Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones

BOLDNESS (RISK TAKING)

I’m a big fan of taking risks, and yet the rest of the world seems to disagree with me.

At the end of the day, we’re in two separate yet related businesses. One is about managing change, and the other is about managing (or mitigating) risk. If you think about it, today’s chief marketing officers got to where they are not by managing risk but by mitigating it.

Does this sound like a strategy worth banking?

Risk is the ability to do things that have never been done before, to boldly go where no brand has gone before. In marketing speak, to differentiate; in business speak, to lead. At least, that’s my definition of risk. According to the dictionary however, it would appear that risk is in fact associated with negative consequences, not positive ones. Wikipedia defines risk as a “concept that denotes a potential negative impact to some characteristic of value that may arise from a future event.” These events or conditions—especially ones characterized by uncertainty—are thought to have harmful or negative effects. In everyday usage, risk is often used synonymously with the probability of a known loss—an ironic certainty, indeed.

At the end of the day, only you can decide on which side of the fence you sit. While you’re thinking, consider this:

• Risk is relative. What is risky to one person is not to another.

• Risk can be calculated, or measured. Managing it can be both a science and an art.

• As the saying goes, “If I had known then what I know now, ...