Seven Weeks Left

Can you believe there are only seven weeks left in 2016? Thanksgiving is next week! Between all of your last-minute, year-end projects, and all of your holiday parties and family commitments, don’t forget to sit down and give some thought to your 2017 business plan.

Setting sales goals for the upcoming year is the best way to start the planning process. And the best way to project future sales is to review your historical numbers. Breaking down revenues into categories – by product, by customer, by geography, etc. – whatever makes sense for your business will often yield insight into how the business is evolving.

Once you have a better handle on your sales history you can begin to factor in any new initiatives for the upcoming year. Are you going to hire more salespeople? Are you planning to introduce a new product or service? Maybe you’d like to expand your business by entering a new market, or grow your business by acquiring a competitor. Any and all of these options will affect both sides of the balance sheet.

From a marketing perspective – as opposed to other functions of your business (production, finance, etc.) – the next step in the planning process is your target audience. One of the interesting things about looking at sales history is you might learn something new about your customers. We all make assumptions about our business – such as who is buying our products or how we define our ideal customers.

But sales numbers don’t lie. Taking time to analyze empirical evidence in the form of sales results over the past year will reveal the truth, and the reality will sometimes surprise you.

Likewise, depending on your initiatives, you may need to adjust your target audience to reflect those changes. Once you know if and how your target audience has evolved, then you’ll be ready update your message strategy as needed. Has you brand evolved? Is it time for a refresh. Are you launching a new product or service? Does it need it’s own brand identity or is it an extension of your corporate identity? Do you need a new brochure, new packaging, or a website update?

The point is your marketing planning decisions should relate back to your sales goals. You might be surprised, but in our experience most business owners don’t connect these dots. All too often their decisions about marketing are reactionary. Something will come up during the year – such as an event to sponsor, an advertisement to support a cause, or some sort of “must have” promotional item for whatever reason – and if there is money to spend, it’s spent, regardless of whether or not the expense has anything to do with achieving their sales goals for the year.

Sometimes getting an objective perspective can help. Milestone offers a strategic marketing planning service that walks you through a step-by-step process. It takes six hours over the course of three meetings. Let me know if you’re interested. But don’t wait too long. There are only seven weeks left in 2016…

Until next week,

Matthew Anderson, President
Milestone Marketing Associates, Inc.