What’s shaping your strategy?
Here's a quick list of three different reasons my clients sometimes give for selecting a particular plan of action:
“Because this is how we did it last year.”
“Because our CRM is built this way.”
“Because doing it this way allows us to achieve this specific goal that we've targeted.”
Which one of those do you think is the most valuable?
I'd say none of them are downright useless. Each has its value in the right situation.
But one of them is so much more useful than the others.
“This is how we did it last year”
This really makes me wonder if the directors have put any time at all into assessing whether last year's plan is actually worth repeating.
Was last year's project successful? Then why not go for something better?
Do you know whether the last year's program was smash hit or a complete flop? Do you know what made it so?
Just repeating last year's plan leaves you open to repeating its failures missing out on significantly better results.
“Our CRM is built this way.”
Okay, that's a pragmatic approach. Kudos for working with your tools instead of against them. But I wonder what you're leaving on the table by just going with the flow.
Working with your software instead of against it is one thing. Letting its features define your strategy is quite something else.
“Doing it doing it this way will help us reach our goals”
This sounds like the winner to me.
It starts with the goal and uses it to motivate and inform the strategy.
It looks to the future and starts now preparing for it.
It remembers that there is a purpose for every action, and that action without purpose is wasted.
Whatever campaign you have coming up on the horizon, I hope you can take time to think about the goals you want to achieve.
And then shape a strategy around those goals with an eye on the future.
All the best,
A.