The One Thing to Get Right in 2015

14-Main_Post-AD-GetRigh-KrivanektAs I approach my 11th year as a business owner, I am starting to address my company’s need for a strategic plan outlining the next five to ten years at DMA.  When it comes to strategic planning in the fresh produce industry, there is one person that I know we must partner with to help us on this journey: Julie Krivankek.   Over the years, I have had the privilege of working with Julie and have experienced firsthand how her strategic planning work has transformed the trajectory of many businesses within our industry.  As we were discussing the need a for a strategic plan for DMA, I asked Julie what we could do, short term in 2015, to kick start our path to long term success.

What she explained was too valuable not to share. 

-Dan’l Mackey Almy

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Julie Krivanek, President of Krivanek Consulting

If you are like most produce companies at this time of the year, you are working at a fevered pace to handle holiday volume – close the year – and plan for next year’s business. My experience during the last 25 years as a strategist in the industry, however, is that most businesses are in the process of setting up another year that looks more like a heart beat monitor instead of a steady climb to the top of a mountain. Why? Because you focus more on budgets and forecasts instead of the foundation for success: a detailed sales plan.

A sales plan is a detailed description of how you will grow your business over the next 12 months. It’s like a blueprint for building a house. Once that blueprint is clear, all other functions in your company know what to do to make it a reality.

Here are the six elements of a great plan that will grow sales, flourish in downtime and create clear accountability in your sales force.

 1. It aligns with your strategic plan

A clear corporate strategy is the roadmap for the next 5 years. By design it should include the purpose and long-term aspirations for the business, position in the external marketplace, unique value to customers and advantage you have over competitors who vie for the same share.

 2. The start and end point are clear

This may seem obvious, but a good sales plan is an articulation of how to bridge the gap between where sales are now and where you want them to be this time next year. A basic rule of thumb is that sales should grow a minimum of 10% per year just to stay even. Companies that are built to last aim higher.

 3. Frame the approach by market channels

What is your aim? To grow existing channels? Diversify or expand into new ones? Think of channels like a stock portfolio. If your company’s target is predominantly retail for example – this may be the year to diversify into food service. If you are already diversified in both, it’s time to look for new channel growth.

 4. Double down on brainpower

Deep analysis and critical thinking about 2015 requires plenty of gray matter. Part of your plan should contain new touch points that keeps your current customer base interested and buying. About 75% of the plan, however, should be on the acquisition of new business that gets you to the year-end 2015 target. This mandates grappling with complexities in pricing, product mix, higher margins for new on-trend items and your ability to overcome forces of competition.

5. Hope is not a plan

The strategic plan, channel approach and year-end targets are the gun but tactics are the bullets. Your sales plan must name specific targets, go-to-customer strategy, person/team responsible, desired results and measurements for success. Tactics are what takes the business from simply forecasting the past to creating the future.

6. Teamwork and talent

The best sales plans are a group effort and people will commit when they’ve played a part. But there are 3 things that will create magic: 1) when the VP of Sales and the CEO are used as silver bullets or the ultimate closers; 2) understanding when it is time to separate new business development (the hunters) from account maintenance (the farmers) … these are very different talents and too often left to the devices of each sales person and 3) incentives and a piece of the action for those who successfully hunt new business.

Take your business to the next level. Move proactively, confidently and clearly into the year ahead. You just may grow your company in new and profitable ways.

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