How a 5-year-old would find problems in your business
Why did your latest idea to fix your sales process not work out? Why aren't you getting more leads, more inquiries, despite taking action to fix what you identified as the root cause?
It often boils down to this: we confuse the root of the problem with a symptom of it.
A client came to us once wanting help fixing the messaging on their badly performing ads. They were convinced better copy was the answer. But after our initial interview, it became painfully clear that whatever copy we wrote, the chances of success were low.
Bad previous copy wasn't the root cause of the poorly performing ads; it was a symptom of bad offer positioning. Whatever we wrote to promote it simply wouldn't speak effectively to their target market because the underlying offer wasn't right.
We do this a lot:
Are poorly performing salespeople the problem, or is it that not enough qualified leads are coming in, causing them to underperform?
Is the marketing team genuinely poor at generating leads, or are the resources they have and the goals they've been set fundamentally unbalanced or unrealistic?
The hard truth is: we rarely dig deep enough. We stop at the surface level, fix the obvious symptom, and wonder why the core issue persists.
The technique for learning and digging deeper? It's best taken from an inquisitive 5-year-old who trots behind you asking "Why? Why? Why?" countless times.
You think it's a joke? You should know that the brains behind Toyota's legendary production quality had the exact same method, the '5 Whys' technique.
The concept is simple:
Identify the problem.
Ask "Why?" it's happening and write down the answer.
If that answer doesn't identify the root cause, ask "Why?" again based on that answer.
Repeat this process, typically around five times, until you uncover the fundamental issue that, if addressed, will prevent the surface-level symptom from recurring.
Let's apply this to signing B2B clients, moving beyond manufacturing:
Problem: We aren't signing enough new B2B clients.
Why? I don't have enough calls with prospects.
Why? My outreach messages rarely get responses or turn into meetings.
Why? The messaging doesn't stand out or clearly address a pain point that's urgent for my target market.
Why? I'm not spending enough time researching or segmenting my prospects to understand what really matters to them right now.
Why? I prioritize volume over relevance, sending broad messages instead of investing the time to personalize my outreach based on real insights.
Root Cause: Focusing on quantity over quality in outreach leads to generic messaging, which results in low response rates and ultimately too few calls with prospects.
See how that works? We started with "not enough clients" (a symptom) and ended with a specific, actionable root cause: the need to shift focus to better prospect research and personalized messaging. Tweaking scripts or just increasing send volume (addressing symptoms) wouldn't have solved the core issue.
So, next time you're tackling a problem, channel that persistent 5-year-old. Keep asking "Why?" until you move past the symptoms and hit the real root cause. That's where the meaningful fixes lie.