Jeremy Miller's Blog, page 23

The Strategy Gap: You Don’t Have the Capabilities to Achieve Your Goals

Developing your business strategy is exciting. You get to consider the possibilities and imagine where your company will evolve. And if you’re bold, which I think you should be, you will imagine a future that’s slightly outside of your company’s reach.

That gap between where you are today and where you want to move is the strategy gap, and it’s too often misunderstood.

Teams respond to the strategy gap in a few ways:

They pump the brakes: The team sees the lack of resources and capabilities in the organization, and they hesitate. The gap intimidates them, and they hang onto the status quo.

They leap and fall down: At the other extreme, some teams dive in too soon only to hit roadblocks and landmines, because the organization is not prepared for the new reality. The team uses phrases like “iterate” and “fail fast, fail often,” and wastes a lot of time and cycles trying to implement a strategy they don’t understand.

They make the plan really smart and logical: To mitigate the risks, management teams will work deliberately to simplify and clarify their plans. They assume if their strategy is logical then their employees will figure out what to do. This too doesn’t work.

The problem with all three approaches is they overlook the fundamental issue: the organization needs a roadmap of how to change.

For example, a mid-sized IT staffing firm developed a growth strategy to double the size of the business by expanding its operations into two new cities. The strategy was sound. The firm evaluated the competitive landscape, secured contracts with key accounts ahead of time, and defined the budget, resources and timelines they anticipated it would take to get the new divisions profitable and sustainable.

The IT staffing firm built a really smart and logical plan, but a year after the launch they were reeling from a series of mishaps:

High turnover of key personnel in the new offices
In-fighting over commissions and account ownership between the sales reps in the head office and the new offices
Breakdowns of processes and systems for managing teams in different locations

The executive team was ready to throw in the towel at the end of the first year. They’d invested over $1 million into the expansion plan, and on the current trajectory it looked like it would cost another $1.8 million to get things on track.

The breakdown in the strategy was avoidable, because the team failed to develop a roadmap for how it would develop the capabilities to manage a multi-location business.

In every hero’s journey the hero is taken through a series of quests to develop his knowledge, skills and processes. For instance, in The Lord of the Rings Frodo Baggins takes on a series of adventures and challenges after leaving the Shire. With each stage he gets a little stronger and wiser, and becomes a little more like the hero that will ultimately destroy the ring.

In business strategy, we have to overcome a similar gap. Your company doesn’t have the knowldge, skills, and processes it needs to realize and sustain the end state defined in your strategy. This is your strategic gap, and if you don’t address the gap you won’t achieve your goals.

Capability development is one of the most overlooked areas of strategic planning, but it’s fundamental to your success. What knowledge, skills and processes does your company need to acquire or develop to achieve its objectives?

Developing capabilities is far less glamorous than buying equipment or signing contracts. It’s hard, deliberate work to evolve the behaviors and culture of your company.

One of the tools I like to employ in the process is to define 1 Big Goal and 3 Priorities / Quarter / Department. Treat every quarter as a mini-quest for your organization and its teams. In each quest you are developing the knowledge, skills and processes your company requires to fulfill its strategy.

You can make these quests smart and logical. In your annual strategic planning, identify the gaps. This will give you the roadmap for which priorities your teams need to implement over the next year or two.

What do you think?

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Separating Unicorns from the Herd: Your Best Customers May Not Be Replicable

“Unicorns” is another name for your very best customers.

A unicorn might be your biggest customer that pays you a lot of money. They can also be customers that are a delight to work with. There’s chemistry between your companies, and your team loves to spend time working with them.

Unicorns are exquisite, profitable customers that you love to serve, but they are exceedingly rare.

Most businesses have a few clients like this. They are your “key accounts,” and you want more of them. But like unicorns, they’re next to impossible to replicate.

Sales and marketing teams can waste a lot of time chasing unicorns, but fail to gain traction. Unicorns are too rare, and you can’t reliably grow your business with these customers. The opportunity is in the herd.

