Strategic Subtraction: How the Digital Game Plan Helps Manufacturers Get Laser Focused
Digital Game Plan strategic subtraction helps manufacturers grow by focusing on what matters most. Instead of chasing every customer or opportunity, companies can focus on their strengths and best-fit customers.
Manufacturers face endless choices today. Should you add products? Enter new markets? Try e-commerce? Post on more social platforms?
More isn’t always better.
During a recent Digital Game Plan LIVE, Curt Anderson and Damon Pistulka explored another approach: do more by doing less.
Strategic subtraction helps you remove distractions. Then, you can focus your time and resources on your best opportunities.
As Damon says, “Don’t be afraid to take some stuff away to get more done.”
Why Do Manufacturers Need Strategic Subtraction?
Manufacturers need strategic subtraction because trying to serve everyone can weaken their focus. The goal is to identify where your company creates the most value.
Damon compares the idea to Kaizen. Manufacturers improve a process by removing waste. Why not take the same approach to growth?
Some products may drain resources. Certain markets may offer little potential. Likewise, some marketing activities may consume time without producing results.
Therefore, the first step is to identify your true strengths.
The Digital Game Plan uses the SO vs. SO WHAT exercise to help. A company lists what it does well. Then, it asks a critical question: So what? Why does this matter to the customer?
This process helped Niagara Specialty Metals examine its legacy, product selection, flexibility, inventory, and small-run capabilities.
Those strengths pointed toward specific growth opportunities.
Strategic subtraction does not mean thinking smaller. Instead, it means putting more energy behind the things you do best.
How Does Digital Game Plan Strategic Subtraction Create Focus?
Digital Game Plan strategic subtraction connects your strongest capabilities with your best Soulmate Customers. This helps you decide what deserves more attention and what does not.
Niagara Specialty Metals offers a great example.
The company could sell steel to many types of customers. However, Niagara became more focused on specific customers and products. That focus helped support an e-commerce strategy.
Damon explains, “When you get focused like this…you can target the right products to the right customers.”
That focus also influenced Niagara’s social media strategy.
Instagram might seem like an unusual channel for a steel manufacturer. Yet Niagara’s ideal customers are there.
Product posts discussed during the livestream generated hundreds of likes. More importantly, customers asked questions and showed buying interest.
That creates an important lesson.
Don’t choose a marketing channel because everyone says you need to use it. Instead, find where your Soulmate Customers spend their time.
Then, show up there and help them.
The Digital Game Plan strategic subtraction process helps make those choices much clearer.
How Can a Narrower Focus Create More Growth?
A narrower focus can help manufacturers become more relevant to the right buyers. It can also reveal opportunities hidden inside a broad list of capabilities.
Truco Machine provides another example.
At first glance, Truco could look like another CNC machine shop. Yet the Digital Game Plan process helped uncover a more specific opportunity.
Truco found a sweet spot serving larger companies. It also focused on specialized replacement parts for machinery and automation equipment.
These parts can be expensive and difficult to source. In some cases, customers also face long lead times.
Damon described the niche as “small batches of something that’s very expensive and very hard to build.”
That is much more specific than simply saying, “We are a CNC machine shop.”
As a result, Truco could align its skills with a clearer customer problem. The company also added e-commerce to make those products easier to find and buy.
This is strategic subtraction for manufacturers in action.
A tighter focus can sharpen your message. It can improve your marketing strategy. Most importantly, it can help the right customers understand why they should choose you.
Start Doing More by Doing Less
Digital Game Plan strategic subtraction gives manufacturers a practical way to decide where to focus next. Growth does not always require adding another tactic, product, market, or platform.
Start with your core strengths.
Next, ask why those strengths matter.
Then, identify your Soulmate Customers. Learn what they need and where they spend their time.
Finally, subtract the distractions that pull resources away from those opportunities.
The Digital Game Plan connects these steps through exercises such as SO vs. SO WHAT, Rounding the Bases, Soulmate Customers, the Soulmate Success Path, and Ridiculously Important Questions.
Strategic subtraction isn’t about becoming less ambitious.
It’s about becoming more focused.
As Damon puts it, “Don’t be afraid to take some stuff away to get more done.”
Sometimes the best way to move your business forward is to decide what you can leave behind.
Get your FREE Digital Game Plan and put your strengths to work.
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