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OPINION
We must hit the pause button at several junctions in our marketing and business processes to discuss the “why.” The evergreen relevancy of “why”
A rguably the most important word in the marketing for professional services ecosystem, “why” is applicable 100 percent of the time, from the earliest strategic conversations to post opportunity closures and beyond. Dictionary.com places the origin of “why” circa A.D. 900 – this mighty adverb, also used as a conjunction and noun, packs a historical punch. “Why” is defined as a question concerning the cause or reason for which something is done, achieved, etc. All that baggage carries over into our bottom lines.
Javier Suarez
Decisions, in business and in life, should be made after careful consideration of all applicable factors. Our actions, before and after, carry the weight of the powerful “why.” In our post-COVID world we are bound to implement the biggest lesson learned of all – to make the most out of our time. Hopefully I am not alone in having experienced a paradigm shift where I now question “why” I am engaging with every situation before me. If the answer does not transcend my self-imposed threshold, then it is time for a course correction, a readjustment, and to focus instead on a meaningful activity. In a nutshell, we need to be able to explain the reasoning behind our pursuits and the information
shared in our submittals. We must hit the pause button at several junctions in our marketing and business processes to discuss the “why” – initially as a baseline set of criteria and subsequently, as stop gaps to gauge if we are staying the course. Here are some examples: ■ Marketing collateral. I have shared my views on Statements of Qualifications (SOQs) with my “No More SOQs!” plea. Why are you assembling documents when their chances of being read are close to zero? Obviously, we cannot get rid of all collateral (heavy sigh), so we must ask “why” an average of 1.2 million times throughout the
See JAVIER SUAREZ, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER APRIL 29, 2024, ISSUE 1535
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