Assess
Current State
Understanding your current
state yields profound insights into your future. Sometimes
you just need a slightly different lens through which to view it.
Who are the players: customers and employees? What is your
story? What are your products? How are they different?
How do you add value? Baseline your status, take a breath and then
start asking the hard questions.
Determine
Desired State
If you don't know where
you are going, any road will get you there. To define a destination,
you must first define a purpose. Why am I doing this?
Why do we exist? Do we want to build wealth? Are we
here to make the world a better place? Can we do both at the
same time? Define your direction in the most personal context
possible; after all, it is your business. Then, define it
in terms of your stakeholders: customers and employees. What
will we look like in six months? 12 months? 36 months?
Success must be defined in real, measurable terms. Financial
metrics and market share are relatively easy to measure. But
don't forget the objectives that feed the results: key accounts,
new products, specific campaigns. Paint a vision that is tangible
and meaningful.
Develop
Roadmap
List all of the barriers.
List all of your resources. Do you have what you need to overcome
the barriers? Do you know what you need? Chances are,
the answers already lie somewhere within your organization.
Look around and determine what people, processes and tools you need
to achieve your objectives. After you've taken inventory,
what is your plan of action? Who will own what pieces?
You already defined success, what what is failure? Define
it in terms of time and achievement. Don't plan for the sake
of planning; keep it simple and focused on your end in mind.
Execute
Plan
The best plans won't add
to much if you don't execute. FIRMPersuasion specializes in
execution. We are equally comfortable implementing a strategic
marketing plan as we are making a sales call. Our flexibility
enables us to help you where you need it most. You decide.
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