At Falk Harrison, we like to dig deep into a client’s operations. When we first meet with a company, we ask tons of questions, many of which seem to have very little to do with design or web or social media. While admitting that we will never know as much about your business as you do, we want to understand as much as we possibly can about your operations. The more we know, the more informed our solutions can be. That is what makes us a trusted partner.

This leads us to the most important question we ask our clients. That question is not, “What do you need us to design?” or “How many Twitter followers do you want?”  We ask “What problem are you trying to solve?” or alternatively, “What are you trying to accomplish?” The word “problem” might seem a bit strong here, but almost all business decisions stem from an attempt to solve a problem.

• Our product’s failure rate is too high
• Our employee turnover rate is above industry average
• We’re not getting enough leads
• No one ever comes to our restaurant
• Our salespeople are unable to turn perfectly good leads into deals
• We’re getting too many negative reviews on our Google Places page
• Analysts don’t respect our company
• Our inventory turns three times a year, but should turn no less than five times a year
• Customers are not paying their bills on time
• Our sales are declining
• Our company is not profitable (yikes!)

Whether one sees it this deeply or not, clients call us to help them solve a problem. We meet with the client and we ask many questions, all in an attempt to ascertain what problem needs solving.  If we are equipped to solve said problem, we explain how we would go about doing so, and we are often invited to submit a proposal. At this point, the client asks the ever-important question “What’s the ROI of this project? What can you guarantee me?”

After having been involved in many such discussions, I realized that, sometimes in the pursuit of solving their problems, prospective clients are focusing on the wrong question. They will often answer our “What problem are you trying to solve,” question with “We want to make more money. We want to increase revenues.” These are not problems, but are end results achieved by solving problems. In trying to articulate this notion, I found myself sketching out a cascading series of goals that helps business owners step back from their monetary dreams for their company. We start at the top and continue stepping backward until we arrive at the base goal that needs solving first. This cascading of goals made me think of a waterfall, and I coined the phrase, “The Waterfall of Goals.” Water travels from the cliff down to the big reservoir below, and we help clients travel down their cascading goals until they reach the bottom.

In my Waterfall of Goals, there are six levels.

Level 6 – Make more money. This is obviously the dream of almost every business in existence. Alternatively, Level 6 could be a not-for-profit that wants incredible financial stability via an endowment or cash reserve.

Level 5 – Sell more stuff. The most direct way to achieve level 6 is to do Level 5 well – increase your revenues. Salespeople (or your website) take a sales lead and run with it. The sale is now in their hands. However, concentrating exclusively on Level 5 is often a recipe for disaster (which I will explain down below).

Level 4 – Generate more leads. Customers are the result of leads. A Gap store needs foot traffic. A restaurant needs customers to phone in their Friday night reservations. A window salesman needs to meet with 10 homeowners interested in new windows. With no leads, there are no revenues.

Level 3 – Increase visibility / exposure. This is where leads are born. If your business has an extremely high degree of visibility, you are giving yourself the very best chance of generating leads.

Level 2 – Develop a robust, fully integrated marketing campaign. This is advertising, social media, public relations, email marketing, online reviews, and word of mouth. Doing Level 2 well takes you up to Level 3 and 4.

Level 1 – Have a great product. This is the bedrock of the Waterfall of Goals. This cannot be overstated: do Level 1 well, or just hang up your cleats. You need a great product, one that is original, reliable, competitively priced, attractively packaged, in stock, and expeditiously delivered. And that product must be produced at the lowest cost possible. You need hard-working, intelligent, well-mannered, kind employees that work like they actually care about your success. You need to have systems that do not fail – a website with 99.99% uptime and a phone system that does not go down. You need reliable suppliers – raw materials must be delivered on time, lawyers must win cases for you, and accountants need to ensure your books are prepared using GAAP.

What does all of this mean?

Simply put, great marketing does not guarantee sales (Level 5). Rather, it generates leads (Level 4). It is a company’s job to ensure that it has a compelling, profitable product (Level 1) that can be sold by its salespeople or website (Level 5). Only then can Level 6 be reached.

Breaking this down further…

• Great marketing (Level 2) will lead to increased visibility (Level 3), which will amplify your product and its message (Level 1). If you do not yet have a compelling, profitable product, do not work to increase your visibility! It is not time to spread the word about what you sell. You need to head back to Level 1 and get to work. Doing Level 2 well will not guarantee anything if your company isn’t selling a great product.
• Increased sales (Level 5) do not always lead to a strong financial future (Level 6). Have you ever heard a salesman justify a lower sales price with “We’ll make it up in volume?” If you’re not selling a profitable product, selling more of it will just sink your ship faster. In other words, effective marketing would cause your company harm!
• If your sales materials and website are unattractive and uninformative (Level 2), it will not matter how great your product actually is. Customers might never be enticed to buy it, and there’s no positive word of mouth without a purchase. Companies need to not only have a great product, but they must demonstrate that with great design and an attractive, intuitive website.
• Successfully selling your product (Level 5) relies entirely on a great product (Level 1). These two levels work hand in hand. Your salesperson has to be well dressed, all answers in hand, and perfectly kind. If you run a restaurant, your food has to be cooked to perfection, service must be attentive, the wine must not be corked, the temperature of your restaurant must be comfortable, the music must not be too loud or too quiet, and the maître d’ can’t be a jerkface. If you run a not-for-profit, you need to have a compelling mission run by passionate, competent people. If you run a distribution company, you need to have everything in stock, your phone reps must be kind and never rude, you must ship same-day as often as humanly possible, you cannot ship defective merchandise, and you need to handle returns with a smile. This is Level 1, 5 and 6 stuff, and it’s the part of the Waterfall of Goals that cannot be guaranteed by great brand messaging. Your sales leads won’t result in sales unless you pay attention to your product and the quality of your sales team.

This is about companies knowing their goals, identifying the problems that need solving, and focusing today’s efforts in the right place. Perhaps after the waterfall, we’re left with a ladder to climb. Ride the wave of your waterfall to the bottom first, or to whatever lowest level you are not performing at your best. Build your foundation at that lowest level, and then start climbing. You have nailed your product offering and have your systems in place. Now it’s time to advertise, engage on social media, develop compelling sales materials, and speak about your company’s product in a design and message language that is consistent across all audience touch points. This will lead to greater visibility, which will in turn generate leads. Your sales team or website will take it from there, and you’ll hopefully make the sale. In other words, start at the bottom and climb that ladder up to Level 6. There is a symbiotic relationship between each level, and careful attention must be paid to ensure that excellence is not skipped during any part of the climb back up the ladder.

At Falk Harrison, our promise to our clients is relentless pursuit of answers and excellence at Levels 2, 3 and 4. Companies need to obsessively tend to Levels 1 and 5, for that is what makes great brand messaging work.