A voice goes off in my head when I’m talking with executives about strategy.
I says something like this, “YOUR STRATEGY IS A MESS! IT ISN’T THE MARKET! IT IS YOU!”
Right now, too many people tell me that due to the chaotic times we live in, “We can’t really come up with a strategy. Things change too fast.”
Then, that voice kicks in.
What I want to scream is, “NO! YOU NEED A STRATEGY MORE THAN EVER. CHAOS CAN’T BE BEATEN BY MORE CHAOS!”
I don’t.
Because yelling about strategy doesn’t get people to come up with one.
Instead, I point them towards a couple of key ideas that help them see where some of the pitfalls are.
Chasing every shiny object:
I’ve been railing against this for years.
It is TikTok right now.
In the past, it was Twitter, Facebook, and so many other things.
It has also been the latest opportunity around a technology are “emerging market” such as Artificial Intelligence.
All of this is just avoiding the hardest thing about strategy, thinking and making a decision.
When you are chasing any and every new thing, you don’t have a strategy, you have a dart board and a blind fold.
You have to make a decision and focus to have a strategy.
Even, no, especially, when chaos is the order of the day.
Can’t say “no”:
This one is popular.
People fall into the trap of thinking that they have to “serve every client” or “the customer is always right” or just desperation.
This leads to the syndrome of “every opportunity looking like a good opportunity.”
That’s far from the truth.
The essence of strategy is saying “no”.
A great strategy is about what you won’t do.
Not just what you will do.
The more is better trap:
More calls.
More meetings.
More!
That’s a trap.
So much of our marketing and sales activity is measured on activity based actions.
Calls.
Impressions.
Revenues.
These things aren’t always the most important measures of your success.
The thing about these activity based measures is that they are easy to measure.
It doesn’t mean they are effective.
But you can say, “Yes, I made my 25 calls.”
“Yes. Our campaign got 1M impressions.”
But did these things move you towards success?
Did these things get you closer to reaching the customers you specifically want?
Did these things show up in the way you want be seen by the world?
I could go on, but these big three are top of mind when I see people struggling with strategy.
I get it.
Things are a mess.
You can feel like strategy is just one more thing that is going to cause you problems.
Getting your strategy correct isn’t easy.
But it is the best way I know for you to get out of the chaos and into some clarity so you can focus on the few things you do better than everyone else.
That’s what strategy is all about.
Even when things are crazy!