Market to the Herd

You will find the largest growth markets with average, everyday customers. These accounts may not be as profitable or fun to work with as your unicorns, but you can find a lot more of them.

This is key. You grow your business and your brand by creating replicable systems and processes.

For example, Apple creates a small number of products for a large herd of customers. Millions of people buy iPhones every single year. Apple’s strategy is clearly focused on the herd.

Smart marketing engages the herd, because it has the most opportunity for finding repeatable, profitable customers that value your services.

Not All Customers Are Equal

The caveat, you have to separate the herd. Not all customers are good customers, and it takes just as much time to sell to a good customer as it does to sell to a bad one.

Marketing your brand in the herd requires stronger systems to separate the “good customers” from the poor ones.

An effective tool to separate the herd is to define minimum customer requirements for your sales team. For instance, in LEAPJob, my family’s recruiting business, we had 3 criteria to quickly qualify if a customer was a fit for our services:

Was the position a sales and marketing job?
Was the position in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)?
Did the position have at least a $45,000 base salary?

If a customer said “no” to any of the questions we’d politely let them know they were not a fit for our services. It was incredibly efficient and effective. Within a 5 minute call, we’d know if the customer was a fit or not.

Being able to separate the herd to find your “ideal average” customers is essential. You may not be able to replicate unicorns, but there’s no reason to sell to poor customers either.

The Illusion of Unicorns

Unicorns are glorious customers. When you find one, hold on tight. They are a delight to work with. But you also have to be pragmatic and recognize these customers for what they are, unicorns. You’re not going find too many that fit your company so well.

When developing buyer personas or mapping the buyer’s journey, focus on your “ideal average.” These customers have the most potential for growth, because you can deliver a compelling value proposition to a larger market with repeatable processes.

The unicorns are glorious, but they’re anomalies. Market to the herd where you can easily find lots of customer opportunities.

What do you think?

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1 Big Goal and 3 Priorities: How Successful Teams Get Things Done

Time is finite. It doesn’t matter how rich or successful your brand, you can’t manufacture more time. Time is the great equalizer, and the companies who are more focused and productive tend to win more often.

George Stalk writes in Time—The Next Source of Competitive Advantage, “The ways leading companies manage time—in production, in new product development and introduction, in sales and distribution—represent the most powerful new sources of competitive advantage.”

He continues, “A company that builds its strategy on this cycle is a more powerful competitor than one with a traditional strategy based on low wages, scale, or focus.”

Time is as valuable as cash or reputation. The better you utilize it, the more you can achieve.

Successful teams maximize their time by being very deliberate on two things:

1 Big Goal to focus the organization
3 priorities / team, every 90 days

1 Big Goal to Focus the Organization

Behind all great brands are Big Goals.

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras called these BHAGs, big hairy audacious goals, in Built To Last. They write, “A true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as a unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit. It has a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal; people like to shoot for finish lines.”

Collins and Porras were clear. Great companies don’t have multiple Big Goals. They have one.

Successful teams identify one critical goal, and they focus a disproportionate amount of their time and resources to achieve it. This becomes a focal point for the brand.

When time is finite, you can’t do it all. Pick one Big Goal and frame it using the From X to Y by When formula.

3 Priorities / Team, Every 90 Days

A Big Goal can take a year or more to achieve. We’re not talking about quarterly targets or project deadlines. Big Goals stretch your team and transform your organization.

A Big Goal needs to be broken down into bite size chunks or priorities. A priority is a project, task, or system you will put in place over the next 90 days to move the company toward achieving its Big Goal.

Successful teams pick their priorities deliberately. They avoid taking on too much or doing “busy work,” and select up to 3 priorities per quarter.

What’s interesting is a mid- to large-size organization can take on dozens of priorities per quarter. Each team can be empowered to choose its own 3 priorities. For example, in a midsized company each department can select up to 3 priorities to focus on over the next 90 days.

