What you need to know about Skills and Strategy

One of the reasons small business owners often work hard, for too little reward, is that they confuse skills with strategy.

The difference between skills and strategy can be summed up like this:

Success is 20% skills and 80% strategy. You might know how to read… but more importantly, what do you plan to read?

When it comes to marketing, I’ve found that most small business owners score well on skills and poorly on strategy. They know how to do the mechanics (the 20%) of marketing, yet they achieve a fraction of the results they should be getting, because they are missing the strategy — the 80% that makes all the difference!

Right skills, wrong strategy

Unaware that their lack of an effective strategy is losing them a fortune, they carry on doing the right things, incorrectly.

Some extremely common examples you see every day include:

• They may know how to set up a Twitter or Linkedin account, but they lack the strategy to transfer their time and effort, into bankable results.
• They may know how to publish a newsletter, but they lack the strategy to turn it into a rapidly growing source of sales and business leads.
• They may know how to answer the phone professionally, but they lack the strategy to transfer enough inbound inquiries into sales or new clients.
• They may know how to set up a blog, but they lack the strategy to get thousands of people reading it and talking about it to their friends.
• They may know how to write a marketing message, but they lack the strategy to inspire people to read it or compel readers to take action.

So, they say they tried [whatever type of marketing] ‘but it doesn’t work’. It does work – but not if you’re doing it incorrectly.

Here’s the thing: Very, very few small business owners have an effective strategy for any of their marketing. They simply copy what they see others doing – even though the people they copy are equally baffled and are also following what THEY see others doing.

This approach is something I call, follow-the-follower. What we used to refer to as the blind following the blind.

We need to be smarter than that

For example, does your email marketing generate significant, bankable results for your business? It should. Here’s how I helped Irene make over $32,000 in 9 days, with email marketing. Everything improves when you get strategic, so long as you choose the correct strategy for your business.

So, how do you make sure you have the correct strategy in place?

The easiest business decision you will ever make

The decision here is extremely simple, because there are only 2 options for you to choose from. If you’re an entrepreneur, it’s the easiest business decision you will ever make.

Here it is:

1. If you have a lot of time and a lot of money, you can use trial and error. Dabbling with DIY marketing is extremely costly in time and in missed sales / new clients.
2. If you don’t have years to waste or money to burn, you can hire a proven marketing expert. He or she can show you exactly what you need to do, so you start moving in the right direction within days.

I never hear from people in that first group. Obviously :)

However, I hear from lots of entrepreneurs who want to pick my brains for the answers their business needs. You are welcome to do the same. It’s a service that is [literally] guaranteed to help you. You can find out more here.