strategies examples in business plan

BUSINESS STRATEGIES

9 business strategy examples (and why you need one ASAP)

• Amanda Bellucco Chatham
• Dec 14, 2023

Most successful businesses start with a good idea. In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak had the idea to make computers small enough to fit into people's homes and offices. Enter Apple, now the largest tech company in the world. 

But good ideas alone aren’t the catalyst to success—behind the scenes, a business strategy is at work. And a business strategy is something you need in order to complete the big picture and define how you plan to grow, operate and thrive.

In this post, we’ll define what we mean by business strategy, outline why it’s important and provide some tangible business strategy examples.

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What is a business strategy?

A business strategy is a plan of action that keeps you focused on several things. Different from a business plan—which dictates how your business will be run from day to day—a business strategy tends to focus more on how, exactly, you will reach certain goals, milestones or achievements in running your business. 

You need a strategy when you want to start a business , as well as when you’re planning to grow or change an existing business. Your strategy defines your business goals and provides a framework for all of the moving pieces your venture needs to operate successfully.  

A business strategy typically includes the following elements:

Core product or service : What you're selling, your business idea or your service.

Target customer : A clear profile of who your business serves, including the problem that your product or service solves for them.

Competitive assessment : A summary of the competitive landscape including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis). 

Financial plan : A financial projection that includes planned revenue, expenses and cash flow. 

Pricing approach : Your preliminary pricing for products and services offered, or your pricing approach (e.g., flat fee, hourly, fee-for-service, etc.).

Marketing and sales plan : An outline of how you plan to market your products and business, including a rough budget for paid media, details on how to make a website  and anything related to business promotion. It should also define some sales strategies focused on language meant to promote and differentiate your brand.

Staffing and hiring : An org chart that defines roles and hiring needs. Include any resources and personnel you have on hand (e.g. Is it just you? Is it a partnership?).

Growth objectives : A business growth  plan that incorporates your current goals, plus where you'd like the business to be in the next one, two or five years (e.g., markets, number of customers, revenue projections, etc.).

Pro tip : A business strategy and business plan go hand in hand in shaping the goals, objectives and achievements of your business. Looking for a business plan  instead? Check out our simple, customizable and free-to-download template.

3 types of business strategies

Any successful business starts with a roadmap that outlines how goals will be achieved. However, not all strategies are created equal. Let's take a look at three types of business strategies that can drive your business toward sustainable growth:

Corporate-level business strategy : This high-level strategy includes the company's vision, mission and key decisions. This might involve business choices, acquisitions or divestments, and resource allocation, for example.

Business-level strategy : A business-level strategy determines how a company competes in a market, considering product mix, customer segments, pricing, marketing and distribution. It aims to deliver value to customers and outperform competitors.

Function-level business strategy : A functional strategy focuses on the operational aspects of a business, like production, marketing, finance and human resources (HR). It supports corporate and business-level strategies by maximizing resource productivity.

Why a business strategy is important

Starting any type of business isn't for the faint of heart. There are many predictable and unpredictable factors to prepare for at every stage of growth. That’s why you need a business strategy to keep you on track.

As far as benefits go, a business strategy:

Helps you navigate market complexities : It provides a roadmap for staying ahead of the competition, plus external factors like supply chain issues and global events that may impact the market.

Provides insight into your customers' needs : When you know their pain points, you can align your strategy with real-world preferences and demands. 

Helps you anticipate small business challenges : Knowing about potential opportunities and issues will help you adapt to market changes—and be more resilient overall. 

Makes long-term success much more likely : A thoughtful plan takes the guesswork out of things like hiring, investing, growth and innovation.

9 business strategy examples

So, what does a business strategy look like? We’ve outlined nine examples below to inspire you as you iron out the blueprint for your business’s success.

Customer experience 

Cross-selling and upselling

Customer retention programs

Cost leadership

Differentiation

Acquisition

Social responsibility

01. Customer experience 

Companies like Zappos, Starbucks and Amazon are known for their exceptional customer experiences. They prioritize customer satisfaction, make doing business with them easy and (in the case of Starbucks) turn something as simple as grabbing a cup of coffee on your way to work into an immersive and satisfying sensory experience. 

Customer experience, as a business strategy, is beneficial for any small business owner . It creates loyal repeat customers who tend to become brand advocates, recommending your business, products and brand to their network of friends and family. 

02. Cross-selling and upselling

Focusing on selling more products to existing and new customers is a strategy that, if successful, has a direct and immediate impact on your cash flow, revenue and profitability. There are many ways to do this, including cross-selling and upselling  to shoppers as they browse your website, bundling similar products and using loyalty programs to entice past customers to return. 

Old Navy is a master of motivating return sales. Their Super Cash program awards shoppers $10 for every $25 spent on their website or in stores. The coupons become active at a later date, which encourages shoppers to hang onto them and return to shop again in the future.

Your rewards program doesn’t have to be elaborate, either. Wix merchant Jule Dancewear  offers customers five reward points for every $1 spent in the shop, with bonus points awarded for following the brand on Instagram or celebrating a birthday. Customers can then redeem their points for a certain dollar amount or percentage off a future purchase. 

03. Customer retention programs

Creating more customer loyalty is a viable and lucrative business strategy. It’s often more cost-effective to focus on retaining customers than constantly finding new ones. In fact, most brands have a 60-70% chance  of selling to an existing customer, but only a 5-20% chance of closing a sale with a new one.

Loyalty comes in many forms—e.g., retail loyalty programs that reward shoppers with coupons and discounts, or points systems like airline miles on credit cards. You build loyalty by being trustworthy, communicating clearly and creating high-quality products. Consistency is also key to building ongoing relationships. 

Perhaps no one does this better than Amazon with their Amazon Prime program. Customers buy into the program for a monthly or annual fee and are guaranteed fast, free shipping from Amazon sellers who opt into the program. Returns are also easy and Prime members get lots of other benefits, including a huge catalog of movie and TV shows, exclusive sales events and unlimited photo storage.

04. Cost leadership

Cost leadership is a strategy where a company offers the lowest prices in a niche or market. Companies like Walmart and IKEA are famous examples. They've mastered this strategy by offering products at prices lower than their competitors, while still maintaining profitability. 

This strategy isn't for everyone. Walmart's size gives it more leverage over suppliers (and wholesale pricing) versus a local mom-and-pop store. But even if you manage a smaller business, you can make a cost leadership strategy work by keeping costs low, creating your own products and being (incredibly) vigilant about your business costs. This is a strategy that takes a lot of planning and monitoring, so it’s important to do your research before jumping in.

05. Innovation

Innovation tends to be connected to categories like technology, pharmaceutical and business services industries. It's a business strategy that focuses on creating cutting-edge products or services that are either brand new (e.g., in 2007, Apple’s iPhone was the first smartphone introduced to a huge market of people who didn’t know they needed it) or best-in-class products or services in an existing market. 

Innovation, as a business strategy, isn’t limited to products or services. It can apply to a business approach—in other words, the way you offer your product or service. A perfect example of this is the rise of meal kit delivery services like Hello Fresh and Blue Apron. These companies provide “meal kits'' with fresh ingredients delivered as a subscription service to their customers (e.g., three meals per week). Or, take a look at Wix merchant Napa Wild , which offers weekly subscription shipments of fresh produce to areas surrounding Napa County, California. Their produce boxes are available in three different sizes to suit different households.

Some companies, like Tovala, include technology with their delivery service. Tovala’s smart oven works by scanning a barcode on the pre-made meal so that the cooking time and temperature are automatically set in the oven. When the meal is complete, the customer is notified via the Tovala app.

06. Differentiation

Differentiation is about making your business stand out compared with your competitors. You do this by providing something uniquely special about your product design, features or quality. You can also differentiate yourself by creating a unique and meaningful brand story. When done well, differentiation gives you a lot of flexibility around pricing and approach—including the types of products and services you offer. An effective differentiation strategy helps your customers identify with your brand. They are either Coke drinkers or Pepsi drinkers, for example.

Or, take Starbucks as an example. Lots of places sell coffee, but Starbucks has taken coffee to an entirely new level with uniquely crafted (and premium-priced) drinks that are as much about lifestyle and identity as they are about getting your daily caffeine fix. 

07. Acquisition

Acquisition is a business strategy that involves purchasing another company (or companies) to fuel growth, expand market share or be more competitive. Acquisition can be a game-changer for your business, allowing you to quickly tap into new markets, acquire valuable assets and eliminate competition. 

Companies like Meta (formerly named Facebook) have effectively used acquisition as a strategy to maintain their dominance in the social media space. By acquiring platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp, Meta expanded its user base. It also diversified its offerings, ensuring it remains relevant even when other platforms like MySpace and Friendster have flamed out over time.

