What can you learn from what’s working?

When businesses review performance, there's a natural tendency to focus on the problems.

What didn't deliver? Where did we miss the target? Which campaign underperformed? Why did we lose that customer? Where are costs increasing?

They're all sensible questions.

But there's another question I think businesses should ask much more often:

What's working particularly well - and do we understand why?

Don't only investigate the problems

If growth has stalled or results aren't where the board wants them to be, understandably the focus shifts towards fixing what's wrong.

But concentrating entirely on the problems can mean overlooking some of the most useful evidence already sitting inside the business.

Which customers are particularly profitable? Which ones stay longest? Where are your best leads coming from? Which products or services perform particularly well? Where are margins strongest? Which salespeople consistently convert good opportunities? What are customers particularly positive about?

Then ask why.

There may be patterns in what's working that tell you just as much as the things that aren't.

Find the DNA of your success

Take your best customers as an example.

Don't simply identify them. Look at what they have in common.

Why did they choose you? What do they buy? How long have they stayed? What makes the relationship work? How did they originally find you? What else do they need? Why are they profitable to serve?

The same principle applies elsewhere in the business.

If one marketing activity consistently produces valuable opportunities while another generates plenty of leads that go nowhere, understand the difference.

If one product is particularly profitable, understand why.

If customers repeatedly praise one part of the business, find out what's happening there that could potentially be replicated elsewhere.

The aim isn't to blindly do more of everything that's currently successful. It's to understand what's creating the success so you can make better decisions about what to do next.

Look at the whole picture

Of course, understanding what's working is only half of the exercise.

You still need to look at the things that aren't delivering, but rather than immediately deciding something has failed, I'd want to understand why.

Was the strategy wrong? Was the execution poor? Did something elsewhere in the business get in the way? Was the original expectation realistic? Is there evidence that it genuinely isn't working, or has somebody simply decided it isn't?

That's why looking at one number, one campaign or one department rarely gives you the whole answer.

You need to combine what the data tells you with what people inside the business are seeing, what customers are experiencing and what is happening across sales, marketing and delivery.

Do more of what works - but know why it works

A good business review shouldn't simply produce a list of problems to fix.

It should give you a clearer understanding of where the business is already creating value, where it's losing opportunities and which things deserve more attention.

Sometimes growth comes from fixing what's broken.

Sometimes it comes from recognising something you're already doing remarkably well - and doing more of it.

If you know you want the business to perform better but aren't yet clear about where the biggest opportunities lie, let's have a conversation.