By empowering each team to select up to 3 priorities per quarter, an organization can move mountains. A company with 5 departments could accomplish 15 priorities per quarter, and 45 priorities per year.

That’s an impressive set of deliverables if they are all aligned to achieving the Big Goal.

Maximize Time with Focus, Accountability and Grit

A company maximizes its time metric by empowering each team to work independently towards achieving the Big Goal.

It’s a simple mindset that leads to remarkable outcomes:

1 Big Goal: Focus your entire organization on one important goal that has the power to transform your business and brand.

3 Priorities: Empower each team or department to select up to 3 priorities to complete every 90 days that are directly related to achieving the Big Goal.

Micromanaging everyone’s tasks hurts productivity and wastes time. Rather, divide and conquer. Give your teams the leeway and accountability to deliver on 3 priorities each quarter, and it will help your company take quantum leaps forward.

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A Simple Formula to Achieve Your Goals, From X to Y by When

Happy New Year! For the past 48 hours my social media feeds have been littered with articles on why or why not you should set New Year’s Resolutions.

The “No” camp likes to share the facts:

40% of North Americans set New Year’s Resolutions every January.
53% of the resolution setters want to “save more money.”
45% are trying to “lose weight” or “get into shape.”
25% want to have “more sex.”
92% of people fail to achieve their New Year’s Resolutions.

Ouch! That is not encouraging at all.

Setting New Year’s Resolutions may seem futile, but I love this time of year. The start of the year is a brilliant time to set and reaffirm your goals, because defining what you want is the starting point of good strategy.

Reframe Your Goals with a Simple Formula

From X to Y by When

Mid last year a friend of mine introduced me to The 4 Disciplines of Execution. It’s a brilliant book on how to organize teams to achieve great results.

The authors created a simple goal setting formula, “From X to Y by When.”

X represents the current state
Y represents the intended outcome
When is the timeframe

For instance, “Grow revenue from $17.5M to $19.5M by December 31, 2018.”

You could say, “We will grow by 15% in 2018” or “Our goal is to exceed $19.5 million in revenue in 2018,” but they lack the specificity of From X to Y by When.

Don’t Mistake Dreams for Goals

Most people fail to achieve their New Year’s Resolutions, because they set “dreams” not “goals.”

A dream is something you want or desire. You may want to double the size of your business, get into the best shape of your life, or win a Nobel Prize.

You may even make your dreams specific and time bound, and create a goal masquerading as a strategy like “25 in 5” or “30-30.” (Grow to $25 million in 5 years, or grow to $30 million by 2030.)

Dreams can feel an awful lot like a goal, but they lack two key elements:

An unrelenting commitment to achieve the goal.
A clear understanding of what you will change or transform to achieve the goal.

Transform Behaviors vs Fantasizing About Outcomes

Good goals are written in context.

Late last year I lead a client through their annual strategic planning process. The sales team came to the session with a bold goal: “Grow revenue from $18.2M to $25M by December 31, 2020.”

With the goal clearly framed it sparked a conversation:

How is this achievable when we’ve been averaging 4% year over year growth since 2015?
Was the sales team dreaming?

Good goals stretch you to change. To move From X to Y by When you will have to change systems, behaviors, and even beliefs.

The sales team wasn’t dreaming, they were challenging the rest of the organization,“What do we have to transform to become a $25M company?” The management team took the challenge and worked through each division of the business to consider what would have to change to achieve the goal.

When the team focused on behaviors and systems, the goal became far more achievable. It wasn’t a dream, because they knew what had to change to reach the objective.

Use the New Year to Set and Renew Your Goals

I love the New Year. It’s a brilliant time for reflection and planning. Don’t let the opportunity pass you by.

Define what you want to achieve, and then frame it with the simple formula, From X to Y by When.