Acquisition as a primary strategy isn’t for the faint of heart. You need a deep understanding of each of your target company's operations, culture, financial health and customer base. Integrating two companies can also be complex and stressful. There are often issues with merging technologies, company cultures and aligning operations. Thus, conduct thorough due diligence before making an acquisition or you could end up turning a beloved global brand into a classic example of what not to do when acquiring a legacy company.

08. Social responsibility

Social responsibility is important to all consumers, but particularly Millennial and Gen Z consumers  who often evaluate companies and products based on environmental impact and sustainability. Social responsibility helps businesses differentiate themselves because it fosters community, protects the environment and ensures you’re prioritizing ethical practices throughout your operations.

In fact, according to a Deloitte survey, a quarter of consumers  are willing to pay more  for sustainable products and packaging, or for products or services from suppliers that respect human rights and ethical working conditions.

Two examples stand out here—Patagonia and TOMS Shoes. Both companies built their brands around social responsibility. Patagonia pledges 1% of its sales to environmental causes and is well-known by its loyal customers for being sustainable and supporting the lifestyle it promotes (loving the outdoors). Meanwhile, TOMS Shoes has a "One for One" model, donating a pair of shoes for every pair sold.

Value is subjective, but it can be a guiding light that helps new customers find you and inspires existing customers to return time after time. With a value-based strategy, the goal is to present something that is not just different but also has significant worth or meaning (or both) to your target audience. 

Apple doesn't just sell technology; they sell an entire ecosystem. Apple products resonate with customers because Apple is as much about a lifestyle as it is about a device or feature. Their products, while technologically advanced, are aesthetically pleasing, easy to use and integrate seamlessly with each other. 

Remember, offering unique value isn't about being different just for the sake of it. It's about understanding what your customers truly desire and creating something that fills that need in a way that no one else can. This could manifest as unparalleled quality. It could be a novel feature, or it can focus on exceptional customer service. Think about the companies you love that do this well—Disney, Trader Joe’s, Lululemon, Ben & Jerry’s and Ikea. A company that promises value and then delivers on it attracts new customers. It fosters loyalty and even advocacy. 

Dig deeper : Want more information on how to start or grow your business? Check out our essential guide on how to run a business , which includes 10 steps for business success.

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How To Write A Strategic Plan That Gets Results + Examples

Are you feeling overwhelmed with the thought of writing a strategic plan for your business? Do you want to create a plan that will help you move your team forward with inspired alignment and disciplined execution? You're not alone.

Gone are the days of rigid, 5- or 10-year planning cycles that do not leave room for flexibility and innovation. To stay ahead of the curve, you need a dynamic and execution-ready strategic plan that can guide your business through the ever-evolving landscape.

At Cascade, we understand that writing a strategic plan can be dreadful, especially in today's unpredictable environment. That's why we've developed a simple model that can help you create a clear, actionable plan to achieve your organization's goals. With our tested and proven strategic planning template , you can write a strategic plan that is both adaptable and effective .

Whether you're a seasoned strategy professional or a fresh strategy planner, this guide will walk you through the process step-by-step on how to write a strategic plan. By the end, you'll have a comprehensive, easy-to-follow strategic plan that will help you align your organization on the path to success.

Follow this guide step-by-step or skip to the part you’re most interested in: 

• Pre-Planning Phase: Build The Foundation

Cascade Model For Strategic Planning: What You Need To Know

• Key Elements of a Strategic Plan

How To Write A Strategic Plan In 6 Simple Steps

3 strategic plan examples to get you started, how to achieve organizational alignment with your strategic plan.

• Quick Overview of Key Steps In Writing A Strategic Plan

Create An Execution-Ready Strategic Plan With Cascade 🚀

*Editor’s note: This article is part of our ‘How to create a Strategy’ collection. At the end of this article, you’ll find a link to each piece within this collection so you can dig deeper into each element of an effective strategic plan and more related resources to master strategy execution.

Pre-Planning Phase: Build The Foundation 

Before we dive into writing a strategic plan, it's essential to know the basics you should cover before the planning phase. The pre-planning phase is where you'll begin to gather the data and strategic insights necessary to create an effective strategic plan.

1. Run a strategic planning workshop

The first step is to run a strategic planning workshop with your team. Get your team in the room, get their data, and gather their insights. By running this workshop, you'll foster collaboration and bring fresh perspectives to the table. And that’s not all. 

The process of co-creating and collaborating to put that plan together with stakeholders is one of the most critical factors in strategy execution . According to McKinsey’s research , initiatives in which employees contribute to development are 3.4 times more likely to be successful. They feel like the plan is a result of their efforts, and they feel ownership of it, so they're more likely to execute it. 

💡 Tip: Use strategy frameworks to structure your strategy development sessions, such as GAP analysis , SWOT analysis , Porter’s Five Forces , Ansoff matrix , McKinsey 7S model , or GE matrix . You can even apply the risk matrix that will help you align and decide on key strategic priorities.

2. Choose your strategic planning model

Before creating your strategic plan, you need to decide which structure you will use. There are hundreds of ways to structure a strategic plan. You’ve likely heard of famous strategic models such as OKRs and the Balanced Scorecard .

But beyond the well-known ones, there's also a myriad of other strategic planning models ranging from the extremely simple to the absurdly complex.

Many strategic models work reasonably well on paper, but in reality, they don't show you how to write a strategic plan that fits your organization's needs.

Here are some common weaknesses most popular strategic models have:

• They're too complicated. People get lost in terminology rather than focus on execution.
• They don’t scale. They work well for small organizations but fail when you try to extend them across multiple teams.
• They're too rigid. They force people to add layers for the sake of adding layers.
• They're neither tangible nor measurable. They’re great at stating outcomes but lousy at helping you measure success.
• They're not adaptable. As we saw in the last years, the business environment can change quickly. Your model needs to be able to work in your current situation and adapt to changing economic landscapes.

Our goal in this article is to give you a simpler, more effective way to write a strategic plan. This is a tested and proven strategic planning model that has been refined over years of working with +20,000 teams around the world. We call it the Cascade Strategy Model.

This approach has proven to be more effective than any other model we have tried when it comes to executing and implementing the strategy .

It’s easy to use and it works for small businesses, fast-growing startups, as well as multinationals trying to figure out how to write a fail-proof strategic plan.

We’ve created a simple diagram below to illustrate what a strategic plan following the Cascade Model will look like when it's completed:

Rather than a traditional roadmap , imagine your strategy as a flowchart. Each row is a mandatory step before moving on to the next.

We call our platform  Cascade for a reason: strategy must cascade throughout an organization along with values, focus areas, and objectives.

Above all, the Cascade Model is intended to be execution-ready —in other words, it has been proven to deliver success far beyond strategic planning. It adds to a successful strategic management process.Key elements of a Strategic Plan

Key Elements Of A Strategic Plan

The key elements of a strategic plan include: 

• Vision : Where do you want to get to? 
• Values : How will you behave on the journey? 
• Focus Areas : What are going to be your strategic priorities? 
• Strategic objectives : What do you want to achieve? 
• Actions and projects : How are you going to achieve the objectives? 
• KPIs : How will you measure success?

In this part of the article, we will give you an overview of each element within the Cascade Model. You can follow this step-by-step process in a spreadsheet , or sign up to get instant access to a free Cascade strategic planning template and follow along as we cover the key elements of an effective strategic plan.

Your vision statement is your organization's anchor - it defines where you want to get to and is the executive summary of your organization's purpose. Without it, your strategic plan is like a boat without a rudder, at the mercy of strong winds and currents like Covid and global supply chain disruptions.

A good vision statement can help funnel your strategy towards long-term goals that matter the most to your organization, and everything you write in your plan from this point on will help you get closer to achieving your vision.

Trying to do too much at once is a surefire way to sink your strategic plan. By creating a clear and inspiring vision statement , you can avoid this trap and provide guidance and inspiration for your team. A great vision statement might even help attract talent and investment into your organization.

For example, a bike manufacturing company might have a vision statement like, “To be the premier bike manufacturer in the Pacific Northwest.” This statement clearly articulates the organization's goals and is a powerful motivator for the team.

In short, don't start your strategic plan without a clear vision statement. It will keep your organization focused and help you navigate toward success.

📚 Recommended read: How to Write a Vision Statement (With Examples, Tips, and Formulas)

Values are the enablers of your vision statement —they represent how your organization will behave as you work towards your strategic goals. Unfortunately, many companies throw around meaningless words just for the purpose of PR, leading to a loss of credibility.

To avoid this, make sure to integrate your organization’s core values into everyday operations and interactions. In today's highly-competitive world, it's crucial to remain steadfast in your values and cultivate an organizational culture that's transparent and trustworthy.

Companies with the best company cultures consistently outperform competitors and their average market by up to 115.6%, as reported by Glassdoor . 

