As I write this, we’re just days away from our inaugural skucamp event held at the iconic Ace Hotel in Palm Springs!
Our primary purpose at skucamp is to give you time and space to work on your business, not in your business.
As the only business planning conference in the industry, we are committed to helping you develop ideas that lead to immediate growth.
Even for those that are not attending skucamp, we want you to get the most out of your 2018 business planning, so we’ve created ten action items that will help you reflect on where you are at today and where you want to grow.
Do these before you attend skucamp or, as you sit down with your team to do your 2018 planning, and it will help get you in the right frame of mind for a kick-ass year!
Review your marketing. If you do not have a formal marketing plan, review your marketing tactics YTD and make a list of these. Review your website and social channels, too.
Make a list of the events your company attended (or will attend) this year: tradeshows, networking events, etc. List any face-to-face outbound sales and marketing effort you utilized to try and grow sales.
Review your financial statements (balance sheet and profit and loss statement).
Review your gross sales, gross profit, and net profit YTD. If you are on commonsku, run your Sales Rep Report to review margin YTD, your Sales Dashboard to review rep sales orders, and your Invoicing report for a YTD comparison to last year, review both dollar volume and number of transactions.
Reflect on the most strategic client relationships you have (your biggest customers) and make a mental note of the most significant campaigns and projects you have created for them this year so that they will be fresh in your memory.
Evaluate your current method of sourcing, selecting, and presenting ideas to your clients. Make a note of the process you use to deliver fresh ideas and the message you send as you present product.
Write down your tech stack: all of the technology systems that run your business, including e-commerce, your email marketing tool, your company store platform: any “system” that you use.
Make a list of your top 20 most important customers. Write down the names of your buyers (not just companies).
Think about your prospecting tactics: How do you prospect for new business? Is your business development plan working? When’s the last time you landed a significant, new customer? How do you plan to gain new customers in 2018?
Wrestle with your ‘why.’ Why do you do what you do? What’s your business purpose? An easy way to break this down: Why do your top three customers trust you and buy from you?
That’s it! Ten action items to reflect on where you are at now so that you prepare to step boldly into the new year and ACE your 2018!
