Planning for a successful year ahead

I'm sure, like me and many others, you're probably thinking good riddance to 2020 and looking forward to a happier, more normal, and hopefully more balanced 2021. I hope that we don't take for granted all the freedoms that we had pre2020 once we started getting them back again in 2021. Fingers crossed. Now, a common theme for many agencies in 2020 was the lack of control they had over how their agencies grew and the success of their agencies. And of course, lack of control is one of the key factors that leads to stress, which explains why so many of us felt really burnt out at the end of 2020. So in today's episode of the Agency Accelerator Podcast, I want to talk about two things. First of all, having a plan for the year and secondly, putting a robust business development strategy in place so that you can get a consistent pipeline of leads, prospects and new clients and you don't have to rely on word of mouth and referrals. So that's what we're talking about today. And let's get on with the show. Accelerate your agency's profitable growth with tools, tips and value added interviews with your host agency owner and coach, Rob DaCosta. Hey everyone, and welcome to episode 51 and season two of the Agency Accelerator Podcast. Now today is all about getting the year off on the right foot and starting to take back some control after a year where a lot of us have felt like we had very little control. And in order for you to take back control and have less stress and get a better work life balance, there's really two key areas that you need to have in place. First of all is having a plan for your year and then breaking that down into bite sized, measurable chunks. And the second of all is having a really robust business development strategy in place so that you can deliver all of the goals that you've set in your plan. So let's start off by talking about having a plan for the year and then breaking it down into measurable objectives. Now, we all need a sense of where we're headed so that we can assess we're moving in the right direction and having a plan that we are in control of the means that we can control that trajectory rather than having external factors such as the economy and everything else dictated where we're headed. And I think most people get the idea of a plan, but it often falls short because all it is is a finance plan for the year and maybe a sense of how many team members they need to deliver that finance plan and that is not a business plan. So before we jump into the sort of details of what I think should be in your plan, let's just use this analogy, which is one you've probably heard me say before. And I always talk with my group coaching members about this as well. So let's imagine that your vision for the year is to get to the south of France, and you share that vision with your team, if you have one. So everyone's excited about getting to the south of France. So that's your bigger picture vision for the year. But now we need to break that down to work out how, as a team, we're going to collectively work to getting there. So the strategy part of this looks like saying, well, actually what we're going to do is we're going to take a ferry over to Calais, then we're going to drive from Calais to Paris, then we're going to take a train from Paris down to Cannes. And that's what our strategy looks like. Now, once we've got our strategy and we've worked out how we're going to get there, we now need to work out the specifics of how we're going to get down to the south of France. So that would look like leaving the office at this time, catching a certain ferry from Dover, getting to Dover and picking up a rental car from Hertz, and then driving down to Paris and staying in this hotel for, for the night, and then leaving at 8 o' clock the next morning and grab. Jumping on this train and so on. And that looks like your plan. Now, when you've got those specifics in your monthly plan, you can actually start to measure it, to assess how you're doing against your quarterly goals, which is your strategy, and make amends and changes if you need to. So that's the kind of analogy I'll use. So the vision is getting to the south of France, the strategy is how you're going to get there, and, and then the detailed plan is what you're specifically going to do. Now, as I said earlier, a lot of people get this concept and so what they do is they create a finance plan for the year. And you may well have already done that for your business, which is great, but it isn't the whole picture. The finance plan would, if we use my analogy, would just look like how much money we need to get to the south of France and how much spending money we need when we get there, with no consideration of specifically who's going and how are we going to get there. So your plan needs to be more than just a finance plan. So let me just outline about seven areas that I think your plan should incorporate. So first of all, yes, you need a finance plan. And that should look at your revenue, the margin you want to make, and the profits that you want to make as well. You then need to be clear about who your target market is. So who are you targeting? That's all about having a clear niche. You then need to understand exactly who your ideal target customer is within that market space. And then you need to think about what your product or service is and whether you're going to broaden those services or narrow them down. You need to look at pricing, you need to look at your sales and marketing strategy. So when you understand who you're targeting in what market and what's your product or service, you then need to think about how are we going to communicate with that audience, your