Key Takeaways
What is the difference between strategy and tactics, and why do successful small and medium businesses (SMBs) need both? It’s a fundamental question for any growing company. Many business owners find themselves stuck in the day-to-day work, executing countless tasks without a clear destination, while others have a grand vision with no practical plan to get there. The secret to scaling a successful business lies in defining a powerful, long-term strategy and aligning it with agile, short-term tactics.
To answer these questions, we gathered all the information SMB owners need to move forward with a solid business strategy, while understanding business tactics as well. Let’s jump into the differences between the two, and how they impact your team.
Strategy and tactics, defined
Let’s officially define both terms here:
- Strategy defines your long-term goals.
- Tactics are the specific actions you take to achieve those goals.
Think of your strategy as your destination, and your tactics as the actions you take to get there. Both are essential to your growth journey. Your destination (strategy) tells you which direction to go, and the turns, route, and vehicle you take are the (tactics) that get you there. When you align your big-picture vision (strategy), with your day-to-day actions (tactics) you move from managing a business to actually scaling a successful one.
We’ll use this example to guide you through what these terms mean and how they inform each other:
The bakery, Daily Loaf, has a long-term strategy, spanning three to five years, to become the premier artisanal bakery in the city, known for quality and unique flavor profiles, with a goal of achieving 25% year-over-year revenue growth.
Their tactics are daily, weekly and monthly execution steps. This month, they launched a “Sourdough Subscription Box” on the first Monday of every month to guarantee recurring revenue and customer loyalty. The specific execution, or tactical move, involves using Instagram to run targeted ads to local food bloggers and neighborhood groups promoting the new subscription box. The short-term success of this tactic is measured by subscription sign-ups, website traffic from social media, and the cost per acquisition (CPA).
Start with SMB Basics
Strategy: The long-term plan
A business strategy is the overarching plan that defines your long-term goals and how you intend to achieve them. It answers the fundamental question, “Where do we want to be in the next three to five years, and how will we get there?” For the Daily Loaf, this is becoming the premier artisanal sourdough bakery in the city. No tactics yet, just a high-level goal.
Tactics: The specific actions you take
Tactics are the specific, measurable, short-term actions that directly support your long-term strategy. Every action taken to get to your strategic goal is considered a tactic.
For the bakery, the tactic supporting the artisanal sourdough strategy is the subscription box and the accompanying social media spend to reach influencers and food bloggers. This action is concrete, and directly supports the high-quality, artisanal strategy.
Tactics require flexibility and data
Tactics are often shorter-term, changing as quickly as the market or customer feedback dictates. They involve the day-to-day work across your portfolio — sales, service, marketing, commerce, and operations. Ideally, every tactic should ladder up to your strategy.
For example, if your social media tactic isn’t generating enough engagement, a good SMB leader will quickly pivot to try a new platform or content type. This tactical flexibility, guided by data, is how you achieve strategic success. Since your tactics are only as good as your data, you’ll need a customer relationship management (CRM) platform to store and manage it all. A CRM will help you build your strategy, align your tactics, and inform your business decisions.
Kickstart your SMB with Starter Suite
See results from day one with a CRM designed for SMBs — the all-in-one suite for productivity. It all starts with Starter Suite.
Bridge the gap between strategy and tactics with CRM
CRM helps small businesses automate and manage the tactics that bring the strategy to life. For instance, a strategic goal to “increase customer retention by X%” relies on many small tactics. It can also automate sending of personalized follow-up emails (a marketing tactic) after a purchase and track customer service interactions (a service tactic) to ensure quality (a data strategy).
Aligning strategy and tactics for growing business
Here we dive into the feedback loops of both. A feedback loop is a continuous cycle where the results of executed tactics are measured, analyzed, and used to inform and refine the overarching strategy.
The most successful businesses treat strategy and tactics not as a one-time setup, but as a continuous loop. Your strategy sets the course, your tactics are executed, and the results of those tactics feed back to inform and refine your strategy.
Let’s stick with the Daily Loaf’s sourdough subscription box tactic to understand how. So, if the bakery’s subscription box is wildly successful, the strategy might be amplified to focus even more, with additional subscription boxes of other foods or shipping to other cities. If it fails, the strategy remains, but the tactics change – maybe the subscription box is retired, or its price point is adjusted. This continuous feedback loop helps teams remain agile.
Maximize Your CRM Productivity
Learn how small and growing businesses are taking productivity to new levels with Salesforce CRM in this free e-book.
Enter a valid e-mail address
Enter a valid e-mail address
Enter a valid e-mail address
Enter a valid e-mail address
Enter a valid e-mail address
Enter a valid e-mail address
Employees
1-20 employees
21-200 employees
201-10,000 employees
10,001+ employees
Select the number of employees
Industry
Automotive
Communications
Financial Services
Healthcare
Tech
Education
Life Sciences
Manufacturing
Media
Nonprofit
Public Sector
Retail & Consumer Goods
Energy & Utilities
Other
Select your industry.
