As a recovering perfectionist, let me wholeheartedly stress that, in many cases, you’re better off getting started with a given marketing initiative… rather than  waiting for all the research to be done, all the analysis to be complete, and everyone to be consulted.

While I also believe that some research, analysis and consultation is often necessary – you know, better to “look before you leap” to cite another cliché – once the evidence is overwhelming, it’s crucial to get underway for a number of reasons.

Possibly the most important reason for starting as soon as possible is to quickly get REAL answers about whether or not your marketing initiative will work.

No research study - and no-one’s expert opinion - beats actual market results. Assuming you have the ability to measure the results of your initiative (which is mandatory) you will soon see what is working and what isn’t, and what needs to be dumped, changed or further tested.

Which means delaying an initiative in order to gather more opinions about what will and won’t work is typically a colossal waste of time and resources. By all means begin your initiative based on some reasonable assumptions. For example, it’s reasonable to expect that an offer based on what’s popular according to search engine keyword analysis will be effective. But don’t delay it in order to conduct focus groups on whether or not your offer is likely to appeal to prospects. The opinions of a handful of focus groups (of six or so people each) are no match for the actual conversion data you’ll get from testing the offer in the marketplace.

Another reason why speed beats perfection is that it usually ensures that you actually do implement! So many worthwhile projects – including entire businesses – fail to get off the ground because they become mired in analysis paralysis… an endless loop of “stake holder” consultation… or the need for everything to be  exactly right. After a certain point, the longer the delay, the more others - and even you - will likely question the whole idea, and the greater the chance that it will be canned.

Thirdly, when you tend to introduce new initiatives only after a long, protracted process, you effectively perpetuate the idea that things must take a long time and a lot of effort before they can be implemented. Further, the pain associated with introducing a new initiative is likely to deter you from implementing further new initiatives. Not good when your business future likely relies on product and marketing innovation.

Meanwhile, long delays cause you to miss out on the power of momentum. Getting things going and seeing results quickly – good or bad – is empowering. It sends a message – both to yourself and others - that you CAN implement quickly… which, in turn, makes it easier to implement other things quickly.