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By Craig A. Steffen

You’ve probably noticed by now that I’m an avid baseball fan.   There is much about the game of baseball that teaches lessons about life and good business practice.  Recently, I attended a week-long Fantasy Camp and played 15 games of hardball with many of my boyhood baseball heroes.  Here are a few marketing lessons I learned on the diamond.

 Lesson #1 – Preparation is 90% of the game.  In baseball that means training, stretching, running and throwing – by yourself.  It’s boring and lacks the glory and excitement of stepping onto the field.  Several of my teammates learned VERY quickly that without it, all that’s left is pain and sitting on the sidelines.  In marketing, the same is true.  Research, planning and developing relationships with customers is hard, tedious work.  But without this preparation, your marketing efforts are likely to be painfully ineffective and you’ll be watching your competitors win from the sidelines.

 Lesson #2 – Talking about playing is NOT playing.   There is nothing like lacing up your spikes and taking the field.  Few things in baseball compare to the exhilaration of bat meeting ball.  If you’ve never played the game, you can’t really appreciate these sensations.  Many people talk about marketing.  They talk about winning marketshare.  They talk about developing a real, authentic marketing plan.  But they don’t do it.  Those people have no idea how exhilarating it can be to wield a well-crafted plan and feel the jolt of strategy meeting market.

 Lesson #3 – It’s NEVER too late to play.  One of the friends I made at Fantasy Camp, a catcher, hadn’t picked up a baseball for many years.  But he made the choice to play this year.  He prepared, got in shape and did the hard work necessary to be as good as he could be.   He caught every inning of every one of those 15 games.  At the end of the week, he received one of the camp’s coveted awards.  He’s 73 years old.  The marketing/business/life choices you made last year are done and can never be retracted.  But the choices you make this year can get you back into the game.   

 Lesson # 4 – Balance is important.  Author Robert Fulghum said is succinctly when he wrote “Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.” 

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