Your OODA loop is too slow

Finally a good military analogy for CROs.

Your sales org’s account strategy OODA loop is too slow and it’s hurting your pipeline. Let me explain what that is and then explain why it’s a CRO-level problem

OODA what now?

Here’s a quick primer on OODA loops for the uninitiated:

• Observe - take in data from the world around you (e.g. your market, your team, your product, your internal metics)

• Orient - use your experience and your knowledge of the world to understand what you’ve observed and form hypotheses

• Decide - make a decision about what to do

• Act - take an action which generates both new observations and internal feedback so the loop starts again

The faster you can execute the above loop, the better you’ll perform in complex competitive environments. It's true for the military (where the OODA loop was born¹) and it's true for your market. (This is one of the few times a a military analogy actually applies to sales.)

How it applies to CROs

Sales orgs have a lot of core OODA loops all operating at once. Let’s consider prospecting:

• Activity Loop - we’re continually adjusting the types of outreach, our channels and activity levels based on feedback

• Messaging Loop - whether it’s call scripts, email templates or new product messaging we’re constantly tweaking what we say based on feedback

• Contact Loop - we’re always getting new folks to call and frequently tweaking the personas that we’re looking for based on what seems to be working

• Account Loop - we change up accounts once a year with a few tweaks mid-year based on feedback

One of those things is not like the other! We operate tight loops for activity, messaging and contacts but only act on feedback from our account strategy once or twice a year.

This is especially problematic because account strategy represents the foundation on which the other loops are built. I know we’re talking about loops but I also find this pyramid helpful to visualize how all these things build on each other:

Your account strategy sits at the base of your GTM motion, slowing everything down. So, if you think territory and account allocations are just a once-a-year revops chore, think again. A faster, more dynamic, OODA loop for account coverage couldn’t be more important.

If this piques your interest, I gave a whole talk about this at the at the Pavilion CRO Summit. Sadly they didn’t film the slides but you can download them here.

1. The OODA loop is the product of a singular military mind and fascinating character: Colonel John Boyd. I recommend Robert Coram’s biography.