ProfitXL: Selling A System – Part 1
Written by
Rajesh Jain
Rajesh Jain
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ProfitXL: Selling A System – Part 1

Published : September 21, 2023

Overview

I had previously written about ProfitXL: Supersize Profits with the SHUVAM Framework. The concept  being:

ProfitXL is built around five themes:

  1. Making one-way push channels become two-way conversational pathways to bridge the chasm between acquisition and conversion.
  2. Transitioning from point solutions on the brand’s properties (website and app) to a unified martech stack
  3. Identifying Best Customers and creating differentiated experiences for them
  4. Getting close to zero CAC (customer acquisition cost) for new customers
  5. Measuring growth based not on paid marketing spends but on repeat purchases from existing customers and revenues from referrals

(Best Customers: the top 20% customers who account for 60% of revenue and 200% of profits)

This is ProfitXL’s SHUVAM framework: Story, Hotlines, Unistack, Velvet Rope Marketing (VRM), Acquisition (done right), and a new set of Metrics to measure progress.

SHUVAM is the path for exponential forever profitable growth. If followed rigorously, it can help a brand create the ultimate endgame and moat in a business – a profits monopoly (‘Profipoly’). The ProfitXL mindset and SHUVAM framework will help marketers increase revenues, reduce spends and improve shopper experiences.

While ProfitXL will help Netcore sell its products, there is a bigger agenda:

Lead an industry-wide movement away from wasteful overspending on new customers (‘AdWaste’) and shift focus to building deeper and profitable relationships with existing customers.

There is an opportunity to position ProfitXL as a system, defined as “a set of ideas or rules for organizing something; a particular way of doing something.”

Many of the actionables listed in ProfitXL’s SHUVAM framework are not being implemented by marketers. This needs to change – not just at the level of a single brand, but as an industry. Eliminating the ‘profit killers’ in marketing is about instilling good habits in the marketing strategy. They can lead to profitable and enduring growth and help brands create a Profipoly.

This essay is about how to sell ProfitXL as a system for marketers to adopt and make it part of their day-to-day operations.

ProfitXL is more than a single-point solution or even a stack (multiple interconnected solutions); it is a bigger idea that the marketing industry has forgotten – how to ensure existing customers come back for more and bring their friends.

ProfitXL is a disciplined process that can deliver 25% year-on-year growth for long periods of time and cut marketing spending by 50%, leading to a dramatic improvement in profitability (as the table below shows).

Scenarios - Low and No Profits - Netcore Cloud

This is just in the first year. Imagine the power of growing revenue and profits growth over multiple years. ProfitXL can help any consumer-facing brand build a compounding machine, the secret of an enduring, great company.

My challenge: how do I persuade marketers to adopt the ProfitXL system?

Goals and Systems

When I started thinking about ProfitXL as a system, I was reminded of the difference between goals and systems, as outlined in Scott Adams’ book ‘How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big.’ He writes:

“A goal is a specific objective that you either achieve or don’t sometime in the future. A system is something you do on a regular basis that increases your odds of happiness in the long run. If you do something every day, it’s a system. If you’re waiting to achieve it someday in the future, it’s a goal. Goals are for losers and systems are for winners. People who seem to have good luck are often the people who have a system that allows luck to find them.”

James Clear adds to this thought in his book ‘Atomic Habits’:

“The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress. Goals can provide direction and even push you forward in the short-term, but eventually a well-designed system will always win. Having a system is what matters. Committing to the process is what makes the difference.”

Kurtis Pykes’ writing ‘Don’t Just Set Goals. Build Systems’ mentions:

“Systems eliminate the guesswork about what you must do to achieve what you want. Goals without systems create chaos in your life… Unlike goals, systems emphasize process…Systems treat the cause of a problem and the symptoms (outcomes) change as a by-product… The secret to building an effective system is incorporating small, consistent wins into your life.”

Darius Foroux’s article ‘When You Fail to Achieve Your Goals, Try Systems Instead’ mentions:

“Goal = Event in the future. System = Recurring process… Instead of focusing on the destination, focus on the process.”

And here’s what Chat GPT has to say:

“A goal is an outcome or a desired state that someone wants to achieve. It is typically a specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objective that a person or an organization sets for themselves. On the other hand, a system refers to a set of interconnected components that work together to achieve a specific purpose or function.

A goal is the desired outcome or objective, while a system is the collection of resources and processes designed to achieve that goal. Goals and systems are often interrelated, as a well-designed system can help to facilitate the achievement of a goal, while a clearly defined goal can provide the focus and direction needed to design an effective system.”

Switch Pitch

Many years ago, I attended a course on how to improve personal productivity and plan better. It was offered by the company selling the FranklinPlanner. For those who have never seen or used it, it looks like this:

As Wikipedia explains, the planner pages are drilled, loose-leaf style pages in different sizes and formats. Formats have been updated through the years, but most planners contain areas for an appointment schedule, prioritized daily tasks, and notes. A key section at the rear of the planner contains addresses. Other inserts include ledger sheets for tracking finances or vehicle mileage, exercise logs, and other individualized reference materials.

The day-long course was about creating a personal productivity and time management system: how to prioritize tasks and make sure things get done daily. The course did not mandate the use of the planner, but the pitch was obvious: Productivity and Planning = FranklinPlanner. I bought into the philosophy and adopted the FranklinPlanner.

I mention the story about the FranklinPlanner because the ProfitXL challenge is similar: I need to get marketers to buy into the philosophy (existing customers matter more than new customers) first. Only then can I pitch the ProfitXL system. To buy into the philosophy, I have to persuade them about the problem: the low/no profit of the business is because of overspending on new customer acquisition, much of which is wasted.

Here’s the key takeaway:

I have to sell the idea before I sell the product. I have to persuade marketers that they have to shift their mindset from trying to optimize their adtech (new customer acquisition) spending and instead focus on martech (retention and development of existing customers).

By focusing on selling the solutions, the competition is with every other company offering customer engagement, retention, and personalization. But if the frame of reference can be changed to solving the problem of low or no profits, there is an opportunity to stand apart from the competitors.

To achieve the goals for Netcore’s products, I need to sell a system that offers a completely new way of solving the problem. The FranklinPlanner course did just that – it first put into focus the problem of low productivity and wasted time, and then offered a solution.  I would thus need to position ProfitXL as a system for marketing (and business) success, a path to building an enduring, great brand – none of which can be done without sustainable profitability.

Continued in Part 2…

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Written By: Rajesh Jain
Avatar photo Rajesh Jain
Founder and Group MD, Netcore Cloud