INFINITE GAME-PLAYERS: APPLYING THE INFINITE MINDSET TO BUSINESS AND THE LEAD GENERATION INDUSTRY

Can you compare lead generation to finite games, like football? The players are always known, the rules fixed, and the endpoint clear. It’s easy to establish the winners and losers.

Or is it similar to infinite games, such as business or politics? The players vary, rules are interchangeable, and there’s no distinct final stage. That means there are no winners or losers – there’s only ahead and behind.

With lead generation, there could be a finite number of buyers, resources to generate leads and outbound tactics. But as the word spreads and technology delivers better insights through intent signals and data analysis, lead generation shouldn’t be a finite game.

The infinite mindset is an idea that Simon Sinek explains well. But how does it apply to this crucial aspect of the sales and marketing process? We took a closer look…

The concept

Many organisations struggle because their leaders are trying to play an infinite game with a finite mindset. They’re focused on stats, and one clear metric of success. As a result, they lack trust, collaboration and innovation, leading them to be less competitive in terms of discretionary effort, morale and performance.

But if they had an infinite mindset, where they recognise that there are multiple success metrics and think instead about their legacy and what’s best for others, their people develop greater trust in both them and each other. The result? A stronger, more innovative and inspiring organisation that could lead the future.

Infinite game-players also find that: 

• Their value is measured by the desire for success, even when the current team has moved on from the organisation
• Their employees are more inspired and wish to leave the company a better place
• They have a drive to constantly create innovative offerings – something ground-breaking rather than merely competitive
• Their products and services provide genuine value to customers
• They have the resilience to prosper in a dynamic world, whilst competition falls by the wayside
• The company keeps on playing and perpetuating the infinite game

Innovation + culture = results

Infinite-minded leaders know that ‘best’ is not a permanent state – they aim to be better. Creating this mindset revolves around five points:

A just cause – This is essentially a vision that people will make sacrifices for, even if they don’t want to. It’s not a brand’s ‘why’ because this is fixed and in the past; it’s the future state they continuously work towards.

Trusting teams – This is about creating a trusted environment. You should be able to raise your hands when there’s an issue and say ‘I made a mistake without fear of humiliation and retribution.

A worthy rival – This doesn’t have to be someone you wish to imitate, just someone that makes you want to keep fighting. In fact, you might want them to stay in the game so that you continuously work harder.

Courage – You shouldn’t be afraid to take a different stance to everyone else. Indeed, this can be beneficial as it enables innovation and change and allows us to be part of something bigger than ourselves.

Capacity for existential flexibility – Rather than the daily flexibility that we’re all expected to have in our roles, existential flex is being able to carry out a drastic strategic shift in a completely new direction.

Interlink and the infinite mindset

Here at Interlink, we embrace all five of these points. We have a just cause – we inspire the lead generation industry to be better by raising the bar. Our trusting teams stand for bravery, drive, integrity and passion, and our internal learning platform ensures we all contribute to each other’s growth. We’re a worthy rival – being around industry players doesn’t stop us from improving our product and working towards long-term success. And whilst we respect the competition, we are not fixated on what they are doing. Instead, we keep the customer in mind and thanks to our regular communication, we provide solutions that we know they need to improve their results and hit their KPIs. We lead with courage and want to be recognised as the wildcard who raised the industry standard and went against the status quo.

And we also have the capacity for existential flexibility, considering the industry’s needs from a birds-eye point of view, and then creating the tools, products and processes to meet them. It’s the reason we built our Discover and Convert solutions. Discover is all about targeting your specific audience, and Convert is about giving you the capability to turn them into customers. 

Want to find out more about how we use our infinite mindset to deliver opportunity for your business? Get in touch with a member of the team today.