You are far more likely to achieve your goals when you get specific about what you want, why you want it, and what will have to change to get it.

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What Makes Some Slogans More Memorable than Others

Memorable slogans are crafted for the ear. Once you’ve heard the phrase a couple of times you can easily recall and repeat it:

Timex: It takes a licking and keeps on ticking
M&M’s: Melts in your mouth, not in your hands
Bounty: The quicker picker upper

These slogans connect in your brain in a way that average slogans do not:

Nissan: Innovation that excites
Toshiba: Leading innovation
Fujifilm: Value from innovation

Average slogans aren’t bad, but they’re not memorable. It’s like these phrases were created to fit a perceived marketing obligation, “All brands have slogans, right?”

Branding to an obligation is an exercise in compromise. Companies end up using pretty words that say nothing. Memorable slogans, on the other hand, are crafted with purpose. They’re phrases designed to convey a clear idea in a compelling way.

Memorable Slogans Convey Meaning

Slogans without meaning are not memorable.

Nissan’s slogan is “Innovation that excites.” This looks like a sentence. It’s phonetically correct, but what does it mean?

Laura Ries argues in her new book Battlecry, “Many marketing campaigns, especially corporate campaigns, depend almost exclusively on abstraction … Premium-quality products, customer-oriented sales force, state-of-the-art technology and world-class service.”

Abstract words are pure puffery. The phrases tend to sound good, but they lack concrete ideas for your brain to associate meaning.

Abstract words counter the effectiveness of a slogan, because your brain discards statements that lack meaning.

Memorable slogans are clear, concrete statements:

Avis: We try harder
Folgers: The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup
Miller Lite: Tastes great, less filling

The slogan conveys something meaningful, and that helps your brain file the slogan in your long term memory.

Memorable Slogans Delight and Surprise

Memorable slogans possess great copywriting:

KFC: Finger lickin’ good
US Army: Be all you can be
LVCVA: What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas

These slogans are like little poems. Using rhymes and alliterations can make slogans unforgettable.

Other slogans stick in your mind because they capture a truth about the customer experience:

BMW: The ultimate driving machine
De Beers: A diamond is forever
Nike: Just Do It

Whether through rhyme or revelation, memorable slogans capture the essence of the brand with brilliant language.

Memorable Slogans Make Competitors Irrelevant

Creating an unforgettable slogan has the power to transform a brand:

The Just Do It campaign took Nike from 18% to 43% market share in 10 years.

A Diamond Is Forever catapulted De Beers sales by 55% in 3 years.

The Ultimate Driving Machine took BMW from the 11th largest European import brand in the United States to the #1 luxury car brand.

Memorable slogans stick in your customers’ minds, and this makes the competition irrelevant.

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Be Memorable: Own a Position in Your Customers’ Minds

The enemy of your brand is indifference.

You might think being hated and disliked is the worst place for a brand, but it’s not. Being ignored is far worse, because your brand doesn’t even register in your customers’ minds.

In branding, indifference is the equivalent of purgatory.

Companies that create a bond with their customers are memorable. They own a position in their customers’ minds.

Gene Simmons said, “People either love KISS or hate us with all of their guts, and that’s the way we like it.” This is a bold statement, but there’s a real gem of truth in it. It’s better to be hated than ignored.

How to be Memorable

You don’t have to be a jerk to be memorable. Rather, your brand has to stand for something.

Apple earns a staggering profit margin over its three direct competitors. In the last year, HP had a profit margin of 4.5%, Dell’s profit margin was 4.2%, and Lenovo earned 2.1% profit margin. Apple earned 21.6% profit margin.

There are a variety of reasons for the range of profit margins, but let’s focus on one area. Compare these 4 organization’s taglines:

HP: Make It Matter

Dell: Better Technology Is Better Business

Lenovo: For Those Who Do

Apple: Think Different

Which of these statements sticks in your mind? Think Different right? Apple is more memorable than its direct competitors, because it takes a stance.

