As with the seven questions for the strategy summary, there are seven basic sections or elements of a marketing plan:
 The Benefit to the consumer
 Your positioning in the marketplace: Just what business are you in?
 Your target market
 Your advertising strategy and positioning
 Your marketing budget
 The tool and techniques (weapons) you will use to reach your audience
 A month-by-month implementation schedule

In this article we will look at Benefits to the consumer.

Benefits
Every product or service has Features, Advantages and Benefits(FAB). Mixing them up or misunderstanding the difference between them will cripple your marketing efforts.

Features – are those components that deliver or yield a benefit (or an advantage) or to put it differently; it’s what it does or what it is.

Advantages – the feature must have an advantage (at least a perceived advantage) and are those components that can assist in the solving of problems or fulfilling of needs – as in it’s what it does better (than others).

Benefits – is what the consumer can expect or receive – what it means to the consumer, the results they receive, what they want. Not what you want to give them but what they want to receive. In other words what they want is gospel, everything else is hearsay.

Wants and needs are broken down in to the following (very general) areas:
Profit                                                                    Economy                                                   Security
Health                                                                 Family (Welfare)                                       Beauty
Comfort                                                              Convenience                                             Prestige
Self-expression                                                Social

In some way or another your product or service has to satisfy one or more of these wants or needs. The only products or services that succeed are those whose benefits exceed their cost.

Does your’s?

What benefits does your product or service deliver (what desire does your’s satisfy).

An example of FAB is my own consulting practice:
One of my features is Process Improvement…
The advantages I have are that I can deliver it faster, cheaper and less traumatically that others due to my experience and expertise…
The Benefit to the consumer is whatever they see it being, but usually it is
Comfort / Health (less stress, more peace of mind due to a more smooth and efficient operation)
Profit (more money due to a more smooth and efficient operation)
Security (long term survivability of the business)

You will not have a successful marketing effort if you can’t master these concepts.
What are my features?
What advantages do I have?
What Benefit does it deliver?

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Right behind a Business Plan, a sound, coherent and cohesive Marketing Plan is one the most critical components for becoming a successful business.

A Marketing Plan (as well as a Business Plan) doesn’t have to a lengthy novel – especially for a small business owner.

Why is this so?
1) What is the probability that a small business owner has the time to generate a traditional Marketing Plan?
2) What is the probability that a small business owner has the skills to generate a traditional Marketing Plan?
3) What is the probability that a small business owner has the motivation and enthusiasm to generate a traditional Marketing Plan?
4) Once done what is the probability that the Marketing Plan will go on the shelf and gather dust forevermore?

This is why I am an advocate of the concepts of Guerrilla Marketing. Now I am by no means an “Expert Marketeer”. But I believe I am smart enough to recognize that all businesses are not created equal and traditional marketing theory and concepts are focused on larger companies, with larger budgets for marketing.

The small business owner does not have the resources (Time, Money and Skills) that large enterprises have and therefore must husband their resources accordingly. This is where Guerrilla Marketing excels.

The Guerrilla Marketing series was devised and written by Jay Conrad Levinson and in my opinion is not only brilliant but will fit almost any small business.

Guerrilla Marketing strips away all the big company / big budget “stuff” from traditional marketing and leaves the small business owner with a well thought out and conceptually sound Marketing Plan process that in Levinson’s words “will deliver low cost and high impact” marketing to the small business owner.

This methodology is infinitely scalable and easily replicated (more of my favorite tenets for small businesses).

A Guerrilla Marketing Plan will be seven to ten pages long – this may seem like a lot but when you consider this includes the Marketing Plan Budget and the Marketing Plan Implementation Schedule it is really quite short.

Levinson suggests that you start by doing a one page strategy summary by answering seven questions before your write your plan.

Those seven questions are
1) Explain the purpose of the strategy.
2) Explain how you will achieve this purpose. It describes your Features, Advantages and Benefits (FAB).
3) Describe your Target Market.
4) Outline the Marketing Weapons you will use.
5) Describe your niche.
6) Reveal the identity of your business.
7) Define your budget, which should a percentage of sales.

Once you have done this one page summary you are ready to do your Marketing Plan in detail.

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Okay, so far in the series we have been in the “softer” side of planning, what planning can do for you, how to fit your business into your lifestyle (and not the other way around), staking out exactly where you are now (benchmarking) and doing your Vision & Mission Statements.

Now its time for the rubber to meet the road. Doing your “Roadmap”, again going back to the journey analogy I have been using. The roadmap is the tangible and practical set of methods for getting where you want to go.

The roadmap has three parts
 Goals & Objectives
 Strategies
 Plans

Goals & Objectives – we have defined our Vision. So what accomplishments do we have to achieve to arrive at our Vision? These are the concrete, definable, measurable and specific both in terms of target and time frames. Obviously these must be written down and published – if only to yourself. My goals and objectives are on a 2’ X 3’ poster over my desk, I review them every day – this is my motivation even when I am not in the mood.

