business plan - Artful Thinkers

January 28, 2013June 13, 2017

Over the Hill or Through the Woods

The beginning of every year is an opportunity to set your direction and communicate your path forward. It gives you the chance to review and define your goals, personally and professionally. For everyone else, it gives them the ability to know how to best support and follow the leader. Does everyone that can impacts your business know your 2013 plan?

The lack of a defined plan for the year, leaves everyone taking their “own” best path forward. In the end, this may not produce or represent the organization’s goals or objectives. People will be moving, activities will be happening, yet you may be headed to exactly where you did not “plan” to go. It is up to you to stop the wandering effect of your business and your followers. Set the direction. Communicate your exact plan. If you don’t have a plan, create one now — before it is too late.

If you have a plan and you have not shared it, this is the week to get it done! People and businesses need goals and plans. You can work endless amounts of time, expend great energy and spend a lot of money to end up in the wrong place. How did that happen? Usually it is because everyone is not working collectively on the same outcome. Everyone is heading in a direction, but it may not be the “right” direction.

As a leader, it is critical to everyone working with you that they understand your strategy and goals for the business. A plan provides the road map empowering you to define the activities and tasks. It opens the door to assigning responsibilities and setting accountability. More importantly, it gives you the capability of making a pivot or shifting your plans by creating a benchmark for how you will measure success along the path forward.

Working on a shared and communicated plan, gives business leaders a reason to stay in touch with employees, measure their progress and assess performance. People thrive on accomplishments and desire feedback. Knowing how they are contributing to the success of the business can only be measured by stated goals and objectives.

Get everyone working together. Options may be limited or options may be bountiful based on the path you choose to take the business. Communicate your choice. Will you be headed over the hill or through the woods. What will be in the basket full of goodies you will offer to your customers, vendors, employees and partners. How do they prepare to avoid risks? What will be awaiting when they arrive at the determined destination?

Your team is waiting for you to tell them the story. How it begins this year and how it will end. Provide regular updates and know that people will be looking for you to lead them in the direction you have shared.

“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” — Henry Ford

Jamie Glass, Founder, President and CMO of Artful Thinkers

November 25, 2012

Prepare for a Happy Business New Year

There are only a few weeks left that will define how your business performed this year. Are you happy with the anticipated results? If the answer is yes, are you prepared to deliver the same performance next year or go to the next level? If the answer is no, are you prepared to deal with the obstacles and challenges that prevented you from achieving your goals this year?

There may be little time to change the results of 2012. There is plenty of time to prepare for changes in 2013, if you start now. Pivoting from your current trajectory requires strong leadership and preparing a detailed plan to execute starting the first day of the new year.

Reviewing the past several months, is your business foundation strong enough to build the next phase of your expansion? Your foundation needs to be durable, providing the necessary support to accelerate current business practices that will generate more revenues and improve overall performance. A business that is built from repeatable practices for product development, sales, operations, marketing and service, is a business that is ready for sustainable growth.

In your evaluation of the past year, if you are not convinced your business is running at maximum capacity or operating efficiently, it is well advised to spend the final weeks of the year to identify the primary obstacles and demands your business require to get on track for better performance in the coming year. In other words, now is the time to invest in your business to get it on track for growth. Do you need to invest in people, products or infrastructure? What will it require in time and finances to build a strong foundation for future growth?

One of the biggest challenges for small business owners is to look outside the day-to-day operations to see the threats and opportunities for growth. If you do not have an advisor, seek help from peers who can give you an objective assessment. You want to have a comprehensive plan with orientation toward your business goals and tactics that can be executed upon by your committed team members at the start of the year. Your plan needs to be opportunistic and realistic.

Now is the time to plan for the coming year. How much do you need to invest? Will you need to pivot from plans that have not provided expected results in the prior months? Your team is waiting for your definitive plan of action. They want to know where they are headed so they can meet your expectations. Take the steps necessary to get ready for the best possible outcomes in the coming new year. The action you take today, will impact where you end up next year.

