Focus On Business and Marketing Strategy Not Tactical Business Challenges

What are the business challenges that many companies are facing today?

Most companies would say:

1. Increasing sales
2. Getting the sales person to close the sale
3. Getting the right products to market at the right time
4. Overcoming competition
5. Reduced margins

While these are very real challenges they are quite tactical in nature. When a company is consistently overhauling these tactical challenges it may be symptomatic of a lack of strategy, or describe a culture that is either driven by a sales persona or an engineering mindset.

Instead companies would be more successful and efficient if they were focused on the underlying issues that, when addressed, can almost instantly solve the tactical challenges mentioned above. These might include:

1. Clear differentiation from competition (creating a brand message that is embraced by all constituents)
2. Ensuring a market position and supporting messaging that establishes trust and credibility (communicating the benefits all the time and delivering those benefit statements at the right time)
3. Delivering a product the market wants (establishing a clear product roadmap and creating a product that delivers a clear return on investment)
4. Establishing the right infrastructure of influencers (leveraging influencers to enhance the credibility of the company and its products and accelerate the sales cycle)
5. Focus: product focus, market focus, focused strategy (a continuing focus on the companies core competency)

Over the coming weeks I will outline each of these strategies in more detail, but for now this should offer some good food for thought.