marketing strategy, and then once we start communicating with them, how do we close the deal in the most efficient way that doesn't take up a ton of our time? Because of course that's our most precious commodity? Then you need to think about your team. So who do you need to serve this audience with your product or service? And remember, that team can be an in house team, it could be a virtual team, or it could be an assistant and a va if you're just a one person agency. And these concepts really do apply whether you're a one person business or have 20 people in your organization. And then the next thing that is super important is to think about the infrastructure that you need in place to support the above components. And so that looks like what systems and processes do I need in my business so that I can deliver the revenue targets with the products and service, the staff and so on. And systems and processes can be things like office space, they can be it so software, they can be physical things like computers, they can be documented processes, HR systems, and so on and so on and so on. But they're super important. Think about systems and processes as your infrastructure, the foundations that allow you to grow into the next level that you might aspire to in your plan. Now if you get all of these components into your plan, then you'll be kind of creating a360 holistic, sorry to use that word, view of your agency. And you'll understand how each of these components interacts with each other and collectively will enable you to deliver the bigger plan for the year. And you're much more likely to get to the end of 2021 and have delivered your Plan, or in my analogy, you're much more likely to have got to the south of France without too much pain, without getting lost, and without running out of petrol and running out of money and so on. So having this bigger picture plan is fantastic and it gives you a sense of where you're headed. It hopefully motivates you, keeps you energized, motivates your team, if you have a team. But you need, in order to turn this plan into reality, you next need to break it down into quarters. So these are your quarterly strategies. And in your quarterly strategies you need to identify of the key things that we're planning to do for the year, which projects or which quarterly strategies do we want to start this quarter? And I would say that a really important number here is number seven. You should never have more than seven projects in a quarter or in a month, and that's a maximum. And obviously if you are just a one person agency, you're going to have maybe three or four things. So be really selective and don't front stack everything, which is what a lot of people do when they're doing their strategy, their quarterly strategies. And once you've got your quarterly strategy, you then need to break that down into your monthly plan. And again, you want to look at your quarterly strategy and say, which of the seven quarterly strategies are we starting this month and what plans do we need to deliver them this month? And again, you can't have more than four to seven projects that you're going to focus on in any one month. If you take this approach, then you kind of create a cascading way of taking the bigger picture, breaking it down into smaller chunks, taking those chunks, breaking them down into bite sized, measurable chunks. And once you've got your monthly plan, you can then start to put those actions into your diary. And that's how you create a plan that you actually deliver as opposed to a plan that's a dream. Now, another thing to be really mindful of and a good lesson that we learned from last year is that your plans need to be dynamic. So because what you knew today, you didn't necessarily know yesterday. And of course with the pandemic, that's extremely true and it really makes that point very clear. So make sure that each month you are reviewing your monthly and quarterly plan and then once a quarter you're reviewing the next quarter plus your yearly plan and you're making changes based on what you know today. Don't be setting your plan in stone and don't be thinking to yourself, I failed If I change the plan that I did at the beginning of the year, because you haven't failed, you've just been smart about reacting to market opportunities and changes in economies and all the things that we can't control that will have an impact on us. So that is my kind of 10 minute snapshot view of why it's really important to create a vision for your business to get everybody motivated and aligned and then how to take your vision and break it down into strategies and then bite sized, measurable monthly plans. That means collectively, together over the year, you will get to the south of France and you will deliver your plan. The second area that is super important and absolutely delivering this plan is completely contingent on is having a consistent pipeline of leads, of warm prospects and then new customers. The days of relying on word of mouth and referrals are long gone, especially if you aspire to grow your agency and especially if you want to have some control over the quality and the type of client that you work with. It was definitely one of the reoccurring themes that I had with lots of people who I worked with last year who said up until now, they've grown their business through referrals and word of mouth. And suddenly in the very sort of strange, disconnected world we operated in, those referrals were drying up and they realized that they couldn't depend on those to create consistent income and or to grow their agency. So. So if you want to deliver your plan for 2021, you definitely need to have a really robust business development strategy in place. Now, in