Steve Jobs saved Apple from bankruptcy 26 years ago.
He cut 70% of Apple’s products. In one year, Apple went from losing $1B to a profit of $300M.
Adding is an easier, “safer” choice than removing.
It takes courage to remove something.
Everyone talks about the power of focus, but most brands take too long to decide to STOP doing something.
Most agree to start something after a quick call or after watching a video.
Stopping or removing something takes multiple discussions and lots of deliberation.
Next time you add something, find something to remove too.
For DTC brands,
Removing the bottom 20% of products can improve conversion rates and retention rates.
Removing features that no one is using (like referral programs) can improve your customer experience and increase the usage of important features.
Removing email communications that are not relevant can lead to higher deliverability and improved open rates.
Removing creatives that have stopped working a long time ago and replacing them with new ones to lower your CPM rates.
Reducing the count of promotions or offers running at a given point. Testing and consolidating your best-performing offers instead of multiple offers.
The older the business, the bigger the issue.
Real power is doing the core things right.
Don’t fall victim to the sunk cost fallacy.
Adding is not wrong, but not subtracting fast enough is the issue.
