I’ve been lucky enough to indulge two passions to forge my career: marketing and golf. I’ve come to notice some striking parallels between them: the same thought processes that make us winners in sport are the same ones that can help us win in business.

Winning shots start with thinking

Great golfers start with strategic planning. They look to see how the territory lies, noting any specific features, advantages and hazards. The golfer looks to see how the course designer built the green, the way it’s set it into the landscape: every green has a specific run off area that channels the water it when it rains and that hugely influences your putting or chipping. They modify their game accordingly. They’re carrying out the golfing equivalent of that common business planning exercise a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. Before making any shot at all, they’re putting the odds in their favor and giving themselves the best chance to win. You should do the same for any major business decision you make too.

Why the best winning strategies are never finished

In my book ‘You can’t see your Backswing – How to Win at Business & Golf’, I describe the 18 shots that will help you win. If ‘strategic thinking’ is where you tee off, then ‘continual thinking’ is your follow-up shot; thinking just doesn’t stop. Bring to mind any great golfer. Once he’s studied the green and taken in all of the information he can, he begins working on his strategy for the shot: where he wants to put the ball first, where the ultimate goal – the hole – is, where he does not want to hit it so that if he misses, his next shot will be an easy tap in par. He includes damage control into his thinking, but at the same time he does not allow negative thinking to seep in.

Choose your irons, putters, wedges and drivers carefully

My question for you is this: “Are you continually reviewing your strategy for success”? Sure you’ve done the tough job of deciding your corporate vision and direction, but your strategic work’s only just begun. Now you need to build your Business Strategy and select the best tools for the task. Just like a golf pro chooses a variety of golf clubs over the course of the game, you will need to continually and consciously choose or create different business tools to get your shots in the right place. There are many tools available to you: Marketing, Branding, and Positioning. Email me for some free white papers that will help you get your toolkit together.

Give your business some Frequently Asked Questions

These are the Where, Which, How, What of growing your business and your career! It involves these questions at regular intervals:

• Where is your business, right now? If you don’t know where you are, how will you know which way to go?
• Where are you trying to get to in the long term? What do you want to be when you grow up?
• Which markets should your business compete in and what’s happening in those markets? Make sure you have done you due diligence, have you done the right amount of research?
• How can your business perform better than the competition in those markets? What makes you think you can do it better than others, what is your uniqueness?
• What resources does your business need in order to be able to compete? What do you absolutely positively have to have in the way of support to make the company function and become a brand leader?
• What outside influences, environmental factors could affect the business' ability to compete? Is there a recession, are banks lending money etc.
• What are the values and expectations of those who have power in and around your business? The culture of your business will become more important in the following years than ever before. For instance you can’t just claim to be a green company you have to be a green company, you have to “walk the walk” otherwise your target audience will walk away.

So think of strategic planning as a process rather than an event.

Or if you’re a visual thinker, imagine a circle rather than a line. It’s not something that you can ever consider finished; businesses that draw a line under their strategy are drawing a line under their ability to adapt to a changing marketplace. A business that has quit changing quits growing.

Author's Bio: 

YOU DON'T KNOW JACK!!!!
"It's not how much you want, but how much you want it!" – Jack Sims

Jack Sims – Founder and CEO of America's largest marketing agency, author of business growth books and highly regarded Professional Golf teacher, was recently voted as one of meeting planners favorite keynote speakers in a poll in Meetings & Conventions when they were asked "Who is the best keynote presenter you have ever heard or used"?

Jack knows after founding and growing successful international corporations that its all about making businesses profitable first, then its abut the motivation, passion, people, industry related product and promotion to keep it that way. It his experiences and on stage performance of information, motivation and humor that makes him one of today's in demand motivational keynote speaker.

He started his business education, by working in his parents Mom & Pop store in England at the age of eleven. That's where he learned the importance of customers, keeping your promises and developing a brand that people will go out of their way to get, and pay a premium price for, this of course led to profit making.

This business strategy stood the test of time and enabled him to create America's largest marketing agency with some of the biggest companies in the world as his clients. Brands like Polaroid, British Airways, Burger King, Lever, General Foods, General Electric, Nestle and many more signed on as retained clients. His company won the promotional marketing industries highest awards, not once but twice, on the way to becoming the #1 ranked and largest marketing agency in the United States.

Jack's motivational vision is all about inspiring people to be the very best they can be, moving the business, brand, market share or growth needle towards making a serious profit for the long haul.

"He is a brilliant strategic thinker when it comes to marketing, branding, customer service and the analysis of the customer experience". Brian Pogee – GE

After selling his business to Wall Street, Jack wrote business growth and branding books and began motivating audiences with information and humor with his unique success stories, and how they can apply this thinking to their businesses. He has given highly acclaimed motivational and informational keynote sessions for corporations like Harley-Davidson, Panasonic, Novartis, LexisNexis and dozens of associations that range from Photo Marketing Association, National Frame Building Association to the American Perfume Society and everything in between.

He also became a Professional Golf Teacher and wrote the book "How to Seriously Win at Business & Golf" which is based on his experiences as a professional golfer and combined with his lifelong experiences of founding and growing businesses.

When he is not on the road speaking he enjoys singing in a "Blues/Rock" band and spending time with his family.