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” ― Yogi Berra

By Jamie Glass, CMO & President of Artful Thinkers and Managing Director of Sales & Marketing Practice at CKS Advisors.

November 11, 2012November 11, 2012

Prepare to Hire a Sales Person

It is the time of year that businesses start to look at their anticipated revenues and question if they can increase the top line with additional sales resources. A sales person is an investment in your business. Preparing for the role within your organization is as equally important as hiring the right person.

Before you hire anyone, have you created a sales plan? The sales plan is where you define your revenue goals for the year, the budget for required headcount and support resources, and the tactics you will employ to achieve your goals. At a minimum, you must define what you are willing to invest into the selling of your products and services for every expected new dollar of revenue. Once you make this calculation, set your budget based on your investment requirements and expected returns with new sales.

Now that you have your sales plan outlined, here are some steps to help you get ready for hiring a new sales person:

Sales Role: Will your new hire be a direct, field sales person or an inside sales person? A direct sales person will have a larger budget for travel and expenses, in addition to higher compensation. The expense of a direct sales person can be offset by a putting in place a higher quota. A direct sales person is expected to negotiate larger contracts and develop profitable long-term relationships over the phone and in person. An inside sales person will conduct all of their selling over the phone. They will be qualifying opportunities, making online presentations, negotiating and asking for the business over the phone. Inside sales people will have a smaller quota and also typically sell smaller priced products and services that do not require face-to-face presentation and negotiation.
Job Description: Create a job description that clearly defines the requirements for the role, responsibilities and expectations of what the sales person must deliver. Be specific. State the sales goals, types of customers they need to sell and how they will engage with prospects. Will they be a “hunter” or a closer or both? Will they need to have existing relationships? How much experience in your industry? Note how your sales person will be measured and how you view success.
Quota and Territory: Generally inside sales quotas will start at $100,000 to $250,000 in new business revenue per year. The defined quota will always depend on the sales price. A direct sales person can be expected to have a quota of $500,000 to $1,000,000 a year in sales. Again price of product will help set the quota, along with experience of the sales hire. If you hire someone with no experience in achieving a million dollars in sales, they probably won’t hit a million dollar quota no matter how much they sell you on the prospects.
Comp Plan and Incentives: Detail how the sales person will be compensated. Typically there are three factors in sales compensation: sales commissions on new business, incentives to exceed quotas and bonuses for quality or quantity. Define your compensation and commission rules. When will the sales person be paid? You can set different commissions for different products, based on profitability. The average sales commission is 4-8% of top line sales revenue. One word of advice, the easier the plan is to follow, the more focused your sales person will be on achieving plan instead of trying to figure out when and how they get paid.
Sales Process: The sales process defines the steps a sales person will engage to find, qualify, present, negotiate and close a deal. If you know the process, you can better hold a sales person accountable to how they manage their sales funnel. It will also provide you data on how many leads you need to support the number of deals you expect to close each year. Data is your friend in sales.
Marketing and Sales Support: Sales people will typically work independently; however, you can shorten the sales cycle by providing sales tools and marketing support to help educate the customer, drive the process forward and substantiate the value propositions of your products. Prepare a training plan to educate the new hire on what they will sell. A minimum requirement for any sales person is a CRM tool. Your prospects and clients are a company asset. Track and manage the data and make sure it is stored in a company repository.
Measurable Success: Before you make the hire, know exactly how you will measure their success. A sales person, no matter the level of experience, will have a ramp up before they start closing deals. Your sales cycle can range from weeks to years. The more complex the sale, the higher price of your products and the more consultative the sales process, the more likely it will take six months or more before you see traction with even the most experienced sales person. Your only exception will be to hire a person that already has relationships with your targeted customers. The ramp-up will decrease with selling experience; however, you will pay a lot more for this type of sales person in base and expected overall compensation. Do the math. Can you invest more early on to increase odds of higher returns with a shorter sales cycle?

