I was flicking through the channels the other night and I caught one of those football shows, ‘The Premier League Years 2004/5’. It was the season that signalled the arrival of ‘The Special One’, Jose Mourinho.
It was 14 years ago now, but there are two big marketing lessons in the changes that Jose made to Chelsea, and I wanted to share them with you.
Lesson 1: Plug the Leaky Bucket
That first season of Jose’s was a masterclass in how to defend. Chelsea conceded fewer goals than anybody else and kept more clean sheets that season than their competitors. Their defence was mean. They knew that if they let a goal in, they needed to go and score two at the other end.
Lesson 2: Get More from What You’ve Already Got
Jose didn’t bring in 11 new players, he just managed his team better than the manager before and squeezed better performance out of each player.
Both of these lessons are relevant in our industry. Lots of people tell me that their problem is that they need to generate more leads, but too often they’re not making the most of those that they’ve got.
They’ve got a leaky bucket. If their defence (conversion to sales) was better, then they wouldn’t need to score so many goals (generate leads).
What Jose managed to do at Chelsea, was shift the needle a long way in a very short space of time. It’s possible for us all to do that in our businesses … IF we focus on the right areas.
Jose couldn’t play more games, he couldn’t change all of the players in his squad or field 12 of them at a time. His hands were tied in some areas, so he focused on what he COULD improve, and it paid off big time.
What could you change right now in your business to shift your needle? Are you focused on converting every single lead with the same intensity that Chelsea had about keeping their clean sheets? Focused on getting the best out of every player on your team?
Jose might have been the ‘Special One’ in 2004, but his tactics are still a useful playbook for us all to follow in 2018.
(As a Man Utd fan, I wish he could revisit his 2004/05 playbook this season!)
