Being a Good Guesser

In an article called 5 Things Every Real Marketer Knows Today on Open Forum, John Jantsch, owner of Duct Tape Marketing says, "Marketing Planning is Guessing." He goes on to say that the primary purporse of creating a marketing plan is that you must go through a process to do it.

Guessing generally has a negative connotation. You guess when you don't know something. I think guessing is about asking questions. People who don't ask questions don't have the curiosity you need to grow your business. But if you do it right, the questions you uncover during your marketing planning should make you do the research. Once you do the research, then you don't have to guess. Need more info on what your market is? Do a market analysis. Who is your best customer? Do a customer analysis. Are you collecting information from your existing customers? Give them a reason to share their info with you. Then your plan should include activities to get to know them better. Where are your best leads coming from? Not sure? Make a plan for tracking them. Better data will allow you to provide outstanding service to your best customers and figure out who else is out there that could benefit.

So marketing planning as guessing? I would rather look at it as finding out what you don't know so you make a plan to know it, then act on it.