Strategy & Implementation

Welcome to the Strategy & Implementation section of Businessplan.com. This section is tailored to guide you through developing robust strategies for marketing, promotions, sales, and customer service – often collectively known as your go-to-market strategy. These elements are indispensable, whether you’re seeking bank/SBA lending for a new business or raising capital from investors for your startup.

Before getting into the specifics of Strategy & Implementation, it’s vital to understand its foundation in your business planning preparation. This foundation is laid in two key areas of our website:

1. Pre-Planning Process and Business Model Development: Located in the ‘Get Started‘ section, the Pre-Planning Process, especially the Business Model Development subsection, offers an in-depth approach to understanding and shaping your business model. This is particularly beneficial for startups operating as first-movers or fast-followers in new markets. By engaging deeply with your business model here, you lay the groundwork for a Strategy & Implementation plan that is both innovative and responsive to emerging market dynamics.
2. Model-Based Planning® Worksheet: For those in more traditional business models, such as dental offices, restaurants, or third-party logistics, our Model-Based Planning® Worksheets provide a tailored approach. This worksheet helps you align your specific business model or industry characteristics with practical, real-world strategies and examples. 

This section is crafted with a diverse audience in mind. Whether you are a business student, a banker evaluating business plans, a founder embarking on a new venture, or an entrepreneur scaling up, the insights here are designed to be accessible and applicable. Our aim is to provide clear, actionable guidance that resonates across the spectrum of business development stages and needs.

Understanding Strategy & Implementation

Strategy & Implementation in a business plan is more than just a section; it’s the practical factors involved in how your business will achieve its goals. It’s the details outlining your approaches to marketing, sales, promotions, and customer service. For startups and new businesses, this section is crucial. 

The Strategy & Implementation section demands pragmatic and critical thinking. As you chart out your strategies, it’s essential to keep in mind the practical aspects: Who will execute these plans? How will they align with your financial projections? For instance, if you plan to implement search engine optimization (SEO) as part of your marketing strategy, it’s not enough to merely state the intent. You need a concrete plan for answering key questions:

• Who will execute the SEO strategy? Will it be in-house employees, 1099 contractors, or an external agency?
• How does this choice impact your costs? Each option comes with different financial implications, which must be thoroughly researched and documented.
• What is the nature of the SEO work required? Is it a straightforward, one-time task or a complex, ongoing process?

These decisions directly influence other parts of your business plan, especially financial projections. A well-thought-out Strategy & Implementation section ensures that you have a realistic understanding of the resources needed, helping you raise adequate capital and avoid financial pitfalls in your formative years.

Relation to Business Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas serves as the 30,000-foot view of your business, offering a broad scope of how various elements like Channels, Customer Relationships, and Value Propositions interlink. This broad view is essential for initial brainstorming and planning, but it’s in the Strategy & Implementation section where these concepts are dissected and transformed into detailed, actionable plans.

Taking the example of SEO, within the Business Model Canvas, SEO is simply identified as a key component in your Channels. It represents a broad strategy for reaching your Customer Segments. However, the Strategy & Implementation section is where this broad component is fine-tuned into part of your detailed Marketing Strategy. Here, for example, you’ll get into specifics:

• Target Terms and Rationale: You’ll list specific SEO terms you intend to target, explaining the rationale behind choosing these terms.
• Analysis of Ranking Difficulty: Assess and document the difficulty in ranking for these terms on the first page of Google, along with the time and effort required.
• Detailed Resource Planning: Identify whether key resources for this task will come from in-house personnel, Key Partners like contractors or agencies, and note the associated costs.

Overall, the Stategy & Implementation section is about taking the broad components and ideas sketched out in your Business Model Canvas and drilling down into the nitty-gritty details. It’s about answering the ‘how’ in a more comprehensive manner: How exactly will you implement your SEO strategy? How will you allocate resources and manage costs? How will these efforts tie back to your overall business goals?

Part 1: Marketing Strategy

The Marketing Strategy is a crucial subsection of your business plan’s Strategy & Implementation section. It details how you will attract and retain customers. This strategy should align with and support the broader objectives outlined in your business model and other sections of your business plan.

