We’ve all heard the mantra “innovate or die.” Humans love the new. One conservative estimate from Harvard Business Review estimates 30,000 new products are introduced each year. And (you guessed it) 95 percent fail.

Well, fail fast and learn well, right? True.

While you’re focused on the “new,” what happens to your current brand, the marketing plan you all agreed to follow, your core customers?

When you say “yes” to one thing, you’re saying “no” to another. Think of this in your personal life: if you sleep in, you’re saying no to getting that workout done. If you say yes to a meeting at 7 pm, you’re saying no to reading bedtime stories to your kids.

We’re not saying don’t do anything new. You should be measuring, evaluating, and constantly improving your marketing — within your focus areas. That means focusing on your target market, growth plans value proposition.

We believe what matters most in growing a business is not the marketing method. It’s focus. Whatever approach you use, it should be a variation on:

• What are we selling +
• Who are we selling it to +
• How do we reach them to tell them how great we are +
• Why should they listen to us, let alone buy from us?

No matter what planning template you put that into, you have to focus for any actions to matter.

Sure, you say. We’re focused! My team has a plan. We have weekly meetings, status updates and track all our metrics.

Here’s a quick way to see if you’re truly focused. How often are you saying no? Did you turn down that idea from a top executive that doesn’t fit your brand? Did you politely decline an RFP from a company that doesn’t fit your target market? Did you refuse to look at a new location for expansion that is “just perfect”? If you find you’re seldom saying no to ideas that don’t fit your current growth strategy, you likely have a focus issue.

Let’s shift to marketing activity. How much time are you or your team spending on the strategies and tactics you agreed on? Does your team know what those are? Or are they so busy cranking out social posts that they’ve lost track of the plan?

We get it. Sticking to a path can be so monotonous! But consider….

The Cost of Focusing on Someone New

A large independently-owned telecommunications firm began to expand “willy nilly” into markets. While they were caught up with the “new,” they took their eye off their existing local market. Result? They lost significant market share. Fortunately, when they shifted their focus back to their core regional base, they were able to regain ground. But think of the lost time and money! What if they had moved into new markets more thoughtfully while keeping resources focused on their core?

The Cost of Focusing on Something New

Let’s talk New Coke: the all-time classic example of a marketing fail. Too young to remember?

In 1985, Coke launched a new formula. Total bomb. Odd thing: most people didn’t dislike the flavor. What the marketers lost focus on was the emotional space Coke occupied. People were attached to the Coke they grew up with – no matter what the taste tests said. According to one article, the psychologist hired to listen to the thousands of complaining phone calls said people were as upset as if a family member had died. Wow!! How could the company not have known that? Because the marketing team lost their focus on what their customers valued.

What About You?

Well, that’s not us, you say. We’re not one of those huge, complicated companies. We can fit in that new client, even though they’re not in our target market. We can develop that new product, even though it’s not on the development list. We’re small/agile/entrepreneurial – fill in whatever adjective you use when you find yourself moving away from your focus areas.

You may be all those things and more. But the simple truth is that no one person or organization can say yes to everything. When you say yes to one thing, you say no to another.

Here’s a simple checklist to help you stay on track.

1. Write down at least 3 key areas you’re working on for growth. Ideally:
• target future and current customers
• priority products/services
• the key steps you said you would take to reach those new/current customers to connect them with (or introduce them to) your priority products/services.
2. Every day, track what you spend time on of those 3 areas, and create another list or column for “new.” You can track hours, or even just check marks.
3. At the end of the day, look back. Where did you spend more time? On the stuff you said you would do to grow your company? Or something new?

We’ll leave you with two encouraging examples to help you stay focused.

Money: When you put money into something as simple as a savings account, and let it stay there and grow, what happens over time? You get the benefits of compound interest.

Habits: In “Atomic Habits,” to make the point of how small changes in habits leads to massive improvements over time, James Clear uses the example of a flight route. If a pilot leaves Los Angeles and adjusts the heading by just a few degrees, the plane could land in Washington D.C. instead of New York.  In your business, those few degrees could be the equivalent to saying yes to just a few things!

Focus is hard; but it pays.