An investment in sales is one of the most important decision an owner makes in the life cycle of a business. Making a bad sales hire can crush your business. Prepare and plan for success. Set reasonable expectations and measure performance. Sales is a numbers game. Know the numbers, inside and out. Know what you spend. Know what you want in return. Know how the sales person will achieve the sales goals. Prepare your plan so you know what success looks like and then execute your plan.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ― Benjamin Franklin

By Jamie Glass, CMO & President of Artful Thinkers and Managing Director of Sales & Marketing Practice at CKS Advisors.

October 28, 2012

Be in Your Business Now

As a business leader, you have three options of where to put your focus. The Past. The Future. The Now. Being present in your business now, gives you better leverage to improve from your past with the valuable foresight to manage risks and opportunities in your future.

21st century businesses require real time accessibility and responsiveness to meet the changing tides of immediate customer demands. Innovation is quickly driving businesses forward and leaving many behind. Being disciplined on the point of convergence of past and future, enables you to put 100% of your business efforts into the business now.

It is important to know who you are, where you are coming from and where you are going. The past provides insights that can help your business pivot and shorten learning curves. As a leader, you depend on the knowledge gained through good and bad experiences to improve performance and business outcomes. There is only one path to progress. You have to move from the past to the future through your business now.

Living in your business past, with regret or admiration, does not give you the necessary focus to be centered in the now. “When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.” ~Alexander Graham Bell

Leaders that spend time relishing in their great accomplishments may be ignoring the unknown threats or countless competitors looking for better, faster ways to knock you off your pedestal. Put the plaque on the wall, file the kudos and at-a-boys and know that your business needs you to be working on what’s next – now.

Likewise, if you are spending your business now redefining vision statements, missions and the company’s next BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal), you may be missing the bumps and obstacles that threaten you from achieving important milestones in your daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly journey. Your revenues depend on you to zero in on the now.

One way to keep you in the now is to have a mission statement that puts you squarely in the present moment. Starbucks puts its’ employee, partner and customer focus in their business now with their simple mission statement. It says, ”Our mission: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.”

There is no arguing that you need business goals, strategies and plans. The only way to work in the business now is to know where you are headed. Every business needs short and long term goals. There is a big difference in working in the future or working on the future — now. You can be working on inventions that will change the world. If you focus on how the world will be versus your invention, you will lose your edge in getting the invention to market. A daydreamer trap for the creative mind.

Have you ever met an entrepreneur that has hundreds of ideas. When you talk to them, they focus on all the ways they can improve on an idea, open new markets and make millions and billions — in the future. They have 20 solutions for every problem. Yet, there is always one thing that is missing in their enthusiasm for what’s ahead, their business now.

How is your business today? What is holding you back this week? What challenges are stopping you from being that billionaire NOW? When you are steadfast on living in future, you are probably not paying attention to the work required to get you there. If your employees always see you so far ahead of them, they often lack accountability to what they need to do to make the business a success today.

There is a fragile difference between a vision and an illusion. Apple is a perfect example of a company dedicated to the business now. We often look at each new product as ahead of it’s time. Some will remark, how visionary! Apple looks at their new products as another completed project. The next Apple inventions we will be enamored with are already in production. Apple is constantly improving products ahead of their time by working in the business now. They do so with an eye to the future, short term and long term goals; however, they produce and service in the now. Innovation is part of their work culture. We, their consumer, are focused on their future. That does not deter them from meeting our demands now, it only keeps us loyal.

Use your past to better predict your future. It is good business intelligence. Being present for your customers, employees, partners today is what has the greatest impact on revenues now. Investing in your future, is working on your business now! Don’t ignore what’s right in front of you. What you uncover by working on the business now could define you and your company evermore.

