I'll bet you think you already have a strategy.

And well you may, but strategy as a concept is just like love: much used and little understood. Many businesses (and that includes small entrepreneurs, large corporations, non-profits, community organizations, governments, NGOs…the works) neither know what strategy really is, nor how to get one.

And even if you do, in fact, have a strategy-is it the right one? The best one? This is so important-marketing guru Jay Abraham says-and I agree-a superior strategy badly executed will beat a bad strategy well executed, any day.

It's easy to say, "This is big company stuff. We know what we need-why should we do all the extra work." While a "strategy-less" group of marketing tactics may work well and produce good results, is it taking your business in the best direction? You may be making money, but are you making the most money possible? Could another suite of tactics implementing a superior strategy produce far better results?

Which brings me to the point of this two-part article: how to formulate strategy. In the next 1500 words, I'm going to present the first half of a basic system for identifying high-impact strategies in your business. (Just the first half? Yes. While I strive to make this as simple as possible, it still takes a bit of explaining, and editors and readers alike detest long articles!) So Part 2 will finish the outline, and in future articles, I will discuss each system component in finer detail.

Let's begin with a working definition of strategy.

Strategy is the guiding principle on which are based a series of interlinked decisions regarding the selection and deployment of resources and tactics, whose purpose is realizing a vision and achieving decisive objectives in a competitive and changing environment.

This definition tells us a few things:

• The purpose of all strategic decisions is achieving your vision and "decisive" or critical-to-purpose objectives.
• Strategy is about selecting specific resources and tactics to get the desired result.
• Strategy is not static; it is decisions in a series, and evolves continuously over time.
• Strategy is broad and all-encompassing. With that in mind, here are the 8 steps to formulating strategy:

1. Set your vision
2. Gather environmental and competitive intelligence
3. Take stock of your
   Do You Need A Cool Company Logo Or Would A Stinker Be More Effective?
   The debate over how much of a companies large reserves of spending power should be spent with greedy, oafish design agencies rages on and is not about to be resolved in this trite article, however we can suggest some alternatives to the usual company logo ideas and perhaps for once bad could be the new good...or something.A company logo should make you stop and think... How many times have you heard your design manager or someone from the marketing/advertising department going on about the need for a clever logo or a design that 'thinks outside the box'? In marketing terms this is met by much consternation by people with any sense of reality and nodding agreement from the rest of the clueless saps who pass off as the workforce these days. Thinking outside the box in this day and age is what all your competitors are doing. To move with the times we either have to think 'over' the box or get on a retro trip and think yourself back inside the box, now that everyone has gone outside to think.A company logo should stick in your mind's eye Continuing with our theme of going back to basics in terms of logo design. The trend that is emerging and proving highly profitably in certain quarters is the 'so bad its good' theme. Easyjet, Pot Noodle, Tango, Spam... I'm thinking off the top of my head here but all these brands once languished in obscurity and given a little bit of a trashy makeover have seen sales rocket. The same can be said for the previously unheard of Cillit Bang cleaning brand - design so off putting it makes you want to punch yourself in the face and with the most ridiculous name imaginable but hey whats
   -is it the right one? The best one? This is so important-marketing guru Jay Abraham says-and I agree-a superior strategy badly executed will beat a bad strategy well executed, any day.

   It's easy to say, "This is big company stuff. We know what we need-why should we do all the extra work." While a "strategy-less" group of marketing tactics may work well and produce good results, is it taking your business in the best direction? You may be making money, but are you making the most money possible? Could another suite of tactics implementing a superior strategy produce far better results?

   Which brings me to the point of this two-part article: how to formulate strategy. In the next 1500 words, I'm going to present the first half of a basic system for identifying high-impact strategies in your business. (Just the first half? Yes. While I strive to make this as simple as possible, it still takes a bit of explaining, and editors and readers alike detest long articles!) So Part 2 will finish the outline, and in future articles, I will discuss each system component in finer detail.

   Let's begin with a working definition of strategy.