Developing Your Marketing Strategy

1. Integration with Market Analysis: While the Market Analysis section of your business plan provides foundational insights, the Marketing Strategy section builds upon this information. It is common to uncover new insights during planning that necessitate additional research.
2. Customer Segments: Customer Segments are not just about demographics; it’s about understanding behaviors, preferences, and needs. Tailor your marketing efforts to resonate with these specific Customer Segments.
3. Setting Specific Marketing Goals: It’s crucial for new businesses and startups to set specific and measurable marketing goals that are attainable and relevant to their stage of business development. For example, if you are launching a new app for personalized fitness coaching, a specific marketing goal could be to acquire 500 active users within the first three months post-launch.
4. Choice of Marketing Tactics: Select tactics that align with your target audience and business goals. This could include a mix of digital marketing, content creation, social media, and traditional advertising. Each tactic should have a clear rationale and an expected outcome.
5. Budget Allocation: Detail how much of your overall budget will be allocated to each marketing activity. This should be in line with the financial projections of your business plan.
6. Implementation Timeline and Responsibilities: Outline a clear timeline for each marketing activity and identify responsibilities. This ensures your planning for the appropriate employees or partners to achieve the marketing tactic.

Aligning Marketing Strategy with Business Model

The marketing strategy should support your business’s Value Proposition and address the specific needs of your Customer Segments. For instance, if your Value Proposition is centered around sustainability, your marketing strategy should highlight this and target customers who prioritize environmental responsibility. 

Part 2: Promotional Plan

For startups and new businesses, a well-defined Promotional Plan within the Strategy & Implementation section of the business plan is vital. Unlike the broader marketing strategy, this section focuses on specific tactics for promoting individual products or services. It’s about designing targeted campaigns that effectively introduce and highlight your offerings, creating excitement, increasing the fear-of-missing-out, and driving sales.

Developing Targeted Promotional Tactics

1. Setting Clear Promotional Goals: Establish concrete goals for each promotional activity. For instance, if launching a new organic skincare line, a goal might be to achieve 200 pre-orders by the end of the first month.
2. Choosing Focused Promotional Methods: Select methods that align with your product and target audience. For a tech product, this could include targeted online ads on tech forums, collaborating with tech influencers for product reviews, and sponsored content in tech newsletters.
3. Tailored Promotional Content: Outline how you will develop content that speaks directly to the benefits and features of your product. For a service-based app, this might involve creating how-to videos, testimonial features, and infographics highlighting the app’s unique features.
4. Detailed Planning and Budgeting: Outline a detailed plan for each campaign, including specific steps, required resources, and precise budget allocations. For instance, allocate specific portions of your budget to social media advertising, content creation, and influencer partnerships, and detail the expected outcomes from each.

Aligning with the Overall Marketing Strategy

Each promotional campaign should be an extension of your overall marketing strategy. If your broader marketing goal is to position your brand as a budget-friendly option in a luxury market, your promotions should emphasize cost-effectiveness without compromising quality. This could involve highlighting price comparisons, customer savings, and value-for-money in your promotional content.

Part 3: Sales Strategy

In modern business planning, it’s crucial to acknowledge the integration of sales and marketing, often referred to as ‘Smarketing’. This concept highlights the synergy between the two departments, ensuring that sales efforts are closely coordinated with marketing strategies and promotional plans. Here we outline how to develop a sales strategy that not only stands on its own but also complements and reinforces your marketing efforts.

Developing a Comprehensive Sales Approach

1. Establishing Sales Channels: Identify and establish specific sales channels that are most effective for your product or service. This could include direct sales, working with distributors, or selling through online marketplaces. The choice of channels should align with your marketing strategy and target customer segments.
2. Building and Structuring a Sales Team: Outline the structure of your sales team. This includes defining roles, responsibilities, and the hierarchy within the team. Detail the process of recruiting, training, and retaining sales personnel. Discuss methods of sales training, development, and incentivization to ensure a motivated and effective sales force.
3. Optimizing the Sales Process: Describe how the sales process will be optimized. This may involve lead qualification strategies in coordination with the marketing department, streamlined proposal development, and efficient closing techniques. Emphasize the importance of a seamless handoff between marketing and sales, ensuring leads are nurtured and converted effectively.
4. Implementing Sales Enablement Tools: Detail the tools and resources that will be utilized to empower the sales team. This could include CRM systems for managing customer relationships, product catalogs for easy reference, and sales presentations tailored to different customer segments. Explain how these tools will enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the sales process.
5. Sales and Marketing Alignment: Discuss how sales strategies will align with marketing initiatives. This could include shared goals, integrated communication channels, and collaborative planning sessions. Highlight how this alignment will lead to a more cohesive customer journey and improved sales outcomes.