For example, a bike manufacturing company might have core values like:

• Accountability

These values reflect the organization's desire to become the leading bike manufacturer, while still being accountable to employees, customers, and shareholders.

👉 Here’s how to add vision and values to your strategic plan in Cascade: 

After you sign up and invite your team members to collaborate on the plan, navigate to Plans and Teams > Teams page, and add the vision, mission and values. This will help you to ensure that the company’s vision, mission statement, and values are always at top of mind for everyone.

📚When you're ready to start creating some company values, check out our guide, How To Create Company Values .

3. Focus Areas

Your focus areas are the strategic priorities that will keep your team on track and working toward the company’s mission and vision. They represent the high-level areas that you need to focus on to achieve desired business outcomes.

In fact, companies with clearly defined priorities are more likely to achieve their objectives. According to a case study by the Harvard Business Review , teams that focus on a small number of key initiatives are more likely to succeed than those that try to do too much. 

That’s also something that we usually recommend to our customers when they set up their strategic plan in Cascade. Rather than spreading your resources too thin over multiple focus areas, prioritize three to five. 

Following our manufacturing example above, some good focus areas include:

• Aggressive growth
• Producing the nation's best bikes
• Becoming a modern manufacturer
• Becoming a top place to work

Your focus areas should be tighter in scope than your vision statement, but broader than specific goals, time frames, or metrics. 

By defining your focus areas, you'll give your teams a guardrail to work within, which can help inspire innovation and creative problem-solving. 

With a clear set of focus areas, your team will be better able to prioritize their work and stay focused on the most important things, which will ultimately lead to better business results.

👉Here’s how you can set focus areas in Cascade: 

In Cascade, you can add focus areas while creating or importing an existing strategic plan from a spreadsheet. With Cascade’s Focus Area deep-dive functionality , you will be able to: 

• Review the health of your focus areas in one place.
• Get a breakdown by plans, budgets, resources, and people behind each strategic priority. 
• See something at-risk? Drill down into each piece of work regardless of how many plans it's a part of.

📚 Recommended read: Strategic Focus Areas: How to create them + Examples

4. Strategic Objectives

The importance of setting clear and specific objectives for your strategic plan cannot be overstated. 

Strategic objectives are the specific and measurable outcomes you want to achieve . While they should align with your focus areas, they should be more detailed and have a clear deadline. 

According to the 2022 State of High Performing Teams report , there is a strong correlation between goals and success not only at the individual and team level but also at the organizational level. Here’s what they found: 

• Employees who are unaware of their company's goals are over three times more likely to work at a company that is experiencing a decline in revenue than employees who are aware of the goals. 
• Companies with shrinking revenues are almost twice as likely to have employees with unclear work expectations. 

Jumping straight into actions without defining clear objectives is a common mistake that can lead to missed opportunities or misalignment between strategy and execution.

To avoid this pitfall, we recommend you add between three and six objectives to each focus area .

It's here that we need to start being a bit more specific for the first time in your strategic planning process . Let's take a look at an example of a well-written strategic objective:

• Continue top-line growth that outpaces the industry by 31st Dec 2023.

This is too specific to be a focus area. While it's still very high level, it indicates what the company wants to accomplish and includes a clear deadline. Both these aspects are critical to a good strategic objective.

Your strategic objectives are the heart and soul of your plan, and you need to ensure they are well-crafted. So, take the time to create well-planned objectives that will help you achieve your vision and lead your organization to success. 

👉Here’s how you can set objectives in Cascade: 

Adding objectives in Cascade is intuitive, straightforward, and accessible from almost anywhere in the workspace. With one click, you’ll open the objective sidebar and fill out the details. These can include a timeline, the objective’s owner, collaborators, and how your objective will be measured (success criteria).

📚 Recommended read: What are Strategic Objectives? How to write them + Examples

5. Actions and projects

Once you’ve defined your strategic objectives, the next step is to identify the specific strategic initiatives or projects that will help you achieve those objectives . They are short-term goals or actionable steps you or your team members will take to accomplish objectives. They should leverage the company’s resources and core competencies. 

Effective projects and actions in your strategic plan should: 

• Be extremely specific. 
• Contain a deadline.
• Have an owner.
• Align with at least one of your strategic objectives.
• Provide clarity on how you or your team will achieve the strategic objective.

Let's take a look at an example of a well-written project continuing with our bike manufacturing company using the strategic objective from above:

Strategic objective: Continue top-line growth that outpaces the industry by 31st Dec 2023.

Project: Expand into the fixed gear market by 31st December 2023.

This is more specific than the objective it links to, and it details what you will do to achieve the objective.

Another common problem area for strategic plans is that they never quite get down to the detail of what you're going to do.

It's easier to state "we need to grow our business," but without concrete projects and initiatives, those plans will sit forever within their PowerPoint templates, never to see the light of day after their initial creation.

Actions and projects are where the rubber meets the road. They connect the organizational strategic goals with the actual capabilities of your people and the resources at their disposal. Defining projects is a vital reality check every strategic plan needs.

👉Here’s how you create actions and projects in Cascade: 

From the Objective sidebar, you can choose to add a project or action under your chosen objective. In the following steps, you can assign an owner and timeline to each action or project.

Plus, in Cascade, you can track the progress of each project or action in four different ways. You can do it manually, via milestones, checklists, or automatically by integrating with Jira and 1000+ other available integrations .  

📚 Recommended read: How to create effective projects

Measuring progress towards strategic objectives is essential to effective strategic control and business success. That's where Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) come in. KPIs are measurable values that track progress toward achieving key business objectives . They keep you on track and help you stay focused on the goals you set for your organization.

To get the most out of your KPIs, make sure you link them to a specific goal or objective. In this way, you'll avoid creating KPIs that don't contribute to your objectives and distract you from focusing on what matters. 

Ideally, you will add both leading and lagging KPIs to each objective so you can get a more balanced view of how well you're progressing. Leading KPIs can indicate future performance while lagging KPIs show how well you’ve done in the past. Both types of KPIs are critical for operational planning and keeping your business on track.

Think of KPIs as a form of signpost in your organization. They provide critical insights that inform business leaders of their organization’s progress toward key business objectives. Plus, they can help you identify opportunities faster and capitalize on flexibility. 

👉Here’s how you can set and track KPIs in Cascade: 

In Cascade , you can add measures while creating your objectives or add them afterward. Open the Objective sidebar and add your chosen measure. 

When you create your Measure, you can choose how to track it. Using Cascade, you can track it manually or automatically. You can automate tracking via 1000+ integrations , including Excel spreadsheets and Google Sheets. In this way, you can save time and ensure that your team has up-to-date information for faster and more confident decision-making.

📚 Recommended reads:

• 10 Popular KPI Software Tools To Connect & Visualize Your Data (2023 Guide)
• ‍ How To Track KPIs To Hit Your Business Goals

Corporate Strategic Plan 

Following the steps outlined above, you should end up with a strategic plan that looks something like this:

This is a preview of a corporate strategic plan template that is pre-filled with examples. Here you can use the template for free and begin filling it out to align with your organization's needs. Plus, it’s suitable for organizations of all sizes and any industry. 

Once you fill in the template, you can also switch to the timeline view. You’ll get a complete overview of how the different parts of your plan are distributed across the roadmap in a Gantt chart view.

This template will help you create a structured approach to the strategic planning process, focus on key strategic priorities, and drive accountability to achieve necessary business outcomes. 

👉 Get your free corporate strategic plan template here.

Coca-Cola Strategic Plan 

Need a bit of extra inspiration to start writing your organization’s strategic plan? Check out this strategic plan example, inspired by Coca-Cola’s business plan: 

This template is pre-filled with Coca-Cola’s examples so you can inspire your strategic success on one of the most iconic brands on the planet. 

👉 Grab your free example of a Coca-Cola strategic plan here.

The Ramsay Health Care expansion strategy

Ramsay Health Care is a multinational healthcare provider with a strong presence in Australia, Europe, and Asia.

Almost all of its growth was organic and strategic. The company founded its headquarters in Sydney, Australia, but in the 21st century, it decided to expand globally through a primary strategy of making brownfield investments and acquisitions in key locations.

Ramsay's strategy was simple yet clever. By becoming a majority shareholder of the biggest local players, the company expanded organically in each region by leveraging and expanding their expertise.

Over the last two decades, Ramsay's global network has grown to 460 locations across 10 countries with over $13 billion in annual revenue.

📚 Recommended read: Strategy study: The Ramsay Health Care Growth Study

✨ Bonus resource: We've created a list of the most popular and free strategic plan templates in our library that will help you build a strategic plan based on the Cascade model explained in this article. You can use these templates to create a plan on a corporate, business unit, or team level.

We highlighted before that other strategic models often fail to scale strategic plans and goals scales across multiple teams and organizational levels. 

