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Answer Upon - Your One-Day, Ten-Step Strategic Plan
The most dramatic exercise that we conduct in our High Impact Presentations workshop is called CEO for a Day. We promote each of our participants to CEO of their companies. We then ask that they each craft their opening message to their executive team and deliver it. What is dramatic about this activity is that our participants rise to the challenge and present themselves more powerfully and persuasively, as if they are the CEO.I’ve learned from conducting this exercise numerous times that sometimes all people need is to be given permission to project their best and most confident selves. And they do!CEOs are the people that we look up to (most of them anyways). Granted, not all of them have excellent communication skills, however, many of them do.Marcus Buckingham in The One T
Word choice can change the perception and value of your business communications. Each piece of correspondence, promotional, marketing and advertising material your company produces is an investment in your success. Are you investing wisely?Think about the words “old” and “experienced”. They have similar meanings. However if you advertised that you are the most “experienced” business as opposed to the “oldest” you’d probably receive a better response.Let’s look at the definitions.Old by definition means one of specified age or from an earlier time.Experienced by definition means made skillful or wise through experience (also practiced).By definition the words are similar and can be interchanged, yet what do you visualize when you think of each word?Would you rather do business w
Step One – Be the best. The result of a well-developed and executed strategic plan is to develop a competitive advantage. Just what is a competitive advantage? Business lingo aside, it is simply the answer to: What can your company potentially do better than any other company?
Understanding your competitive advantage is critical. It is the reason you are in business. It is what you do best that draws customers to buy your product/service instead of your competitor’s. Extremely successful companies deliberately make choices to be unique and different in activities that they are really, really good at and they focus all of their energy in these areas. You may decide to incorporate your competitive advantage into your mission and/or vision statements.
Step Two – State your purpose. A mission statement is a statement of the company’s purpose. It is useful for putting the spotlight on what business a company is presently in and the customer needs it is presently endeavoring to serve. It also serves as a guide for day-to-day operations and as the foundation for future decision-making. To write a mission statement, answer the questions: What is our business? What are we trying to accomplish for our customers? What is our company’s reason for existing?
Step Three – Visualize the future. A strategic vision is the image of a company’s future – the direction it is headed, the customer focus it should have, the market position it should try to occupy, the business activities to be pursued, and the capabilities it plans to develop. Forming a strategic vision should delineate what kind of enterprise the company is trying to become and infuse the organization with a sense of purposeful action. Think big! To write a vision statement, answer this question: What will our business look like in 5 to ten years from now?
Let us say that you are working on your mortgage marketing presentations. You have just made a perfect presentation to a Realtor. They were excited and impressed with your services and said they were ready to move full stream ahead with you. What is the next step? Going back to the office and waiting for a phone call?You may find yourself waiting a long time. It is incredibly frustrating to be promised one thing and never have it come to fruition. That is what happens when your mortgage marketing does not focus on building a solid relationship with the Realtor, even if it sounds like they made a commitment.You know the expression of "Out of sight, out of mind". If you have not properly built your case for doing business with you, the agent will forget all about you as soon as the doorecuted strategic plan is to develop a competitive advantage. Just what is a competitive advantage? Business lingo aside, it is simply the answer to: What can your company potentially do better than any other company?
Understanding your competitive advantage is critical. It is the reason you are in business. It is what you do best that draws customers to buy your product/service instead of your competitor’s. Extremely successful companies deliberately make choices to be unique and different in activities that they are really, really good at and they focus all of their energy in these areas. You may decide to incorporate your competitive advantage into your mission and/or vision statements.
Step Two – State your purpose. A mission statement is a statement of the company’s purpose. It is useful for putting the spotlight on what business a company is presently in and the customer needs it is presently endeavoring to serve. It also serves as a guide for day-to-day operations and as the foundation for future decision-making. To write a mission statement, answer the questions: What is our business? What are we trying to accomplish for our customers? What is our company’s reason for existing?
Step Three – Visualize the future. A strategic vision is the image of a company’s future – the direction it is headed, the customer focus it should have, the market position it should try to occupy, the business activities to be pursued, and the capabilities it plans to develop. Forming a strategic vision should delineate what kind of enterprise the company is trying to become and infuse the organization with a sense of purposeful action. Think big! To write a vision statement, answer this question: What will our business look like in 5 to ten years from now?