   Strategy is the guiding principle on which are based a series of interlinked decisions regarding the selection and deployment of resources and tactics, whose purpose is realizing a vision and achieving decisive objectives in a competitive and changing environment.

   This definition tells us a few things:

   • The purpose of all strategic decisions is achieving your vision and "decisive" or critical-to-purpose objectives.
   • Strategy is about selecting specific resources and tactics to get the desired result.
   • Strategy is not static; it is decisions in a series, and evolves continuously over time.
   • Strategy is broad and all-encompassing. With that in mind, here are the 8 steps to formulating strategy:

   1. Set your vision
   2. Gather environmental and competitive intelligence
   3. Take stock of your
      7 Secrets for Moving Customers Out of a Hardball Mentality
      Here are 7 proven tips for moving customers out of a hardball mentality into a constructive dialogue. 1. Confidently acknowledge and address anger. A big mistake among customer service professionals is to ignore a customer’s expression of anger or tip-toe around it. There is something known as the communication chain. When people communicate, they expect the person they are communicating with to respond or react…this response is a link in the communication chain. A failure to respond to communication leaves the communication chain unlinked…broken.For example, If I walk into my office and say... “Hello Sherry, how are you?” ....and she says absolutely nothing, she’s broken the communication chain. And that leaves me feeling awkward, perhaps embarrassed.If a customer expresses anger and we fail to respond to it, the communication chain is broken and the customer feels like they are not getting through. The customer might become even angrier and more difficult, as they are resorting to whatever it takes to feel heard and understood.You can keep your angry customers from getting angrier by confidently acknowledging their anger and responding to it. You can respond to anger with a statement like, “Clearly you’re upset and I want you to know that getting to the bottom of this is just as important to me as it is to you.” This statement directly and professionally addresses anger – without- making the customer even angrier. Now that the anger has been acknowledged, you have completed the communication chain. 2. Allow the customer to vent, but don’t lose control. An Angry customer can be c
      her suite of tactics implementing a superior strategy produce far better results?

      Which brings me to the point of this two-part article: how to formulate strategy. In the next 1500 words, I'm going to present the first half of a basic system for identifying high-impact strategies in your business. (Just the first half? Yes. While I strive to make this as simple as possible, it still takes a bit of explaining, and editors and readers alike detest long articles!) So Part 2 will finish the outline, and in future articles, I will discuss each system component in finer detail.

      Let's begin with a working definition of strategy.

      Strategy is the guiding principle on which are based a series of interlinked decisions regarding the selection and deployment of resources and tactics, whose purpose is realizing a vision and achieving decisive objectives in a competitive and changing environment.

      This definition tells us a few things:

      • The purpose of all strategic decisions is achieving your vision and "decisive" or critical-to-purpose objectives.
      • Strategy is about selecting specific resources and tactics to get the desired result.
      • Strategy is not static; it is decisions in a series, and evolves continuously over time.
      • Strategy is broad and all-encompassing. With that in mind, here are the 8 steps to formulating strategy:

      1. Set your vision
      2. Gather environmental and competitive intelligence
      3. Take stock of your
         Gatting Past the Gatekeeper
         These days when making a cold call it is important now more than ever before to make yourself different from the pack.. When you apply for a job that is advertised in the paper your app. will be amongst a thousand others. The same goes when you are calling a business, unless you leave a totally unique message for the person you are trying to talk to you will never hear from them.I had a company for many years where cold calling was an every day thing. I knew from my work for so many other companies that you have to stand out. I named my business Global Online Deals and whenever I would call a company for the first time I would say just tell them that Jeff from God is on the phone. The initials of my company name spelled GOD. I did this on purpose. When first talking with a potential customer I would tell them that I had tried to get the url Godin but that some TV Evangelist who was doing time in prison owned that name.Customers would call me back and leave a message "Jeff, did you know that your initials spell GOD, whats with this?" All I have to say on this subject is that it got me the call backs I needed. A lot of times secretaries would just start laughing and put me through to the person I needed to speak with. Seth Godin puts it this way ' You have to be a Purple Cow in order to survive in the today".I had a salesman once who was playing phone tag with this customer he needed to speak with. He could never get a good call back from the guy. I made one call to the customer and left the message that I was with UPS and I had a COD Cashiers check package for the customer that was $100,000., needless to say the
         d in future articles, I will discuss each system component in finer detail.