Integrating Sales Strategy with Finances and Operation

In business planning, particularly for new businesses and startups, it’s not enough to merely outline a sales strategy. The real challenge lies in meticulously planning the personnel, partners, tools, and other resources required to effectively implement this strategy. This comprehensive planning includes:

1. Budgeting for Sales Operations: Develop a detailed budget for your sales operations. This should cover not only the obvious expenses like salaries and commissions but also often-overlooked costs like sales team training, hiring a dedicated sales manager, development of sales materials like catalogs, and investment in sales enablement tools.
2. Integration into Financial Projections: Integrate your sales budget into the broader financial projections of your business plan. This integration is crucial for presenting a realistic picture of your business’s financial future. It aids in understanding how sales efforts translate into revenue and how costs impact overall profitability.
3. Risk Minimization through Diligent Planning: By thoroughly planning and realistically estimating costs, you minimize the risk of financial surprises that could jeopardize your business. Detailed planning in the early stages helps in anticipating and allocating funds for various scenarios, reducing the likelihood of being caught off-guard by unforeseen expenses.
4. Creating a Cohesive Operational Picture: Detailed sales planning contributes to painting a clear picture of how all components of your company will work together. This clarity is beneficial not only for internal management but also for external stakeholders like investors and lenders. It demonstrates that you have a well-thought-out approach to entering the market and sustaining your business.

A comprehensive Sales Strategy should go beyond the mechanics of selling. It should be an integral part of your business’s financial and operational planning. This integration ensures that you are well-prepared for the realities of running a business, equipped to manage costs effectively, and poised for sustainable growth and success.

Part 4: Customer Service Plan

For new businesses and startups, an effective customer service plan is not just important, it’s fundamental. Research shows that it’s five to seven times more costly to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. Moreover, word of mouth remains a powerful tool for customer acquisition, with a vast majority of shoppers relying on online reviews to make purchasing decisions. The efficiency of your customer service can make or break your business, as unhappy customers can significantly drain your resources and damage your reputation.

Developing a Customer Service Plan

1. Understanding Customer Needs and Expectations: Begin by thoroughly understanding what your customers expect from your service (see: Pre-Vision Interviews). This understanding will form the foundation of your customer service strategy.
2. Staffing for Customer Service: Plan for a dedicated customer service team. This includes hiring skilled personnel, providing them with adequate training, and continually updating their skills as per market needs.
3. Service Channels and Accessibility: Choose appropriate channels for customer service, such as phone support, email, live chat, and social media. Ensure these channels are easily accessible to your customers and are manned by trained staff.
4. Developing Service Policies: Create clear service policies that are customer-centric. These policies should cover aspects like response times, issue resolution protocols, and return or refund policies.
5. Feedback Mechanisms and Continuous Improvement: Implement mechanisms for collecting customer feedback, such as surveys and feedback forms. Use this feedback for continuous improvement of your products and services.
6. Budgeting for Customer Service: Allocate a realistic budget for customer service operations. This includes costs related to staffing, training, technological investments, and any other resources needed for providing top-notch customer service.

Integrating Customer Service with Operations

Your customer service plan should not operate in isolation. It needs to be integrated with your overall business strategy, reflecting your brand values and contributing to customer loyalty and retention. This integration ensures that your customer service team is aligned with your sales and marketing efforts, providing a seamless and satisfying customer experience.

Part 5: Requirements for Other Audiences

When developing a business plan, especially the Strategy & Implementation section, it’s crucial to recognize that different audiences may have unique requirements. Beyond traditional bank/SBA lending or investor needs, your business might target audiences such as government agencies, which often have specific criteria for business operations. 

Incorporating Requirements into Your Business Plan

1. Review Audience-Specific Requirements: Begin by thoroughly reviewing the requirements set forth by your target audience. This could involve legal regulations for government contracts, industry standards for certifications, or specific operational guidelines.
2. Creating Subsections in Strategy & Implementation: Based on these requirements, create dedicated subsections within your Strategy & Implementation plan. For instance, if you’re targeting a government contract that emphasizes social equity, develop a detailed Social Equity Plan as part of your strategy.
3. Financial Planning for Unique Requirements: Recognize that meeting these specialized requirements might incur additional costs. Plan for these in your Financial Projections. This might include budgeting for specialized staff training, certification processes, or infrastructure upgrades to meet certain industry standards.

Further Resources

For a more comprehensive understanding of audience-specific requirements, visit the ‘Understanding Audiences‘ section of the Plan & Pitch on Businessplan.com. This section provides in-depth insights into different audience types and their expectations, offering valuable guidance for tailoring your business plan effectively.

Up Next: Pitch Deck & Finances

As you conclude the Strategy & Implementation section of your business plan, you’ve taken a significant step towards laying a solid foundation for your business’s success. 

The effort doesn’t stop here. If you’re planning to pitch your startup to investors, the next crucial step is to move on to the Pitch Deck & Finances, covering the essentials of developing an impactful pitch deck, understanding your burn rate, and planning your financial runway for different stages of investor funding, including pre-seed, seed, and series A rounds.

Proceed to Pitch Deck & Finances