“Forever is composed of nows.” ~Emily Dickinson

By Jamie Glass, CMO & President of Artful Thinkers and Managing Director of Sales & Marketing Practice at CKS Advisors.

October 14, 2012October 15, 2012

Return on Marketing Requires an Investment

One of the most important decisions a business owner or CEO will make is establishing a budget for marketing. Like talent, product and infrastructure, marketing must be viewed as a necessity in business. Marketing expenditures are essential investments for growth.

An average SMB (small-to-medium size business) will typically set a marketing budget at 4% to 6% of sales revenues. There are several factors that can impact this budget. As an example, a well-funded startup may invest 20% of revenues for aggressive consumer acquisition programs and advertising. Notice, the “well-funded” qualifier. Likewise, there is always difficulty in setting a budget for a pre-revenue company. Entrepreneurs will often spend most of their investments in product and then struggle to bring in sales. Startup costs must include marketing. For every dollar invested in product, people and infrastructure, an equal dollar should be set aside for investment in sales and marketing.

Here are three simplified phases for marketing investment planning:

1. Brand Awareness: Your marketing investment should start with focus in reach and awareness including brand identity, a website, company advertising and direct and social marketing.

2. Engagement: The second phase invests in additional marketing programs that support your sales efforts including lead generation, publicity, web marketing (SEO and SEM), market validation, events, advertising, presentations and customer case studies.

3. Nurture: Finally, maximize your marketing investments with customer communications, CRM services, loyalty initiatives and nurturing programs to maintain the valuable potential and existing customer relationships. Once you have them engaged, use your marketing spend wisely to develop and grow your relationship.

After your marketing budget is defined, you will want to establish how you will measure the success of your investment. ROMI is the acronym for Return on Marketing Investment. The calculation is total revenue divided by marketing spend. ROMI = Revenue ($) / Marketing Spend ($).

Some marketing activities such as branding, advertising, PR and social media are harder to track impact and influence. As a rule of thumb, the simple ROMI equation gives you a thumbnail sketch of your return on your marketing investment. ROMI is a good KPI (key performance indicator) for leaders to use in the business dashboard.

If you are a startup or pre-revenue, the marketing spend will be set as your budget for purposes of forecasting. Some may argue that there should be other factors added or subtracted, such as attributable revenues; however, most businesses have a difficult time tracking every dollar spent on activities such as advertising. Start with the broadest “buckets” and as you increase your marketing reporting and tracking sophistication, you can scrutinize spending with finer analysis.

Marketing is an investment. Success in ROMI requires budgeting, reporting and analysis in order to fully actualize the benefits.

In lean times, business owners have a tendency to cut marketing spend. Lost time and lack of investment, even during challenging periods, impacts long-term growth. The result may not be felt right away. It is an illusion. Prolonged periods of reduced marketing spend can dramatically reduce sales opportunities. The fewer dollars you put into a marketing budget the greater the exponential impact on future revenues.

Similar to an investment savings account, the more you put into your “growth” marketing account, the higher potential return on your investment. The more dollars spent on high risk marketing activities, the greater risk to returns. Any sound investment advisor, marketing or financial, will counsel a business owner and CEO to invest based on the organization’s risk tolerance. Marketing investments should be treated like any financial investment. Know your risk tolerance, invest accordingly. If the business has low tolerance for risk, eliminate marketing spend in expensive tactics that are difficult to measure. Always diversify your investment to mitigate risk.

In order to qualify for a return, it requires an investment. Failing to set aside funds to market is failing to invest in business sustainability. Expectations of sales without an adequate marketing budget is a business built on luck. Though we would all like to be lucky, if you plan to sell something, invest in marketing to create the sale.

“I have a problem with too much money. I can’t reinvest it fast enough, and because I reinvest it, more money comes in. Yes, the rich do get richer.” -Robert Kiyosaki

By Jamie Glass, CMO & President of Artful Thinkers and Managing Director of Sales & Marketing Practice at CKS Advisors.

