The famous Chinese general, Sun Tzu once said:

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

I’ve just returned from the annual ‘Gathering’ of my fellow Duct Tape Marketing consultants in Kansas City, MO.  It was good.  But it also reinforced a basic premise of the Duct Tape Marketing ‘system’ my colleagues and I practice — a practice that helps to differentiate us from other ‘marketing people’ — the web designers, the email marketers, the copywriters, the graphic designers, etc.

Strategy BEFORE Tactics
I like to say that, “. . . to the man with a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail”.  That’s true for many professional fields.

My father was an MD.  He began his medical career as a surgeon.  One day I asked him, “Dad, is surgery the cure for everything?”  His thoughtful reply was full of wisdom . . . “It is if you’re a surgeon!”.  Yes, even the medical specialists have their built-in biases!

However . . . your marketing challenges are unique.  To your business or your practice.

And while you may be talking with the most gifted person in their area of expertise — web design, blogging, etc. — what you need to do before you engage anyone . . . is to know WHY you need what they can do for you and then, choose only those ‘solutions’ (we call them ‘tactics’ in marketing) that are most likely to address the issues you have and create the results you want.

No Axe To Grind
In The Profit Project™, (our proprietary approach to creating growth in a business or practice) we don’t / won’t advocate a specific solution — regardless of how good it may be intrinsically — unless and until we know what is necessary to address the symptomatic ‘issue/s’ that a client presents to us. Only then is it possible and appropriate to suggest the best means of correcting the situation a client wants to change.

Back when I was a practicing financial advisor (CLU, ChFC) I took a professional oath that said, in part, “I will do for my client, that which, were I in the position of my client, I would do for myself”.  In other words, while it’s good to ‘take your own medicine’ and ‘drink your own Kool-Aide’ . . . you’d better know which kind is best for the situation you’re in!

KEY POINT:
Sun Tzu’s wisdom on STRATEGY is still valid, over 2,000 years after his death.  As my physician father said, “Knowing how to make the incision for surgery is important.  Knowing why and where . . . is invaluable!”