The Goals and Objectives are designed to focus your scarce resources, the most scarce being your time, on those activities that achieve your targeted and specific results. For many businesses the most critical categories will be Marketing and Financial, although your’s may be different. There is no template for G&O’s – every business is unique, but the same (business is business) so make sure to cover all the important aspects of your business. Always ask the question What is this for? Or even more simply Why? These two questions will help keep you from pursuing goals that do not come from your needs or values.

Your Goals and Objectives should be SMART

S is for Simple. Your goals should be clear and easy to describe. You want to weigh 175 pounds, or save $10,000 this year. Your goal is to run a marathon or to purchase a computer by the end of the year. If it takes more than 25 words to describe your goal, simplify it!

S also stands for Significant. Don’t waste time chasing trivial goals! If you are merely thinking about a goal, forget it! Goals must have significance for you. Choose things that are important, that get you excited, things that will make a difference in your life.  . A goal without a specific result is just a pipe-dream. You can’t achieve a pound of "happiness", or a foot of "self-esteem", but you CAN get a new job. You CAN run a mile in under 7 minutes or do 100 sit-ups. You CAN spend Saturdays as a family, or increase your sales by 10% this month. Someone has wisely said, "What gets measured, gets done!"

M is for Measurable  A goal without a specific result is just a pipe-dream. You can’t achieve a pound of "happiness", or a foot of "self-esteem", but you CAN get a new job. You CAN run a mile in under 7 minutes or do 100 sit-ups. You CAN spend Saturdays as a family, or increase your sales by 10% this month. Someone has wisely said, "What gets measured, gets done!"

A is for Achievable. "Goals should be just out of reach, but not out of site." You want to stretch yourself, not strain after impossible dreams. If you haven’t run in years, don’t set a goal to run a marathon! Your brain won’t "buy it"! Set a goal to run around the block, and then set a new goal to run for 20 minutes. Then, go farther. Nothing succeeds like success! Set goals you can and will ACHIEVE, then aim higher!

R is for Rational. To reach your goal, you will need a plan, a path, and a vehicle for getting there. Your goals should make sense when you explain them to family and friends. You can become a millionaire by methodically saving 10% of your income; you probably won’t get rich playing the lottery. Play the odds, have a plan, and work your plan!

T is for Tangible! Choose goals that you can see, hear, smell or touch. Go for things your senses will enjoy and that you can clearly visualize. The brain has a hard time going for "financial security", but it can visualize a bank statement with large numbers on it! Even things like "peace of mind" are more powerful if you re-word them in terms of a meditation room in your house, or an hour a day, just for you.

Keep your G&O’s concise and measurable – those items which can be measured will improve. Measure them often – at least quarterly, more likely monthly. I measure my marketing goals weekly, though that may be too much for you.

Strategies – are a bit more expansive than goals and objectives, but have the ability to create the direction and operating guidelines for building and or managing your business.

A good way visualizing strategies would be to think of them as the best practices for your business or industry. What company in your industry has had the most success in obtaining and keeping market share? Investigate them; find out what they do and how they do it. You’ll learn some valuable lessons.

Your Core Strategies (usually four to six for any single company), when properly constructed will address both external influences and internal influences. They will define your business and keep it focused.

Plans – are the specific action items and their related action steps that you must make in a specific timeline to achieve your desire objective.

We all, as business owners, have a to-do list, this list usually has too many to-dos on it, some urgent (pay the utility bill), some important (execute this month’s marketing plan) some both urgent and important (follow up with hot-hot-hot prospects) and so on.

A well thought out plan will keep you focused on the important but not necessarily urgent actions.

These are the one that will maintain your current market base, capture new market share and grow your business. A good plan will help you prioritize and keep a balance between the urgent, important and important but not urgent actions you will face every day.

Plans need to be broken down into specific and “do-able” projects and steps that can be achieved in a reasonable timeframe – do not try to eat the elephant in one bite.

Each project has both a time and cost element, both need to reasonably estimated and compared to the return you’ll receive.

Achieving your plans, goals and objective will be addressed in a future article

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Your Vision Statement is the basis of your entire journey – where do you want to go? Without the Vision, not only don’t you know where you’re going, but there is no reason to go in the first place!

There are as many opinions on how to do a Vision Statement as there are Vision Statements. Some “experts” claim it should be clear and concise, some claim it should be expansive and idealistic and others fall everywhere in between. I tend to fall in the expansive and idealistic camp, but that doesn’t matter, as long as you make it your’s, not someone else’s idea of what it should be.

A Vision Statement should stimulate the reader (as well as yourself), promote discussion, create possibilities, ask why not and communicate your belief in the Vision.

You can hardly make your Vision Statement too grand. If your company has been a million dollar revenue business for many years, why not make your vision to become a five million dollar business. So what if you don’t get there – this is one of the times when goal achievement is not necessarily the purpose. The purpose is the journey. What if you get to three million dollars, are you going to be disappointed – you just tripled your revenue.

Don’t make your Vision to plain or analytical, think big, go big, explore, create and show your passion. If you’re not excited, how can you expect the reader to be excited, have your desire or passion? Have fun, be wild; the time for cold, hard analysis is not when writing your Vision Statement.

