Hoping for the best isn’t a strategy

Hoping for the best is not a strategy, indeed overoptimism is the enemy of critical and creative thinking.

Over the years and especially in sales management roles, I heard many more times than I care to recall that the customer was ‘on the brink of buying’, that he ‘just needed to clear his existing stock’, that the price was good but he ‘just didn’t have a demand this month…but next time’ etc, etc.

Then the emails and phone calls never get a response, the Rottweiler gatekeeper at the reception won’t let them through or make an appointment; you have seen how it goes, the circle of wasting time in the vein hope of throwing mud at the wall and hoping some might stick.

This kind of ‘quote and hope’ behaviour comes from sales teams and their management who operate without a plan or a clear strategy. It’s simply like throwing an offer over the garden wall and hoping it lands at the feet of someone who cares and wants what you have at that immediate moment in time; it’s not smart, it’s not a clear and controlled process, and it’s nearly always unsuccessful. But hey, the sales report was filled out, which nobody read, and ‘next month will be better’ – we just need to hope.

I would suggest that this approach has never been good enough, and it’s worth nothing at all in today’s environment of business development. Often, buyers lack the courage to tell you or your salespeople clearly and openly that you are losing or have lost the opportunity to sell to them and this simply feeds the hope for a better result ‘very soon’.

So, my message here is stop hoping and start doing something about creating a very defined strategy to develop your business.

If you accept all the above then you are probably ready to ask ‘OK, what should our strategy be?’

Well, sorry, I can tell you from here, there is no oven ready formula or some easy-to-read handbook that will create the right strategy for your organisation.

Yes, there are some principles, and yes there are ways to apply certain tests and criteria to help you formulate your individual path, but the point is that word ‘individual’ because not one business is the same as any other.

Each organisation has its own resources and skill sets within its people, its product line, its routes to market, its reputation, its ambition, its financial resources, its genuine market opportunities, its capabilities and capacities, and these must be honestly considered when developing a strategic plan.

And unfortunately, it’s precisely because it’s not a quick fix, out of the box way to think about the future, that virtually all organisations don’t have a strategic plan, but simply wander the forest hoping to find a clearing in the woods.

They will talk endlessly and convincingly about not having the resources, not having enough understanding of what to do and how to do it, of not having enough time right now; I would challenge by replying, is there not enough time to ensure you know where you’re going and how to get your business there? Because for me I would say without that clear path, you certainly are wasting a huge amount of time.

So, no opportunities to read this article and come away with a business strategy that fits you, no.

What I can advise on is what to avoid, this is somewhat simpler because some universal truths do apply here.

Bad strategy isn’t just an absence of a missing good strategy, it’s most often accompanied by misconceptions about your position in all areas of the business and the competitive environment in which you operate, and, sadly, poor leadership plays its part. Spend time to really understand your situation.

Bad strategies do not recognise the challenges faced, let alone define them and confront them; rather they often mistake desired goals for a strategy. Unnecessary complexity, and especially complexity for its own sake to try and make things look clever, is bad strategy; if it’s fluff, put it in the bin where it belongs.

And of course, bad strategy fails to consult everyone who will be responsible for delivering the result, and in turn fails to get them on board, only a team can win because an organisation is a team game.

Simply put, your strategic development plan is a clearly defined and limited set of outcomes that you want your business to achieve accompanied by a path for what must happen for this to be realised.

Prepare it with honesty and thought and get to work on it, and if it all seems too much, get some professional advice; but don’t delay, as Caesar said ‘great things should be done without hesitation so that the feeling of danger will not weaken courage and speed.’