A few weeks ago, I was out in Vietnam for the Alfa and Atlas network events.

I’ve been going to these things for over a decade now – 10, maybe 15 years in some cases. And honestly, it’s only in the last few years that I’ve really started to see just how much it’s paid off.

Back in the early days, it felt like a bit of a gamble… You’d turn up, shake hands, make small talk, and hope that somewhere down the line, someone might send you a bit of business. And for a while… nothing. It was slow. No instant wins. No big leads dropping into the inbox… Just a lot of showing up and building connections that, at the time, felt surface-level at best. But we kept going. Year after year. Country after country.

And now? The difference is huge. Those same people – some of whom I’ve known for years – are the ones who we continue to build great business relationships with. They trust us and we trust them… They know how we operate and we know how they operate… They’ve seen us turn up, again and again, and that consistency converts better than any pitch ever could. That’s what happens when you put the time in.

But most business owners don’t want to hear that. Especially when it comes to sales and marketing. Everyone wants results yesterday.  But if you’re only ever making decisions based on what brings in the fastest result, you’ll never build the kind of solid foundations that actually create sustainable growth. You end up chasing win after win, campaign after campaign, strategy after strategy – and wondering why it never really gains any traction.  It’s something I talk about often in my consulting. Because if you’re not playing the long game… you’re not really playing at all.

So how about you? Are you playing the long game or constantly chasing quick wins?