August 19, 2012

Manage Your Influencers for Optimal Results

Key influencers play a critical role in every business. Decision makers are guarded and guided by inside and outside advisors and gatekeepers. How you manage your trusted advisors can help or harm your business.

Influencers know they have the power to change or compel action. It is the business leaders responsibility to validate and control the effect of influencers. Those who sit closest to authority and are granted permission to persuade, have a direct impact on your success. Do you know who is currently sitting at your table of influence?

In order to responsibly manage your influencers, take time to identify those that are in your inner circle and those effecting your judgement. Inside your business look at department heads, executives and even top revenue generators whose opinions impact your future. Who are your squeaky wheels? Are they helping you make better decisions for your business or slowing down how you operate? Influencers can be carriers of good and bad advice, they may be motivated by selfishness. It is up to you to vet, challenge and manage your influencers for optimal results.

One way of evaluating an influencer is to ask them what they believe are your highest priorities. Are they up-to-date on your current business plans and growth strategies? Do they know the profile of your most profitable customers? If not, it is the perfect opportunity to align your thinking. Define and clarify what is most important to you and your business. Let them know how they can help you.

To get the best results from your influencers, provide regular updates on business goals, initiatives, challenges and opportunities. Acting as gatekeepers, key influencers can open doors to new ideas, solution providers and even make introductions to customers. They also have the ability to close doors. As the final decision maker, you are ultimately responsible for those that make it through the “gate”. Challenge those that have the authority inside your business to say no. Know who they turned away and why.

Update your outside advisors quarterly about key initiatives and strategic objectives. These influencers, such as accountants, legal counsel, wealth managers, business consultants and top vendors are connected and often sources for essential referrals. They act as a conduit for information and potential services that can help you achieve your goals. If your influencers know your interests, they can better serve you.

Know that influencers get things done. They effect change. They make things happen. You need to know who they are and leverage them for maximum impact to your business. Lead influencers to your expected outcomes. Manage them for the best results.

Jamie Glass, Outsourced CMO and President of Artful Thinkers, a strategic sales and marketing consulting company and Sales & Marketing Services Managing Director at CKS Advisors.

August 12, 2012

Capitalize on the Dog Days of Summer

There is a constant drum beat in business circles that summers are difficult for getting anything done. There are a variety of excuses that justify this belief, including, “everyone is on vacation“, “people don’t work when kids are out of school“, “buyers are not engaged“, and of course “decision makers are unreachable“.

The hard reality is these excuses are self-fulling prophecies. We are more wired, more connected, more engaged today. Business is not done during the hottest months of the year because we assume we will get a no before we ask for the yes.

The facts prove people are working all summer. Monthly average work week data shows that we work the same amount in the summer as we do all year round. Decision makers average 49 hours per week. We are more productive than ever. So, why are you not capitalizing on the hottest months of the year?

The Dog Days of Summer are the best time of the year to build up prospects, qualify leads, refresh your marketing strategies and compete for mind share. While everyone else falls into the excuse trap, you have an opportunity to make noise and get noticed.

Laying back until September to heat it up your marketing and selling efforts only pushes you into the most distracting time of the year. Right after Labor Day, decision makers are budgeting for 2013 and events are abundant. Daily sales calls peak and we are all flooded with competitors emails and advertisements trying to capture top of mind awareness. Simply, your odds are much better to get noticed during the summer months.

Here are some suggestions on how to capitalize on the final dog days of summer:

1. Reach out to current customers. Estimates are that it is 7x less expensive to get business from a current customer than a new customer. Update your current customers on your latest business activities and see if they are ready to buy more.

2. Prospect for opportunities. Run reports from your contact database to see who has not been reached in the past six months. Put them on your priority contact list and create a campaign to heat up some buying interest. Activity creates action.

