What I learned from six-figures spent on testing

As much as I keep things simple these days, there was a time when this business was anything but simple. In fact, during my last two big launches, I set aside a six-figure budget to test everything to my engineering heart’s content. Including “advanced” tactics like: Cart abandonment, Customized follow-ups, Personalized retargeting, Chat sequences, Various A/B tests, And more. At the end of the launch, I excitedly sat down with my team to analyze the results. Surely, these often quoted sales boosters — which I’d heard so many people talk about as having increased their revenue by thiiiiiiiiiiis much — would have done the same for us too? Except…. Well, each tactic could technically be credited with at least a few sales. (Like, yes, this person bought through the cart abandonment sequence.) Which on the surface might have felt like a success. And possibly why so many people talk about certain tactics as having made such a big difference to their business. But one of the first things I learned during my corporate climb to managing an Analytics team, was that you can’t just take numbers at surface level. Instead, you gotta confirm the story they’re telling. (In fancy talk, this is that “statistical significance” term marketers love to throw about.) And when I dug into it, the numbers told a very different story indeed. The truth was that most of the time, these tactics just happened to “catch” a client in the moment that they were ready to buy. And because of that, I have no doubt that they helped us make a few sales we would have lost otherwise to forgetfulness or fading impulse. But a small handful of exceptions aside, I learned something that has proven way more valuable than any strategy or tactic to this day: Most of the people who bought were planning on buying anyway. Which meant that all those fancy tactics? Were for the most part a waste of time and money. Now, I’m not saying there isn’t a time and place for an added layer of system sophistication or optimizations that make sure nothing falls through the cracks. But ultimately, here’s the lesson it took me multiple six-figures to confirm: Even in sales…no scratch that. Especially in sales, 80% of your results come from 20% of your work. And that 20% does not include the complicated setups or fancy “silver bullet” strategies that so many people like to talk about. And here’s why: The people who are your ideal clients? Are smart. They know what they want. And they’ll buy if they see the value in your offer. So your time is better spent on figuring out how you can best communicate that value in a way that resonates with them. Because that’s the “20%” that’ll drive disproportionately large results. And figuring out how to do that — to be able to get the most sales in the simplest, most efficient way possible — is what I’ve spent my time on over the last few years. Now, having made millions in a much simpler way, and having helped my private clients make millions “simply” as well, my opinion is that it comes down to just 4 things. So I’ll break down what those things are in tomorrow’s email. But for today, let me leave you with this: It doesn’t have to be complicated to build a massively profitable business you love. And in fact, it shouldn’t be. 
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