“Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.” – Yogi Berra
The same could be said of marketing which is, in its very best moments, a team sport. Collaboration and timing are special mental ingredients that win games and business bottom lines for successful teams.
Marketing is a game similar in many ways to the game of baseball. Jimmy Dugan, manager of the mythical Rockford Peaches, proclaimed that you don’t cry in baseball! Why? Because, if you’ve done your job and prepared diligently, you won’t or shouldn’t be surprised or disappointed by the outcome. Baseball, like marketing, when practiced to perfection, is magic. In both “games,” you strive to generate successful returns for the time and effort invested, to score runs or generate business for a client. And, both games require similar disciplines that begin with preparation, doing your homework and disseminating all kinds of data. It’s the listening part of our game here at SMZ. To be fully prepared, you need to understand the opponent and where your opportunities to score reside. You then strategize and plan applying the thinking necessary to deliver flawless game plans that will work both in theory and on the diamond.
Of course that’s just talk until you actually deliver in the doing part of game playing. In the “show” as Crash Davis, another mythical ballplayer from the movie Bull Durham remarked, that you get to first base by focusing (even if that means wearing trans-gender undergarments) and having goals. By knowing whom you’re talking to or facing at the plate and then pitching ideas or fastballs to achieve the desired results. In the marketing stadium where we play, content and flawless implementation makes it possible to begin rounding second while engagement and dialog with the audience has you tagging third and headed for home. Plan your game and work your plan. It works in baseball as it does in marketing and that’s a closer that always delivers.
So as the first wave of temps over 55 and sunshine chase the dismal gray of winter away from the emerald green turf of Comerica Park, we can all remain optimistic that Listen, Think, Do, will carry over into a successful pennant run by our beloved Tigers.
Rich Williams, SVP/Strategic Business Development