order to do that, there are a number of components that create the foundations for this. So let me just step through these. They'll be pretty familiar with you if you listen to the podcast, because we've probably recorded an episode on every single one of these six areas. But first of all, you need to have a really clear niche that separates you from the competition. You, you know, we are all in a competitive space and we need to make ourselves look different to our competition. And looking different by being cheaper or over servicing is not a smart way to run a successful, less stressful business. So number one is having a clear niche that separates you from the bit from your competition. Number two is then understanding in really detail exactly who your ideal target customer is. And then the third area is all around pricing and setting your pricing to maximize your profitability. And that means value pricing, and it means pricing against the outcomes that your customers are looking for, which is why point two is so important. And remember, you never want to be winning business because you're cheaper than the competition. The fourth area, then once you've done points one, two and three, is to build a communications plan that really helps you build your profile and engage with your ideal target customer so you can start building, building this know like and trust with them. As you do that, you then need to implement a really good sales strategy so that you can focus your limited time on the hot prospects and filter out those time wasters, those fact finders, those people who are just interested but not really ready to buy from you. We've all had that experience where we've invested lots of time in those type of prospects to only find out that they've got no money to spend at the end. So you need to have some really robust qualification processes in place for your sales strategy. And then number six is having a client retention and growth strategy to ensure that you are not only keeping your clients and keeping them happy, but you are looking for opportunities to upsell additional services to them so that you can grow your business both through new business and through growing existing clients. So if you can put all of those six strategies in place, then you're going to have a great business development process in place. And most importantly, you're going to be maximizing your limited time by developing campaigns that really resonate with your audience because you really understand them. And I know that everybody is time poor and I know that so many people are stuck on this client service hamster wheel of doom. So it's really important that you carve out time to focus on business development. And you're really clear about what you're going to do in that time because otherwise what will happen is that you'll be lurching from one shiny new object idea to the next, constantly be disappointed by the lack of results and you know, you'll be getting really stressed and of course you're trying to service your clients at the same time. So those are the two things that I think are super important for 2021. And you know, I've just finished writing my plan for the year, I'm clear of what my self France looks like and I have a number of the components that I've outlined in this episode in place and you should be doing exactly the same thing. Now, if you're thinking of Rob, I haven't got time to do this, or you're thinking I'm just a one person agency or I'm a freelancer, so should I really be doing this? I can't emphasize enough how the answer is yes to both. Of those questions. A really key point about this is that if you're clear about where you're headed, it will really motivate you and it will really focus you. And when times are tough, you can focus on the south of France as your destination. It will keep you on track because the alternative to this is just going with the flow, being stuck on the client service hamster wheel of doom, seeing what opportunities come along, ending up in feast and famine and having not enough money to pay the bills and perhaps ending in Skegness or Bocnary. Just no offense to either of those instead of the south of France. So that's why having a plan and having a business development strategy are two of the most vital components for you in 2021. Okay, a short episode today, but I've made my point about the two really crucial areas that I think are super important for you and I to focus on as we grow our agencies in 2021. Having a clear vision, turning it into a strategy and a monthly plan, and putting a really robust, repeatable business development process in place so that you can fill your pipeline with good quality leads, turn them into hot prospects, and then convert them into loyalty customers. Now in the show notes, I'm going to put a listing to a couple of freebie downloads that will help you with this. One is my ebook called Creating a Scalable and Sustainable Agency. And then if you want to know more about business development, then I have my brand new free masterclass webinar entitled 3 Strategies to Win new clients for your agency in the next 90 days. And that is chocked full of loads of practical advice that you can start implementing in your agency that will give you some guidance on how to put your business development strategy in place. So I hope you found that episode useful as ever. Please make sure you've hit the subscribe button, please share with your colleagues and as you know, I'd love it if you'd leave a review because that helps me be found by the algorithm. But other than that, I'll see you next week for our next interview on the Agency Accelerator podcast, and I hope you have a fantastic rest of the week and and a restful weekend.