Hey, Reader,

I remember an insightful conversation with a business owner who was already an expert in their field for years before starting their own business.

You know what surprised me the most?

He didn't know what metrics were important? He started a business doing something he already knew and stepping into an ownership position was a completely new setup for him.

Here's what he told me.

"It took me three years of tracking 20-25 things to narrow it down to knowing what 3-5 things I really needed to track. If those 3-5 metrics are good, the rest of the things will take care of themselves."

That completely blew my mind.

He taught me about leading indicators.

Most metrics are historical and reviewed over time. You create a thesis, test, review, adjust.

There's a problem with this though.

Who tests, what's the test, and how long do you test?

What if you compete in a market where most contracts are two years! A test sounds freaky and losing two years of revenue is a big miss.

Testing is necessary, so now what?

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I would like to introduce you to cohort thinking

1. Group clients or target clients by segment (Managed Service Provider use for example)
   1. Example: Industry, Company Size, Service Usage, Problem Type
2. Test goals in the cohort
   1. Service Packages, Response times, communication channels
3. Design an experiment and run it
   1. Offer cloud migration to a retail cohort only to test
   2. Test pricing changes for clients with less than 50 employees
   3. Upgrade a dashboard upgrade option for financial clients to test
4. Iterate

So how is this different?

Easy

You test a small portion of total clients at a time to minimize any issues before expanding your offering to a larger group.

You offer more personalized services without really changing anything.

Now that's a win.

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Since you've read a few of these, can you do me a favor please?

Share this email with someone

Later,

Clayton

​Charcon BPO​