As most companies finalize budgets and business plans for the New Year, I thought it might be timely to address the subject of objectives, strategy, and tactics. For any organization, objectives, strategies, and tactics cascade throughout the business. During the planning process, these terms are often used interchangeably. For the purpose of this blog, we will use the context of a sales organization to define them. It should be noted that the term “goal” may be substituted for the term “objective” in many organizations as well.
While the objectives for the sales organization typically cascade upward to larger organizational objectives, within the sales organization itself, they are the highest level of achievement the sales leader sets for an individual year. Examples of typical organizational sales objectives could be such things as “grow the revenue 10% over the previous year,” “improve the gross margins by 10% over the previous year,” and “improve closing ratio by 10% over the previous year.” Any objective must be time bound (by the end of the current year), and measureable (10% over previous year).
A mnemonic first introduced by Peter Drucker in “The Practice of Management,” SMART is commonly used to define both goals and objectives. The elements of a SMART objective or goal are Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time bound. Due to the cascading nature of objectives or goals as described above, I typically leave out attainable and relevant at the sales organizational level due to the fact that many of the objectives have been set for the sales leader by the CEO of the company.
Given the definition of objectives as stated above, strategies are nothing more than general courses of action designed to support the accomplishment of the objectives or goals. Examples of strategies that support the objectives or goals set above might be to “grow the national accounts revenue by $500,000,” “renegotiate contracts in the final year upward by 15%,” and “institute a policy that all deals over 1M must involve a member of the management team during the final presentation.”
The final and perhaps most overlooked piece of any good plan is the tactical or action plan. In the case of a sales organization, these tactics or action plans often become individual sales call plans. The tactics or action plans are the specific activities that are planned and executed in order to achieve the strategy, which of course is tied to attaining the objective or goal. As with goals or objectives, these individual tactics need to be SMART in order to insure we achieve the goals within the SMART parameters set forth at that level. In following the same example begun above, some good action plans or tactics might be to “hire two new national account managers by January 15th,” “have account assistants pull all contracts in the final year for review by sales rep,” and “communicate new policy on sales calls over 1M by January 1st.” As you can see from these examples, it will probably take numerous individual action plans or tactics to accomplish each of the strategies you have set. By carefully planning out each one we can insure we will accomplish our strategies within our targeted timeframe and accomplish our goals or objectives.
One of my favorite quotes about planning is from Dwight Eisenhower, who said, “Plans are nothing, planning is everything.” What he meant is that on the battlefield or in business, everything is constantly changing. While these changes may adversely impact our strategies and tactics, the real value of a good plan is in the process of organizing yourself so you can react to change in a more informed manner. I always find I learn more about my business every time I engage in the planning process as described above. I hope this helps you to plan for continued success in 2010.
Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights
Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.
