Strategic Coherence: The Missing Piece in Your Business Growth

Imagine five talented decorators, each given their own corner of the same room. They’re all brilliant at what they do, working hard and making every brushstroke count. But there’s one fairly important detail nobody thought to mention. None of them have spoken to each other.

So while each corner looks lovely on its own, the room as a whole? An absolute shambles.

And that’s not a million miles away from what happens when different parts of a business aren’t working together.

What is Strategic Coherence in business?

Strategic Coherence is about making sure every part of your business is working towards the same goal, rather than everyone heading off in their own direction and hoping for the best.

Your strategy, positioning, branding, website, marketing and sales should all reinforce what makes your business different, who you’re trying to reach and where you want to go.

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?

The trouble is, businesses don’t tend to stand still. New services creep in, bigger clients come knocking, the team grows and before you know it, you’re running a rather different business from the one you started.

We come across businesses all the time that are doing brilliant things behind the scenes, but aren’t quite managing to show the outside world what they’re actually capable of.

When Strategic Coherence is working its magic, everything starts pulling its weight. Your positioning gives customers something to get excited about, your website shows them why they should care, and your marketing makes sure the right people actually see it.

But when that coherence starts to slip, things get a little messy. Suddenly, your website, marketing and sales materials all have their own personalities, and your visual identity looks like five different designers have been let loose without speaking to each other.

How does poor Strategic Coherence affect business growth?

The trouble with poor Strategic Coherence is that it doesn’t usually arrive waving a big red flag. Instead, it quietly makes a nuisance of itself, costing you more than you might realise.

Money: You’re pouring money into marketing campaigns that attract completely the wrong customers. Plenty of enquiries to celebrate, until you realise half of them are for work you’d rather not be doing.

Opportunities: You’ve built a brilliant reputation, but your brand hasn’t quite got the memo. Potential customers take one look at your website and head elsewhere, completely unaware of what they’re missing.

Effort: Your team is working its socks off, producing more content, chasing more leads and coming up with more ideas. They’re spending half their energy making up for the things that aren’t working together.

And that’s the real kicker. You’re not necessarily short of talent, ideas or ambition. Little things gradually fall out of sync, and before you know it, everyone’s working that little bit harder to keep everything ticking along.

Why better business growth doesn’t always mean doing more

When growth slows, it’s tempting to throw a little more of everything at the wall and hope that something will miraculously stick. 

Well, Apple might have a thing or two to say about that.

Believe it or not, Apple wasn’t always the master of keeping things simple. Back in 1997, it had so many different computers on offer that even figuring out which one to buy had become something of a challenge.

When Steve Jobs returned, he didn’t exactly rush to add another twenty computers to the collection. He took one look at the crowded product range and decided it was time for a rather ruthless clear-out.

Apple cut around 70% of its product roadmap and refocused its computer strategy around four clear categories: desktop and portable computers for consumers and professionals.

With a clearer product strategy, Apple’s designers, engineers and marketers had a much better idea of what they were working towards, and customers had a much easier time understanding what they were buying.

Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, Apple concentrated on making fewer, better products that people could actually understand and choose.

And the lesson for growing businesses? Sometimes it’s not about adding more to the pile.

It’s about understanding what your customers value, getting clear on where you’re heading and making sure everything you’re doing supports that direction.

You can have all the brilliant ideas in the world, but if they’re pulling you in ten different directions, you are bound to get lost.

How to improve Strategic Coherence in your business

Improving Strategic Coherence doesn’t mean marching into the office on Monday and announcing that everything needs a complete overhaul.

Start by looking at where things have come unstuck.

1. Get clear on where you’re heading.

Who are the customers you’d love to see more of? Which services deserve a bigger slice of the attention? And why should people choose you over the competition? They’re pretty important questions, so it’s worth making sure everyone at the top is giving roughly the same answers.

2. Look at what the outside world sees.

Does your website reflect the business you’ve become? Are your messaging, branding and case studies telling the same story? Ask someone unfamiliar with your business what they think you do after five minutes on your website. Their answer might be pretty revealing.

3. Follow the journey from marketing to sales.

It’s all well and good having enquiries rolling in, but are they coming from the people you actually want to work with? Take a look at how many turn into worthwhile projects, rather than getting carried away celebrating another impressive-looking number.

4. Make sure everyone’s telling the same story.

There’s not much point spending weeks perfecting your strategy if it is going to disappear after a couple of weeks. It should be influencing everything from the services you’re shouting about to the conversations your sales team is having.

Then keep an eye on whether you’re attracting more of the right enquiries, how many turn into customers and whether you’re winning the sort of projects the business actually wants. A full inbox is lovely, but it’s not much use if none of the work is right for you.

Time to get everyone pulling in the same direction?

The magic happens when your strategy, branding, website and marketing aren’t just doing their own thing, but working together to take your business somewhere exciting.

That’s exactly how we approach things at Giant Peach. Bringing the right people, ideas and expertise together to help ambitious businesses grow with more purpose and momentum.

Fancy seeing what we could do together?

Let’s get the conversation rolling