In today’s fast-paced digital world, a topic can be trending one day and replaced the next. The marketing field has always been a place for sprinters rather than joggers, but social media has changed the landscape, and now things seem to move at lightning speed. This is why marketing CEOs and their teams need to be able to pivot at a moment’s notice, reassessing and refining current trends and strategies in order to stay ahead of the competition. The most important characteristic of “pivotpreneurs” is a positive attitude at the starting line and a team’s whose motto is always “How can we do this?”
Here are three ways you and your team can become expert “pivotpreneurs” and get on the fast track to growth:
1. Be Committed to Your Profession
Becoming a master takes time, commitment, and dedication. Every master was once a beginner, who experienced failures, setbacks, and disappointments. Commitment is the willingness to look at each failure as an opportunity to learn and continuously do better. Marketing CEOs must be willing to objectively reflect on themselves and their performance in order to recognize successes and analyze weaknesses. The most successful CEOs are those who admit their weaknesses and work to build them into strengths. Commitment also means analyzing the competition’s successes and failures and the ever changing needs and expectations of consumers. A great strategy to meet the needs of consumers revolves around planning for anticipated problems and pivoting quickly to solve unexpected ones. This adaptability will set you and your company apart from the competition who may be too slow to react.
2. Recognize Opportunities and Act
Recognizing an opportunity does little good if you don’t act upon it. The marketing world is increasingly fast-paced leaving CEOs and their teams with little time to dwell over opportunities and decisions. There are always competitors out there who will take any chance to outperform your business or even take actions that will prevent you from outperforming them. In order to succeed in such a highly competitive environment, you need to quickly analyze an opportunity and decide which way to pivot to achieve the desired success. Be diligent in recognizing and acting upon opportunities that will define and grow your business.
3. Become a Power Broker for Other Entrepreneurs
You know there is more to marketing than just pitching products and being, or hiring, the greatest spokesperson. Retired basketball player and CEO, Charles Smith, founded Lifestyle Service Group and the SBE conference in order to specifically help other retired basketball players become successful entrepreneurs. Smith offers two pieces of advice that apply to all marketing CEOs who want to teach others how to be a “pivotpreneur.” First is to know the targeted client base. You wouldn’t try to sell soccer cleats to a track star afterall. Second is to study and know the marketing field of the individual or company you will be representing. This involves getting to know their strategy as well as you would know your own so that you are best prepared to guide and offer suggestions.
Using these three strategies to become a “pivotpreneur” will set you and your company up for a long and successful run.