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Typically, around this time, most shareholder phone number data companies start planning what they want to do next year to achieve their business goals. That's why, taking advantage of the recent Inbound Growth Hacks event, organized by Impulse, I'm sharing the step-by-step guide to developing a strategic plan based on the knowledge we've acquired over the years.
Before we start: some key concepts
Those who are familiar with the topic have surely heard about Inbound Marketing. This is nothing more than a different way of growing a business and, in the process, marketing and sales teams often use the funnel to design and track their strategy.
However, the conceptual problem with the funnel is that it loses sight of the customers. Let's look at this in an example: Let's say we want to generate 10 customers. So, the marketing team brings in 1000 leads. From those, the sales team gets 100 opportunities, which result in 10 customers.
Although the objective was achieved, repeating this process constantly is not very profitable because it means losing sight of those customers who have cost resources. How do they get lost? By generating a single sale and not working on repeat purchases.
This is where the flywheel concept comes into play , which is basically that circular concept where the customer is at the center of our business and the entire strategy revolves around delighting that customer , so that they spend more with us and become an evangelist for our brand.
Flywheel
New call to actionNew call to action
Don't see a funnel, but a flywheel
It is becoming increasingly difficult to attract new customers. You have probably heard the famous phrase that it costs up to 5 times more to attract a new customer than to retain a customer. That is why we have to start seeing our business as a flywheel.
Customer-Centric Sales Flywheel
And here we are going to apply 3 key concepts :
Force. That action, strategy or tactic that helps us attract customers and get them to convert or come back for more. These help the business turn around faster.
Friction. Any process, resource, technology, or even person on the team that is not aligned with the strategy or rather makes it difficult for our business to turn around faster.
Momentum. By identifying the forces to enhance them and the frictions to reduce them, we can make our businesses gain momentum.
So, we have to think: are we looking at our businesses as a funnel or a flywheel? And have we identified our strengths and frictions? If we are not, now is the time to start.
In addition to analyzing this, in a good planning process there are things that are non-negotiable:
Review past activities and results. History can tell us what we did well, what we didn't do well, what we should repeat and what we shouldn't, and what we could try.
Focus on the future. In today's world full of volatility and uncertainty and where technology is constantly revolutionizing everything, we need to make plans with shorter time horizons.