3. Build sales plans for key accounts. Spend time to craft detailed sales plans for your top prospects. Identify decision makers, buying cycles, budgets and key influencers at your top target companies. Read up on their latest news and research their business to identify critical needs. Use your sales plan to carefully craft the value proposition for doing business with you and then set the appointment to make the pitch.

4. Promote, promote, promote. As others hold back until after Labor Day, you have the opportunity to use public relations and social media campaigns to gain attention. Take advantage of the slower news cycles and go for the headline. Do whatever you can to get the attention of those seeking your products and services.

5. Summer close out sales. There is a very strategic reason why Christmas in July sales dominate the dog days of summers. Retail outlets and online storefronts are looking to clear out inventories. The other reason is June, July and August sales are the time people will typically start shopping for school and holidays. Consumers expect a deal.

6. Refresh your sales and marketing strategies. Review your strategic plans. What has worked, what is not working and what market opportunities exist for the business in the next 18 months. Tactics follow strategy. If you are only doing the work and not evaluating the impact on your strategy, you could be heading in the wrong direction.

7. Pivot now. Review your key performance indicators and adjust if you are are going to miss your mark. Making a change now can benefit you in the last quarter of the year. Don’t wait, start executing your changes and new strategies to achieve your business goals this year.

It is time to heat it up! You have fewer people competing for attention and business right now. Take advantage of it. People receive fewer emails, fewer calls, so use this as an opportunity to make a direct connection today and set the wheels in motion to capitalize this year.

Jamie Glass, Outsourced CMO and President of Artful Thinkers, a strategic sales and marketing consulting company and Sales & Marketing Services Managing Director at CKS Advisors.

July 22, 2012

Ready to Hand Over the Keys to Your Business?

Who is Ready to Drive Your Business Forward?

Business owners can easily be consumed by the short term activities of day-to-day operations. Sole focus on immediate outcomes exposes any business to long-term financial risks.

Every business leader needs to mitigate risks associated to being the one in charge. The value of a business is built upon the sustainability of the operating plan, with or without it’s leader. As an owner or CEO, have you asked yourself the “what if” question? Are you fully prepared to hand over the keys to your business today?

You may have imagined that some day you will be transitioning your leadership to a partner, an investor, the next in line or even family member. You may see your fabulous retirement life through the eyes of selling your business in multiples above your investment. In order to realize your dream, you need to spend time and commit resources to adequately prepare for a favorable transition. When? Now.

Succession planning is critical to an effective transition. Achieving optimal outcomes in transitioning a sustainable business requires years of preparation. How confident are you in handing over control of your business to your successors today? A successful transition plan gives the new leaders a complete operating manual. They need to be adequately prepared to operate the business day one. They need to be able to take your business forward to protect your investment and to benefit your employees, stakeholders, customers and partners.

Some owners avoid planning for the end of the business because of the time it takes away from working “in” the business right now. The lack of preparedness puts your business value at risk. It is never too early to prepare for an exit. Whether you are a small owner-operated business, mid-market company or family-owned enterprise, you need a definitive succession plan. It should be part of your standard business.

Here are some tips on how to start your succession planning:

1. Document company processes and procedures. Everyone is not replaceable. Unfortunately, when a person leaves the business they take institutional knowledge. Key personnel that do not document their knowledge or share it with their direct reports, cost your business long-term and expose you to great risk. This includes the owners and founders. You can mitigate that risk by making sure every employee documents their processes and procedures. Start with key roles. This is not a job description, it is a “how to” operating manual for every role in your company.

2. Review your wealth preservation strategies with your advisors. Meet regularly with your personal and professional financial team members to analyze your current situation and review your short and long term goals. Be “in the know” at all times of where your business stands financially. Use strategy and growth advisors to help you pivot the business, so that you can exceed your goals. Update your business evaluations annually.

