“The Tipping Point is not a question of if, but when.” – John Fontanella
If you have been following along over the last 36 months, we have walked you through a variety of circumstances and the desired results that lead us to the most beautiful part of any business: the tipping point. A lot of times people quit right before achieving the greatest moments in their business or in their life. Perseverance and consistency are the keys to creating big moments. You can’t always see the tipping point coming, so you just have to believe that when you put everything in order, you will see a major breakthrough.
How do you measure breakthroughs and tipping points and know if you are gaining momentum? Sales is the key indicator. Throughout my career, most of the time our sales have steadily grown. But every once in a while, when the same crew has been working together and things are in harmony, revenue can spike very quickly.
Nick Bogacz, founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh
But when all seems in harmony and the results haven’t come, how can you find that tipping point? We have all heard the definition of insanity described as doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. How can you give everything a little nudge? I go back and start to look at all the marketing I am doing. I then start to tweak things. I may switch designers on my menus or switch my plan of attack on my mailers. Is it time to mail on different days of the week or month and switch the amount of volume I mail? Can I switch the feel of my social media campaigns? Your marketing often has a steady feel or a look and is driving consistent results, but reaching that big tipping point requires making adjustments to that look and feel. It may be as simple as adding better lighting to your pictures or taking the pics at different angles.
If you use videos in your marketing, perhaps you need to adjust the time of the clips or introduce a new kind of content. As an example, how do you donate to all of the organizations in your area? Tweak the process, maybe you give them all a gift card every time they ask, or switch it to a gift basket instead. Do you have a phone message on your recording at the beginning of each call? If it always sounds the same, switch it up. Look at your online ordering process. Are there some small things you can change to have it come across differently? Can you add an easy upselling prompt or perhaps make the process easier somehow?
The idea is once you really feel like you have been hitting on all cylinders and that your four walls have been taken care of, it’s time to get back into your marketing strategy and make tweaks and changes. I am not talking about adding any new marketing tools or platforms, but rather just tweaking the ones you have already. We will save the thought process and discussion about adding new ones for next month!
Nick Bogacz is the founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh. Instagram: @caliente_pizza