Country/Region
United States
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
American Samoa
Andorra
Anguilla
Antarctica
Antigua And Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas, The
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belize
Belgium
Benin
Bermuda
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bouvet Is
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
British Indian Ocean Territory
Brunei
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cape Verde
Cayman Is
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Hong Kong
Macau
Christmas Is
Cocos (Keeling) Is
Colombia
Comoros
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Croatia (Hrvatska)
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Denmark
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Djibouti
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Falkland Is (Is Malvinas)
Faroe Islands
Fiji Islands
Finland
France
French Guiana
French Polynesia
French Southern Territories
F.Y.R.O. Macedonia
Gabon
Gambia, The
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Gibraltar
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Guadeloupe
Guam
Guatemala
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Heard and McDonald Is
Honduras
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Korea, South
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Is
Mauritania
Mauritius
Martinique
Mayotte
Mexico
Micronesia
Moldova
Monaco
Mongolia
Montserrat
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands, The
Netherlands Antilles
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Niue
Norway
Norfolk Island
Northern Mariana Is
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Panama
Papua new Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Pitcairn Island
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Republic of the Congo
Reunion
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
Saint Helena
Saint Kitts And Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Saint Vincent And The Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome and Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Georgia & The S. Sandwich Is
Spain
Sri Lanka
Suriname
Svalbard And Jan Mayen Is
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Togo
Tokelau
Tonga
Trinidad And Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turks And Caicos Is
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States Minor Outlying Is
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Vatican City State (Holy See)
Venezuela
Vietnam
Virgin Islands (British)
Virgin Islands (US)
Wallis And Futuna Islands
Western Sahara
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Select your Country
State/province
北海道 – Hokkaido
青森県 – Aomori
岩手県 – Iwate
宮城県 – Miyagi
秋田県 – Akita
山形県 – Yamagata
福島県 – Fukushima
茨城県 – Ibaraki
栃木県 – Tochigi
群馬県 – Gunma
埼玉県 – Saitama
千葉県 – Chiba
東京都 – Tokyo
神奈川県 – Kanagawa
新潟県 – Niigata
富山県 – Toyama
石川県 – Ishikawa
福井県 – Fukui
山梨県 – Yamanashi
長野県 – Nagano
岐阜県 – Gifu
静岡県 – Shizuoka
愛知県 – Aichi
三重県 – Mie
滋賀県 – Shiga
京都府 – Kyoto
大阪府 – Osaka
兵庫県 – Hyogo
奈良県 – Nara
和歌山県 – Wakayama
鳥取県 – Tottori
島根県 – Shimane
岡山県 – Okayama
広島県 – Hiroshima
山口県 – Yamaguchi
徳島県 – Tokushima
香川県 – Kagawa
愛媛県 – Ehime
高知県 – Kochi
福岡県 – Fukuoka
佐賀県 – Saga
長崎県 – Nagasaki
熊本県 – Kumamoto
大分県 – Oita
宮崎県 – Miyazaki
鹿児島県 – Kagoshima
沖縄県 – Okinawa
Select a state/province
State/province
Alberta
British Columbia
Manitoba
New Brunswick
Newfoundland
Northwest Territories
Nova Scotia
Nunavut
Ontario
Prince Edward Island
Quebec
Saskatchewan
Yukon
Select a state/province
State/province
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Select a state/province
We value your privacy. To learn more, visit our Privacy Statement.
Thank you for downloading the free e-book!
The role of AI in strategy and tactics
Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly becoming a core part of small businesses looking to handle tactics more effectively. AI can be trained to execute repetitive, data-heavy tasks, freeing up your team to focus on higher-level strategic work.
For example, a sales tactic to “identify the 10 best leads each week” can be executed by an AI agent — a trained, autonomous digital worker — which scores and surfaces those leads instantly. This makes the tactical execution faster and more accurate, directly supporting your sales strategy.
TLDR; Strategy and tactics work (better) together
Strategy and tactics combine human oversight with automated execution, and when all goes well, these executions support your strategy. Salesforce can help analyze customer data, identify trends, and even recommend tactical adjustments, providing the data needed to refine your long-term strategy.
Start your CRM journey with the Free or Starter Suite today. Looking for more customization? Explore Pro Suite. Already a Salesforce customer? Activate Foundations to try out Agentforce 360 today.
AI supported the writers and editors who created this article.
What is the primary difference between strategy and tactics?
Strategy is the “what” and “why” — the high-level, long-term goal and plan. Tactics are the “how” — the specific, short-term actions and resources used to execute the strategy.
How does a small business use a CRM to align its strategy and tactics?
A customer relationship management (CRM) system centralizes customer data, which helps define the overall business strategy. The CRM then automates the day-to-day tactics, such as sending marketing emails, logging sales calls, and managing service tickets, ensuring these actions directly contribute to the strategic goal.
Should a small business focus more on strategy or tactics?
A small business must focus on both. An excellent strategy without execution (tactics) is just a dream, and busy work (tactics) without a guiding strategy is wasted effort. The key is to create a strong strategy first, then design tactics that directly support it.
Can artificial intelligence (AI) help with strategy?
Yes, AI is highly effective at supporting strategic decision-making. While humans set the vision, AI can rapidly analyze vast amounts of performance data from executed tactics, identifying trends and recommending strategic or tactical adjustments, which closes the feedback loop.
How often should a small business review its strategy and tactics?
While strategy is typically a longer-term plan reviewed annually or semi-annually, tactics should be monitored and adjusted frequently, often weekly or monthly, based on performance data to ensure they’re effectively moving the business toward its strategic goals.
