Yes, the title to this post is my tagline.

I see over and over and over again how important clarity and focus are for small businesses, independent practitioners, and even corporate employees and jobseekers.  And I see over and over again how having that clarity and focus inevitably creates inspired action and therefore real results - versus what I call “action for the sake of action,” which seldom brings results.

It’s one of those things that’s preached a lot more often than it’s practiced.  

I’ve written before about the importance of understanding your clients and of being very clear with your customers about how they can buy from you.   I’m not going to re-hash those points in this post. 

Instead, over the next few posts I’m going to give you some examples that have been a part of my life – for myself or for my clients – in recent weeks.

The first example:  a success story

I facilitate a Special Interest Group (SIG) for independent consultants through the San Diego chapter of ASTD (that’s the American Society for Training and Development).

We’re a young SIG, just getting to know each other and each other’s businesses.  Unsurprisingly, the first topic the group chose to tackle is the significant question of … marketing.  

In our last meeting, one of the members – who freely admits that she’s allergic to traditional marketing – described a great success story.

She provides government-mandated sexual harassment training.  Her twist (I refuse to use the words “unique selling proposition”) is that her training is fun and therefore memorable.  After all, when the participants are enjoying themselves, they’re far more likely to understand and remember what they’ve been taught.

She prefers research to cold calls.  (Who wouldn’t?!)  So she did her research, starting with getting very clear on who her best clients are.  Size matters for her:  under 50 employees, they aren’t required to conduct the training; over 200, and they’re likely to do it in-house or through an online service rather than bringing in a consultant.  And industry matters: her biggest successes have been in manufacturing and high tech.

Then she dug through online business databases to find local companies who fit that profile.  And she sent out 178 postcards describing her service.

She got three jobs from that process – which is a great success rate.

Let’s pick this apart a little bit.

I’ve described what she did in detail not because I think you should do it too, but because it’s a beautiful example of clarity + focus = inspired action.

Her offering – government-mandated harassment training – is one of the few types of services offering (in my opinion) where you’re likely to get a response from a single postcard mailing with no follow-up. 

Companies have to do this training.  They don’t enjoy doing it, and their employees complain about the time it takes out of their already overcrowded schedule.

She was very clear about this.  She was also very clear about why her training is different – that “fun and memorable” aspect – and why that matters to her customers. 

Then she focused on and got clear about exactly who her best customers are.   And she stayed focused on those customers, which is something small business owners often struggle with. 

Inspired action naturally followed:  a very targeted mailing to that focused group of companies.   And she enjoyed the results.

Not only that, but she learned from what happened. 

She saw who responded – primarily manufacturing companies – and decided that her next mailing will be even more focused.  And she saw how the timing of her first mailing – right before the holidays – was perhaps not the best choice. 

So she’ll do some things differently next time.

What’s my point?

My point is not to suggest that you do a postcard mailing.  I want to be very clear on that.  I consider postcard mailings to be a complete waste of time and money for most people in most businesses.

My point is that this is a classic and beautiful example of how clarity + focus = inspired action, and inspired action leads to real results.

In my next post, I’ll illustrate the opposite side of the coin:  how lack of clarity and focus tends to lead to action for action’s sake – with little or nothing in the way of results.

What’s your experience?

When have you found your own clarity and focus – and what has ensued?

Conversely, what’s happened when you haven’t been clear or focused?

One thing to notice:  it’s often only in hindsight or with help from someone with fresh perspective that we see just how unclear and unfocused we’ve been.