3. Build a culture of knowledge sharing. Create internal social exchanges and information sharing networks. Use your company meetings to have one department or key player provide a highlight of their role and what it means to the business. Reward employees for creatives ways they educate others. Commit one hour a week per employee for education and cross-training.

4. Host quarterly strategy updates with key personnel. Spend time with your “next generation” of leaders to share business plans, KPIs, lessons learned and company strategies. They are the future leaders of your business and they may be executing your business plan. Keep no secrets. Share your wealth of knowledge. Sharing keeps people engaged and actively participating in achieving business goals.

5. Reward excellence in execution. Find opportunities to reward performance for those that take initiative and demonstrate they are prepared to lead. A business full of up and coming leaders, results in sustainability.

Exit planning helps you increase the value of your business today and in the future. Investors and bankers should ask to see your succession plan. As you plan your beginning, you need to plan for the end. Make your investment of time and energy pay off more than you imagined. Plan today to realize a profitable, rewarding and fulfilling end.

Jamie Glass, CMO & President of Artful Thinkers and Managing Director of Sales & Marketing Practice at CKS Advisors.

June 25, 2012

Market to Your Strengths

Recently at an entrepreneur camp for high school students, I worked with several teams in preparing a 3 minute pitch to sell their inventions and innovations to a panel of professionals. My focus was to help these young entrepreneurs identify their business and product strengths so they could convincingly sell us on their idea in a very short amount of time — much like the real world.

I shared my experience in managing sales teams and evaluating investor presentations about what works and what does not work in pitching. I let them know that even the most seasoned professionals can mistakenly focus on the “hot” features without direct alignment to what makes you stand out against your competition.

My lesson, you must compete for mind share before you get market share. Whether selling your idea, your services, your business or just you, always use your valuable marketing resources to promote what makes you better than the rest — your strengths!

Have you identified your market strengths? Recently? And once you found your strengths, have you effectively managed and built them up in your marketing?

The easiest tool to define your strengths is the simple risk assessment that every marketing plan must include — SWOT Analysis. No matter the size of your business, you must know your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

If you have already completed a SWOT analysis on your company, product or service, dust it off and review it today. Is it still accurate? Hopefully you have evolved! Your strengths are not set in stone. They are dynamic based on competition, economics, innovation, market growth or decline and shifting attitudes toward your business and products from consumers and employees.

If you have not completed a SWOT Analysis, take out a piece of paper now. Draw four boxes and label them: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. In each box, list out what you currently say, believe or understand as your strengths and your weaknesses, the opportunities you see where you can grow and threats in your business to achieving your goals.

This initial SWOT Analysis is meant to be quick; however, a thorough strategic marketing plan will take more time and resources for a complete evaluation. You will ultimately want an assessment that has multiple inputs including employees, executives, vendors, partners and current, potential and lost customers.

A SWOT analysis is useful to make sure you are current with messaging on how you are perceived and understood in the market place. It is a business planning tool that should be evaluated quarterly to make sure market opportunities are seized and threats are assessed and mitigated.

The next step is to audit your current marketing programs and communications to see how effective you are in defining your strengths. Are you placing all your strengths on the first page, first paragraph, above the fold and in your elevator pitch? Review your marketing tactics to see how well you represent your strengths. Start your assessment with:

1. Branding – Do you clearly communicate and represent your strengths in the essence of your brand and your identity?

2. Communications – Do you detail your strengths in all your marketing communications, including sales presentations, collateral and on your web site?

3. Sales – Can your sales representatives and customer-facing employees recite your top five strengths? Where are they detailed in your standard sales presentation?

4. Public and Analyst Relations – Does your boiler “About Us” include your marketing strengths? Are you able to weave your strengths into every new release?

5. Social Media – How often do you remind your fans and followers about your strengths? Are they listed in your social profiles? How many weekly posts include mention of your strengths?

In order to create demand and achieve anticipated growth, you need to market to your strengths. Make sure you are consistent, clear and current in your messaging and get the word out why you are better than all the rest.