Strategic Planning–Part Two: Considering Your Business by Matt Spaulding

With the 2010 planning season upon us, I’m writing a three-part blog that provides top-line tips for how to develop a strategic communications program that is aligned with your brand and your business goals.

In my first blog (Defining Your Brand), I discussed why it’s important to start a strategic planning session by looking at your brand first.  Knowing your brand – who you are, who you care about and what you do – is the foundation for strategic planning.  If you don’t understand your brand, you will have a hard time developing an effective communications program that creates meaningful results for the benefit of your brand.

Once you’ve “defined” your brand, it’s time to look at your business.  Organizations will engage a PR firm for a myriad of reasons – crisis communications, special event promotion, perception building, executive positioning, etc.  However, at the end of the day, your PR firm should, at the very least, know your business goals.  And at the most, align their PR strategies with those goals.

Below are some of the questions that need to be answered in order to develop a strategic communications program that can effectively support your business.

1. Where Do You Want to Go?

Your communications partner should have a clear understanding of your company’s one-, three- or multi-year revenue goals.  They should know if you are anticipating exceptional or marginal growth so they can match that to the strategies they recommend, as well as the budgets and resources needed to meet that anticipated growth.

Inherent with this conversation is knowing your organization’s overarching business growth strategy, i.e. how you plan to grow.  For example, your PR partner should know if you are looking to increase existing market share, steal market share, increase sales of existing customers, penetrate new markets, etc.  Once again, knowing this information will enable your PR firm to develop a matching strategy and tactics.

2.  Who Will Get You There?

OK, so you’ve defined where you want to go in terms of business growth.  Now comes the hard part:  Knowing who will get you there?

Of course the biggest focus needs to be on your customers.  Your PR agency will need to know everything about your customers, since they will mostly likely be a key target audience.  It will be important for your agency partner to know such details as where your customers are located, why they buy from you (vs. others), what they buy, when they buy and how much they buy.  Without a complete understanding of your customers, your PR firm won’t be able to provide the solid counsel and recommendations required to meet your business goals.

The other “who” your agency will need to keep in mind are the people in your organization that make the sales process work.  This not only includes your sales team, but also product managers and sales support staff.  Business conditions can change quickly, so your PR team needs to be plugged into what is happening in the market at the point of contact.

3.  How Will You Get You There?

You’ve defined your revenue goals and the people (customers and personnel resources) you have in your stable.  Now it’s time to look at the business opportunities available that can lead to accelerated growth.

It’s important that your PR partner knows your “sweet spot,” i.e. where you excel in sales.  Every company has a key product or service that is their money maker; your agency needs to know what that is and why.  What’s more, they also need understand your distribution model – how you get your product or service to market and into the hands of your customers.

Other elements worth reviewing are:

• New growth market opportunities:  Where are the growth areas that you should be a part of?
• Underserviced areas:  Where are you underperforming that could lead to increased sales?
• Pricing structure:  Is your product or service above, at, or below market pricing?

Final Thoughts:

PR is not a Silver Bullet – It’s important to note that a public relations program alone cannot generate sales.  Generating sales is a multifaceted process.  There are a number of separate yet interconnected parts that need to be in place to drive sales, such as:  effective customer prospecting and qualifying; prospect-to-customer conversion strategies and tactics; sales force training and education; etc.  PR, advertising and other forms of marketing should all be considered to drive sales opportunities.  Yet as any good sales professional will tell you, there is a distinct sales process that requires a lot of operational work on the front end, in the middle and on the back end to effectively close a sale.  This operational work cannot be solved by PR; that’s why a PR program alone cannot drive sales.

Be Realistic – While strategic planning is about the future, it’s important to know where you are today.  Smart businesses recognize the resources they have to work with and the challenges – both internally and externally – they need to overcome to meet their business goals.  As the old saying goes, the path to good intentions is always paved with gold.  When it comes to strategic planning, make sure you have a path.  And if you can make it smooth, you’ll be off on the right setting!

Check back soon when I’ll be discussing the final part of this three-part blog for strategic planning:  Developing a communications plan that aligns to your brand and business goals.