Defining Your Goals
As the year is winding down it is time to begin planning your 2008 marketing programs. Good marketing plans begin with clearly defined goals.
These specific targets are the foundation of all your business activities. They outline what you want to accomplish, serve as a measuring stick for success and help you determine if previous activities are worth repeating.
Setting S.M.A.R.T. goals: Specific, Measurable, Action Oriented, Realistic, and Time Based.
Be Specific and Measure Your Progress
To be useful a goal must be SPECIFIC. As you evaluate your business, answer the following question: What will make my business more successful? Is the answer: more new customers or more sales to existing ones? Do you need more sales, or simply more profit on each sale? Is your goal to switch customers to a new product or service?
Once you know what you are trying to accomplish, create a MEASURE which will tell you when you have arrived.
The measurable aspect of your goal helps you decide how large an investment to make in your marketing efforts. It is a scorecard used to determine if the program was a success and worth repeating!
Remember - Goals Require Action Plans
Every goal needs an ACTION plan, or a series of small steps, which help you achieve desired results. Without a viable plan, it is almost impossible to accomplish your goal.
Write the steps down. Put people in charge of specific actions. Hold them accountable for completion.
Chart your progress. Create a “Milestone” table which lists specific actions, who is responsible for completion, deadlines and current status.
Be Realistic
Your goals should be challenging for you and your team, encouraging everyone to do more than they have done historically. Be REALISTIC; a goal set well beyond your current capabilities can negatively affect your business.
Goals establish the level of expenditure you make; bigger goals require bigger investments. If you are unrealistic in your goal definition, you may spend more money than is appropriate for your business.
Respect Your Timing and Share your Goals
TIMING is everything when setting goals. Establish realistic time frames and deadlines. Remember - shorter time frames often require larger investments to accomplish the same goals.
Finally, don’t keep your goals a secret! Tell others what you want to accomplish, so they can help.
A veteran of corporate America, Lorraine Ball teaches business owners across the country how to use creativity and planning achieve exceptional results. Her marketing firm, Roundpeg http://www.roundpeg.biz, helps small business owners find a starting point for growth and change.
An accomplished marketer, she has won regional and national communication awards. Her books “The Entrepreneur’s Notebook” “Business Map” and “Confessions of a Networking Junkie” are popular resources for business owners across the country.
Lorraine has an MBA from the University of Texas, and a BA from Queens College, City University of NY. She has been on the faculty of the University of India.