The Blind Spots Hiding in Your Success

Every business owner knows blind spots are dangerous. They're the problems we don't see coming until they've already done damage.

And some of the biggest blind spots can come from something we consider a good thing:

Success.

Customers coming in. Revenue growing. People referring you.
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Things must be working, right?

Well, yes, something is working.

But it might not be what you think.

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Sometimes results only tell you part of the story.

I was talking recently with a couple of business owners about what their prospects find when researching them online.

They both said they don't worry about it, that prospects were finding them anyway.

Which is true.

But what about those who looked them up, didn't like what they found, and never reached out?

They'd never know those people existed.

That's survivorship bias.

We draw conclusions from the outcomes we can see, without accounting for the ones we can't.

And that's how success can create a dangerous blind spot.

There’s danger in what you don’t know.

But there’s a lot more danger in what you don’t know you don’t know.

The blind spots hiding in your results

This doesn't just happen in marketing.

Misreading the results can create a blind spot anywhere.

You hire a few great employees and it looks like your company attracts great talent. But you have no idea how many strong candidates looked at your company and decided not to apply.

You hear from prospects who think your prices are too high. But you don't hear from the ones who passed you over because they thought you weren't good enough.

A few employees speak up when they disagree with you, so you assume your team is comfortable being honest. But you don't know how many others are keeping their opinions to themselves.

You don't get a report on the conversations that never happened.

What do you do about it?

You can't measure every missed opportunity - but you can question the assumptions behind your conclusions.

When someone tells me something is working, I like to ask:
​What evidence would convince us otherwise?

Ask prospects what almost kept them from reaching out.
Look at your business like a stranger would.
Make it easier for your team to tell you what you're missing.

You won't get the complete picture. But you could get enough to make a better decision.

The Golden Thread

Good results don't necessarily mean you're getting the best results you could.

And the longer those results continue, the easier it is to stop questioning your approach.

I'm not suggesting you second-guess everything that's working.

Just ask yourself occasionally:

What am I assuming is true because of my results?
What might I be missing?

The results you're getting might be good.

But what are they keeping you from seeing?

Build the business you envision,

#golden-1126