Introduction

Predictable, profitable business growth is not as hard as you might think. Business growth is rarely the result of one miraculous strategy or tactic. It’s the culmination of several small things that guide a business in upward growth. Sustainable business growth is also the result of business planning. Even though this fact is substantiated by countless studies and respected business leaders, most businesses don’t have an operational marketing plan that is used daily to guide decision making, interactions with customers, and processes for people to collaboratively execute.

This book will show you the most effective way to create continuous, profitable growth. It combines timeless marketing concepts with many new marketing tools and strategies to provide you with the most efficient way I know to create a market plan—a roadmap for growth and success for your business.

You will learn a proven process that entrepreneurs and business professionals have been using for well over a decade to create significant success in their businesses. As an entrepreneur, marketing executive, and professor, I have helped business leaders launch and grow their companies for over 20 years, and I understand the challenge of finding time for business planning. That is why I made it a mission to develop the most efficient and effective method of planning that I possibly could.

Business owners are overwhelmed with information and the need to adapt to a constantly changing global market place—these factors highlight the need for business planning more than ever. How do we quickly assimilate and adjust strategies to respond? The answer is to apply a new way of planning that is in real-time and has execution built into the process. Planning and execution must be tightly integrated to occur not as an event or annual process, but part of day-to-day operations.

It’s also time to fix the problems in sales and marketing that have persisted for decades, such as how to make marketing more measurable, organizing the company around customers instead of products, and breaking down the silos between marketing and sales teams to sell more effectively to customers. Marketing must also be flexible to integrate the latest marketing tools, social media, and online marketing strategies.

This book is written for CEOs, entrepreneurs, marketers, and sales professionals who are looking for a new, yet proven method to create business growth. This process and framework have been used to develop hundreds of marketing plans for companies in consumer, business, non-profit, retail, and manufacturing industries. Companies of all sizes and stages of maturity have used this process to increase revenue, profitability, and discover new business opportunities. Start-ups have used the planning framework as a feasibility study to test a new business idea or launch a new company. Fast-growing businesses use the process to grow at triple-digit rates. Even companies that have been in business for several decades have reaped tremendous value by developing a plan that keeps pace with customer needs in an ever-changing business climate.

In short, the process is flexible and proven to be successful. If you’re tired of the same old marketing and business strategies and ready for growth, read on.

Imagine

A New Way of Marketing......

...in Real-Time

Eliminate the sacred and inefficient annual planning process and replace it with real-time planning that keeps pace with change. Use a process and tools that are flexible, collaborative, and measurable so the plan is a living, breathing operational document shared across the organization to help the entire business execute strategy and continuously improve.

...Improves Execution

Research proves that 90 percent of a company’s strategy is not executed. Business planning cannot be disaggregated from execution; businesses need a planning process with execution built in. Learn how to create a culture of execution that is accountable and measurable.

...Makes Marketing Measurable, Predictable, and Successful

Introducing the ROI Optimizer, an industry-changing process that links and optimizes the entire demand chain so marketing and sales programs achieve increased levels of measurability and success. You will learn how to accurately predict the return on investment of sales and marketing programs by linking them to revenue goals, product and service forecasts, sales channels, and target market segments.

...Integrates Proven Concepts and Best Practices with New Tools

Even best practices need updating to reflect today’s market realities.

Integrate best in class business tools like the Balanced Scorecard and strategy fundamentals from leading business experts into your plan. Combine proven marketing strategies with innovative new tools and techniques to target elusive buyers.

...Improves Customer Experience and Lifetime Value

Learn the easiest, most consistent way to create profitable business growth. Get fresh insight on how to attract new customers, retain them, and grow customer lifetime value. Learn how to create customers who are evangelists for your business and create increased levels of customer loyalty and profitability for your business.

...Develops Company Culture into Marketing’s Secret Weapon

As former IBM CEO Lou Gerstner said, “Culture isn’t part of the game. It IS the game.” A thriving culture is woven into the fabric of successful businesses. Throughout this marketing process, you will learn how to create happy, engaged employees—who in turn create delighted, engaged customers. Businesses that foster a thriving culture create not only a powerful brand, they are proven to have substantially higher profits—up to 50 percent more—than businesses that don’t.

...Innovates Using Social Media and New Media Marketing

New media tactics are rapidly beginning to overshadow, and in some cases replace, more traditional media channels. Build an integrated marketing plan that uses new media like search engine marketing, email marketing, viral marketing, social networking, and blogging. Learn how these tools will help you generate new leads as well as improve customer relationships and your company brand.

...Inspires by Producing Fast Results

Entrepreneurs and marketing and sales professionals aren’t looking for “fill in the blank” exercises to help them run their business. Nor do they want to wade through long theoretical explanations of strategy. They need to know how to execute real-time marketing into a business plan that gets results. Learn a six-step process that provides your business with the fastest and most efficient method to create a plan for business growth...and lifelong skills that can be used to continuously improve your business.

“A fool with a plan can outsmart a genius with no plan.”

T. Boone Pickens

Decision-Making Framework

This book is organized in sections according to each step in the P •R•A•I•S•E™ Marketing Process (Purpose, Research, Analyze, Implement, Strategize, and Execute and Evaluate). Each step provides a decision-making framework that guides you to summarize your actions and decisions (see Figure I.1). Here’s a quick summary of what we will cover in each section:

Purpose: Your company mission, vision, and values will define the direction for your business. You will define specific goals in several strategic areas and your marketing plan will be written to achieve these goals. You’ll also create a situation analysis and SWOT analysis.

Research: The work you do in this section will lay the foundation for the rest of your plan. This part of the process may take you the longest, but it is the most important so don’t skip it! The results are an understanding of customer wants and needs, customer segmentation, a definition of your target market, and a competitive analysis. You will also gain a deep understanding of the market forces impacting your industry. All of this information will be used to develop your strategies later in the process.

Analyze: In this section you will analyze research findings, distribution channels, and pricing to discover new product and service growth opportunities. You will also analyze competitors, market trends, and customer insight to identify new areas for business growth and improve customer experience.

Strategize: You will apply everything you have learned to develop a sales plan, marketing objectives, and marketing strategies. You will develop a positioning statement that differentiates your business and develop customer, target market, competitive, product, price, promotion, distribution, growth, and innovation strategies for your business.

Implement: You will learn how social media and other types of digital media can help you create brand awareness, drive leads, and engage customers. You will learn how to develop a tactical plan that defines the sales and marketing programs, timeline, budget, and resource needs. Apply these processes and methodology to improve execution, ROI, and sales for your business.

Execute and Evaluate: The “E” in P•R•A•I•S•E stands for Execute and Evaluate. You will identify critical metrics to track and evaluate strategies, and learn how to use the ROI Optimizer to measure and improve the results of marketing and sales programs across your entire demand chain. You will learn how to integrate marketing with operations and learn 10 principles that will improve your company’s culture and ability to execute.

Figure I.1 Decision-making framework