Ben RidlerHowdy y'all,
Last week, Stephen Lynch and I had a conversation with Doug Hall at Eureka Ranch in Cincinnati. It really got me thinking about some of those good old down-home truths about best business practice.

I've spent my professional life learning how to grow businesses, taking all the best practice thinking and applying it. But here's the thing: we work so hard on the lead generation, the conversion, the strategy, the marketing, the culture-building, the scaling, systemising and a whole bunch of other things. And NONE of that stuff is actual endgame product.

Yet, when we look at successful consumer brands, automotive, computers, electronics, fast food etc. they are all about releasing new products regularly. This gives them a reason to talk to their clients, past clients, the market etc. It gives them something real to talk about, a great conversation piece. It also gives everyone a reason to do business with them again and again. And who is doing this amongst the professional service businesses? Good question.

Our chat with Doug really got me thinking about the need to innovate, create programs, products, offers etc. He summed it up perfectly for us: "the reason I don't focus on the marketing so much these days is that I realised most people had a crappy product. They're just rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic."

Makes you think doesn't it.

Kia kaha
Ben