In an ideal world, you want to have a maximum of two layers of detail underneath each of your focus areas. This means you'll have a focus area, followed by a layer of objectives. Underneath the objectives, you'll have a layer of actions, projects, and KPIs.

If you have a single team that’s responsible for the strategy execution, this works well. However, how do you implement a strategy across multiple and cross-functional teams? And why is it important? 

According to LSA research of 410 companies across 8 industries, highly aligned companies grow revenue 58% faster and are 72% more profitable. And this is what Cascade can help you achieve. 

To achieve achieve organization-wide alignment with your strategic plan and impact the bottom line, there are two ways to approach it in Casade: through contributing objectives or shared objectives .

1. Contributing objectives

This approach involves adding contributing objectives that link to your main strategic objectives, like this:

For each contributing objective, you simply repeat the Objective → Action/Project → KPI structure as follows:

Here's how you can create contributing objectives in Cascade: 

Option A: Create contributing objectives within the same plan 

This means creating multiple contributing objectives within the same strategic plan that contribute to the main objective. 

However, be aware that if you have a lot of layers, your strategic plan can become cluttered, and people might have difficulty understanding how their daily efforts contribute to the strategic plan at the top level. 

For example, the people responsible for managing contributing objectives at the bottom of the plan ( functional / operational level ) will lose visibility on how are their objectives linked to the main focus areas and objectives (at a corporate / business level ). 

This approach is best suited to smaller organizations that only need to add a few layers of objectives to their plan.

Option B: Create contributing objectives from multiple plans linking to the main objective

This approach creates a network of aligned strategic plans within your organization. Each plan contains a set of focus areas and one single layer of objectives, each with its own set of projects, actions, and KPIs. This concept looks like this:

This example illustrates an objective that is a main objective in the IT strategic plan , but also contributes to the main strategic plan's objective.

For example, let’s say that your main business objective is to improve customer satisfaction by reducing product delivery time by 25% in the next quarter. This objective requires multiple operational teams within your organization to work together to achieve a shared objective. 

Each team will create its own objective in its plan to contribute to the main objective: 

• Logistics team: Reduce the shipment preparation time by 30%
• IT team: Implement new technology to reduce manual handling in the warehouse
• Production team: Increase production output by hour for 5%   

Here’s how this example would look like within Cascade platform:

Although each contributing objective was originally created in its own plan, you can see how each contributing objective relates to the main strategic objective and its status in real-time.

2. Shared objectives

In Cascade, shared objectives are the same objectives shared across different strategic plans.

For example, you can have an objective that is “Achieve sustainable operations”. This objective can be part of the Corporate Strategy Plan, but also part of the Operations Plan , Supply Chain Plan , Production Plan, etc. In short, this objective becomes a shared objective between multiple teams and strategic plan. 

This approach helps you to:

• Cascade your business strategy as deep as you want across a near-infinite number of people while maintaining strategic alignment throughout your organization .
• Create transparency and a much higher level of engagement in the strategy throughout your organization since objective owners are able to identify how their shared efforts contribute to the success of the main business objectives.

The more shared objectives you have across your organization, the more your teams will be aligned with the overarching business strategy. This is what we call " alignment health ”. 

Here’s how you can see the shared objectives in the alignment map and analyze alignment health within Cascade:

You get a snapshot of how is your corporate strategic plan aligned with sub-plans from different business units or departments and the status of shared objectives. This helps you quickly identify misaligned initiatives and act before it’s too late.  Plus, cross-functional teams have better visibility of how their efforts contribute to shared objectives. 

So whether you choose contributing objectives or shared objectives, Cascade has the tools and features to help you achieve organization-wide alignment and boost your bottom line.

Quick Overview Of Key Steps In Writing A Strategic Plan

Here’s a quick infographic to help you remember how everything connects and why each element is critical to creating an effective strategic plan:

This simple answer to how to write a strategic plan avoids confusing jargon and has elements that the whole organization can both get behind and understand. 

💡Tip: Save this image or bookmark this article for your next strategic planning session.

If you're struggling to write an execution-ready strategic plan, the Cascade model is the solution you've been looking for. With its clear, easy-to-understand terminology, and simple linkages between objectives, projects, and KPIs, you can create a plan that's both scalable and flexible.

But why is a flexible and execution-ready strategic plan so important? It's simple: without a clear and actionable plan, you'll never be able to achieve your business objectives. By using the Cascade Strategic Planning Model, you'll be able to create a plan that's both tangible and measurable, with KPIs that help you track progress towards your goals.

However, the real value of the Cascade framework lies in its flexibility . By creating links between main business objectives and your teams’ objectives, you can easily scale your plan without losing focus. Plus, the model's structure of linked layers means that you can always adjust your strategy in response to new challenges or opportunities and keep everyone on the same page. 

So if you want to achieve results with your strategic plan, start using Cascade today. With its unique combination of flexibility and focus, it's the perfect tool for any organization looking to master strategy execution and succeed in today's fast-paced business world. 

Want to see Cascade in action? Get started for free or book a 1:1 demo with Cascade’s in-house strategy expert.

This article is part one of our mini-series "How to Write a Strategic Plan". This first article will give you a solid strategy model for your plan and get the strategic thinking going.

Think of it as the foundation for your new strategy. Subsequent parts of the series will show you how to create the content for your strategic plan.

Articles in our How to Write a Strategic Plan series

• How To Write A Strategic Plan: The Cascade Model (This article)
• How to Write a Good Vision Statement
• How To Create Company Values
• Creating Strategic Focus Areas
• How To Write Strategic Objective
• How To Create Effective Projects
• How To Write KPIs + Ultimate Guide To Strategic Planning

More resources on strategic planning and strategy execution: 

• 6 Steps to Successful Strategy Execution
• 4-Step Strategy Reporting Process (With Template)
• Annual Planning: Plan Like a Pro In 5 Steps (+ Template) 
• 18 Free Strategic Plan Templates (Excel & Cascade) 2023
• The Right Way To Set Team Goals
• 23 Best Strategy Tools For Your Organization in 2023

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Your toolkit for strategy success.

Strategic Plans for Long-Term Growth: Examples and Strategies

This is a comprehensive guide on strategic planning for small to midsize companies.

If you want to:

• Move your organization in the direction you intend for long-term success,
• Implement your plan smoothly for greater growth,
• Use a better platform for developing a truly effective strategic plan,

… then you’ll love this guide. Let’s get started.

What’s Covered in This Guide

Click on each to jump to that section.

What is Strategic Planning?

What does strategic planning mean, what is the goal of strategic planning.

• What is Strategic Leadership?

4 Strategic Planning Strategies

The strategic planning process [11 steps], what does strategic planning involve.

• How to Implement Your Strategic Plan

Examples of Strategic Plans

Get your strategic planning done on ninety.

Strategic planning is the process you use to:

• Establish and document a clear direction for your organization.
• Identify business goals and set priorities that create growth for your company.
• Formulate a long-term plan of action designed to achieve these objectives.
• Determine an internal system tracking and evaluating performance.

When organizations want to, they use a strategic plan to:

• Strengthen their operation.
• Focus on collective energy and resources.
• Enable leaders, teams, and other stakeholders to work toward common goals.
• Make agreements around desired results.
• Refresh direction and prevail over a changing or challenging environment.

Thinking strategically helps companies take the right action for more success and better outcomes. Some even call it an art.

Strategic planning is one of three essential ways to pursue important objectives for your company. When tackling challenges and determining action plans, you can think strategically, tactically, or operationally. These three thought processes often work in concert to help you create a framework that achieves your desired objectives.

• Strategic plans are designed for multilevel involvement throughout the entire organization. Leaders will look ahead to where they want to be in three, five, and ten years and develop a mission.
• Tactical plans support strategic plans. They outline the specific responsibilities and functionalities at the department level so employees know how to do their part to make the strategic plan successful.
• Operational plans focus on the highly detailed procedures, processes, and routine tasks that frontline employees must accomplish to achieve desired outcomes.

The goal of your strategic plan is to determine:

• Where your company stands in relation to the current business environment. Understand how your business operates, how you create value, and how you differentiate from your competitors.
• Where you want to take the business based on long-term objectives such as your company’s vision, mission, culture, values, and goals. Envision how you see the company five or ten years from now.
• What you need to do to get there. You come away from your planning sessions with a roadmap that helps deliver on your strategic objectives. Determine better ways to enable and implement change, schedule deadlines, and structure goals, so they’re achievable.

The main purpose of your strategic plan is to create clearly defined goals for achieving the growth and success of your organization. These goals are connected to your organization’s mission and long-term vision.

What is Strategic Leadership? 

Strategic leadership is how you create, implement, and sustain your strategic plan, so your organization moves in the direction you intend for long-term success. This usually involves establishing ongoing practices and benchmarks, allocating resources, and providing leadership that supports your strategic mission and vision statement.

