best for your particular audience. It’s easy to be distracted. You must maintain an eye on the horizon and stay focused on finding the right CX strategy that will give you—and them—a perfect ride.
Kamil's BONUS: This is the start of the article. In the upcoming article, How to Focus on the Most Profitable Segment for Maximum Growth Potential: Step-by-Step Guide, we will discuss how having a CX that is focused can benefit both the business and the customers by providing a great experience. Keep an eye out and subscribe for further updates.
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