What is a Land Strategy?
A land strategy is a documented plan for how a company will start net new relationships. It defines which tactics will be used, how they work together, and who is responsible for each step — before outreach begins.
Without it, most teams default to whatever feels actionable in the moment: a cold email campaign, a trade show appearance, a rep making calls. These aren't bad ideas. They're just isolated tactics — and isolated tactics don't compound. A land strategy connects them into a sequence where each touchpoint builds on the last, so the relationship has somewhere to go.
The MiM™ Lens
MiM™ believes that the work of landing new relationships starts before anyone picks up the phone or steps onto a trade show floor. It starts with a question: what combination of tactics, executed in what sequence, gives us the best shot at starting real relationships with the right accounts in this specific market?
The answer is different for every client. A company entering a new geographic territory needs a different strategy than one trying to break into a new industry. What stays consistent is the discipline: define the plan first, then execute. Trust compounds across touchpoints — but only if the touchpoints are connected.
The conventional instinct is to treat outreach as the strategy. If we're doing activities — sending emails, attending shows, making calls — we're working the problem. But activity without a plan behind it produces noise, not relationships.
Examples of Strategies
No matter the format — a trade show, a lunch and learn, a facility tour, a webinar — the standards don't change. These things must remain true.
Geographic Market Entry
A building supply company selling decking and handrails through dealers and distributors wanted to expand into a new region. Rather than launching a cold outreach campaign, the team built a coordinated strategy around a rep road trip. Before the rep arrived, the team called ahead to every dealer and potential dealer in the area and secured meetings while he was in town. The rep traveled the region, met with managers face to face, and pitched the product on their turf.
After the visits, the strategy continued — LinkedIn connection requests from the rep's profile, followed by a three-email sequence that thanked each contact for their time and provided additional product information. The relationship started in person and was kept warm through a deliberate follow-up sequence.
Industry Expansion
A hand truck manufacturer identified Florida as a priority market and wanted to reach food and beverage companies specifically. The team recommended attending a major food and beverage trade show — not to exhibit, but to walk the floor, because the exhibitors and attendees were their exact target audience. Over 13,000 attendees from around the world.
Contacts made at the show were enrolled in a multi-step follow-up campaign designed to keep the conversation going and surface real opportunities. For high-potential prospects, the company sent a hand truck — no charge — so the contact could experience the product quality firsthand. Site visits followed for the most engaged accounts.
The trade show was the entry point. The strategy determined what happened after.
This Philosophy in Action
Land Strategy Planning is the MiM™ program that builds this plan. Before a client begins pursuing new relationships in any market, the Coach works with their team to define the right combination of tactics, document the process, assign ownership, and identify the right targets. The result is a Land playbook — a cohesive strategy the team can execute against and return to as the market evolves.
Click below to review the Land Strategy Planning program overview.