"Randy," he said, "it's finally coming together. I know exactly what this service should look like, how to price it, who's going to sell it and how I want you to help us market it. I can see the brochure and Web site in my head." He began to draw pictures on the large white-board.

"Great," I said. "Before we go into that, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

He seemed reluctant but said okay. I began to ask questions about the value proposition, about the target decision-makers' desired win-results and why they would buy this service, about perceived value and pricing strategies and the nuances of competitive offerings. While he answered the questions as best he could, I could tell by the look on his face that he wasn't satisfied with his own answers. I asked him one simple question.

"What are you basing your answers on?"

"I just know my clients," he said. "I know they're going to go for this … I think?" He paused. The doubt in his voice hung in the air.

"You have a great idea here," I said. "But there is a lot of strategy we need to develop with input from the market. Why don't we start there?"

Horse first, cart second

This scenario has played out dozens of times over the years as I've met with professional services (PS) executives. Senior executives get excited about an idea, plan it out, bounce ideas off other people and then plow forward. We characterize this as putting the cart before the horse or putting tactics in front of strategy. Moving to tactics without thinking through strategy can have disastrous consequences such as:

• Wasted money.

• Missed market opportunities.

• Defocused sales and marketing staff.

• Lost credibility with customers and the market at large.

• Doors left open to competitors.

Tactics are what you do to market and sell an offering. Strategy is why you make the offering in the first place. When executives put tactics in front of strategy, the results are usually a haphazard launch at best and wrecked careers at worst.

What is strategy?

Strategy answers the big questions that every new offering should be subjected to:

• Who is the target profile client by industry, company size or other verticals?

• Who is the target decision-maker, and who are decision-influencers inside the company?

• What are their points of pain, and what are they willing to spend money on?

• What constitutes a desired win-result for decision-makers?

• What constitutes a lose-result? How much are they currently spending to address their points of pain?

• Does their current solution satisfy their requirements?

• Are they willing to work with outside service providers in this area, or do they think they can handle it all in-house?

• How does our solution address the decision-maker's win results better than current offerings?

• Will we have to unseat competitive offerings to win in most accounts?

• How will this service differentiate us from competitors?

• How long will it take competitors to catch up with our offering?

• How do we price this service — how much will the market bear?

• How much will it cost us to deliver the service? How much profit do we expect to make over what period of time?

• What is our horizon to break even and profitability?

• How much top-line and bottom-line revenue will an "average" engagement provide? How many "average" engagements do we need to hit our goals?

• How long and complex is the sales cycle for an "average" engagement?

Answers to these questions form the foundation of a solid strategic plan. They help position services around what the client cares about and against what competitors offer. This dramatically shortens sales cycles, increases profit per engagement and greatly enhances the likelihood of success.

The need for research

It is exceptionally rare for an organization to be able to answer these questions without doing market research. In fact, I've never seen a truly successful new business development initiative that did not include market research. The value of market research is that it tells you:

• Who your target profile decision-maker really is within the organization.

• Your target profile client's win-result and lose-result before you roll out your solution. This may completely change the solution you are considering.

• How to position your solution so the market will adopt it. How to think about facets of your solution that you may not have thought about before that can help you be more innovative, make it more attractive to clients and make it harder for competitors to neutralize the solution.

• How much clients are paying for current solutions that you may need to supplant. This will provide essential intelligence about how to price your solution.

• Where your solution will add value, which eliminates false assumptions about value that every entrepreneur brings to an engagement. In our experience, this alone can sometimes double the profits of a new business development initiative.

• The actual language that your market uses to talk about their points of pain and desired win-results. When you can speak your target profile clients' language, you are halfway home.

What are tactics?

Tactics are how a company goes about selling and marketing a solution. Examples of tactical questions include:

• Do we launch a sub-brand or make it a part of our existing offering?

• Do we hire new sales people or use existing staff?

• What sales tools do we need to close deals: brochures, testimonials, Web sites, videos, etc?

• How do we raise awareness with the target profile decision-maker: advertising, seminars, Webinars, direct mail, email?

• How do we profile and penetrate specific accounts?

Plan your work and work your plan

Once you've developed a solid marketing strategy and know which tactics will be a part of the launch, a comprehensive marketing plan is next. A good marketing plan should translate the goals outlined in the strategy into crisp executables that deliver results. Examples of this include:

• Clearly articulated messages and value proposition statements that you can immediately use in promotions.

• Clear delineation of timelines and responsibilities, especially if you use an agency.

• Sales tools and core positioning documents such as Web sites, testimonials, brochure and sales presentations.

• Comprehensive awareness campaigns such as Webinars, seminars, tradeshows, direct mail, email and advertising.

• Targeted account development programs such as telemarketing and telesales campaigns.

• Expected results for each campaign and timelines to achieve them.

• Budget breakdowns.

• Metrics for each tactic so you can know if they are delivering expected results or if they require course corrections.

The key: Strategies before tactics

PS executives who take the time to develop sound strategies before moving to tactics always produce more effective results. Those who utilize market research to develop strategies will shorten sales cycles, increase profit per engagement and make it much harder for competitors to neutralize first-mover advantage. Those who keep the horse in front of the cart will go much farther and pick up speed as they go.