Strategic leadership, also known as strategy execution, can employ two different approaches:

• A prescriptive approach is analytical and focuses on how strategies are created to account for risks and opportunities.
• A descriptive approach is principle-driven and focuses on how strategies are implemented to account for risks and opportunities.

Most people agree that a strategic plan is only as good as the company’s ability to research, create, implement, evaluate, and adjust when needed. The benefits can be great when:

• Your entire organization supports the plan.
• Your business is set up to succeed.
• Your employees are more likely to stay on track without being distracted or derailed.
• You make better decisions based on metrics that facilitate course correction.
• Everyone in your company is involved and invested in better outcomes.
• Departments and teams are aligned across your company.
• People are committed to learning and training.
• Productivity increases, and performance improves.
• Creativity is encouraged and rewarded.

What are the four main points of strategic planning? You engage in strategic thinking so you can create effective company goals that are:

Purpose-driven

Align your strategic plan with the company’s purpose and values as you understand them.

Actionable strategic goals are worth spending your time and resources on to reach organizational objectives.

It’s critical for you to track your strategy's progress and success, enabling your teams to take action and meet the goals more effectively.

Focused Long-term

A long-term focus distinguishes a strategic plan from operational goals, which involve daily activities and milestones required for success. When planning strategically, you’re looking ahead to the company’s future.

A strategic plan isn’t written in a day. Critical thinking evolves over several months. Those involved in the strategic planning are usually a team of leaders and employees from your company and possibly other stakeholders.

When should strategic planning be done?

You should plan strategically for start-ups and newer organizations from the start. But even if your company is more established, it’s not too late to start working on strategy.

Flexible timing that’s tailored to the needs of your organization is smart. Although the frequency of strategy sessions is up to you, many leaders use these milestones as a guide:

• When the economy, your market, and industry trends change, or a global event occurs (like the onset of a pandemic).
• Following a change in senior leadership.
• Before a product launch or when a new division is added to your business.
• After your company merges with another organization.
• During a convenient time frame such as a quarterly and annual review.

Many organizations opt to schedule regular strategic reviews such as quarterly or annually. Especially when crafting a plan, your strategic planning team should meet regularly. They will often follow predetermined steps in the development of your long-term plan.

What are the 11 steps of strategic planning?

Identify your company’s strategic position in the marketplace. .

Gather market data and research information from both internal and external sources. You may want to conduct a comprehensive SWOT analysis to determine your company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats against success. Your strengths and weaknesses are directly related to your current competitive advantage within your industry. They are what you use to balance challenges to your success. They also influence the likelihood of increased market share in the future.

Define your unique vision and mission. 

What would success look like for you in three years? Five years? Ten years? Articulate that in a vision statement. How do you intend to realize your vision? That’s articulated in your mission statement. Formulating purpose-driven strategic goals articulates why your company does what it does. Your organizational values inform your mission and vision and connect them to specific objectives.

Determine your company’s value.

Many companies use financial forecasting for this purpose. A forecast can assign anticipated measurable results, return on investment (ROI), or profits and cost of investment.

Set your organizational direction.

Defining the impact you want to have and the time frame for achieving helps focus a too-broad or over-ambitious first draft. This way, your plan will have objectives that will have the most impact. 

Create specific strategic objectives.

Your strategic objectives identify the conditions for your success. For instance, they may cover:

• Value: Increasing revenue and shareholder value, budgeting cost, allocating resources aligned with the strategic plan, forecasting profitability, and ensuring financial stability. 
• Customer Experience: Identifying target audiences, solution-based products and services, value for the cost, better service, and increased market share.
• Operational Efficiency: Streamlining internal processes, investing in research and development, total quality and performance priorities, reducing cost, and improving workplace safety.
• Learning and Growth: Training leaders and teams to address change and sustain growth, improving employee productivity and retention, and building high-performing teams.

Set specific strategic initiatives.

Strategic initiatives are your company's actions to reach your strategic objectives, such as raising brand awareness, a commitment to product development, purpose-driven employee training, and more.

Develop cascading goals.

Cascading goals are like cascading messages : They filter your strategy throughout the company from top to bottom. The highest-level goals align with mid-level goals to individual goals employees must accomplish to achieve overall outcomes. This helps everyone see how their performance will influence overall success, which improves engagement and productivity.

Create alignment across the entire company.

The success of your strategy is directly impacted by your commitment to inform and engage your entire workforce in strategy implementation. This involves ensuring everyone is connected and working together to achieve your goals. Overall decision-making becomes easier and more aligned.

Consider strategy mapping.

A strategy map is an easy-to-understand diagram, graphic, or illustration that shows the logical, cause-and-effect relationship among various strategic objectives. They are used to quickly communicate how your organization creates value. It will help you communicate the details of your strategic plan better to people by tapping into their visual learning abilities.

Use metrics to measure performance.

When your strategy informs the creation of SMART organizational goals , benchmarks can be established and metrics can be assigned to evaluate performance within time frames. Key performance indicators (KPIs) align performance and productivity with long-term strategic objectives. 

Evaluate the performance of your plan regularly.

You write a strategic plan to improve your company’s overall performance. Evaluating your progress at regular intervals will tell you whether you’re on your way to achieving your objectives or whether your plan needs an adjustment.

Effective strategic planning involves creating a company culture of good communication and accountability. It involves creating and embracing the opportunity for positive change.

Consider these statistics:

• In many companies, only 42% of leaders and 27% of employees have access to a strategic plan.
• Even if they have access, 95% of employees do not understand their organization's strategy.
• 5.2% of a strategy’s potential is lost to poor communication.
• What leaders care about makes up at least 80% of the content of their communications. But those messages do not tap into around 80% of their employees’ primary motivators for putting extra energy into a change program.
• 28% of leaders say one of the main reasons strategic initiatives succeed is the ability to attract skilled personnel; 25% say it’s good communication; 25% say it’s the ability to manage organizational change.

Here’s what you can do to embrace a culture of good communication and accountability:

Make your strategic plan visible. Talk about what's working and what isn't. People want to know where and how they fit into the organization and why their contribution is valuable. Even if they don't understand every element of the plan.

Build accountability. If you've agreed on a plan with clear objectives and priorities, your leaders have to take responsibility for what's in it. They must own the objectives and activities in your plan.

Create an environment for change. It’s much more difficult to implement a strategy if you think there will be no support or collaboration from your coworkers. Addressing their concerns will help build a culture that understands how to champion change.

Implementing Your Strategic Plan

• 98% of leaders think strategy implementation takes more time than strategy formulation.
• 61% of leaders acknowledge that their organizations often struggle to bridge the gap between strategy formulation and its day-to-day implementation.
• 45% of leaders say ensuring employees take different actions or demonstrate different behaviors is the toughest implementation challenge; 37% of leaders say it’s gaining support across the whole organization.
• 39% of leaders say one of the main reasons strategic plans succeed is skilled implementation.

The reality for so many is that it’s harder to implement a strategic plan than to craft one. Great strategic ideas and a clear direction are key to success, no matter what. But so is:

• Turning strategic ideas into an easy-to-implement framework that enables meaningful managing, tracking, and adapting.  
• Getting everyone in the organization on the same strategic page, from creation to execution.

When your plan is structured to support implementation, you're more likely to get it done.

What are examples of good strategic planning? There are lots of templates out there to help you create a plan document with pen and paper.

But Ninety has a better way.

The Vision planner is essentially a strategic planning template on Ninety’s cloud-based platform that allows you to:

• Set goals, establish how you will meet them, and share them with those who need to know.
• Gain visibility around your company values.
• Create core values, a niche, and long-term goals that are accessible to everyone in your company.
• Create a vision of the future that lets you know what needs to happen now.
• Streamline and organize your processes.
• Easily update and track changes.
• Bring alignment to your entire organization.

And you can do all this with only two digitized pages.

In your Vision tool inside Ninety, you can easily access all the things that make strategic plans effective:

• Executive Summary
• Elevator Pitch
• Mission Statement
• Vision Statement
• SWOT Analysis
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Industry Analysis
• Marketing Plan
• Operations Plan
• Financial Projections

Vision + Goals is also completely integrated with all other features on Ninety, such as Scorecards, 90-Day Goals, To-Dos, Issues, Roles & Responsibilities Chart, Meetings, One-on-Ones, and more:

• Create a clear vision for each team.
• Determine one- and three-year goals.
• Reference past versions in a Vision archive.
• Share your Vision with all teams, or keep it private.

Now that you’ve learned how to grow your company using strategic planning, it’s time to put your knowledge into practice:

Build your strategic plan on Ninety now.

Do you want more step-by-step guides on strategy, strategic planning, and creating actionable strategic plans?  Subscribe to our blog!

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What is a Business Strategy? What are the examples of business strategy?

What is a business strategy?

