If You Build It, Will They Come?

I read a great post one time by Thom Singer at Some Assembly Required concerning the importance of sales and marketing plans...specifically, the execution of a plan (or lack thereof).

Thom writes about clients who feel once they have a different or unique business idea, customers will simply line up outside the door. He calls it the Kevin Costner School of Business Development and it may work for a short time, but someone eventually will come along with a similar idea and a way to execute it!

I'm somehow still surprised when sales people or sales organizations will tell me how they're struggling with something like sales or recruiting. I'll immediately ask them to show me their sales plan. Or I'll ask them to tell me about their long-term recruiting strategy. Nine times out of 10 they stare at me like a deer in headlights. Part of what we do at Merge Today is to encourage our clients to discover their brand and create sales and marketing efforts based on that brand. But ultimately it’s up to them to make it work, to execute.

Hoping to be successful and executing a well devised plan are two very different things. It's like the guy who watches the Olympics and goes out the next day to buy a treadmill. But inevitably it ends up being a very expensive clothes rack. Creating a sales plan is a great start, but you must willing to execute to see any results.

Are you ready to plan? Are you ready to execute?