Plain Talk: Score Your Runs with Singles and Doubles
In 1975 – when I was installing by day and selling by night to make my new security business prosper – I’ll admit to trying a lot of “big ideas.†The goal, of course, was to generate profit rapidly and reach the mile markers of success far sooner than one should have reasonably expected. Even after the opportunity I chose 15 years ago – to partner with a well-respected firm in the cable industry, to build on every facet of what I started, and to grow it into the SDM top 10-ranked security firm it is today – I sometimes have to resist the urge to fight what my gut and my experience have proven to me all along. That is, in our industry the game is not won or lost by decisions made in the boardroom. It is won in the field, by hitting “singles†and “doubles,†and even by “striking out†now and then.
Take marketing, for example. Years ago, the right TV ad and a well-placed media buy might have added up to a “grand slam†for ADT. Then Brink’s jumped into TV marketing and soon after, Guardian Protection Services, and many others. It didn’t take long to be reminded, once again, that you cannot sustain a business and build market share on one big idea.