A business strategy is a comprehensive plan formulated by an organization to achieve its long-term goals and objectives. It outlines the organization’s direction and guides its decision-making processes on allocating resources, including capital and people, to pursue this strategy. Here are some key aspects of a business strategy:

• Vision and Mission : It starts with the clear articulation of the company’s vision and mission, which define the overarching purpose and goals of the organization.
• Competitive Advantage : The strategy aims to establish or maintain a unique position in the market that allows the business to outperform its competitors. This could be through superior products, lower costs, brand strength, or other differentiators.
• Market Analysis : A thorough market analysis, including customers, competitors, and the overall industry environment, is a critical part of formulating a business strategy. This helps in identifying opportunities and threats in the external environment.
• Internal Analysis : Understanding the company’s internal strengths and weaknesses is equally important. This includes analyzing the company’s resources, capabilities, processes, and financial position.
• Strategic Objectives : Strategic objectives are set based on external and internal analyses. The company aims to achieve These specific, measurable goals within a certain timeframe.
• Tactics and Actions : The strategy also includes the development of specific tactics and actions that will be used to achieve the strategic objectives. This could involve developing new products, entering new markets, improving operations, or other initiatives.
• Resource Allocation : A crucial part of the strategy is deciding how to allocate the organization’s resources effectively across different initiatives to maximize the chances of achieving the strategic objectives.
• Performance Monitoring : Finally, a business strategy includes mechanisms for monitoring performance against the strategic objectives and adjusting the plan based on performance and changes in the external environment.

A well-crafted business strategy should guide the entire organization toward achieving its long-term goals while being flexible enough to adapt to changes in the external environment.

How to make a business strategy

Creating a business strategy involves a comprehensive process to define your company’s vision, objectives, and steps to achieve them. Here’s a structured approach to developing a business strategy:

• Define Your Vision : Start by articulating a clear and compelling vision of what you want your organization to become in the future. This vision will guide the direction of your business strategy.
• Set Clear Objectives : Establish specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives that align with your vision. These objectives should clarify what you intend to achieve in the short and long term.
• Conduct a SWOT Analysis : Analyze your company’s internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats. This will help you understand the internal and external factors impacting your strategy.
• Understand Your Market and Competition : Conduct market research to gain insights into your industry, customers, and competitors. Understanding the market landscape is crucial for identifying opportunities and threats.
• Define Your Value Proposition : Clearly articulate your business’s unique value to customers. This involves understanding what sets your products or services apart from competitors.
• Outline Your Strategic Priorities : Based on your SWOT analysis and market understanding, identify the key areas your business needs to focus on to achieve its objectives. These priorities will guide your actions and resource allocation.
• Develop Action Plans : For each strategic priority, develop detailed action plans that outline the specific steps, resources, and timelines required to achieve your objectives. This should include defining key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure progress.
• Allocate Resources : Determine the resources (financial, human, technological) required to implement your action plans. Ensure that you allocate resources efficiently to maximize impact.
• Implement and Monitor : Execute your action plans and monitor progress against your objectives and KPIs. This involves tracking performance, analyzing outcomes, and making adjustments as needed.
• Review and Adapt : Business environments are dynamic, so reviewing your strategy and adapting it regularly is essential. This might involve revising your objectives, strategic priorities, or action plans.

Remember, a successful business strategy is not just about planning but also about execution and adaptability. It requires continuous evaluation and the willingness to adjust to align with your vision and objectives.

MIT Sloan Executive Education’s Applied Business Analytics online program is designed to bridge the gap between the needs of working professionals and the accessibility of analytical models and tools. Take this opportunity to use data to improve decision-making.

What are the levels of business strategy?

Business strategy can be divided into three levels: corporate, business, and functional.

Corporate level strategy

A corporate-level strategy is a long-term plan that a company uses to guide its business decisions and activities. A corporate-level strategy typically focuses on how the company will compete in its overall industry or market.

This can involve decisions about which businesses to operate in, what products or services to offer, and how to allocate resources across the company. Senior executives usually develop corporate-level strategies and are designed to help businesses achieve their overall goals.

When crafting a corporate strategy, businesses must consider their strengths and weaknesses and the opportunities and threats in their industry. By considering all of these factors, companies can develop a plan that will allow them to compete effectively and achieve their desired success.

Corporate Level Strategy: Explained with Examples and Types  

Business level strategy

A business-level strategy is a plan of action to achieve a specific goal. This could be anything from increasing market share to expanding into new markets.

A business-level strategy must be aligned with the company’s overall mission and goals to succeed. It should also consider the company’s strengths and weaknesses and the threats and opportunities present in the marketplace.

Once a business-level strategy has been formulated, it is crucial to implement it in a consistent and disciplined manner. Otherwise, it will simply be another worthless piece of paper gathering dust on a shelf.

Business Level Strategy: Explained with Examples and Types

Functional level strategy

A functional-level strategy is a plan that focuses on how a company will use its resources to achieve its goals in a specific business area.

For example, a company’s marketing functional level strategy might focus on how it will use its marketing budget to reach its target customers. A functional-level strategy is generally created by a company’s top managers and is then implemented by lower-level managers.

While a functional-level strategy is often aligned with the company’s overall business strategy, it can also be adapted to meet the needs of a specific business unit or product line. By taking into account each business unit’s unique resources and objectives, a company can develop a more targeted and practical approach to achieving its goals.

For a company to be successful, all three levels of strategy must be aligned. Otherwise, there will be confusion and conflict between different departments, leading to stagnation or even decline.

By developing a clear and concise business strategy, companies can ensure that all levels of the organization work together towards a common goal.

Functional Level Strategy: Explained with Examples and Types

Examples of business strategy

A business strategy is a plan that outlines how a company will achieve its goals. There are many different business strategies, but some common examples include cost leadership, differentiation, and focus.

Cost leadership

Cost leadership creates a competitive advantage by having the lowest cost of production in their respective industry. This strategy is often used by companies that can produce their goods or services at a lower price than their competitors.

To achieve a cost leadership position, businesses must achieve economies of scale, which refers to producing goods or services at a lower unit cost as production increases.

There are several ways that businesses can achieve economies of scale, such as through vertical integration, investing in new technology, or streamlining their manufacturing process.

Once a business has achieved a cost leadership position, it can maintain it by continuously lowering its costs and/or raising its prices.

What is a Cost leadership strategy | Explained with Examples

Differentiation

A differentiation strategy is where a company seeks to distinguish itself from the competition by offering unique products or services.

This can be done in terms of quality, features, design, or any other aspect that sets the company’s products or services apart from its rivals.

A differentiation strategy aims to make the company’s products or services more attractive to customers and thus gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

While a differentiation strategy can be an effective way to grow a business, it can also be challenging to sustain over the long term due to the constant need to innovate and remain ahead of the competition.

Product differentiation Strategy in marketing with types & examples

A focus strategy involves targeting a specific market niche or segment. Focus Strategy: All you need to know

A focus strategy aims to gain a competitive advantage by catering to the target market’s unique needs. Focus strategies can be either cost-based or differentiation-based.

Focus strategies can effectively build brand loyalty and increase market share, but they can also be tricky to execute. Because focus strategies involve targeting a specific market segment, companies must be careful not to spread themselves too thin or risk losing their competitive advantage.

Each strategy has its benefits and drawbacks, and the best strategy for any given company will depend on its specific goals and situation.

However, all businesses need some strategy to be successful. Without a plan to achieve its goals, a company will likely flounder and ultimately fail.

Innovation focused business strategy of Godrej

How to measure the effectiveness of a business strategy

Measuring the effectiveness of a business strategy involves evaluating how well the strategy has achieved its objectives and contributed to the overall vision and goals of the organization. Here are vital steps and metrics to consider in this process:

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) : Identify specific, quantifiable indicators directly linked to the strategic objectives. KPIs can vary widely depending on the nature of the strategy and the business, including financial metrics, customer satisfaction scores, market share, operational efficiency, and employee engagement levels.
• Financial Performance : Assess the impact of the strategy on the company’s financial health, including revenue growth, profit margins, return on investment (ROI), and cash flow. These metrics provide a clear picture of the financial viability and success of the strategy.
• Market Position and Share : Evaluate changes in your market position and share as a result of the strategy. Gains in market share or improvements in positioning against competitors can indicate the effectiveness of market-oriented strategic initiatives.
• Customer Metrics : Measure customer-related metrics such as customer satisfaction scores, customer retention rates, net promoter scores (NPS), and customer acquisition costs. These metrics can help assess how well the strategy resonates with customers and contributes to loyalty and growth.
• Operational Efficiency : Look at improvements in operational metrics such as production costs, turnaround times, error rates, and quality indicators. Enhancements in these areas can signal the successful implementation of operational or process-oriented strategies.
• Employee Engagement and Productivity : Evaluate employee-related metrics, including employee satisfaction, turnover rates, and productivity levels. A successful strategy should also positively impact the workforce, driving engagement and efficiency.
• Strategic Milestones : Track progress against strategic milestones and timelines. Assessing the completion of critical initiatives and projects on schedule can provide insights into the execution effectiveness of the strategy.
• Benchmarking : Compare your performance against industry benchmarks or competitors to gauge your strategy’s relative effectiveness. This can provide a broader perspective on how well your plan is performing in the competitive landscape.
• Feedback Loops : Implement feedback mechanisms from customers, employees, and other stakeholders to gather qualitative insights into the strategy’s impact. Feedback can provide valuable context to the quantitative data and highlight areas for improvement.
• Adaptability and Resilience : Assess how well the strategy has enabled the organization to adapt to unforeseen challenges or market changes. A strategy’s ability to provide flexibility and resilience can be a critical measure of its long-term effectiveness.

