“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” ~ Mike Tyson.
Yesterday I mentioned the topic for today. Here is the story … You did all the planning. You got everyone on the same page. You press the button and the engine roars to life. Then boom! It backfires and stops. Silence, smoke and the smell of something that just blew up fills the air!
In marketing and sales there are a lot more punches to take. Why? There are more moving parts that need to work together to get it right. Each one that fails is like a punch in the mouth. It hurts. You bleed.
I was on a webinar yesterday about planning. Part of the process is looking at what worked the past 12 months; and what failed. What did you learn from it? He mentioned how someone left a marketing campaign running by mistake. It cost them $80 000.
You also need to know what you are excited about. Look for recurring themes and your best opportunities. What life lessons did you learn?
At some point everyone gets punched in the face. It is how you react to it that determines what happens next.
One of the recurring themes we had this year is, how do I know if something will work? The only way to know is to go to the market. I had the same question from a client. He does not want to spend 6 months creating something; only for the market to not show any interest.
The thing is; you do not need a full solution to go to market. Nope. You only need a part of it. A pilot.
Introducing: Pilot Projects.
What is a pilot project? A pilot project is a small scale study to evaluate its feasibility and then improve it before full-scale implementation. It answers this question; if we do this, will it work?
If you are interested in a pilot project; please reply on this email with your idea; or book a 30 minutes Skype session with me here. The aim is to understand what you would like to test.
I am considering pilot projects using Google; Facebook and LinkedIn. It is not free. It is running the pilot for 30 days to test one thing; to answer the question; will this work? If it does work; we go monthly and take it to the next level.
