Brand teams often say they need more awareness, stronger thought leadership, greater share of voice, or category leadership.

Those may be worthwhile ambitions.

But you cannot manage an adjective.

When I take Dusty and Tanner to the dog park, Dusty sees dogs, people, noise, movement, and interesting smells everywhere.

Learn this and more perspectives. Listen...

Marketing generated the leads.

Sales completed the activities.

Customer success protected retention.

Product increased usage.

Finance protected margin.

Every team hit a metric, but the company still missed its growth goal.

That can happen when teams share a destination but operate with different priorities.

It reminds me of walking Dusty and Tanner.

Dusty sees a squirrel. Tanner finds something interesting to smell. I am trying to get home.

Technically, we are all on the same walk. Operationally, we are pulling in three different directions.

Businesses do the same thing when every function optimizes its own dashboard without connecting its work to one shared business outcome.

That is why the Reframe stage of my Growth Framework includes choosing a North Star metric.

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The North Star is not website traffic, impressions, MQLs, or the number of campaigns launched. It should represent an important growth outcome that multiple teams can influence.

Depending on the company’s real constraint, that might be:

🐕 Qualified pipeline in the priority market

🐕 Pipeline velocity

🐕 Expansion ARR

🐕 Time from qualified opportunity to revenue

The North Star does not replace every other KPI. It creates a hierarchy underneath one primary outcome so marketing, sales, customer success, product, RevOps, and finance can see how their work fits together.

In the latest episode of Walking the Dogs, I explain how to choose the metric, connect supporting KPIs to it, and expose the initiatives that no longer support the company’s growth strategy.

One destination. One primary outcome. One leash keeping the entire pack moving in the same direction.

What metric is your company actually walking toward?

Check it out and get additional resources at Your Teams Can Hit Every KPI and Still Miss the Growth Goal - Lisa Schwartz

There is a moment after every good diagnosis when people get impatient.

You’ve looked at the data. Found the performance gaps. Examined the market. Challenged the assumptions. Identified what isn’t working.

Now everyone wants to do something.

Launch the campaign.

Buy the platform.

Change the sales motion.

Move the budget.

But this is exactly where I think growth teams need to be careful.

In Episode 9 of Walking the Dogs, we’re moving from Gauge to Reframe in my Growth Framework.

Imagine I’m walking Dusty and Tanner and realize we’ve taken a wrong turn. I can walk faster, shorten the leashes, or get annoyed that one of the dogs keeps pulling.

It doesn’t matter.

We’re still headed the wrong way.

Reframe is the moment when you turn the map around.

Instead of asking, “What should we fix?” start with:

🐕 What does winning look like 12 to 24 months from now?

🐕 What must be true for that future to happen?

🐕 What needs to change this quarter?

🐕 What should we stop doing because it doesn’t get us there?

Years ago, I used to bring teams around a large whiteboard when we were working through a difficult business problem and say, “Let’s walk the dog.”

I’d put my incomplete thinking on the board. Other people would challenge it, add what I missed, and help turn the mess into a plan.

That’s exactly what Reframe is designed to do.

Gauge gives you evidence about today. Reframe turns that evidence into a point of view about tomorrow.

And perhaps the most important part is deciding not only what deserves more investment, but what no longer deserves any.

Thanks for reading Walking The Dogs- Grow Revenue, Navigate Marketing Teams, Frameworks and Systems! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Because strategy isn’t simply deciding what to do.

It’s deciding what you’re willing to stop doing.

Watch Episode 9 of Walking the Dogs: Turning the Map Around: The Future-Back Moment.

Then ask your team one question:

Are we optimizing the route, or have we actually agreed on the destination?

Read more here. Future-Back Growth Strategy: Turn the Map Around Before You Execute - Lisa Schwartz

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