It’s essential to review these metrics and adjust your strategy as needed regularly. Effective measurement is an ongoing process, and insights gained from this evaluation should inform future strategic decisions and adjustments.

IDEO’s Design Thinking Strategy – Making consumers fall in love with your products

How to implement a successful business strategy

Any business owner knows that a successful company requires a well-thought-out strategy. But what goes into a successful business strategy?

Implementing a successful business strategy requires a thoughtful and systematic approach. Here are some steps you might consider:

• Set Clear Goals: Defining what success looks like is crucial before you start. Your business goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Your strategy should be designed to help you achieve these goals.
• Conduct a SWOT Analysis: A SWOT analysis helps you understand your business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It provides a clear understanding of your current position, which is essential for strategy development.
• Understand Your Customers: Knowing your customer’s needs and preferences is vital. This understanding will allow you to make strategic decisions that will satisfy your customers and make your business more competitive.
• Understand Your Competitors: Knowing who your competitors are and what they offer can help you differentiate your products or services and find a competitive advantage.
• Formulate the Strategy: Based on the knowledge gained from the previous steps, develop a strategy that leverages your strengths, minimizes your weaknesses, capitalizes on opportunities, and mitigates threats. This strategy should address all key areas of your business, such as product development, marketing, sales, operations, and customer service.
• Communicate the Strategy: Once you have a strategy in place, communicate it clearly and consistently to all stakeholders, including employees, shareholders, and customers. Everyone should understand the direction the business is headed and their role in getting there.
• Implement the Strategy: This is where the rubber meets the road. Start executing the strategy. Ensure all actions and decisions align with the strategic goals. You might need to change your operations, develop new products, enter new markets, etc.
• Monitor and Adjust: Implementation is not a one-and-done process. Regularly review the strategy’s progress and effectiveness using key performance indicators (KPIs). If something isn’t working as expected, don’t be afraid to adjust your strategy.
• Innovation: A successful strategy often includes a focus on innovation. This could mean developing new products or services, or it could involve finding more efficient ways of doing things.
• Culture and Leadership: A positive culture and strong leadership are crucial for a successful strategy. Leaders should embody the strategy and inspire others to work towards it. Likewise, a culture that encourages collaboration, risk-taking, and continuous learning can accelerate strategy implementation.

Remember, every business is unique, and what works for one might not work for another. It’s important to be flexible and adaptable and continuously learn and refine your strategy based on what’s working and what’s not.

Difference between business strategy and corporate strategy

Business strategy and corporate strategy are two different levels of strategic planning in an organization. They both are essential for organizational success, but they focus on different aspects of the organization.

Corporate Strategy:

This is concerned with the overall scope and direction of the entire organization. It involves making decisions about the organization’s portfolio of businesses (if it is a conglomerate with multiple lines of businesses), the markets it will operate in, and how it will create value across those different businesses.

The focus of the corporate strategy is on capital allocation, mergers and acquisitions, and defining the overall corporate identity. The main goal of corporate strategy is to ensure the organization is diversified and balanced in a way that reduces risks and enhances corporate value. In other words, it looks at “what” businesses the company should be in.

Corporate Level Strategy: Explained with Examples and Types

Business Strategy:

This operates at a lower level and is concerned with how a single business unit competes within its specific market. It outlines how to achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Business strategy involves decisions about product development, customer targeting, marketing, production, distribution, and pricing.

It’s more focused on operational effectiveness and strategic positioning within the market. This strategy primarily responds to the question of “how” the business will succeed in a specific market.

In summary, corporate strategy is more big-picture, determining where and how the organization will compete, whereas business strategy focuses on executing the corporate strategy within specific markets.

The real challenge in crafting strategy lies in detecting subtle discontinuities that may undermine a business in the future. And for that there is no technique, no program, just a sharp mind in touch with the situation Henry Mintzberg, management thinker and “enfant terrible” of strategic planning theory

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Inspiring Business Strategy Examples and Templates

By Status.net Editorial Team on November 8, 2023 — 11 minutes to read

• Types of Business Strategies Part 1
• Building a Winning Business Strategy Part 2
• Business Strategy Template with Examples Part 3
• Additional Sections to Include in a Business Strategy Part 4
• Objective Setting Template Part 5
• Business Strategy Action Plan Template Part 6

Part 1 Types of Business Strategies

Growth strategies.

When it comes to growth strategies, you have several options to consider. One popular method is market penetration, where you aim to increase the market share of your existing products or services through promotions, discounts, and advertising. You could also explore market development, in which you target new markets using your existing products. Expanding into new territories, partnering with other businesses, or catering to a different demographic can help broaden your customer base.

Another possibility is product development, where you develop new products or upgrade existing ones to attract more customers or maintain your position in the market. Finally, diversification is another approach where you introduce entirely new products or services to your business, which may cater to a new market or complement your existing offerings.

Cost Leadership Strategies

Focusing on cost leadership strategies, your goal is to become the most cost-efficient provider in your industry. To achieve this, you can invest in process improvements, technology, or economies of scale to reduce operational costs and increase productivity. By offering lower prices than your competitors while maintaining quality, you can attract more customers and improve your market share.

Maintaining low overheads, negotiating better deals with suppliers, and exploiting the advantages of vertical integration are some ways to achieve cost leadership. Remember to carefully balance cost cutting with quality and customer satisfaction, as neglecting these aspects can negatively impact your business.

Differentiation Strategies

Differentiation strategies aim to make your business stand out from the competition by offering unique products or services that customers value. It’s about identifying your target market’s needs and preferences, and tailoring your offerings to meet those expectations.

To create differentiation, you can focus on innovation, design, quality, customer service, or branding. For example, developing cutting-edge technology, offering exceptional after-sales support, or creating a strong brand image can give your business a competitive edge. These factors help you charge a premium price, attract loyal customers, and build long-lasting relationships with them.

Part 2 Building a Winning Business Strategy

Conducting a swot analysis.

A great starting point for building a winning business strategy is conducting a SWOT analysis. It helps you assess your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. To perform this analysis:

• List your company’s internal strengths and weaknesses.
• Identify external opportunities and threats from your market or industry.

This exercise gives you valuable insights into which areas of your business need improvement and which assets you can leverage. Related: Advantages of SWOT Analysis (6 Benefits and 4 Limitations)

Creating a Competitive Advantage

To create a competitive advantage, analyze your competitors and determine what sets you apart from them. Some common avenues for distinction include:

• Offering superior products or services
• Developing a unique brand
• Providing exceptional customer service

Think about what makes your business unique and how to capitalize on those aspects.

Formulating an Action Plan

Once you have performed a SWOT analysis and determined your competitive advantage, you can develop an action plan to reach your goals. Here are a few components of an effective action plan:

• Define clear and measurable objectives for your business.
• Break down your objectives into smaller tasks with deadlines.
• Assign responsibilities to specific team members.
• Monitor progress regularly and adjust your plan as needed.

Part 3 Business Strategy Template

Company overview.

– Company name – Brief description of business/industry – Mission/vision statements

Current Situation Analysis

– Market analysis – Target market – Customer segments – Industry trends – Competitive landscape – Organizational analysis – Core competencies – Resources/assets – Operational processes – Financial analysis – Revenue streams – Cost structure – Profitability

SWOT Analysis

– Strengths – List of key internal strengths – Weaknesses – List of key internal weaknesses – Opportunities – List of external opportunities – Threats – List of external threats

(To create a SWOT analysis, organize your thoughts using four columns or quadrants:

• Strengths : List your company’s strong points, such as an experienced team, a unique product, or a solid customer base.
• Weaknesses : Identify areas for improvement or bottlenecks, like a sluggish decision-making process or insufficient funding.
• Opportunities : Note external factors that present chances for growth and success, such as market trends or new technologies.
• Threats : Consider external aspects that could prove challenging or harmful, including competitors, regulatory changes, or rising raw material costs.)

