Chapter Four

Chapter four of my new book—A Humble Guide To Fixing Everything In Brand, Marketing, And Sales. Available on Amazon right now.

You can read the first chapter here, the second chapter here and the third chapter here.

CHAPTER FOUR

I’m Going to Tell You Exactly What to Do

My whole life is wrapped up in this solution.

Can you smell what The Rock is cooking? Blocking and tackling is necessary, but not sufficient. So what are we supposed to do about it?

Before I dive into the solution for this very real problem, I want to be perfectly clear about something. Because this is the part of my message that people often don’t hear. I say it. I’ve already said it here multiple times! But many don’t hear it. Blocking and tackling is critical. It’s necessary. And being good at it is super-important. I’m not saying that we should all kill our martech stacks. I’m not saying that companies should stop engaging in ABM. I’m not saying that we should all stop creating nurture streams or outbound sales cadences. All of these things are critically important.

It’s just that these things aren’t a strategy in and of themselves. And to be honest, even the best blocking and tackling these days produces some pretty lackluster results.?

Blocking and tackling is not a strategy. It does not provide an advantage over competitors in a world where everyone has all the same kinds of people, processes, and technology. Blocking and tackling does, however, provide a foundation upon which your go-to-market advantage may be built. But to truly set ourselves apart from competitors, we have to do more. We have to be more. We have to create something that is unique to our company and cannot be duplicated.

We have to break the script.

Here’s the part where I start telling you exactly what to do. And you’re probably not going to like it. Some will probably think I’m just making shit up to sell my agency’s services. Others may feel that I’m repackaging old ideas in a new wrapper. And a few might feel that what I’m suggesting is too disruptive, ambitious, or ambiguous to actually be implemented. But here is the honest truth: My whole life is wrapped up in this solution.

I founded The Starr Conspiracy, an experience agency, more than 20 years ago. It’s not just a job for me. And it’s way more than just some company I started. It’s even more than my life’s work. The Starr Conspiracy is my obsession. Like any obsession, it is equal parts light and dark. It exhilarates and torments me in equal measure. Because the models and strategies I am compelled to create have real-life consequences for people I love. When I am successful, the people around me flourish. My colleagues succeed. Our clients succeed. But when I fail, it means that people around me suffer the consequences.

The last three years or so have been humbling. I’ve been to the mountain’s peak and I’ve languished in the cold shadows of the valley. Like so many people, I’ve experienced the massive disequilibrium of having nearly every aspect of my life disrupted and every pillar of my belief system challenged. But this has also been a period of great reflection, level setting, and learning. And so what I’m now about to share with you is something I truly believe. And I wouldn’t make such disruptive recommendations casually. There is too much riding on it.

In truth, I’ve seen the writing on the wall for a while now. But it really took the experiences of the last three years to move me into action. I’ve sensed and observed the gradual-then-sudden decline of sales and marketing vision and strategy in tech for years. There are more tech companies today than ever before. More money is being spent on sales and marketing each year. Everyone is doing the same stuff. Breakout performances are becoming more rare. And there is an observable lack of innovative sales and marketing models put forward to challenge the status quo. What other conclusion can be drawn? Disruption to prevailing sales and marketing strategies is inevitable, necessary, and desirable.?

But what’s next?

If I don’t answer that question, who will? I’m dead serious about that. It may sound grandiose, but who the hell is going to do something about this mess? I’ve been yelling about it from the sidelines for the last few years. But I can no longer stand by and do nothing.?

I mean, when you really think about it, when was the last time someone shared with you a fundamentally different approach to sales and marketing? I’m not talking about one of those one-shot-business-book fads. I’m talking about a well-reasoned and strongly supported argument for a completely new way of doing things??

Well here’s one for ya.

[END]

Thanks for reading. Here are the first three chapters if you missed them.

• Chapter One: Why Your Marketing Shit is Broken
• Chapter Two: Big Picture
• Chapter Three: The End of the Blocking and Tackling Era

Only chapters one - four are available online. A Humble Guide To Fixing Everything In Brand, Marketing, And Sales is available right now on Amazon !

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this chapter! Take care—Bret.