Get Into the Annual Planning Meeting

Are you reporting your strategic results when the company is?focused on execution??An approach to?getting heard is to sync your results with your company’s planning cycles.?Get your insights into the annual planning meeting. All you have to do is ask.

?Get on the planning?agenda...where huge decisions are made.

?Top execs will have a planning meeting every year.?Getting on this agenda is easier than you might think.?What planning organizer will turn down an opportunity to hear the year's top insights??This is a fantastic way to kick off a strategic planning meeting, get your insights heard and acted upon,?and score a few points personally.?

?There is a time when management is planning, and there is a time?when they are executing against those plans.?If you report results during the execution phase, your insights may be forgotten when planning time comes?around.

?Our best bet for being heard and influencing strategies is to?get our data to those who can use it when they need it -- during the senior?leadership annual planning phase – even if that data is from a study completed?six months earlier. This allows us to influence those large corporate initiatives.

? Steps for getting invited?to the planning meeting

?First, you have to have something to say.?Cull through your research and identify the?top 4-6 customer insights of the year and the insights you believe management needs to hear; those few?insights that really matter.?The more?you try to communicate, the lower the likelihood your insights will be used.?

?Next, get on the planning agenda early in the process so you can?share your top insights with senior leaders when they are interested in hearing them and might do something about them.?

?You have valuable information. What management group would not be?interested in a brief overview of the most critical insights of the year??And who among them would say he or she doesn’t?care what the customer thinks???I have?never seen this fail.

?Learn who manages the planning process, then?work with this person to get on the agenda.?He or she will likely have to run the idea past their management, but?given your content, the odds of your inclusion and presentation to?decision-makers will be very high.

?Here are 6 tips for presenting to this crowd

?Don’t structure your presentation like a typical research?report.?Here are a few tips for this leadership?audience:

1. ?In this setting, state your point of view with just enough data?to support it.?And indeed, not every?data point you have.?
2. ?Make sure the insights are pithy and to the point.?Absolutely not “researchy.”?
3. ?Bring in other non-research supporting points if possible. It's not all about us. There are many other credible and trusted data sources available to execs. Corroborate your points with one of these sources. It will add credibility to your conclusions.
4. ?Avoid method discussions.?If you are presenting to this level of the organization, they will trust?you can execute properly. If they begin asking method questions, it is a sign?they don’t like or agree with your insights.?Address the real issue; going into method details will not convince?them.?

Click here for more tips to present to this crowd and a few resources to help you do this well.