Many professional service firms package their services by aiming them at specific audiences or industries. These firms boast capabilities their customers or prospective customers lack, and the extra sets of hands necessary to deliver.
Their calls-to-action are direct, tangible, something members of their respective target audiences can wrap their minds around: “We’ll build you a Web site,” “We’ll create your Facebook page,” “We’ll help you promote at a trade show,” “We’ll help you sell bananas.” (Well, maybe not that last one, but you get the picture).
What’s often missing from the offer, though, is the STRATEGY—the “what,” the “why, and the “where” of doing something.
Without a strategy . . .
- How do you know that what you hired the services firm to do will actually achieve the results you want?
- How will you know if a recommended approach is sound?
- How will you know what success looks like (and how will you measure it)?
The fact is you don’t know.
Executing without strategy is like swinging from tree to tree in the jungle with your eyes closed. Chances are you’ll miss. Doing something just for the sake of “doing” is not a solution. On the flipside, engaging a strategy without tactics doesn’t cut it, either. Knowing what to do, but lacking the skills and expertise to execute, is like having both arms tied behind your back as you’re handed a vine and told to swing.
Recognizing opportunities and nuances in the marketplace takes expertise and experience. Knowing how to access and being able to deploy various resources as needed are talents not developed easily overnight. Trust me, I know. It’s taken me years to build a team of proven, trusted resources that harnesses both strategic and tactical aptitude.
Combine a great STRATEGY with superb TACTICS (followed with built-in, timely measures to gauge success, naturally) and you’ll be soaring through the jungle with confidence in no time.