The Vision Statement can be the most difficult part of the planning process, especially for those businesspeople that worry about what others may think – forget them, go for it!

Use powerful words, strong adjectives to describe your dream. Start with the five W’s – Who, What, Where, When, Why (and How). The answer to those questions will form the foundation to formulate your Vision.

Put your Vision on paper, stay with it for awhile, then go back and edit it, you may be surprised to find that you decide to do something more exciting that you originally thought.

There are lots resources for writing and formulating a Vision Statement – many are free – go find them and get started today!

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Using the roadmap analogy from Part 1 of the Planning Series, how can you start the journey if you don’t even know where you’re at?

Benchmarking is a very effective tool for knowing exactly where you’re at. Benchmarking has several meanings and can be used in number of manners.

Some companies benchmark themselves as a starting point for internal process improvement or profit improvement. Other companies benchmark themselves in relation to an industry or to national, regional or local competition.

This latter benchmarking is the kind of benchmarking I’m going to discuss. Benchmarking your company against similar style, similar sized businesses on a national, regional or local basis has many benefits:

 Identifying areas of concern you weren’t aware of
 Comparing yourself versus your competitors
 Providing realistic goals and objectives
 Indicating necessary strategies
 Helps dictate tactical plans
 Identify and rectify problems
 Development of a process for continuous improvement

In one instance a recently purchased sign company was carrying high levels of inventory because the previous owner told the buyer to keep it at that level. The new owner was benched marked versus his local and regional competition and it turned out that the inventory levels were almost ten times as high as the competition.

This information prodded the new owner into selling off over 85% of his inventory (at a profit – although a small one) and he gained over $350,000 of cash from the sale of the inventory. He would have never known (or found out too late) that his inventory levels were a problem without benchmarking.

This type of benchmarking drives a stake in the ground and says “We are here; this is where we will start our journey”. It will help determine your roadmap for the rest of your journey.

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One of the most glaring mistakes I have seen entrepreneurs and consultants (who should know better) make in formulating their business plans or strategic plans, is not taking into account how they want the business to fit into their lifestyle (and not trying to squeeze their lifestyle around the business).

Many people think I’m nuts when I tell them that planning your business with a "top-down" perspective is crucial to success. They think I am asking them to drive down the road before they’ve even gotten into the car.

How do you picture your ideal lifestyle? I’m guessing an important part of it has you securely positioned in a business where you’re completely in control - of your time as well as your finances.

Having that picture firmly in your head is the first step toward achieving it. Once you know how you want to live, you can build your business around that dream.

What are the ground rules for your business when taking into account that ideal lifestyle?

They might be:
1. No weekends
2. No Business Travel
3. Someone will run the business for you
4. High margin products
5. Little inventory
6. Wholesale (or retail or…) only
7. Referral based only
8. Etc.

Or whatever is important to you. Write these ground rules down. Look at them every day. Ever decision you make should be based upon these rules, either it fits into these rules or you don’t do it.

By the way, you are allowed to change the ground rules any time you want. They are by no means cast in stone. But you always need to have a set of rules to work with. They will prevent you from taking actions that lead you away from - not toward - your ideal lifestyle.

NOW do your business plan.

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Not matter what kind of business you’re in; having a plan is crucial to an positive outcome for your business.

A plan provides you with the necessary focus and direction. As Yogi Berra said “When you don’t know where your going any road will get you there”. Do you know where you’re going or are you just “letting it happen” – if you’re just letting it happen, how’s that working for you? For 99% of businesses is the path to disaster, both financially and emotionally.

Having a plan allows you to use your limited resources (time, money, effort) effectively and efficiently.

Most small business owners cringe at the thought of a “business plan”, the proverbial 50+ page bible. Who has the time for this? Who has the fortitude for this? Who has the desire for this? Certainly not me and I am fairly certain not you. And unless you are going to external sources for financing or support of some kind it’s not necessary.

There are many resources out there to assist you in doing a short and sweet business plan. One I recommend is the One Page Business Plan by Jim Horan. When I reconfigured my business this is what I used to do my business plan. Other than the dreaming/thinking time involved it took me about 16 hours (over several days) to do it. Who doesn’t have 16 hours for this task?

Planning is nothing more than setting your Vision and Mission, identifying and preparing your Goals and Objectives based on your Vision and then prioritizing them into some kind of order. There are six simple steps in developing a workable plan (don’t over think it, don’t over complicate it, this isn’t Quantum Physics) for the typical business owner, I’m not saying you’re typical, but if you were typical, they would be:

1) Set your Vision
2) Define your Mission Statement (as necessary)
3) Identify and prepare your Goals and Objectives
4) Define your Strategies to support the achievement of your Goals and Objectives
5) Generate your three to five year Plan; this is your Strategic Plan or Business Plan (the view from 30,000 feet).
6) Generate your one year plan; based on your Strategic Plan, this is your Tactical Plan or Annual Operating Plan (the view from a mile high).

Are you willing to spend two hours a week and a few days a year to stay on track, work on the critical issues, save yourself hundreds of hours (not working on the wrong or lower priority issues)?

I hope so… if not, how’s that (not having a plan) working for you

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