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What the hell is FIT again?
Over the last two weeks, I've been revisiting the concept of F.I.T., shorthand for a process that ensures sales and marketing practices delight your people. It's opposite, practices that infuriate your people, is for losers, so focus on delighting your people by finding their natural fit. Let's wrap up the main points.
T is for Tools and Technology
Every day brings a new technological wonder to my inbox and they promise the same things: they'll make sales and marketing simpler, better, faster, and better for the customer. You might think that makes me jaded, but here's the thing: I believe every single one of them.
Websites, CRMs, ad platforms, programmatic buying, retargeting, drip campaigns, autoresponders, email blasts, webinars, video, content marketing. . .they all work.
The problem is that most of these tools are solutions in search of a problem. The outcomes they describe are just what we need, but there's not a bridge back to where we are today. To help, the providers have best practices for us to fall back on. That looks like this:
The tech comes in, we say "love it, how do we do it?" they say, "just do this," and the end result is something Frankenstein-ish. Less than human. It doesn't work.
That's usually when I get a call. "Greg, we spent $50K on our last [insert tool here] and it didn't work. Will you help?"
This is the origin of FIT. In order to make the tools work, we need a clear Focus and an inventory of your team's Individual skills. That looks like this:
Before we implement tools and technology, we nail down the Focus and look at what our people are willing to do. Then we ask the question, "What can we do to make sure the things our people are willing to do, happen more frequently?" That's when we go back to our vendors and lock them into our best practices.
The end result is human. It's us. Our unique footprint in the world.
Over time, locking in those small improvements adds up to impressive growth via the magic of compound interest.
Teach your managers how to think about the tools they fall in love with in a particular way. Teach them to think about how this tool will lock in a tried and true process that already exists. If the process doesn't exist, look to the Focus, then to the team's Individual strengths. Once we have those, we want to make it consistent. Make sense?
T is for locking in small changes with Tools and Technology. Simple, but not easy.
Next time you think, "Why don't we do that anymore?" think of T - Tools and Technology. Managers that help their employees lock in behavior changes will find more business opportunities. Success begets success.
That's leveraging tools and technology, putting the robot to work for you.
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