“What’s your Strategy?”
“Where do you get new business?”
“Where do you start your marketing?”
When we ask these questions, the answers range from “What” a company sells…their products or services, and why they’re superior to others…to the demographics they’re looking for in a customer…their “Who”, or “How” and “Where” they find them, like at conferences or on mailing lists.
In my experience the focus is almost always on different tactics and techniques, like “Should I use Facebook ads or Adwords? Are Solo Ads or email better? What about Pinterest or Snapchat or LinkedIn or Podcasts… how do I monetize them? What about all the offline old-school methods like direct mail, direct TV, radio and print… do they still work?”
When we’re working with sales teams it’s the same, just with different tactics: “We need a new sales path… a better closing script… more prospecting…stronger closers” and on and on.
Strategy Comes Before Tactics
Marketing seminars, companies and experts seem to offer no end to new programs, apps, software and other “shiny objects” or opinions about the best Where, When and How to market your products or services…all of your Tactical decisions (with their offering usually the solution you need!).
The truth is, until you figure out the right Marketing and Sales Strategy for you and your business, you’re sort of like Alice asking Cheshire Cat for directions with no sense of where she wanted go:
“Would you tell me please” says Alice, “Which way I ought to go from here?”
“Well, that depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where–” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“–So long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
Sales and Marketing goals are the results of your Strategy, not the other way around.
If you don’t have a Crystal Clear Strategy, any old Tactic will probably work about as good as any other.
It is mission critical that you get crystal clear about who you don’t want — and who you do: Your Ideal Client.
Taking the time to lock down your overall Strategy first – BEFORE choosing your Tactics – is the most important step you can take to achieve the successful and profitable marketing results you want. The good news is,
When your Strategy is clear, your tactical decisions are all obvious…and easy!
It All Starts With One Question: “Why?”
