8 Ways to Get More Strategic, About Your Strategy
Strategic Planning Season is Officially Here!
We continue to get calls from CEOs saying: "I don't want to get back to "pre-COVID, we need to get to a better place!"
Vince Lombardi says: "Football is blocking and tackling. Everything else is mythology." The same rules apply to developing smart strategies - complexity won't move the plan "off the page" and into action.
A few strategic questions to start:
Former Coca-Cola Marketing Czar Sergio Zyman says it all boils down to: "More Customers + Spending More + More Often." Easy recipe, not easy to consistently achieve without alignment between your marketing, sales, business development, operations, and communication strategies.
Marketing Guru Seth Godin says "It all boils down to Awareness and Trust." How do you get found and how is trust earned, consistently, across all brand contact points.
8 Ways to Get More Strategic, About Your Strategy:
#1: Stop with the Fuzzy Math. Fuzzy Goals = Fuzzy Strategies. Your strategic goals need to be measurable, clear, specific, and measured against a clock. We begin all our strategic kick-off meetings with a discussion of what success looks like. It doesn't mean dust off last year's plan and keep the good and kill the bad. It does begin with a declaration: "We want to grow 25% by committing to catering."
#2: Why You? Your customers know this, do you? Your best customers believe in this. Do your best customers use you the same way as your infrequent customers, for the same reasons? (they don't). What are you actually selling: If it's deals and items - good luck trying to differentiate and deliver a true value proposition. If you are selling outcomes, experiences, and feelings - your customer value is valued. Ask your front line team members: "What does the customer want from us?" What does that mean to how you will make your customer facing operations and messaging more effective in 2023? Does your Reason for Being align to your Customer's Reason for Need?
#3 Get Found! Stop assuming consideration. Awareness precedes Trial and Conversion. Too many companies pitch the deal before they've established Want or Need. Every category has satisfactory options that are convenient and affordable. Taco Bell and Wendy's has yet to answer the question "Why them" for breakfast.
#4 Create Demand! Peter Drucker, known as the father of business, says: "The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer." How much of your strategic planning time is devoted to making it easier for customers to buy from you, and stay with you. Are you using gimmicks to "spike" your business as it follows a downward trend (JCP) or are you driving real net positive growth? Where is this growth coming from, it should tie directly to your value proposition.
#5 Best First Dollar Spent! Zero base your budgets around your (few) strategic initiatives. If you only had one dollar to spend, where does that dollar go. The ROI on keeping and growing customer value will always be higher than the acquisition cost of a new customer, but both are needed. The math behind each is critical, There's a reason why every contestant on Shark Tank is asked the same 3 questions: What's a customer worth, How much does it cost to get a customer? and How are you going to grow customers?
#6 Create (and use) a Knowledge Loop! How are you capturing how customers find you, why prospects don't convert, how much more valuable are your enthusiasts, and what converts your occasional users into advocates? Many companies are data rich and knowledge poor. What future strategic initiatives are you testing this year, so next year's plan is made up of proven winners? Annual Brand Planning Meetings at Kellogg start with 3 critical questions:
#7 Segment Customers By Value! Every beginner sales rep quickly learns the concept of "Opportunity Cost." The Pareto Principle is right, 20% of your customers will drive 80% of your profit. Homework assignment: Identify, by name, your ten most valuable customers (and understand why they love you). All customers aren't equal.
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#8 Less Activity, Less Stuff, More Purpose! Strategy is Focus! Focus on fewer customers, initiatives, and products. Revisit #6 - understand What Drives Your Business and focus on that. "We can do that too" is said by the evil "off-strategy" person in the meeting. If you are the "one stop shop," you don't have a strategy. Resist the temptation to add. Home Depot could sell a lot of beer, but they don't because it's not on strategy.
My Challenge to You
As you lead the strategy conversations in your company:
Make your strategy sharper
Make your strategy smarter
Make your strategy more effective
About David
This article is an early chapter in Dave's upcoming book: "High Performance Strategy: Connecting Vision to Strategy to Plan"
Dave works with senior executives on sales, business development, marketing, and growth strategy. During strategy season, he's leading client work sessions. He’s a Partner at WizeWebz, a business growth consultancy that helps clients get to their next stage of growth through smarter business, marketing, and technology strategies. https://www.wizewebz.com
Dave is also the CEO and Co-founder of High Performance Marketing Boot Camps. These are customized to help senior executives get smarter and more effective with their marketing and business:?https://highperformancemarketingbootcamps.com
In his spare time, Dave teaches advanced brand strategy, marketing, competitive strategies, and entrepreneurship in the MBA programs at the University of Missouri and The University of Kansas.
“David Patrick is legendary for two things: deep marketing expertise and extraordinary teaching skills.?My experiences as his student and collaborator have educated and inspired me.”?Jack Mackey,?Former Chief Evangelist, VP Customer Engagement, Service Management Group??
“David Patrick is masterful at understanding the strategies that unlock growth. He’s able to apply those learnings to a variety of industries and help executive teams approach marketing in a new way to achieve greater results.”?Laura Scobie, SVP Strategy, Barkley
"David Patrick's knowledge and experience in marketing is deep. I find he has wisdom and case studies for almost every conceivable situation. Always a pleasure to spend time with David and listen to his insights and perspective on business and marketing challenges. If you are considering David and his team to help with your marketing strategy you should do so with confidence."?Grant Gooding, CEO & Founder of Proof Positioning
Rascal USA and CC Purdy Co.
2 个月Excellent Dave!
Director, International Segment Marketing at Joint Commission
1 年Great insights and perspective. While the 8 ways seem common sense and intuitive, what I find is getting all the internal stakeholders to stay focused and clearly address these ways is a monumental challenge. I think the difficulty is being very judicious about the choice we make, prioritize and stay focused.
Our company provides tailored asset management and family office services for owners of commercial real estate.
1 年Great article Dave. As always, you boil marketing down to easy to understand, logical and actionable ideas. I'll be using these for next year.
VP of IT
1 年Thanks for these practical insights, David - I appreciate you sharing this article. And Unbound continues to be appreciative of everything you've helped us with in the past.