Is your company often losing sight of the priorities that lead to success for the issues that seem to be urgent? When a business is struggling, it can be difficult to get from point A to point B without a solid strategic plan. It’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day urgency of business in a way that takes away from the focus on your long-term plan and priorities. Understanding the different parts of strategic planning can help you realize your vision. It can be daunting to think about plotting spreadsheets and drafting objectives, but the importance of strategic planning should not be understated. You’ll be able to set realistic objectives and monitor how they impact your business. Was it a successful campaign or were goals too ambitious? Did the sales team meet their quota? Did the marketing team bring in successful leads? What about the increase in profits? All of these goals should be implemented through a good strategy.
Thankfully, tools like Elate have made it easy to create and follow a strategic plan. You can create quarterly targets and yearly goals, and develop a long-term vision all in an easy-to-use program. Take the hassle out of planning and focus on the results.
Let’s take a look at what a strong strategy entails and the key elements of a strategy, so you can build your plan from start to finish.
What Is a Good Strategy?
An effective strategy determines what steps should be taken to address a challenge or reach a goal. It’s important to note that evaluating the effectiveness of the strategy is a complex task if the problem is not clearly stated. However, it is more than about addressing challenges and setting goals. You should be constructing a plan to reach those targets. So a company can set a goal for revenue growth and cutting costs, but without a detailed strategic plan, it’s impossible to reach. When it comes down to it, an example of a good strategy should:
- Face the problem head-on
- Set a plan to reach goals
- Create clear objectives
- Use specific and thorough language
It’s easy to use fluffy language for branding and an image of expertise, but without actually taking on a problem with clear objectives, it’s quite difficult to create an effective strategy. Ultimately, building a strategic plan is how you get your business from point A to point B, not just setting a goal. Elate helps you create a good strategy so your business can focus on what matters most: successful results.
What Are the Five Main Components of a Strategy?
Building a strategic plan is at the core of business success. By considering the 5 elements of strategy, vision, objectives, initiatives, action, and review, your business can develop a strategy from the ground up. That will help you reach your ultimate goals. The components of strategy you should use to build your plan are:
Vision
A strong vision recognizes your target market, their needs, and your standard market strategy. It sums up your goals, your opportunities, and the risks you must avoid. This includes determining any challenges the company might face and how they don’t align with your best practices. By understanding your business’s vision, you can determine its ability to move forward with its strategic plan.
Objectives
Without anywhere to end up, there is no way to develop a good strategy. The company's strategic objectives serve as its broad goals and lay out the steps you will take to achieve your mission. Setting up objectives enables a business to track its progress throughout the plan. The goals of your strategy must lead to real outcomes that may be achieved in a specific amount of time. Also, consider the competitive advantage you could develop. Each objective you list needs to be directly related to the respective challenge.
Objectives for a business might include goals like:
- Increase revenue by 25%
- Reduce churn by 10%
- Increase ARR by 15%
To identify objectives, you can consider specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals.
Mapping Initiatives
Once objectives have been defined, companies can build a roadmap that lays out the steps you can take to complete those goals. The overarching business plan must be linked to the product initiatives. For example, to increase revenue by 25%, a business should develop a process to reach the goal by the end of the quarter or year through marketing and sales campaigns. Having a step-by-step process will ensure your company stays accountable.
Action
After the initiatives are laid out and a roadmap is in place, the plan should be put into action. Each step should be accurately documented to track progress throughout the process.
Review
Once the determined period of time has passed, you can analyze the results and see if your plan was successful. This includes understanding what did and did not work, how the process can be improved, and if the goal was ambitious enough.
With Elate, we offer dynamic strategic planning software to help you build a strategy that makes sense for your business. You can evaluate your plan’s performance in real-time, improve forecasting, and integrate your tools to help you succeed faster.
Craft Your Planning with Elate
At Elate, we are experts in building strategic plans, increasing visibility, and driving engagement with your customers. Our software eliminates guesswork and provides you with visualization of key performance metrics. We make it simple: build your plan, execute your plan, and review your plan's success. Additionally, Elate assists you in creating an easy-to-share strategy that is straightforward and intuitive with team members. Visit our website today to learn more about building a good strategic plan.
