“Anytime you find someone more successful than you are, especially when you’re both engaged in the same business – you know they’re doing something that you aren’t.”
– Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X
We’ve reached Part 5 of the Future Vision Map series. If you’ve missed the previous posts, you can get them here.
Have you heard of the saying, “A handful of action is worth a ton of theory”? Let me put a spin on this statement by saying a handful of tactics are worth a ton of strategy. Why? Because tactics are calculated moves that help you win. Strategy is a powerful yet theoretical concept, while tactics involve action.
So when I say a handful of tactics are worth a ton of strategy, do I mean that it’s worth shooting in the dark without having a plan of action?
Yes.
I know it’s not ideal, but you’re not going to get anywhere without making any moves, are you? Besides, doing something – however small – is bound to give you insights that will eventually shape your strategy.
Of course, ideally, it’s best to nail down your strategy before making any moves at all. But more often than not, you just need to build a basic version of your product or service, get out there, obtain customer feedback, apply those results to your offering, and get out there again to get more feedback and hopefully sell more.
Prologue To Tactics
You’ve nailed your strategic focus, but before we deep dive into tactical moves that will help you deliver the best value to the market, there’s one more thing left to conceptualize: your unique position in the marketplace.
What comes to your mind when you think Starbucks? Tim Hortons? What about Walmart? Loblaws?
To me, Starbucks = premium (or overpriced!) personalized café experience, while Tim Hortons = quintessential Canadian neighbourhood coffee place. Walmart = good prices, average experience, while Loblaws = premium big box retail store with better than average customer service.
You need to think about how you want customers to view your product or service relative to the competition. That’s positioning. What emotional and functional benefits does your product/service or business offer to the customer, and how does that make you unique and valuable in the eyes of your customer?
[Geeky side note: Positioning is a term coined by Al Ries and Jack Trout; Rosser Reeves spoke of the same concept, calling it the Unique Selling Proposition; Seth Godin calls it the Purple Cow; and the Heath Brothers talk about it in their book Made to Stick. If you’re familiar with all or some of these terms/concepts, they are all the same, but…ahem…positioned differently. (Thanks to Copyblogger’s Brian Clark for pointing this out in one of his interviews)]
Tactical Maneuvers On Bizness Street
Here are four critical issues to think about to achieve tactical brilliance that will eventually help you manifest your future business vision:
Presenting the experience of your product or service (or business as a whole) to your customer
At every point of contact with the customer, what experience do you want the customer to come away with? From the time the customer becomes aware of your product, to interaction with your personnel, to purchase, to use of the product – how do you want your customers to feel about your business? What specifically can you do at these various stages that can enhance the customer’s experience?
Pricing your product or service
All I will say here is that it’s best to keep testing various pricing techniques and figure out which works best. I’m against competing on price, so as a small business I advocate enhancing your perceived value. Check out this fantastic article on ConversionXL’s blog for an intelligent treatise on pricing.
Reaching your customer
Depending on your strategy and positioning, you will want to explore how and where to sell your products or services. Direct or via distributors and/or affiliates. Brick and mortar, web, and/or mobile. As a small business, focus on two or three channels, and no more. Keep testing other channels in small ways to see which ones stick.
Creating mad, raving fans of your business who will spread the word
You can do a whole bunch of tactical marketing like Google AdWords, print ads, Facebook marketing, article writing, SEO, trade show marketing, etc. etc. in order to raise awareness about your product or service and create mad, raving fans. Yes, they work to some extent. But here’s the thing. Just make sure your product or service fills a deep customer need or desire, and then provide such fantastic customer service that not only surprises and delights your customers, but also blows their minds. Then notice that your customers not only beg for more, but also evangelize your business like there’s no tomorrow.
Join me again next week for the last post in the series, where we’ll talk money and the power of tiny actions. Until then, post a comment and say hi!
Faheem Moosa is DemGen’s lead business strategist and developer of the Future Vision Map. He can be reached at faheem@demgen.com
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