Confident Business Development Professional

Ready, Fire, Aim…

I have two friends. They are each launching a new product and they each have a completely different approach to planning.

My first friend spent a lot of time and resources in developing her “go-to-market” strategy. She wants to make sure she has everything right before she launches: her business plan, her branding, her pitch, her collaterals, her website, her terms of trade, her launch plan.

My other friend is taking the Ready, Fire, Aim approach that Mainfreight is famous for. Before he even launched his website, he was working his network, knocking on doors and meeting with high profile influencers and buyers. Based on feedback and knock-backs he adapted his plan, got back out into the market and already has some runs on the board.

Although I'm a big fan of planning, sometimes we can spend too much time planning when we need to just get on with it and do something. In the time it took my first friend to get everything right, she could have approached 100 companies and had a dozen meaningful conversations with prospective buyers. These conversations would have given her more insights around what the market thinks than what she could ever hope to find out in the planning phase.

I reckon the comparison of my friends’ approaches is like the comparison of New Zealand’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the United Kingdom’s response. New Zealand acted quickly and decisively on limited information and worked things out on the fly. The UK delayed, debated, deliberated and delayed some more. Although New Zealand has geographical advantages, it was the courage to act that made the difference.

I’m interested in your thoughts, is over planning and procrastination getting in the way of progress in your business?

Mark Windust is an influential Thought Leader in the areas of Sales Strategy, Sales Leadership and Sales Performance. Since launching his consulting practice in 2007, Mark has worked with 1000's of business leaders, salespeople and entrepreneurs’ to help them transform their sales results.