For several years I took our best customers on fishing trips to Alaska. We spent whole days in a boat trolling for salmon. It was a terrific way to deepen relationships, learn about their needs and hear their view of the market, while hoping to catch a few fish along the way.
On some of those trips we had a seasoned fisherman aboard. He enjoyed the salmon, but his real passion was halibut, and he went after it with a method he called precision fishing.
How the halibut man worked
Halibut fishing has little in common with salmon fishing. The bait is different, and so are the depth and the location. He fished only in the prime season, and he never skipped his research. Before every trip he studied maritime charts and data to find the sandy, muddy banks where halibut feed. When we reached the site, we would drive around patiently until we found one of the spots he had marked.
Then he prepared his gear with care: a heavy rod, braided line, a sturdy leader with a heavy weight, and fresh bait. And then we waited, sometimes for hours, sometimes all day with nothing to show for it. When a fish finally took the bait, it felt like dragging a door up from 150 feet down, and it took the whole crew working together to land it.
Coming back to camp with that catch was always a triumph. A single halibut outweighed many of the other fish we caught that day, and everyone went home with a share.
What precision means in growth
Since then I have put the word precision in front of almost every method I use: precision selling, precision pricing, precision growth. It means committing to a desirable objective and executing against it with care, instead of pursuing many smaller ones at the same time. If we go for halibut, we have to pay less attention to salmon.
In a business, the halibut are the few customers, segments and opportunities that can carry the year. Finding them takes research, which today means sales analytics and a clear view of true profitability by customer and product. Landing them takes the right preparation and the patience to wait for the right moment. And it takes a team that knows its role when the fish finally bites.
The temptation is always to spread the lines and hope. The data almost always says otherwise.