         Let's begin with a working definition of strategy.

         Strategy is the guiding principle on which are based a series of interlinked decisions regarding the selection and deployment of resources and tactics, whose purpose is realizing a vision and achieving decisive objectives in a competitive and changing environment.

         This definition tells us a few things:

         • The purpose of all strategic decisions is achieving your vision and "decisive" or critical-to-purpose objectives.
         • Strategy is about selecting specific resources and tactics to get the desired result.
         • Strategy is not static; it is decisions in a series, and evolves continuously over time.
         • Strategy is broad and all-encompassing. With that in mind, here are the 8 steps to formulating strategy:

         1. Set your vision
         2. Gather environmental and competitive intelligence
         3. Take stock of your
            Keep In Touch With Your Contacts
            Don't ignore the people who are helping you during your job search and those who can influence it. Keep in touch with them.This will help to distinguish you from the other job candidates and will keep you top of mind with a potential employer.It isn’t hard to get lost in the job search shuffle especially if you are applying for jobs that are attracting many other candidates.It isn’t out of the ordinary for hiring managers to receive dozens of resumes through email for a particular job. Often, they get hundreds of resumes.It also isn’t out of the ordinary for newspaper ads to attract hundreds of candidates.How can you make yourself stand out from the crowd without ruining your chances at a job?Depending on how your resume was sent, you might receive some sort of confirmation. If you send in your resume through email, you might receive an auto response to let you know your resume has been received.If you don’t get any sort of confirmation after several days, it isn’t unreasonable to contact the company to ensure your resume has been received. If it wasn’t received, you can’t be considered!If you’re lucky you might even get the hiring manager on the phone and have a chance for a quick chat.Don’t lose touch with people who can help you with your job search.Also, keep in touch with people who are helping you with your job search and keep them updated on your progress.
            your vision and "decisive" or critical-to-purpose objectives.
         4. Strategy is about selecting specific resources and tactics to get the desired result.
         5. Strategy is not static; it is decisions in a series, and evolves continuously over time.
         6. Strategy is broad and all-encompassing. With that in mind, here are the 8 steps to formulating strategy:

         1. Set your vision
         2. Gather environmental and competitive intelligence
         3. Take stock of your organization's strengths and weaknesses
         4. Select your "grand strategy"
         5. Establish decisive objectives
         6. Rate and rank your "SWOTs"
         7. Match your internal and external factors to identify strategic alternatives
         8. Select specific strategies for implementation

         Of course, there is one last step: turning your strategy into tactics and game plans, and execute. We won't get into that in this article.

         Step 1. Establish your vision.

         People complicate the idea of vision. A vision is simply a story describing how you want things to be in the future. Some people can tell these stories easily-they know exactly where they want to be and what it will "look" like.

         Others need help. The best approach is to answer a series of questions regarding what your organization does, who are it's clients or beneficiaries, what its impact is, how big it is, where it is, how it operates, when all these things will occur, and so on. As a result of answering these questions, your vision will emerge.

         Of course, you may already have a vision. If so, now is the time to insure that it is relevant and powerful.

         The test of a good vision is if it inspires; not only you and your management team, but all of your stakeholders: your partners, employees, clients, investors, vendors, lenders, your community, your government-and perhaps the public at large. A great vision inspires, and it also provides direction. Every action you take should further your vision. If it doesn't, don't do it.

         Step 2. Gather environmental and competitive intelligence.

         To develop the best strategies you must understand the world outside your organization. Quantify and qualify, not just absolutes, but trends. And importantly-identify changes in the status quo. Key areas for focus include competitors, technology, market size and trends, your clients' industry health, macroeconomic trends, availability of key resources (people and materials) government regulations and other po