How to Know if You Even Have a Strategy

Spoiler alert: Most small and medium B2B companies don’t — even if they think they do.

If you work in marketing, sales, or lead your company, this might sting a bit. But trust me, you’re not alone. For years, I watched teams stumble over scattered tools, missed signals, and a “strategy” so invisible it might as well have been a unicorn.

Having a strategy isn’t just about buzzwords or glossy PowerPoint slides. It’s about clarity — real, usable clarity that drives your business forward.

What Does a Real Strategy Look Like?

Imagine trying to bake a cake without a recipe. You might toss in flour, sugar, and eggs — but in what order? How much? When? That’s how many businesses approach growth. They hope for the best, sprinkle some marketing here, a sales push there, and pray HubSpot will magically sort it out.

Spoiler: HubSpot is not a magic wand.

A real strategy is your recipe. It’s the plan that tells everyone when to add the sugar, how long to bake, and when the cake is done. Without it, tools like HubSpot are just fancy kitchen gadgets gathering dust.

The Classic SME Setup: Strategy’s Where?

Most small and medium businesses fall into the same trap: they think they have a strategy because someone scribbled a plan years ago, or they tossed a few ideas around the conference table. But if you ask most people on the team to explain it... you get as many answers as people sitting across the table.

This isn’t because they don’t care. It’s because strategy is often invisible or disconnected from daily operations.

Marketing is left guessing, sales pushes without alignment, and CEOs get frustrated watching growth stall.

Why You Might Not Realize You’re Missing a Strategy

• You treat strategy like a checkbox — something to “do” once a year and then forget.

• Your plans live in silos — marketing doesn’t know what sales is doing, and leadership isn’t involved day to day.

• You expect HubSpot to “fix” everything without setting clear goals or processes first.

If any of this hits home, congratulations — you’ve just found your starting point.

How to Start Seeing Your Strategy Clearly

• Step 1: Admit it — clarity is missing. (That’s half the battle.)
• Step 2: Get your leadership, sales, and marketing teams talking — no PowerPoint jargon, just honest conversations about goals and challenges.
• Step 3: Use your conversations to create a simple, visible strategy everyone understands.
• Step 4: Let tools like HubSpot support that strategy — not replace it.

Why This Matters More Than Ever

Growth isn’t a mystery. It’s not luck. It’s not “doing more stuff.” It’s having the right plan — clear, shared, and actionable — and the right tech that follows that plan.

This blog will help you get there. I’ll share what I’ve learned after 20 years working with SMEs in energy, IT/software, and consulting — so you can stop guessing and start growing.

I hope you'll stick around. :)