Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

I’m driving myself nuts this week preparing to leave on vacation on Friday. My “to-do” list has grown to monster proportions and I’m obsessing about packing (Stay with me here, there’s a biz point.)

On my power walk this morning I realized that:

The only thing I ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO DO is get to the boat in Budapest. My housesitter can live without my shampooing the carpet, cleaning the garage, scrubbing the fridge, and leaving little detailed “helpful” notes on everything (the cats will likely turn the notes into play toys anyway and she’d never see them.)

The only things I ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO HAVE are: My passport and a credit/ATM card.

And, I’m scheduling one hour to pack tomorrow afternoon. That’s it. What fits goes, what doesn’t stays. It’s not like I’m going camping in the Amazon jungle. And if I forget something - I’m sure Europe still has things like toothpaste.

The single measure of success: Viking’s boat makes it from Budapest to Amsterdam without fire, food poisoning, gun fire, or sinking. Anything else my friend and I can handle, including our own touring.

So, when you’re looking at your biz plan and/or marketing strategy, ask yourself:

1. What do I/we absolutely have to do? (Planning for success is great…but what about locking in on funding first? That brilliant marketing plan doesn’t do you much good if you can’t execute it.)

2. What do I/we absolutely have to have? (Do you really need a three-pronged multi-level marketing plan for comprehensive mass market coverage, integrating direct and indirect channels? If you’re in start-up mode, you can’t handle more than about two things anyway. Do them well. Pay more attention to your customers than your competitors. Keep loose and flexible. The other stuff can come as you grow.)

3. What is the basic measure of success? (If you try to measure too many things, you’ll be managing too many…and run the risk of analysis paralysis and planning yourself to death)

Then, lock yourself in a room with a big white board and “pack” for an hour. Keep stripping away (egos, potential deals, nice to haves) and pulling stuff out (next gen product, marketing campaigns, that fifth potential channel to market, etc.) Get to the essentials.

That said, now I’ve got to go finish a client project that ABSOLUTELY HAS TO BE FINISHED. Nuts!