Hi guys, Diane here. I've been going through a few strategy videos over the last few weeks because I realize it's something that a lot of business owners have misconceptions about. Plus, we're in the middle of summer and moving into the fall, which is usually when I would be planning strategies for the upcoming year when I was in corporate.
So first of all, what is your strategy? Your strategy, in its simplest form, is what you're trying to accomplish in your business – right? And the reason that you need it is that it is the decision-making guide within your business. It's how you stay intentional and focused so that you can achieve what you want in your business.
How do you develop a strategy? It requires clarity around your business's vision.
What do you want to achieve? What does your business look like? Once you have that clear, it requires smart goals around that vision. Then, once you've set up your smart goals, you can filter down to the strategic focus areas in your business that will achieve those goals.
That's how you're going to develop your strategy, right?
So I still meet a lot of people and start off with a lot of clients who come to me and say, "Hey – I have this strategy and it doesn't seem to be working..." or, "How come the strategy isn't working?" or, you know, "I paid someone a lot of money to do this and I don't see any traction or results."
So why isn't your strategy working? When people come to me they usually fall into two buckets.
The first bucket is they think they have a strategy, but they really have a bunch of tactics. I once asked someone: "Well, what's your marketing strategy? What are you doing to get the word out there about your products?" Their response: "Oh, I'm doing a bunch of Facebook Lives." Alright, and what's the purpose of doing the Facebook Lives? How does it tie back to your business and are you tracking it to see whether or not it's helping you convert sales? That isn't a strategy; it's a tactic.
It's how you're doing something. It doesn't tie back to a goal or part of your vision for the business if there's no alignment, and that's why it's a tactic. For you to have a cohesive and aligned strategy, there needs to be an alignment between the vision for the business, the goals for that vision, and then the strategic focus areas. A lot of times, people don't have that.
They go employing several tactics because that's what the market sells. "Buy my funnel and you'll be able to increase your leads by 200%" or "'I'll teach you how to use Evergreen' webinars to boost your lead generation" – and, sure, all of these things are great. But if they are not aligned with your strategic vision or business goal, then it's mostly a distraction.
The second bucket I see a lot of business owners fall into is that they don't do any tactical planning. They have a solid strategy in place, but there aren't any tactics around how they're going to achieve their goals, which is where a lot people end up sideways. They're not sure how to accomplish what they'd like, what the next step is, if they have to do it alone, etc.
That's where a lot of the confusion is. Once I have the strategy – and this is really where a lot of people fall off with their strategy implementations, because they're not sure what to do next or how they're going to do it – that's where the tactical planning piece becomes so important, right?
If you want to achieve your goals within your strategy, you have to plan how you're going to do that... and that's where you can bring in the tactics. Have a clear strategy that aligns your business's vision and goals and focus areas. Then you can bring in tactics that will help you achieve those goals and will ultimately help you achieve your strategic vision.
Okay. So what does it mean to plan what you're going to do in your business? Once you have your goals, the tactical planning is how are we going to achieve this within the business vertical and your strategic focus areas.
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If you think you need more help developing your strategy, or you're interested in being part of the Strategy and Action Planning Workshop beta group that I'm releasing this fall – where we'll actually go through all of these planning processes and build out your tactical planning piece so that you can achieve your strategic vision – drop me a comment below or shoot me a direct message.
More details are going to be coming out on that workshop pretty soon, and space is going to be extremely limited since it's going to be a beta group, so reach out if you're interested.
I hope to hear from you!
Until next time,
Diane
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