Thinking youself to marketing more effectively

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to

entertain a thought without accepting it.

Aristotle

Readers of this blog will recognize a similiar post in 2011.

A marketing strategy starts off as a theory of how best to organize, invest and put into action resources (weapons) in such a way they work together to achieve results.

Thinking analytically, systematically and executing while robustly evaluating and correcting is critical to being a successful and effective marketer. Notice that Aristotle did not say an "educated person" but rather an educated mind. Hence, a disciplined way of thinking. Disciplined, not stale.  Thinking that moves to action.

Anything worth doing, is worth doing poorly

until you can learn to do it well.

 

 

Small business marketing leaders, whether owners or indivdual salespeople, who succeed at the strategic thinking level have the individual capacity to cope with the complexity, fluidity, and uncertainty of situations. These leaders have learned to follow experience and develop followers of their marketing. They know marketing is successful when people are paying attention. You do not have to have everything laid out in a perfect order. You seek clarity over certainty in every decision and you have the resiliency and ingenuity to adapt to new and different circumstances.

As a strategic marketer, and all successful businesses are, your prime responsibility is to ensure that your organization (even if it's just you) is going in the right direction. What is the right strategic direction? How and where do you establish it? Why is implementation so difficult?

Some Points-to-Ponder:

• Thinking involves manipulation and transforming information in memory
• Reasoning is logical thinking that uses induction or deduction to research a conclusion
• Decision making involves thinking in which individuals evaluate alternatives and make choices between them
• Remove yourself from Confirmation Bias; the tendency to search for information that supports our ideas rather than refutes them
• Remove yourself from Belief Perseverance; the tendency to hold on to a belief in the face of contradictory evidence   
   

What is the purpose of strategic and critical thinking so important to leadership? What do we do with it?

Because we don't know it all. We must try new strategies, test opinions, run with others' experience and turn it into our own........experience.

Exection, evaluation and correction..over and over and over again leads to a net result: better results, more profit and a better culture.

It is critical to your future that you seek an understanding of how the rest of the world impacts your business. The world is moving on, there are ways to do business you haven't tried.

To that end....follow experience, test opinions lightly and extend new boundaries.

Danny Smith
Mortgage Loan Officer
Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach
Impact Leadership
512-773-6528
Danny@DannyLSmith.com


Source of much of this material - Jody Holland, MuRF Systems