Ever noticed how many different types of Cheerios there are at the grocery store? At the risk of sounding “old”, I find myself aghast at the number of choices compared to when I was a veracious Cheerio eater (in high school). The most notable addition to the Cheerio bevvy: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios. While that sounds decadent, I’m not sure that counts as a breakfast food, but someone must…
Anyway, we’re often overwhelmed with choices. There’s significant evidence to show that too many choices are not a good thing. From Psychology Today to Business Insider to Fast Company, the research shows that having too many choices can lead to less than favorable outcomes. And this is not a new idea: Alvin Toffler called this “Overchoice” in his book Future Shock way back in 1970. Side note: for some depth beyond my musings, watch Barry Schwartz’ TED Talk “Paradox of Choice.”
To me, the excessive choices result in one crippling element: distractions.
In government contracts, it is easy to get distracted as we balance the litany of activities required as we attempt to keep up with the towering waterfall of tasks, policies, rules, clauses, and changes that inundate us every day. Distractions seem to be everywhere, even in the relatively “niche” market of government contracts.
The bad news is that there is no cure for distractions. We need to box out distractions over and over again.
The good news is that there is a defense against distractions – targeting. Targeting is not about saying “yes” to only one opportunity to the exclusion of all others, it’s about saying “no” to the other 99 opportunities that could be, or even are, in our pipeline. Those other 99 are the distractions.
I beat the targeting drum often on the Contracting Officer Podcast. I’m visiting it again because despite our efforts to confirm the value of targeting, I still see people drifting toward shiny objects (myself included). We have to be constantly vigilant to make sure we’re not drifting. One way to keep distractions at bay: apply the 80/20 rule.
Look over the top 20% of your contracts (or customers). The 80/20 Principle (The Pareto Principle) says that 80% of your revenue will come from those top 20% of your customers. Try it. It’s amazing how often it’s true.
Once you’ve found that 20%, look at what at makes them such a good fit. Focus on that to get more of it.
The other 80% may be distractions.