Think big and specific, then benchmark and trend like a pro

Big, fuzzy goals don’t move people. Big, specific questions do. “How can I double qualified leads in six months?” is a different brain prompt than “How can we grow?” It forces you to stretch and choose. Then you stand on the shoulders of others. The best today becomes your minimum, and you trend beyond it.

A marketing duo posed a sharp question: “How can we double trial starts in a quarter?” They benchmarked three companies with similar funnels and copied two proven elements—a shorter form and a clearer value promise. Then they trended one step further, testing a 72‑hour email sequence with a single sticky idea. Their whiteboard smelled faintly of dry‑erase solvent by the time they were done.

A quick anecdote: a high‑school robotics team studied past champions, then trended by adding a low‑risk sensor nobody else used. The small leap made their bot faster on a key task.

Cognitively, big‑specific questions increase focus and constrain search space. Benchmarking compresses the learning curve, while trending applies abductive reasoning—what’s the next plausible improvement? Together they create a disciplined path to possibility. You don’t guess, you investigate, copy what works, and then push the edge.

Frame a big, specific question that would truly change your results. Hunt down the current best performers, copy their key models as your starting point, and treat their performance as your floor, not your ceiling. Then look for the next adjacent move they haven’t fully solved and pilot it quickly. Review what the numbers say and iterate. Put your first small pilot on the calendar this week.