The myth of immediate ROI

This might be what separates the winners in small business.

According to QuickBooks, our marketing agency has had the chance to work for 723 organizations over the past 7+ years.

A few Fortune 500.

Some upper mid-market ($10,000,000+ in revenue).

But most of them in the $0 - $5,000,000 range.

And one of the most interesting observations for me has been how differently leader think about "return on investment."

Some are maniacal: every penny must be measured every month for what revenue can be attributed to it.

Even an investment of $600/month on LinkedIn content can quickly get axed if it's not showing near-immediate "return."

These leaders don't value learning or experimentation. They just expect an instant outcome. Or your gone.

Others are patient.

They do the things (like creating content or having consistent sales conversations) that they know will generally triangulate to the outcome they want...

And they give things time to breathe.

All while realizing that their learning what "not to do" is part of the game. A big part.

Of course, these leaders aren't apathetic. They expect responsiveness and hustle from their team and vendors. But when the right inputs are happening, they don't rush the output.

Something I've learned seeing the difference?

It's the people with all the money who are the most patient.

Now maybe we could say: "Yeah, of course. There is less pressure on them."

And to some degree, this is true.

But more than this, I think it's the patience of these leaders that actually got them to their position of success in the first place.

ROI smooths out in the long run.

But short-term, it's very hard to measure how well things are working.

Sometimes we just have to trust the process. Do the right inputs. And put down our stopwatch.

Onward,

Miles