“The People Who Fail to Plan are Planning to Fail” – Jim Rohn
Every three months at our Growth Club in Roehampton, we split the day into two main sections.
The morning session focuses on reflection of the previous quarter – what went well, what didn’t go well, and what lessons were learnt in the process.
We then focus on current issues, using a ‘Mastermind’ round-table technique where each delegate shares a problem they’re currently facing within their business, and their counterparts offer potential advice and solutions.
Then in the afternoon, we focus purely on goals – what you’re looking to achieve for yourself and your business across the next quarter.
We then break these goals down into bite-sized pieces, because as the mantra goes – “A goal without a plan is just a wish”.
Imagine a scenario where you’re planning a comprehensive road trip, let’s say from Lands End to John O’Groats – but you’re going to wing it.
No Sat-Nav. No map. No Phone. You’re driving solo for this one.
Your goal is to get from one of these destinations to the other – but you have no plan.
What are the chances of you reaching John O’Groats on time, or even at all?
Pretty slim, and with plenty of chaos in the way no doubt!
Well, the same principle applies in business.
Firstly, you need a goal to be reaching for – secondly, you need a plan to navigate your way towards it. And thirdly, you need to make sure that you execute the plan!
Something I coach regularly is the SMART philosophy – setting SMART goals is a good way to break the tasks required to reach them into bite-sized chunks.
You need to ensure that your goals are: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.
So, let’s take an example of a SMART goal and how it might be translated into a plan:
Goal: Increase monthly sales revenue by 20% within the next 6 months from X to Y.
Specific: The goal specifies exactly what needs to be achieved – a 20% increase in monthly sales revenue. This is clear and leaves no room for ambiguity.
Measurable: The goal is quantifiable, as it can be measure by tracking monthly sales revenue. A 20% increase provides a clear metric for success.
Achievable: While ambitious, a 20% increase in sales revenue over six months is realistic, considering factors such as market trends, current sales performance, and available resources.
Relevant: Increasing sales revenue aligns with broader business objectives, such as growth and profitability. It is directly tied to the success and sustainability of the business.
Time-bound: The goal has a specific timeframe – 6 months. This adds a sense of urgency and helps prevent procrastination, providing a clear deadline for achieving the desired outcome.
Breaking Down the Goal (or ‘Eating The Elephant’)
- Identify Your Current Baseline: Begin by determining the current monthly sales revenue. This serves as the starting point against which progress will be measured.
- Set Monthly Targets: Break down the 20% increase into monthly targets. For example, if the current monthly revenue is £10,000, a 20% increase would mean aiming for £12,000 in the first month, £14,400 in the second month, and so on.
- Develop Strategies & Tactics: Determine the strategies and tactics needed to achieve the monthly targets. This could involve a number of actions, including increasing marketing efforts, improving sales conversion, up-sell and cross-sell to existing clients.
- Allocate Resources: Ensure that the necessary resources, such as budget, personnel, and tools, are allocated to support the strategies identified. This might involve investing in a lead generation campaign, training sales staff, streamlining a process.
- Monitor Progress: Regularly track and monitor sales performance against the monthly targets. This allows for early identification of any deviations from the plan and enables adjustments to be made as needed.
- Evaluate & Adjust: At the end of each month, evaluate the results and assess what worked well ad what could be improved. Use this feedback to adjust strategies and refine the approach for the following months.
The idea of businesses setting goals and plans such as the above on a quarterly basis, is to help make sure that they actually happen!
A month might not give you enough time to see the full plan through, whereas a year might mean you lose sight of the goal or even worse, never get started. 90-days or 12 weeks is short enough to ensure focus, and long enough to make significant progress.
We are all guilty of procrastinating from time to time, but having clear goals, with an action plan associated with them staring you in the face daily, keeps you accountable and leaves you with little room for excuses.
I also recommend writing the plan for each goal out in detail, breaking down into an action plan with key steps and referring back to it daily.
And it doesn’t have to be a huge document if that’s not your thing – I have plenty of clients who simply refer back to a one-pager written up and/or on a whiteboard in front of them.
Need some help with your goals and planning? Book a call here and I can share some templates to help you.
While you’re here…
- Our next Growth Club event is taking place on Friday 28 June 2024 – click here for more information or to book your spot!
- Watch this case study evidencing the value of systemising the planning process for accelerated growth [takes 5 minutes to watch]
