Four keys to sustaining marketing momentum

We talk a lot in sales and marketing about starting new things.  New marketing campaigns, new sales methodologies, new channels or ideas.  But much of great sales and marketing is about sustaining results, creating predictable and repeatable systems that continually drive performance.

Sustaining traction isn’t easy.  The energy and enthusiasm you had launching something is hard to maintain once that same work becomes monotonous.  And those consistent results can be difficult to sustain when conditions change – your market, your industry, even your internal culture.

So what conditions, best practices and values can help your team maintain momentum and traction?

1. Optimism
Keep a high level of energy by continually celebrating success, pumping each other up, and generally keeping a positive outlook on what’s possible and what’s ahead.  Just because you’ve identified a program or campaign that can be sustained and/or repeated doesn’t mean that’s going to be easy.  A glass-half-full mentality will keep your mind right throughout.

2. Resilience
Even the most optimistic professionals will face adversity on a regular basis, testing that optimism, resolve and focus.  Sometimes simply accepting that adversity is coming your way makes it easier to face it and overcome it.  But a mentality of resilience also means working together with your teammates to identify and overcome resistance, obstacles and bottlenecks that may not have been there the last time.

3. Stubbornness
In other words, a refusal to accept the adversity around you.  A dogged determination to keep executing, stay focused, drive results.  Too often stubbornness is seen as a personality deficit  Turn it in to a virtue.

4. Self-Motivation
Yes, you’re in this with your team.  Your department.  Your organization.  But it starts and ends with you.  Stay focused, stay motivated.  Exercise daily calibration on what’s important, what’s needed, what’s required today, right now, this week, whatever it takes.  There is no coasting if you want to truly sustain momentum.  Keep your edge.

How do you, and your team, sustain traction and momentum?