End of Year – Time For Reflection and New Business Plan!
History repeats itself…
Everyone has been there: once the end of the year starts looming upon us, suddenly our customers and prospects can’t seem to make a decision. It’s a typical end of year situation, where everyone is busy with closing current orders and has no time to discuss new projects. “Call me in the New Year” seems to be a December’s telephone mantra. Everyone seems to be focusing on current sales and forgets about their forecast orders and what they have in the pipeline for January… So it might be a great time to stop and review your business situation. Do you know what you want to achieve next year? How will you get there?
Are your sales targets in line with your marketing strategy?
One of the most common mistakes is when the sales team does not communicate their sales targets with the marketing team. Then a company ends up with two plans – one for sales, expecting £££ to be delivered by the end of the year, and one for marketing – with completely different KPIs set up.
So when before the business closes for the Christmas break, it is a great opportunity to sit down and discuss two sides of the New Year’s strategy.
Do you need to increase the number of your prospects?
Marketing questions to build a strategy: What are your channels of communication? Do you use the right Social Media platforms? How to choose these?
Planning to increase sales throughout your portfolio of products and services?
Marketing questions to build a strategy: Have you reviewed the state of your website? Are all your products and services there? Is the information accurate?
So while you are building your business plan for the new year, here is the end of year checklist:
- Examine your annual revenue, month by month
- Review the year’s marketing campaigns/ promotions month by month
- Analyse your product and services portfolio
- Analyse your customer portfolio
- Review the competition
Reviewing the five points above will give a valuable insight into the company’s year and provide you with ideas where the next year’s business plan should focus to ensure your business’ growth.
Need help with your business plan or building your sales and marketing strategy? Ask the consultants… Click here to get in touch for more information.