{"id":5310,"date":"2019-08-22T19:48:29","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T18:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.n-able.com\/?p=5310"},"modified":"2021-06-02T18:02:43","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T17:02:43","slug":"win-or-learn-never-lose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.n-able.com\/fr\/blog\/win-or-learn-never-lose","title":{"rendered":"Win or Learn\u2014Never Lose"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nelson Mandela once said, \u00ab\u00a0I never lose. I either win or I learn.\u201d\u00a0I consider these among a select group of words I live by. Losing is not final; it represents the opportunity to try again with more knowledge than you had last time.\u00a0Thomas Edison encapsulated this thought in his famous quote, \u201cI have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.\u201d\u00a0The wealth of knowledge that Thomas Edison compiled on the various properties of different materials went on to not only create the light bulb but many other things as well.<\/p>\n

How do we apply this more specifically to business and the business of being a technology services provider?<\/p>\n

First, do not worry about getting most things right the first time. I would be corrected if I did not mention that as solution providers, there are critical things on the technical side of our jobs that we must get right the first time, like backups. However, there are plenty of things on the other side of the business that we can experiment with to drive real, positive results.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What’s your marketing plan?<\/h3>\n

One obvious area is marketing. What is your marketing plan? Is it a written plan with action items on a calendar? Are you tracking results? If your answer was no to any of the above, then you definitely have something to experiment with. Any good experiment starts with a hypothesis or a vision of the outcome you are expecting (or desire).<\/p>\n

In this case, your outcome may be that you want to get more leads and prospects.\u00a0The next thing you need is a method or process. This includes the exact steps you are going to try in order to achieve the desired outcome. Here is a sample process for posting to Facebook:<\/p>\n

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  1. Post from your business Facebook page every Monday<\/li>\n
  2. Measure the results of each post for one week<\/li>\n
  3. On the following Monday, boost each post with $10<\/li>\n
  4. Measure the results of each boosted post for one week<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Once you are done with the experiment, check all your results.\u00a0Did you achieve the expected results?\u00a0What can you do to improve the results?\u00a0Here are some ideas to refine your experiment:<\/p>\n

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    1. Change the day you post<\/li>\n
    2. Change the format of your content (text, image, video, poll)<\/li>\n
    3. Change the style of your content (advertisement, tips and tricks, article, etc.)<\/li>\n
    4. Change the demographics of your boosted post<\/li>\n
    5. Change the amount of money you spend on the boosted post<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Managing variations<\/h3>\n

      There is a lot of variation to experiment with. Just remember to change one thing at a time so you do not confuse your results. As you find things that work best, stick with those things and change another variable in your marketing equation.<\/p>\n

      So, here\u2019s a formula you can apply to many of your business processes:<\/p>\n