“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” ~ Benjamin Franklin.
“Before a battle, planning is everything. Once the fighting has begun, it’s worthless” ~ Dwight D Eisenhower.
What’s your plan? Do you have one? 1, 5, 10-year goals with a plan in place?
The key to making progress is to choose to START. If you desire to get in shape, START by walking around the block. Do you want to eat better? START by skipping dessert one more time each week. Improve sales? Start by making one more call today than yesterday.
Most of all, what happens when the world gets turned upside down? Do you have a plan for your business when things WILL go sideways? 1987, 2001, 2007-9, 2020. Do any of these years feel familiar? Every year, something is bound to go wrong in politics, society, economics, or a potential natural disaster like hurricanes and fires. “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
Any person will ask you, ‘What are your goals?’ We like to develop excellent ideas and good things to do, which improve ourselves and make us feel better and be better. However, every sports team has a GOAL of winning the championship. BUT they know it doesn’t happen just because they want it.
The management team puts together the best group of players they believe will fill their gaps. The players train and practice hard to know all the possible situations. They have a goal, they PLAN, and they PREPARE. At this point, the best laid out teams succeed with many talented individuals making a whole. The teams that win the most have put in the most hours of top quality training to achieve the common goal. Not 25 different goals. 1 BIG desire.
FAILURE IS AN OPTION
Here is where I hear pushback, though. ‘What if we miss our goal?’ ‘What if it’s too big?’ ‘How do I know it’s attainable?’
Since we do not know what CAN happen, you have no guarantee of hitting anything. But if you have ever tried climbing the stairs to a 20 story building (we all give it a try at some point, right?), you have to break it down into milestones. If the goal and timeline start to REALLY get off track, you just pause, reassess, and modify the time to the goal.
Some people make ambitious goals and destroy them. Others make small goals and do not reach them. Understand how you work and what motivates you the most. Does a challenge excite you? Do you like accomplishing and feeling successful when you meet your target?
At this point, I hope you have enough understanding of WHY to set a goal and WHY it matters to seek success. There is still that part in the middle, though.
Planning
Now, this is where my team can help you. This is what can be confusing for some to work out. ‘We want to hit this target in 12 months… so now what?’
Well, think about this: If I want to get to Canada from Arizona, I probably need to drive through a few other states on the way.
So set those milestones and work backward. Decide what 9, 6, and 3 months look like so you know you are on track. Determine if you need to hire someone to fill a gap before this clock starts (set a goal for hiring, a timeline, and make a plan), review what worked well last year, and best practices of other competitors. What has changed in the market that could be a success? Gather all of these options and begin to create your plan and strategy in advance. Decide who on your team should take on what part.
If you are on your own or a small team, that’s where our company VeraPax can step in and act as your Marketing Management team to build, execute and help with your marketing strategy once we have everything laid out.
Now, all that lies between you and these goals are the actions to get them started.
- Decide on your goal
- Determine how long it should take
- Assess your team and resources
- Work backward to identify milestones to keep track.
- Plan out and strategize what you need to do to make progress towards that end.
Hope for the Best and Plan for the Worst
Last but most important, remember, make a contingency plan. We plan for the worst and HOPE for the best. We have learned time and again, the worst WILL happen. It all depends on how well you prepared for it in advance.
Let our team at VeraPax help you with any advice about your plan and make sure you have thought through and understand all of your options with advertising and marketing your business.
Some things to consider:
- Marketing materials for presentations or sales calls. Even though we are online and meeting via video calls you can PREPARE in advance. Send a folder with flyers, your business card, some key bullet points, and a tangible plan you are laying out for your customer.
- Something as simple as the graphic design for your background on calls. Preparing the graphics for your slide show presentations, or digital collateral to email your prospects.
- A great touchpoint to be looking in advance for is greeting cards. Saying a simple thank you for their time. A short note, handwritten with a stamp and a branded envelope can mean a lot in a day and age where the mailbox is empty and personal interactions are fewer and farther between.
- If you really want to get into it we can even talk about branded apparel for your team remotely so it looks like even though everyone is out of the office your calls can be filled with the team brand, feel like you are collaborating, and hey soft comfortable t-shirts or polos beat a stuffy suit coat anyway!
This is just a short-list of some options, so let’s connect, make a plan, and work together to bring about better marketing solutions!
Connect with us!
Or call 602.995.7841 to set up an appointment with our team.
