I heard an interesting quote the other day in an old Jeff Bezos interview that struck a chord with me.
He said:
“All of the senior executives operate the same way. They work in the future, they live in the future. None of the people who report to me should really be focused on the current quarter.”
What I found interesting about it is the similarity between that idea and our work as marketing consultants.
Sure, we might need to put out some immediate fires. We will still aim for short-term objectives. We must deal with today.
But the vast majority of short-term results were baked several months and even years ago. They’re very unlikely to be dramatically shifted overnight.
Instead, we want ourselves and our clients to be thinking beyond the next quarter as much as possible.
We want everyone to think about building sustainable systems and strategies that will compound over time, not simply driving more leads tomorrow via ads (for example).
It’s a tough line to tow because all businesses want results tomorrow. And to some extent, we still need to do our best to take care of the short-term issues and opportunities.
And yet it’s the long-term planning, preparation, and ground work today that will drive the biggest outcomes for our clients in the future.
If we’re not focused on a far enough horizon, we won’t do ourselves or our clients justice.
It’s our jobs to educate our clients on how marketing works. More than likely, it’s not an overnight effort.
Much like health, you don’t become unhealthy overnight. You won’t become healthy overnight either.
To do our best work, let’s help our clients think long-term, too.
—kevin