6 Steps to a Business Plan That Gets Results

Now is an opportune time to position yourself for success in the coming year. With that in mind, I spoke with three of the advisory industry’s top sales coaches on what advisors need to know about crafting a truly transformative business plan. 

There’s some compelling research on the efficacy of clearly written business plans, according to Michael Silver, managing director of practice management at FLX Networks and managing director at Focus Partners.

A study of Harvard MBAs revealed that 10 years after graduation, students who had specific goals (but no written plans) were earning twice as much on average as those who didn’t have specific goals. 

Those who had written, explicit goals and plans were earning on average 10 times as much as other students. 

To start: A business plan is a document that outlines the overall strategy, goals and operations of a business, according to Maribeth Kuzmeski, president of Red Zone Marketing. 

It typically includes mission and vision statements, information on target market, competitive analysis and more. The marketing plan focuses on the strategies and tactics to achieve the business’ goals.

Here are six steps to a plan that gets results:

1. Use specific, measurable goals and tactics.

Kuzmeski, for instance, advocates SMART goals, which are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. 

“An effective business plan should focus not just on goals, but on the strategies and tactics needed to attain those goals,” Silver explained.

2. Design a goal-setting funnel.

There’s a critical distinction between goals, strategies and tactics, according to Eric Sheikowitz, a managing director at FLX Networks and senior managing partner of Focus Partners. 

It’s good to begin at the high level with specific, quantitative goals. 

Suppose your goal is to raise $50 million in new assets under management in 2024. The next step is to decide upon the target markets that you’ll focus on to implement your strategy. 

For example, you could decide to reach out to business owners or centers of influence. Both are strategies.  

You’ll then need to decide what specific tactics you’ll use to get your strategies to succeed.

“The most granular level of the funnel is the tactics,“ Sheikowitz said. “These are precisely what you are going to do to enable your strategy to come to fruition.”