A Tagline to Remember

A tagline is a powerful tool to focus your brand in your customers’ minds.

According to Ad Age, “A Diamond Is Forever” is the most memorable tagline of all time. Introduced in 1938, the tagline catapulted diamond sales by 55% within three years. Eighty years later, 87% of engagement rings have a diamond as the center stone.

A Diamond Is Forever sticks in customers’ minds. The tagline makes all other jewels irrelevant.

Powerful taglines are like earworms. They’re hard to forget:

Nike: Just Do It

Avis: We Try Harder

Wheaties: Breakfast of Champions

Taglines capture the essence of a brand in a short memorable statement. But what makes these taglines so memorable is how they capture what the brand believes.

Just Do It speaks to athletes. It’s a command and a call to action. People can identify with Nike, and that makes the brand unforgettable.

Rally Your Team to Act

Taglines may be even more important for employees than customers, because they function as a rallying cry.

Maya Angelou said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

The fastest way to capture the hearts and minds of your customers is through your people. Great brands are built from the inside out by you and your team. But the enemy is busyness.

Your team is busy. They’re filling orders, responding to customers, completing projects, and a million other daily duties that keep your operations running. It’s a whirlwind of important tasks, but none that create memorable customer experiences.

A rallying cry guides your team to act with purpose. For instance, Avis’ team knows “they try harder.” Apple’s team knows their success comes from “thinking differently.” The tagline indicates what’s important for the organization.

Escape Brand Purgatory

The enemy of your brand is indifference.

Selling a good product at a fair price is not enough to stand out. You have to fight to make your brand memorable.

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Your 2 Biggest Competitors: Inertia and Time

Your real competitors aren’t external. They’re internal. You’re competing with inertia and time. We all face the forces of inertia and time, and they are dogged, ferocious competitors.

I find it strange to describe “inertia” and “time” as competitors, but they’re two of the biggest obstacles to growing your business and brand.

In my business and my clients’ businesses, external competitors are never really the biggest concern. Sure, we focus on differentiating our brands and developing our competitive advantages, but I can’t say I’ve ever really sweated the actions or services of another company.

Inertia and time are another story. These competitors slow me down, get in my way, and hurt my business.

So how do you beat them? The answer is surprisingly simple, focus.

Say No Early and Often

Apple’s revenue last year was over $229 billion, but most of their products can fit on a large boardroom table.

That’s remarkable, and it takes incredible discipline. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said, “This is the most focused company I know of, am aware of, or have any knowledge of. We say no to good ideas every day so that the company can keep its focus on a small number of areas.”

Focus is essential for overcoming inertia and time.

You add more work to your plate and stretch your resources every time you say yes. This is deadly. A long list of priorities erodes your company’s profitability and revenue growth.

You have to know where to draw the line, and when to say no.

One of the key values of branding is focus. Clearly defining the three big questions helps you set the boundaries for your business:

What do you want?
Where do you play?
How do you win?

Without focus, every business decision and opportunity consumes too much time. You end up hemming and hawing over options, while time keeps marching on.

Get Out of Your Own Way

Most of our challenges with time and inertia are self-created. We’re our own worst enemies.

According to Ron Wince, 45% to 50% of what a company does is a waste. These are systems that do not bring value to customers, nor do they drive revenue or cut costs.

When I heard Ron say that I was blown away. But as I looked at my own business I realized he’s absolutely right.

A lot of processes evolve over time. They might have been implemented for a good reason, but after a while those processes can become obsolete.

The problem is institutionalized processes are hard to spot, and even harder to get rid of.

If you are fighting against inertia and time, you have to kill wasteful procedures. We all work with constrained resources, and anything holding you back has to be eliminated.

As a starting point, take a look at your own routines. For 5 days keep an hourly log of your activities. Once you’ve tracked your routine for a week, break it down into an inventory of tasks, processes, and deliverables. What are you doing that could be considered waste?

