How to Plan Strategically for Growth

Strategic planning is a crucial activity for any organization, but it can be challenging to execute effectively. Many senior executives are dissatisfied with the quality of their strategic plans, which often fail to deliver growth, optimize resources, and align with business goals.

During a recent 1:1 with a partner in my firm, we began dialogue around the 2024 planning process…specifically growth. After a few decades leading high performance business development teams, each year provides another opportunity to recalibrate.

Next year, I will add more capabilities and solutions to better serve our existing clients. Admittedly, there was a moment of panic thinking about how to approach a thoughtful plan for 2024. I create this same head trash every year, until I remember the plays that never fail: plan, build, communicate, and execute.

In each phase, sales leaders should focus on specific actions and outcomes that will help them create and implement a sales strategy that supports the enterprise strategy.

Phase 1: Plan

The first phase of strategic planning is to lay the groundwork for the process by defining the roles, responsibilities, timelines, and expectations of all participants. Sales leaders should also ensure that they have a clear understanding of the business goals and the sales capabilities required to achieve them.

Some of the key actions in this phase are:

• Validate and quantify the sales goals. Sales goals should be outcome-based, measurable, aligned with business goals, and balanced between challenging and realistic.
• Engage other business leaders in meaningful dialogue. Sales leaders should involve other stakeholders throughout the planning process to understand their short- and long-term priorities and support needs.
• Simplify the plan into a concise story to engage stakeholders. Sales leaders should highlight the link between organizational and sales goals, explain the cost of inaction, and provide the rationale behind the strategy.
• Eliminate unnecessary activities and legacy behaviors. Sales leaders should help employees prioritize activities and behaviors that support the new strategy and imperatives.

Phase 2: Build

The second phase of strategic planning is to build the sales strategy by defining the sales function’s goals and objectives, metrics and targets, and prioritized strategic initiatives.

Some of the key actions that have been helpful for me in this phase are:

• Set clear, realistic, and outcome-oriented sales goals and objectives. Sales goals and objectives should be informed by business priorities and external trends.
• Identify lagging and leading metrics to measure performance. Sales leaders should select a concise set of metrics that can help measure success against goals and objectives; and define the thresholds and targets for each metric.
• Identify and prioritize strategic initiatives to address sales objectives. Sales leaders should direct their sales team to identify initiatives that plug capability gaps, meet sales objectives, and inflect selected metrics. Sales leaders should also prioritize and assign clear ownership responsibilities for active initiatives and new proposals on criteria such as strategic fit and execution capabilities.

Phase 3: Communicate

The third phase of strategic planning is to communicate the sales strategy to sales employees and the organization’s leadership. Sales leaders should develop a concise and clearly articulated summary that reflects the key elements of the strategy, such as:

• The vision and mission of the sales function
• The sales function’s goals and objectives
• The metrics and targets to measure performance
• The prioritized strategic initiatives to address sales objectives
• The expected benefits and outcomes of the strategy

Sales leaders should also use various channels and formats to communicate the strategy, such as presentations, videos, newsletters, podcasts, etc. Sales leaders should also solicit feedback from stakeholders and address any questions or concerns they may have.

Phase 4: Execute

The fourth phase of strategic planning is to execute the sales strategy by monitoring progress, adjusting plans as needed, and celebrating successes. Sales leaders should also ensure that they have the right resources, processes, tools, and incentives to support the execution of the strategy.

Some of the key actions in this phase are:

• Track performance against metrics and targets. Sales leaders should use dashboards, reports, or scorecards to track performance against metrics and targets; and identify any gaps or risks that may affect the achievement of goals and objectives.
• Adjust plans as needed based on changing conditions. Sales leaders should be flexible and agile in adapting their plans based on changing internal or external conditions; such as customer needs, market trends, competitor actions, etc.
• Celebrate successes and recognize contributions. Sales leaders should celebrate successes and recognize contributions from individuals or teams who have helped achieve or exceed goals and objectives; or who have demonstrated exemplary behaviors or practices.

By following my playbook, sales leaders can make their strategic planning more productive, effective, and impactful; resulting in a sales strategy that drives growth, performance, and alignment with business goals.