Listen, most advertisements and marketing pieces are nothing more than big business cards lacking the ONE central ingredient needed to make a sale -- showing benefits to your prospects.See, regardless of what you're selling and who you're
selling it to, ALL your prospects want to know, "What's in
it for them?"Today we'll take a look at the fourth paragraph of our
mock display ad and I'll show you exactly what I'm talking
about.You can check out that original ad, and even print
out a copy of it, right here:http://www.kingofcopy.com/tips/real_estate_ad_071505.htmThe fourth paragraph says, "My team does absolutely no
cold-calling or traditional prospecting, but instead are
given dozens of motivated, ready-to-act leads every single
week. All of our customers pick up the phone to ly make choices to be unique and different in activities that they are really, really good at and they focus all of their energy in these areas. You may decide to incorporate your competitive advantage into your mission and/or vision statements.
Step Two – State your purpose. A mission statement is a statement of the company’s purpose. It is useful for putting the spotlight on what business a company is presently in and the customer needs it is presently endeavoring to serve. It also serves as a guide for day-to-day operations and as the foundation for future decision-making. To write a mission statement, answer the questions: What is our business? What are we trying to accomplish for our customers? What is our company’s reason for existing?
Step Three – Visualize the future. A strategic vision is the image of a company’s future – the direction it is headed, the customer focus it should have, the market position it should try to occupy, the business activities to be pursued, and the capabilities it plans to develop. Forming a strategic vision should delineate what kind of enterprise the company is trying to become and infuse the organization with a sense of purposeful action. Think big! To write a vision statement, answer this question: What will our business look like in 5 to ten years from now?
In the process of musing about our perennially awake world for my Social Psych blog, I started to think about our present work world and how its operations have changed the lives of millions of workers.I manage a 24/7 emergency crew (mental health). We handle callers from early evening until 7 AM, plus weekends and holidays. During the course of the night, we talk to hundreds of people from all walks of life. Until a few years ago (except for intermittent wartime production requirements), the people who worked through the night were limited to emergency services (police, fire, hospitals), the telephone company, a few booming manufacturing plants, and the military. Now we expect to order items, day or night, by telephone. We demand that support services for all our transactions be available 24/7.How do nier needs it is presently endeavoring to serve. It also serves as a guide for day-to-day operations and as the foundation for future decision-making. To write a mission statement, answer the questions: What is our business? What are we trying to accomplish for our customers? What is our company’s reason for existing?
Step Three – Visualize the future. A strategic vision is the image of a company’s future – the direction it is headed, the customer focus it should have, the market position it should try to occupy, the business activities to be pursued, and the capabilities it plans to develop. Forming a strategic vision should delineate what kind of enterprise the company is trying to become and infuse the organization with a sense of purposeful action. Think big! To write a vision statement, answer this question: What will our business look like in 5 to ten years from now?
The greatest shifts in American culture tend to originate from the media, but even something as innocuous as a saying can drive a cultural change. One saying in particular seems to epitomize a cultural shift that seems to be going unnoticed.“Just do it and ask for forgiveness later.”Heard that one lately? Used that one lately? We all have, and most of us have likely heard this used at work.The first time I heard it, I was a little shocked. It sounded like something I would have used as a kid while trying to rationalize using Mom’s Visa Card without her knowledge. Taken aback, I looked back at my manager to see if he was serious; he was. The walls of resistance softened, and I began to nod slowly. The stamp of authority seemed sufficient to justify doing something that I would not have ordinarily do, the customer focus it should have, the market position it should try to occupy, the business activities to be pursued, and the capabilities it plans to develop. Forming a strategic vision should delineate what kind of enterprise the company is trying to become and infuse the organization with a sense of purposeful action. Think big! To write a vision statement, answer this question: What will our business look like in 5 to ten years from now?
Step Four – Take an inventory. The SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis helps you look critically at your organization. It is a tool to help produce a good fit between a company’s strengths and its opportunities.
Assess your strengths and weaknesses by answering these questions: What do we do best? What do we not do best? What are our company resources – assets, intellectual property, and people? What are our company capabilities (functions)?
Assess your opportunities and threats by answering these questions: What is happening externally that will affect our company? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor? What are the driving forces behind sales trends? What are important and potentially important markets? What is happening in the world that might affect our company?
Step Five – Profile your customers. If you want to move your company from being successful to wildly profitable, you need to meet your customers’ needs and wants better than your competitors do. Develop a customer profile by answering: What are our customers needs, motivations, and characteristics? How do we uniquely provide value to our customers? What should we improve to grow our customer base?
Step Six – Write your goals and objectives. Goals and objectives are like stair steps to your mission and vision. Realistic goals and objectives are developed from the SWOT analysis and customer profile. Objectives set the agenda, are broad, and global in nature. Write two to five objectives that give action to your mission/vision and will take a few years to achieve. Then, develop goals to achieve each objective. Goals should be measurable, quantifiable, and support your objectives. Think about achieving them in a one-year timef
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