Eliminate anything that does not

Bring value to your customers,
Does not drive revenue, or
Does not cut costs.

Time and Inertia Are Growing Stronger

The most common response to “How are you?” is “Busy.”

It’s a strange response, but so common in our hurried culture. Busy has become a badge of honor. It’s not uncommon for people to work 60 to 80 hours a week. The demands on our time are increasing.

The busier you get, the harder it is to overcome inertia. It takes more effort to start projects, and incredible discipline to stay on task day after day. But this is our reality.

The challenges of inertia and time aren’t going anywhere. You will be competing against them for the rest of your life.

Every day is a new opportunity to overcome inertia and time. Use focus to hold them at bay, and make a point of beating them. If you can overcome inertia and time then you’ll make any external competitor irrelevant.

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Lead Measures: Measure the Behaviors that Grow Your Brand

Do you ever get the feeling you’re managing your business from the rearview mirror? You look at the numbers, but they’re all behind you:

Revenue
Profitability
Customer Satisfaction
Market Share

These are lag measures. They tell you where your business is, where it was, or even where you want it to go. Lag measures give you the score, but they don’t tell you how to win.

It’s a little like setting a weight loss goal, but only using the scale to track performance. You can weigh yourself every day, and get a clear indication of how you’re doing. And with a plan, you may even start to see progress.

The guidelines are simple. Eat less and exercise more to create a caloric deficit, and if you’re disciplined you’ll see the number on the scale go down. But ask anyone who’s tried to lose weight if “staying disciplined” was enough to achieve their goal.

The data proves that “discipline” is not enough to sustainably change behaviors. You may start on a new goal with gusto, but quickly lose momentum.

To achieve your goals — whether personal or business — requires two measures: a lead and a lag. Sean Covey et al. write in The 4 Disciplines of Execution, “A lag measure tells you if you’ve achieved the goal, a lead measure tells you if you are likely to achieve the goal.”

What’s Your Big Goal?

The first step in defining your lead measures is to get crystal clear on your goal. What do you want?

As you define what you want to accomplish, apply a number. I like how Sean Covey approaches it. He recommends setting a goal with 3 parameters, “from X to Y by when.” For example, “Increase percent of annual revenue from new products from 15% to 21% by December 31st.”

From X to Y by When defines the game. This is where we are. This is our destination. This is the deadline. With a clear goal you can now focus on developing your lead measures.

What Metric Predicts the Result?

Looking at your goal, what are the leading indicators or measures that guarantee your success?

For dieters, the lead measure is calories consumed. MyFitnessPal is one of the most popular smartphone apps, because it helps users capture this metric. On a daily basis, people can log what they’ve eaten and clearly quantify if they are on track. Consistently achieving their lead measure increases the odds they’ll see movement in their lag measure (the number on the scale goes down).

In my business, one of my lead measures is “New Client Calls” or NCCs. These are phone or face-to-face meetings with people that fit into my company’s target market. The difference between these calls and a cold call is the level of intent. To qualify as a NCC, both parties have to be interested in having a conversation.

I track NCCs as a lead measure in Salesforce. We added a custom field on a Call Log, and created a report that shows a rolling 6 week trend of NCCs.

Reviewing the report weekly gives me a good indication of future sales performance.

What Behaviors Drive the Lead Measure?

Once you know the lead measures, you can get creative on execution. You can explore new strategies, tactics, and behaviors to drive your lead measures.

Using NCCs, I quantify the effectiveness of my various marketing assets: landing pages, calls to action, content marketing, and campaigns. I run experiments and try to optimize these assets. We’re constantly asking, “How do we generate more productive conversations?”

I have found the exercise incredibly valuable for 2 reasons:

Set Priorities: It helps me separate what we “should do” from what we “must do.”

Quantify Results: It helps me quantify which marketing channels have the most impact on the lead measure.

