Why you shouldn't focus on quick wins too much
Quick wins. Low hanging fruit. As a marketer and consultant, these are my most hated words. Let me explain why. As our podcast guest, Chris Kalaboukis from Hello Future said: "The best fruit is way up at the top, but you only go for the low-hanging fruit. And then you just continuously go for the low-hanging fruit. Meanwhile, your competitors are going to go for the higher hanging fruit."
Today, leaders cherish quick wins as they deliver easy-to-see results. But quick wins eat long-term strategy for breakfast.
The bottom line on why leaders need quick results
If you were sarcastic enough like me, you would say that an average user in 2021 has an attention span somewhat similar to my dog's focus on a random wooden stick. Everyone wants instant gratification, not just on social media. And every service provider aims to please their clients with said fast results. It almost doesn't matter what industry you are in—marketing consulting, performance marketing, or simply business consulting. You have to be able to deliver super-quick results now, then worry about long-term goals later. If you are old enough, you remember how a business strategy meeting looked like before the 2010s. We planned out at least a year with quarterly tactical plans. Today we are lucky if we can get into quarterly planning with a client.
But what is the purpose of a quick win anyway? It is simple.
Quick wins exist to reassure you that you are on the right track. It would be best if you didn't plan to pick the low-hanging fruit as a goal - but you need to pick it to know that you are at the right tree.
Three points where quick wins harm your business
If your focus is solely on quick wins, there are some ways they can cause more damage than deliver results.
First, you quickly jump into micromanagement. That is the root of all evil. Focusing on quick wins will make you focus on the details, the small little hinges. And while you might see immediate results that will let you calm down during business planning, the results will fluctuate. You will soon end up with some parallel processes, where you need to balance to see the big picture.
Second, quick wins will tie your hands to focus on things that really matter. If you are constantly chasing short-term objectives, you won't be able to plan properly. Pretty much, you will end up in a constant problem-solving process. Without the vision, the time needed to define the big picture, your focus will shift, and the future will turn grey.
Third, there are others, a precious few, who are still focused on meaningful planning.
Anyone who's reaching for the higher hanging fruit will ultimately benefit for the long-term. They put in the hard work. They put in the time. They stayed committed. They never changed their plan, no matter how hard it was to stay on track.
What should you do instead?
What needs to be done is as simple as it sounds, yet only a very few businesses do the way it should be done.
Do your homework and plan. There are fundamentals you need to figure out before you focus on short-term results. Have a go-to-market strategy for your product. Do customer research. Learn more about your market. Figure out your long-term strategy.
Never mix-and-match long-term goals with short-term objectives. Your goal should be set and should lead you to the future. Your objectives, though, can be short-term. There, you can have your quick wins to reassure you that you are on the right track.
Stay committed. If you believe in your vision and your planning work supports you, never deviate from your plan. Even if you have short-term failures, never deviate and change course. It is the hardest thing to do in business, especially in times like these.
My best example I can give to you is a simple one. Imagine a YouTube influencer that you love to watch now. Now go to their channel and scroll way back in time. In most cases, their first 50 videos are of lower quality, poorly edited, and have lower views. Imagine how hard their commitment was with their message. They continued to produce their videos, one-by-one for months, sometimes even years, meanwhile only their close friends and some bots watched their show. But they stayed committed. Eventually, their channel kicked in and delivered longtail results. It's easy to think that they 'hacked' the system and win the race - but you rarely hear about those influencers who quit producing content after 10 videos with zero views.
Plan ahead. Stay committed. Stay on track. Focus on the higher-hanging fruit first. The low-hanging ones will come to you without any effort.
Watch our podcast guest, Chris Kalaboukis talking about quick wins & innovation. Listen to the whole episode here.
