Quick wins and the second wave of excitement
This was originally shared on the Time Well Wasted newsletter last week - basically where I idea dump on sales and marketing. You should sign up to the newsletter to get these earlier... not to mention the books I've started to give away.
One of the things we noticed very quickly as the economy started to slow down was an aversion to longer-term strategic thinking and goals.
The conversations turned from “yes, let’s plan for the activity to ramp up over the next 6 months” to “how can I impact the bottom line now”.
And that’s totally understandable.
Many, many businesses lost their sources of leads and revenue seemingly overnight. Marketers were being asked to have a much more immediate focus, attempting to salvage targets and downward trends.
The long term is important. It can’t be forgotten about and it’s where we’re likely to see the opportunities come from as the world comes back online.
But, without getting past the short term, there is no long term.
We have always worked on long term strategic relationships with clients. Strategy is a core pillar of our business. But, we know that despite having a longer-term view on the engagement, clients need to see early ‘traction’ to be comfortable being on the journey.
So, to appease that, we’ve always included ‘Quick Wins’ at the start of the campaign - things that we can implement quickly and have an almost immediate return.
With the current state of affairs, we’ve all spent the last 5-7 weeks in an adrenaline-fuelled haze, fighting fires and plugging holes. Hopefully, your own quick wins helped you adapt through that.
But now we’re in the middle ground. A lull in the excitement.
We’re waiting to see how and when much of the world will reopen. We’re waiting for key decision-makers to come back from furloughs... and by comparison, it’s mundane and boring (anyone who said “only boring people get bored” never lived through a lockdown).
So now is the time to start planning. Look longer term. Build your plans - but build them around a flexible framework that can adjust to potential outcomes of the next few weeks. Nothing is going to be concrete.
And also, be prepared for the second wave of excitement.
As the world comes back online, there’s going to be an awful lot of opportunity and scope for renewed growth - but you’ll need to move fast and be agile with what you’re doing. So revisit those quick wins.
So, what are your plans in the next few weeks, months and further out? I'd love to hear them.
I know I’m not supposed to have an ask or a CTA but I’d love to see this group continue to grow. Would you mind sending it to 2 of your colleagues?
Enjoy the week ahead.