Beyond that, lead measures are a tool to relentlessly focus on moving forward. They cut through the noise and provide clarity:

If you do this, you will achieve that.
If you aren’t able to hit your lead measure, what do you have to change?
If the lag measure isn’t moving, do you have the right lead measure?

The simple logic puts marketing into perspective. You don’t have to be brilliant at all aspects of marketing, just the areas that drive your lead measures.

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Ask Customers, “What’s Your #1 Challenge?”

People don’t know what they want. You can ask them, but chances are you won’t find the answer you’re looking for.

Henry Ford famously said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Asking, “What do you want?”, isn’t the right question. You’ve got to be a little more subtle to uncover your customers’ wants and needs. Ask the question in a different way.

What’s the #1 biggest challenge you’re facing right now?

Reframing the question generates richer results, because people are better at talking about their situation than their needs. For example, ask a friend or family member, “What do you want for dinner?” Eight out of ten times you’ll hear, “I dunno. What do you want?”

That indecision is what you’re trying to avoid when you engage your customers. Instead of asking for wants, ask for challenges. What is your #1 challenge? It’s an open-ended question that can unlock hidden insights from your customers.

Planning for 2018

This question is top of mind for me, because I am working on my 2018 strategic plan. I am reviewing my editorial calendar and marketing plans, and working to put together content and services that will bring you a ton of value.

To help with the process, I’d like to ask for your input. “What’s the #1 biggest marketing challenge you’re facing right now?”

Would you take 3-5 minutes to complete a short survey. Your input is invaluable.

Survey

Thanks!

Jeremy Miller

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Strategies vs Tactics: Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts

The “Trojan Horse” is a tale of strategy and deception.

The city of Troy was under siege for a decade. The Greek armies tried and tried to take the independent city, but they couldn’t break through the walls.

The Greek army, the most powerful of its time, waged attack after attack against the city of Troy. Think of the movie 300. The Spartans were the Greek warriors trying to break through these walls, and they were completely unsuccessful for 10 years.

Finally, after a decade of abject failure, the Greeks developed a strategy.

The Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid an elite squad of soldiers inside it. Meanwhile, the rest of the Greek army made a great display of breaking down their camps, and pretending to sail away.

The fleeing army left the giant wooden horse at the gates of the city of Troy as a “gift.”

The Trojans were initially skeptical of the outrageous gift. A priest named Laocoön argued the city should destroy the horse and famously said, “afraid of Greeks, even those bearing gifts.”

After much debate, the Trojans pulled the wooden horse into the city as a trophy. They believed they had won the war by standing their ground, defending their walls, and holding the Greeks at bay for a decade.

As we already know, that was a devastating decision. That night the squad of soldiers inside the horse crept out of the structure and opened the city’s gates. The rest of the Greek army — the ones who pretended to sail away — were waiting to pounce.

An effective strategy is the most important aspect of winning. For a decade, the Greeks demonstrated that tactics without strategy have little effect. This lesson is equally relevant today. When you put tactics first you can get mired in a stalemate.

The problem is tactics are a lot easier to grasp than strategy. Your team may feel productive as they implement marketing campaigns and tactics, but struggle to justify their impact or return on investment. The tactics seem to be working, but who really knows.

Just look at the number of companies wallowing in social media tactics that have absolutely no effect on sales, customer satisfaction, or brand awareness.

Putting tactics first is never wise. Your competitors are too smart, and they are constantly looking for an advantage. Your brand strategy is how you rise above the day-to-day hustle so that you can determine which tactics to employ.

There are dozens of marketing tactics that you can use to grow your business. The challenge is to avoid the pull of “what to use” or “staying relevant with technology,” and formulate a strategy.

Start with the first question for defining a strategy, “What do you want?”

You're reading Strategies vs Tactics: Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts by Jeremy Miller, originally posted on Sticky Branding. Did you enjoy this article? If so, sign-up for more of Jeremy's articles at Sticky Branding.