How can you create a strategic plan that is responsive to customer and client needs?

Most important is to start with your vision for the business, your mission for your customers and identifying your core values to help in leading your business to success. Always look for resources, such as your local Small Business Development Center, which provides no-direct cost consulting services and resources to small business owners.

Being a customer of a competitor's product is also critical to defining a viable solution. It's not enough to understand what our clients need, it's critical to be a client or our own solutions as well as those of our competitors. Learn from others by using every service you can. It will help perfect your own solutions and best identify gaps.

Understanding the client in its various dimensions is crucial. The client organization usually has different pain points and agendas in its hierarchies, functions, and regions. It is therefore key to understanding customers' ultimate goal/need. This understanding of the ultimate goal/need will be your compass for any responsive, especially in dynamic situations.

In addition to the valuable comments, the one thing that I rely on to have a successful strategic plan is buy-in from your team - with respect to your customers, clients, and most importantly the strategies that are developed to achieve the goals and objectives. The team buy-in is crucial as these are the individuals sho will be executing the strategic plan. Get them involved early in the development of the strategic plan.

In my experience, the key to understanding customers needs and goals starts with asking good questions and listening. This is the classic VOC - voice of the customer process. There is no better way than meeting regularly to review what has gone well and looking for ways to improve. This continuous improvement process is the foundation to improving the business relationship to benefit all stakeholders. This is the platform to setting goals and strategies for the future.

The best place that I like to look when we need as always, to focus our strategic plan on the customer is our marketing group and how they developed the messaging that is being used with clients. Our marketing group needs to be up to speed on the top ten issues or pain points experienced by the client/customer and how are solution solves one or all of the issues. If you do not know the top ten issues in your industry, you can start with a Chat GPT article on those issues. The Chat GPT article needs to be further supported by industry research and the various feedback provided by clients over the course of the years you were in business. In conclusion, marketing information is the place to start in creating a customer focused strategic plan.

To create strategic objectives and priorities, it's essential to collaborate as a team and gain commitment from all involved areas. Before beginning the action plan, it's crucial to reach a consensus. Once achievable objectives and priorities are established, I prefer to organize them into "buckets" and work on building KPIs for each one separately.

The SOAR framework is a wonderful tool that may be used to have strategic thinking conversations. It is essential that leaders, especially senior leaders not do "strategic thinking" in isolation. Consider planning a retreat that includes your direct reports and enables them to share their thoughts as you select strategic goals. You will need their buy-in so it is best to get their buy-in in the beginning as you begin your planning.

Defining strategic objectives and priorities is a critical step in creating a responsive strategic plan. It's essential to ensure these objectives are SMART and align with your company's vision, mission, and values. Using tools like SWOT analysis, gap analysis, and balanced scorecard can provide a comprehensive view of your current state and future goals. As a leader, it's crucial to not only set these objectives but also to communicate them effectively to your team and measure progress regularly. This fosters a culture of continuous improvement and operational efficiency.

There are two key insights that are helpful in creating a strategy which aligns with customers. The first insight is the most obvious in that you should speak to customers and understand their needs and where they find value in the product or service you offer. The other interesting place to gain insights is from the existing marketplace solutions and identify limitations and opportunities so that you can provide a more relevant solution than that was previously offered. These two insights are the foundation in developing a strategy that aligns with customers needs.

For all important projects it's crucial that you create and communicate a clear vision, break it down into manageable steps, and be prepared to make adjustments along the way. Here is what I'd add to the conversation: - Start with a clear vision of what you want to achieve. - Break down your vision into smaller, more manageable steps. Always add some fat to your budget and timelines (never over-promise) - Create a REALISTIC timeline for each step of the process with a few scenarios (best, likely and worst) and identify any dependencies between tasks. - Communicate your plan to your team and stakeholders. Communicate! Communicate! Communicate!

Especially in the world of startups, you have different phases of strategic planning. 1. MVP: Here, I like to create a one-page overview of what we're building, who it's for, and where we're going. 2. First Customers: Here, you're starting to formalize the plan. Really, you're looking for just a few things that you know reliably work with a specific group of people. 3. Early Scaling: Here, you need to build an actual short-form business plan. 4. Product/Market Fit: Here, you can build a full-scale business plan and work on executing it.

The best strategic plans are like well-told stories: they're clear, concise, and engaging. When you communicate your plan, be sure to tailor it to your audience and highlight the benefits they'll receive. And don't forget to leave room for questions and feedback! There are many tools you can to communicate your plan but my personal favorite is a good case study (with data validated by a 3rd party) with a customer testimonial. In the end, it's all about connecting the story with people.

Some of my favorite ways to communicate the "What's happening next?" and "What are the changes?" include identifying change champions or ambassadors within your organization who will help socialize and spread the messaging. Be clear in your messaging, and specifically detail the communication channels that you will use (road shows, town halls, webinars, tabling, e-mails, team meetings, etc.). I think it's essential to meet people where they are, if your people are virtual, meet them in the virtual environment, if they're hybrid, identify channels that may be in-person as well as remote/virtual. And, remain flexible, if a communication method or channel does not work, we need to be able to pivot quickly based on the needs.

Great execution of any plan requires assembling and engaging your employees or those who will need to be involved in the implementation. Create work groups or teams of people across departments and offices who bring the needed knowledge, skills, and areas of expertise to the project. Start things off by having a kickoff meeting or kickoff call to excite and energize the team.

Implementing a strategic plan is like building a car: it requires careful planning, coordination, and execution. To be successful, you need to have a solid chassis, a clear blueprint, and the right tools and resources. And don't forget to inspect your work regularly to ensure that it meets your standards. Here are some tips: - Start with a clear understanding of your goals and objectives. - Break your plan down into manageable steps - Create a timeline for implementation - Assign roles and responsibilities - Communicate regularly with your team - Track your progress and make adjustments as needed. Keep in mind that implementing a strategic plan is not a sprint, it's a marathon. It takes time, effort, and perseverance. Best of luck!

The strategic planning process conducted at the beginning of each year is not a one and done proposition. Evaluation of your strategic plan at quarterly milestone points is immensely important. That lesson was driven home emphatically during March of 2020. Every strategic plan that was put in place in January of 2020 was obsolete by mid-March. Quarterly evaluation allows businesses to measure what parts are working and more importantly, which parts are not.

Evaluating a strategic plan is like checking your car's oil: it's essential for ensuring that everything is running smoothly and that you're on track to reach your destination. Here are some things to keep in mind: - Use predefined metrics and indicators. - Compare your performance to your goals and objectives. - Collect feedback from customers and clients. - Learn from your failures and shortcomings. Everyone makes mistakes. - Adjust and update your strategic plan based on your evaluation findings. Evaluating your strategic plan is not a witch hunt. It's also about identifying opportunities to improve and make your plan more effective and adaptable. Listen to your customers and employees and go get it!

There are 2 strategic planning stages. Pre-pilot & post-pilot. Once a solution is deployed to ~5% of clients, you'll know how scalable it is. After getting the solution into client's hands, the true go to market can take form. Example from a tech giant I worked at... We built a "revolutionary" point of sale (POS) system. Turning the POS into a digital CFO. It was brilliant & hyper connected. Clients loved the concept. Yet, once in pilot, it quickly became evident that we needed to pivot. We tested the POS with quick serve restaurants (QSR). Although, it had all the bells and whistles, the POS couldn't accommodate half pepperoni, half mushroom on a pizza. We neglected to account for the basics. The insight helped refine the strategy.