Greg's Right FIT #507 – This week: Attribution, Failure points, Superpowers

Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . starting next week. 

In this issue: 

- Thoughts on Marketing Attribution
- Being Human
- Random Stuff

Thoughts on Marketing Attribution

• A lead attribution model which focuses on last touch leads to missed opportunities. A dealer looking at the source of new car sales showed the #1 source as referrals. "Is this right?" A new manager said, "I think that's because it's first in the dropdown." Broader tracking uncovers more opportunities.
• It's best to track attribution at a high level (total spend/total number of new customers = rough cost per acquisition) and experiment until you see movement. It's not sexy, but it's effective. It's easy to jump to the wrong conclusion. Probably why VP Marketing tenures are less than 24 months.
• Once we're free of granular attribution analysis, it's easier to try new channels, tools, and tactics. We know something will happen, we just don't know what. Follow a three step process with new channels: extend your reach, identify and build the audience, then deepen the engagement.
• AI tools in the ad networks are doing more of the "extending reach, building audiences, and engaging." This is helpful if you know enough to adjust/direct the bots, but wastes a lot of marketing spend if you don't. Before handing over new campaigns watch them work on existing campaigns you know are working. Make them earn the right to do all the work for you.

Being Human – Point of failure

“Any improvements made anywhere besides the bottleneck are an illusion.”
― Gene Kim, The Phoenix Project

Where are the bottlenecks/points of failure in your organization?

I drive an old truck, Big Blue. My lovely bride has encouraged me to get rid of it, but I rarely drive so it's not a problem. It's great for the occasional furniture move. A month ago we were going to use it to move some furniture to the youngest who took over a new apartment. A week before we left, it started throwing transmission errors. I could get rid of the error by simply restarting the truck. That fix, someone pointed out, seemed like a bad idea on a long road trip. Big Blue stayed behind. The error was intermittent, so last week when it happened again I was ready. I grabbed the error codes, and got to investigating. In one of the forums someone said, hey before doing anything, check the battery level, and brake switch.

The battery, ok. But a $30 brake switch? It's a transmission error. How are they related? I checked the battery–good–and replaced the brake switch. So far, so good. It may be my imagination but the truck is running better than ever. Smooth shifting and lots of power.

I don't know cars enough to make full sense of it, but why would this little plastic bit ruin my day? Some say it interrupts the flow of info from the transmission to the computer. The computer interprets it as a transmission error and puts the truck in safe mode. Crazy that the function of a big complicated vehicle with thousands of moving parts would ultimately depend on one little $30 switch. Here's the kicker: I replaced it five years ago to fix another, unrelated error!

In a similar vein, I work with a client and typical of a technology driven org there is a bottleneck in the production dept. It's no ones fault, it's a small company and the main tech guy is a true genius with massive bandwidth. Work gets stuck when he gets busy, but not always. Two months ago a project manager got sick and had to retire. Weeks later, the next in line quit. Suddenly the bandwidth isn't there.

Single points of failure. Failure that can be fixed cheaply, and planned for to limit downtime in the future, but failure nonetheless.

As you enter strategic planning season, keep your points of failure in mind. What can you do to prevent them from failing? What will you do if failure happens? Good stuff.

Random Stuff

"Where did you come from, baby dear?
Out of the everywhere and into here." – George Macdonald

More than a few times in my life, I've been walking through a public space and thought, isn't that so-and-so a distant person from my past? If I'm not in a hurry, I'll say, "hey, are you so-and-so?" and I'd say my hit rate is about 80%. The 20% is embarrassing but the quick connection with the other 80% makes it worth the effort.

My lovely bride tells people I am good at aging people forward. We were out to dinner and in the booth next to us was someone I last saw at a friends wedding maybe 30 years ago. I said, "I think that's so-and-so" and she said, "I don't know, maybe?" When so-and-so got up to leave I said, "Are you so-and-so?" It was. She sat back down and we had a delightful catch-up.

I keep my head on a swivel, looking for the next opportunity to exercise my superpower. In the SLC airport I got to my gate and was disappointed to not recognize a single person going from SLC to OMA. At this point it seems like I should recognize everybody.

I've mentioned a new baby is on the way into our lives. My daughter-in-law is due "any day now," as they say. We're very excited to meet baby. There's been some baby showers, a diaper shower, and we're adding a crib to the guest room just in case babysitting is needed. (the guest room that's being repainted a more soothing color, in case you wondered)

While I will soon be a first time grandfather, my parents will be first time great grandparents. This has prompted my mother to send pictures. Pictures of my lovely bride pregnant with child one. Pictures of me, my son, and other relatives that we look like. The last one was a picture of a happy baby. She said, the new baby will look just like this. I said, "you think he'll look like his uncle?" (my child number 3) She said, "no, that's a picture of child 2." I thought, whatever. My mom is known to get stories and details mixed up, so I moved on.

Telling my bride about this story, she said, sounds like your mom. I said, I know. I pulled the pic up on my phone. That is child #2, she said. Really? I said. She's always right about that stuff, so I shook off the doubt and moved on.

This has happened before. The baby-baby pics of our kids are easy for me to mix up. When my mom shows me newborn pics of me and my sister, I am convinced she's lost my pic and is trying to pull a fast one showing me two versions of my sister. I simply can't tell the difference.

Age those babies ahead a few years and I'll spot them in a crowd. Match their newborn pics to a name and I'm lost. Not sure what it means, but maybe things will change this time. I'm ready. My head's on a swivel, eyes darting to and fro. I got this.