If you organize your marketing plan appropriately, you'll typically have three to five major activities, like networking, association involvement, lead-sharing groups, articles, websites, public speaking or cold-calling. Each activity should be organized with a minimum of three steps – before-activity action(s), during-activity action(s) and after-activity action(s).

For instance, when I write an article, my major steps are:

Before

1. Call prospects who are appropriate for an interview and request 20 minutes of their time.
2. Meet with prospects who want to be interviewed and conduct interviews for article.
3. At the end of each interview, ask questions to determine the prospect's major problems at this time (the fires which he/she must put out TODAY).
4. After interview introduce prospect to professionals who may be able to help put out fires.

During

5. Write article and incorporate prospects' comments where they will improve the article.

After

6. Send copies of article to prospects who agreed to interviews and include some suggestion for a next step.
7. Send copies of article to prospects who did not agree to interviews.
8. Follow up on all introductions to see how things worked out.
9. Attempt to get article published.

For every activity, I list my major steps (before, during and after). Then, I think through ways to integrate those steps. For instance, when I'm writing an article, if I go to a networking function and happen to bump into an executive who would be an appropriate interview for the article, I make it a point to ask for the interview.

At a minimum, your marketing plan should be planned out to this level. However, I also suggest you prepare for each individual step, and then think through the yes/no response options.

For step 1 above, I'll prepare my request (the "script" if you want to call it that) for when the prospect actually answers the phone, and I'll prepare one that can be left either with a gatekeeper or on voicemail. I'll also prepare for both the "Yes" and "No" responses. For a "Yes" response, I'll ask the prospect whether he/she can commit to a 20-minute, uninterrupted interview. For a "No" response, I'll simply say, "Okay, goodbye," and wait for the prospect to hang up the phone. (I already know I'll be sending a copy of the article to the person later, so there's no need to mention it here.)

For step 2, I'll prepare my list of article-related questions, so I can achieve my objective within the 20 minutes.

Steps 3, 4, 5 and 8 are pretty basic, so I don't need any real prep for those.

Steps 6 and 7 require cover letters. I'll write those after I've completed the article, and I'll include a few key learning points contained in the article as a summary.

At this point, I'm pretty much ready to launch the article-writing marketing plan – jumping in with both feet. What I will not do, however, is attempt to analyze every possible outcome of every possible situation, because then I'd never get started.

Here are some things I would consider overkill:

• Anything more than 10 to 15 minutes to create the script for my requests. (I prefer to create something simple and test it live, because, after only a few calls, I'll have it right where it needs to be.)
• Preparing for "Maybe" and non sequitur responses (or for every possible question) to my phone call request – things like, "That sounds interesting," "We have a public relations department that handles that," "I'm headed out to lunch right now," or "Why did you pick me to interview?" (These are actual responses I've gotten.) Instead of preparing for these, I just listen carefully, give whatever response comes to me and then ask for the interview again. Sure, I may screw up one or two responses, but it's not going to drastically affect my relationships with these prospects, so who cares!
• Spending more than two hours to write the article's first draft, and spending more than an hour to finish the article. (Most writers can get an article 90 percent perfect in two to three hours, but it will take 20 hours to achieve the remaining 10 percent. And most importantly, not one reader in 10,000 will notice the difference.)

To avoid analysis paralysis, stop thinking through every minor detail and just start implementing your plan. If you commit to trusting yourself to handle whatever comes your way, you'll both save time and get better at thinking on your feet.