Category Archives: Marketing

Do you Dread Strategy Planning? Let’s make Strategy Simpler.

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What strikes fear into the hearts of even the most hardened businessmen?

How about strategic planning. And the strategy plan that emerges from it? All two hundred pages of it. And that’s just the Executive Summary.

Does your heart sink when you hear “strategy” or “strategic plan”?

Have you ever heard someone say, “I’m stuck in a strategic planning meeting for the next three days?” No doubt there’s a distinct tone of despair in their voices. And a pleading look in their eyes.

Strategy is so important for any business large or small. So why do so many people dread strategy planning?

Strategy Photo

Is it because many companies make it complex. They let the strategic planning process become all-consuming and forget about the “actual strategy”.

Perhaps it’s because strategy is often inextricably woven into the annual planning cycle. Inevitably we divert conversations about the strategic intent of the business to talk about budgets, cost cutting, staff numbers and pouring over the financials of the previous and the coming years.

As the plan grows in size, the accountants will want constant readjustments to the business projections and revisions of the costs. Planners want to draft and rewrite project plans try to save a week here and a day there. They stick millions of post it notes on walls and then spend days re-arranging them.

And everyone wants absolute certainty over the amount of future revenue that the plan will deliver. The problem is that costs, people and premises are totally under the businesses control, where as future revenue depends mainly on the will of the customer. How can there be absolute certainly over future revenues? There can’t.

The resultant strategic plan is often hundreds of pages long and extremely detailed and yet during this process the “actual strategy” of the business is often glossed over because  planning and budgetary cycle complexity swamps this most important part.

It’s the “actual strategy” that makes the customer want to spend their money with you that creates the revenue.

Of course budget planning is important.

Of course detailed product launches and systems development plans are crucial.

Of course cost control is required.

Of course controlling staff numbers is necessary.

But these need to come once you’ve developed and agreed the strategy. Because the strategy is the most important thing that will drive revenue in the future. Get the strategy nailed first and then commit to the detailed plans.

Yes a company strategy needs a mission statement, a vision and a goal (often a revenue amount for the equivalent expressed as market share), but strategy needs to drive these.

And the best thing to do is to keep it simple.

Customers will spend their money with you if your value proposition is superior to your competitors. You only need to do two things:

  • Decide which specific customers to target – who are they and what are their key characteristics?
  • Create a compelling value proposition for those customers – what will you offer them and what won’t you offer them and what sets you apart from your competitors? How will you price it? Where you will sell it? And how will you promote it.

That’s it.

Don’t get bogged down with planning, cost control and many iterations of strategic plans to guarantee success. Don’t overwhelm simply finding the core strategic intent. Deal with all that once you know where you are going.

Now it’s your turn: I’m sure as many people will disagree with my opinion as will agree with it. What is your experience of creating strategy within a business? Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment below or, even better, share a link to your own articles or blogs.

Are you going through a strategic review or do you know anyone who is? Why not share this post with them.

Get in touch if you want to talk about simplicity in strategy!

Listen! Have you heard what people are saying about Life Insurance?

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It’s one of the fundamental keystones of marketing.

Companies need to listen to their customers to understand what they want from their products and services.

Big corporates can afford to do qualitative and quantitative research, including focus groups, to tease from customers their likes and dislikes. They ‘ll employ insight analysts who can spot the trends that lead to opportunities for product developments or service improvements.

For smaller businesses insight comes from one to one meetings, phone calls and possibly a post-sale questionnaire, and genuinely knowing their client base intimately.

But for everyone, in any industry, there is another way to hear what people are saying.

We all have access to social media and this is where our customers shout loudest. This is where they will unload their thoughts without mincing their words. They’ll be candid, critical, and scathing.  But often they’ll be constructive, complimentary and supportive. And we can learn so much from what they are saying.

It’s like being in the pub with a million people.

Just try going on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ and type in a financial services or a protection term – and stick a “hashtag” in front of it. For example, #LifeInsurance.

You’ll certainly see results where some companies advertise their products. But you’ll also see what people actually think about life insurance. Happily, there are many who realise that they should have some but they haven’t got round to doing anything about it yet. This proves some people want it, albeit grudgingly.

Others have already decided they need it. One great Facebook post said:

life insurance

Then, of course, there are those who are not fans. Some think that it is too expensive, that life insurance companies will try to weasel out of paying claims or that it is just too complicated to apply for.

None of these objections will be new to anyone who works in the protection industry, but it does show how word of mouth, or is that word of screens, can perpetuate perceptions.

I came across a tweet recently which described life insurance as follows:

“A contract that keeps you poor all your life so that you can die rich”

Again here is someone who thinks that life insurance is expensive. But is £20 to £30 a month for a couple of hundred grand’s worth of cover really going to bankrupt someone? They probably have gym membership of around £80, a SkyTV subscription of around £60, a mobile phone contract for £50 and many other outgoings.

Of course, the person is correct that he can’t benefit from the payout. But his family can and will if he dies. They will be the ones left having to find the money to pay all those monthly bills mentioned above and more.

Listening to all this deafening noise in the social sphere tells us what content we need to produce to over come these objections and perceptions. The more positive content (marketing material, blogs, videos, podcasts, case studies) the industry puts out the more chance that it will also be heard.

And perhaps the next big innovation will come, not from an insight in a focus group, but from a comment on a blog, Facebook or other social media platform.

Now it’s your turn: What have you heard about life insurance from the social sphere? What are the best one liners? What are the worst perceptions that we need to address? Please share your thoughts and links.

A Four Hour Work Week. Seriously? Two Business Books worth your time.

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If you want to read a couple of business books that are truly different then look no further than Tim Ferriss – The 4 Hour Work Week and The 4 Hour Chef.

business books

If you think everything is too complex these days then you will like Tim’s style. He is very successful in cutting through clutter, seeing the big picture immediately and getting to results. This certainly resonates with me when I see an increasingly complex industry with increasingly more complex processes, products and rules.

Tim has many interesting and funny stories to tell.

For example he won the gold medal in the Chinese Kickboxing National Championships. Not because he was any good at Chinese kickboxing but because he read the rules and looked for unexploited opportunities. Much to the annoyance of the Chinese judges, he won the competition snatching victory from those who had 5 to 10 years experience. If you read his story you will learn how he literally pushed them out-of-the-way.

Now I know that your first thought when you look at The 4 Hour Work Week will be, “That’s not possible.”

However the 4 hours is not really the point. What he demonstrates is how to cut the complexity and the bureaucracy and the clutter in our lives and focus immediately on results.

business books

Tim Ferriss’s other book , The 4 Hour Chef,  is also a captivating read. Again you don’t really expect to become a chef in 4 hours, although there are some amazingly tasty recipes in this book that are genuinely easy to cook and wouldn’t look out-of-place in a Master Chef final.

Have a look at the “Sexy-Time Steak” recipe. Truly mouth-watering results.

Here’s the thing. The book isn’t really about learning to cook. It’s about learning ANY new skills.  And it’s about learning those new skills quickly, and successfully. Once again Tim describes how to cut the clutter from the learning process, allowing you to focus on results. As business books go these are entertaining,  insightful, funny and in some instances, a revelation.

Now it’s your turn: Have you read Tim Ferriss’s business books The 4 Hour Work Week or The 4 Hour Chef? What did you think? Have you tried any of the techniques? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment below or post a link to your own reviews.