In September 2024 Divining Point will celebrate 11 years in business. We have learned a lot in that time. We’ve stubbed our toes more than once. We’ve matured as a team – and as business owners. We’ve had to pivot many, many times as the market changed and as unforeseen challenges (ahem Covid) radically changed society.
Here are some insights, both good and bad, we’ve encountered during our journey.
We Are Different. Different Is Good.
Eleven. That officially makes us a tween. The hallmark characteristic of a tween is increased independence. Individualism is a value we’ve embraced since day one of the founding of this company.
However, feeling confident in our independence occurred somewhere around 2018. This was a period of rapid growth for the company and a broader diversification of the industries we serviced. The challenge we faced as a company boiled down to:
“How do we provide the highest level of service and the greatest amount of value to our customers when they operate in such different fields?”
Whereas many marketing agencies become highly specialized in specific industry verticals, we made a conscious decision to NOT work in only one category.
The reason for this was simple. Every client company is different, even if they operate in the same industry.
Why would we come to the table with a standard set of assumptions and solutions based on extensive experience within the vertical? That amounts to taking the attitude of “This is how it’s always been done”.
The fixed mindset is resistant to change. Intransigence makes one blind to creative solutions. At Divining Point we call that “sludge”. No one likes sludge.
Even worse, if an agency applies the same template to every client, how do you know they’re not doing the same thing for your competitors? How could a company ever truly distinguish itself?
We decided for better or worse that one of our unique value propositions is to bring an outsider’s perspective to the table to identify the problems that are often overlooked by the experts in the field.
Learn to Pivot
In 2013 Divining Point was a consultancy dedicated to a combination of sales and marketing. We provided branding and marketing strategy. We trained sales teams. We developed sales plans.
The hodge podge of services back then was based on a keen understanding of what worked for B2B companies who relied almost exclusively on outbound lead generation.
Two years later we became obsessed with data.
We pored over market research. We adopted analytical tools. We executed highly technical inbound strategies. This pivot not only increased our offerings but also expanded the industries and markets we serviced. It helped us grow as a company.
With a vast background in brand design, it made sense to expand our creative services, too. In 2016 we doubled down on website design, photography and videography, and original creative for physical substrates. Again, we continued to grow.
Along came Covid in 2020 and the entire United States was thrown into a catastrophic reshuffling. Businesses shuttered. Some of our clients withdrew. The traditional ways in which business was done transformed overnight. We pivoted once again.
It no longer made sense to be a Swiss Army knife for every company under the sun. We streamlined our service offerings. We even turned away business right at a time when we needed every dollar we could get. Nevertheless, we prevailed.
The moral of the story is that quickly pivoting allows us to stay relevant and keep our doors open when others are abandoning ship.
If you want to stay in business long term you must learn to pivot, no matter how painful it feels to change.
Breakups Happen
In life, relationships are broken every day. The same thing applies to business.
Sometimes breakups occur for negative reasons. A mismatch of values. Communication breakdowns. Misunderstandings. Mistakes.
Sometimes relationships simply drift apart. We go one way, they go another.
Most of the time engagements end amicably. In those cases we successfully achieved our goals and it’s time for a new direction.
Our policy is to demonstrate the highest possible professionalism regardless of the reasons for separation. As the old quote says, “It’s nothing personal; it’s just business.”
In our opinion it’s always best to end a relationship on a good note and ensure that the client is in good shape regardless of the reason for breaking up.
By stoically adopting the attitude that “breakups happen” we release ourselves to do what’s right for the client. Consequently, we are still friends with most of our past clients. And sometimes they call on us again when the time is right.
Game Plan the Future
Business owners and entrepreneurs understand that the future is impossible to predict. No one saw the rise of Covid and no one could have predicted how the economy would react to it. But the ability to adapt to a wholesale decline in revenue was already baked into the strategies for some companies.
Divining Point was founded in 2013 when the economy was climbing out of the housing crisis. Seven years later, Covid. Then supply chain shocks. Then inflation and rising interest rates. Now a recession, or so it appears.
At times we suffered like many other marketing agencies, but we never closed our doors.
Our preparation for the future involves a process whereby we read the indicators of now, assess how trends might unfold up to 12 months later, and then set up a series of business-related decision trees that help us quickly adapt. We game plan for crises and booms.
We also use this forward-looking approach for every marketing strategy we deploy for a client. Use the data from now to identify trends and then recommend a solution to always stay ahead.
When running a business you have to prepare for what happens when either business is booming OR sales are in decline.
Instead of being reactive, we are proactive. And although we sometimes get it wrong, our success rate is pretty good so far.
We Quit Trying to Be Perfect
The economist Thomas Sowell succinctly stated, “There are no solutions; only trade offs.”
French author Voltaire said, “Perfect is the enemy of good.”
The pursuit of perfection almost always sabotages excellent work. Each decision or action comes with a series of consequences. You can only do so much to develop good work or a good product before it’s time to deliver.
If you refuse to take action until a perfect solution is in place, you’ll spiral into analysis paralysis or – even worse – destroy any chances you have to get ahead.
This requires you to assume the uncomfortable position that mistakes will happen.
Rather than get hung up, deflect, or (even worse) deny when mistakes happen, we operate by the policy that it’s best to immediately acknowledge it. We also come prepared with a course of action to not only fix the mistake, but even try to benefit from it. As Bob Ross was notorious for saying, to the best of our ability “We have happy accidents.”
Looking Forward to the Future
Even though we’ve made it longer than most businesses, we sometimes feel like we’re still a hungry startup.
Perhaps you could summarize our insights as such: With humility and a proactive approach to business, you can pivot, adapt, or respond to each new challenge in ways that deliver an even better outcome than you could have predicted.
So here’s to 11 years in business! We are happy to be your marketing partner and lead you to continued success. We look forward to many more years as marketing explorers and data nerds.