Goals and Objectives

– 3-5 year goals – 1 year objectives to support goals – Metrics to measure progress

Strategic Options

– Growth strategies – Product/market expansion – Diversification – Mergers/acquisitions – Competitive strategies – Differentiation – Cost leadership – Focus

Action Plan

– Strategic initiatives to achieve objectives – Timeline for implementation – Budget and resource requirements – Responsibilities assigned

Contingency Plan

– Potential risks and challenges – Backup plans if risks are realized

Financial Projections

– 3-5 year projected income statement – Projected balance sheet – Cash flow statement – Assumptions

Monitoring and Control

– Performance metrics – Progress reporting procedures – Process for course corrections

Business Strategy Example

(The business strategy example provided is intended solely for illustrative purposes to demonstrate how to populate the template. Please note that in practice, a real business strategy would include far more comprehensive and detailed analyses, projections, action plans, etc. tailored specifically to the unique industry, resources, goals, and challenges of the company.)

Company Overview – Company name: ABCX Electronics – Brief description: ABCX Electronics is a manufacturer and distributor of consumer electronics. – Mission: To become the #1 provider of innovative consumer tech solutions.

Current Situation Analysis – Market: Growing demand for smart home devices – Target: Households with incomes over $100K – Customer segments: Retailers, online shoppers – Trends: IoT, virtual assistance, 5G – Competition: Large tech companies – Resources: R&D team, manufacturing plants, distribution centers – Financials: $500M revenue, 15% profit margins

SWOT Analysis – Strengths: Established brand, global distribution, R&D expertise – Weaknesses: High overhead, product return rates – Opportunities: Expand into smart home market, partner with carriers – Threats: Supply chain disruptions, new entrants

Goals and Objectives – 3 years: $750M revenue, 20% profit margins – 1 year: Launch smart home line, reduce returns by 5%

Strategic Options – Product expansion: Develop smart home devices – Partnerships: Bundle devices with carrier plans – Cost leadership: Automate processes, source cheaper materials

Action Plan – Initiative 1: Develop smart speaker and thermostat (12 months) – Initiative 2: Negotiate carrier partnerships (6 months) – Initiative 3: Automate returns processing (9 months) – Budget: $20M capex, $5M opex – Responsibilities: VP of each division

Contingency Plan – Risks: Regulatory issues, IP theft – Backups: Alternative components, pricing adjustments

Financial Projections – 3 year income statement, balance sheet, cash flows – Assumes revenue growth from new products and partnerships

Monitoring and Control – Metrics: Revenue, margins, product launch dates – Quarterly reports to board, adjust as needed

Part 4 Additional Sections to Include in a Business Strategy

Brand strategy.

– How the brand positioning and messaging needs to evolve

Marketing & sales strategy

– Plans to attract, acquire and retain customers

Innovation strategy

– Approach to developing new products/services

People strategy

– Acquiring/developing talent needed to execute strategy

Stakeholder Analysis

– Identification of key internal and external stakeholders – Assessment of their interests, influence, priorities

Value Proposition

– Clear articulation of the unique value provided to target customers

Core Competencies

– Identification and assessment of organizational strengths that provide competitive advantage

Critical Success Factors

– Key factors that must be achieved to meet objectives and be successful

Resource Audit

– Inventory of available physical, financial, intellectual, and human resources

Gap Analysis

– Comparison of current capabilities vs. requirements to achieve strategic goals

Environmental analysis

– Assessing sustainability impacts and opportunities

Risk Management Plan

– Potential risks identified through SWOT and other analyses – Risk likelihood and impact ratings – Risk mitigation strategies for high-priority risks

Change Management Plan

– Organizational changes required to implement strategy – Plan to manage change and ensure adoption

Scenario planning

– Alternative future scenarios to consider

Performance Dashboard

– Visual dashboard to track key metrics over time

– Detailed supporting plans, charts, graphs, etc.

Part 5 Objective Setting Template

Company Name:

Period Covered:

Department/Team:

Objective 1: Specific goal: Measurable metrics: Attainable timeline: Relevant to strategy/mission: Time-bound deadline:

Objective 2: Specific goal: Measurable metrics: Attainable timeline: Relevant to strategy/mission: Time-bound deadline:

Objective 3: Specific goal: Measurable metrics: Attainable timeline: Relevant to strategy/mission: Time-bound deadline:

Objective 4: Specific goal: Measurable metrics: Attainable timeline: Relevant to strategy/mission: Time-bound deadline:

Objective 5: Specific goal: Measurable metrics: Attainable timeline: Relevant to strategy/mission: Time-bound deadline:

Part 6 Business Strategy Action Plan Template

With your objectives set, it’s time to create an action plan. Outline the necessary steps, assign responsibilities, and establish timelines. An action plan might include these components:

• Tasks : Define each task or initiative required to meet your objectives.
• Responsibilities : Assign a team member or department responsible for each task.
• Resources : Identify required resources, such as funding, materials, or labor.
• Timeline : Establish deadlines and milestones for each task.
• Monitoring : Set up a method for tracking progress and evaluating performance.

Organize your action plan in a way that’s easy to follow, and keep it up-to-date as circumstances change. This ensures your team stays on target and allows for adjustments when needed.

Business Strategy Action Plan

Objectives – Clearly state the objectives your action plan aims to achieve. These should align with your overall business strategy goals.

Tasks – List each specific task or initiative required to meet your objectives. Be as detailed as possible.

– Example tasks: – Launch new marketing campaign by Q1 – Hire additional sales representative by March 15 – Develop new product prototype by May 1

Responsibilities – Assign an individual or department responsible for completing each task.

– Example responsibilities: – Marketing department – Launch new marketing campaign – HR manager – Hire additional sales representative – Product development team – Develop new product prototype

Resources Required – Identify any resources (funding, materials, labor etc.) needed to complete each task.

– Example resources: – $X marketing budget – $Y for new hire salary and benefits – $Z engineering budget

Timeline – Establish deadlines and milestones for completing each task. Include start and end dates.

– Example timeline: – Campaign launch: Start Jan 15, End March 31 – Hire sales rep: Post job Feb 1, Hire by March 15 – Prototype development: Start Feb 1, Working prototype by May 1

Monitoring – Set up methods for tracking progress, evaluating performance and making adjustments. Identify who will monitor.

– Example monitoring: – Monthly marketing report from Director of Marketing – Biweekly check-ins with HR manager – Weekly product development update meetings

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some common templates for business strategy planning.

There are several templates you can use to plan your business strategy. Some popular ones include:

• Business Model Canvas – Helps you visualize and test your business model assumptions
• Lean Startup Canvas – Focuses on quickly iterating and validating business ideas
• Value Proposition Canvas – Helps refine your customer proposition and value delivery
• One-Page Strategic Plan – Breaks down your business strategy into a succinct one-page document
• Strategic Roadmap – Outlines the major milestones and action items needed to achieve your goals

How can I find examples of successful business strategies?

To find examples of successful business strategies, look for case studies, articles, and books highlighting the achievements of well-known companies. Business schools, online publications, and industry reports often feature in-depth analysis of company strategies. Additionally, you can attend events, conferences, and webinars discussing best practices and real-life examples.

Which tools or frameworks do companies often use for strategizing?

Some popular tools and frameworks for business strategy development include:

• Porter’s Five Forces – Analyzes competition and industry structure
• PEST Analysis – Explores the macro-environment (political, economic, social, and technological factors)
• Blue Ocean Strategy – Focuses on creating uncontested market spaces
• Ansoff Matrix – Evaluates growth strategies by analyzing market and product diversification
• Balanced Scorecard – Aligns business activities with strategy and measures performance

What are the key elements to consider when creating a business strategy?

When creating a business strategy, consider the following key elements:

• Goals and objectives – Define your main aims and what you want to achieve
• Market and customer analysis – Understand the target market, customer needs, preferences, and pain points
• Competitive and internal analysis – Assess your competitors, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
• Value proposition – Determine the unique value you offer customers and how it differs from competitors
• Channels and resources – Decide on the best resources and channels to deliver your products or services

Can you suggest any business strategy resources or guidelines?

Some helpful resources for business strategy development include:

• Books – E.g., “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, “Blue Ocean Strategy” by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
• Online courses – Platforms like Coursera or Skillshare offer strategy-related courses and webinars
• Consulting firms – Some offer free resources and tools, like McKinsey & Company’s Strategy Compass
• Industry publications – Subscribe to relevant newsletters, blogs, or podcasts for insights

What role do SWOT and competitor analyses play in business strategy development?

SWOT and competitor analyses are essential for creating an effective business strategy. SWOT analysis identifies your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, helping you craft strategies that leverage your strengths and address areas requiring improvement. Competitor analysis examines the strengths, weaknesses, and strategies of your competitors, enabling you to differentiate your offerings and stay ahead of market changes. Both analyses provide crucial insights to inform your strategic decision-making.

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Small Business Trends

How to create a business plan: examples & free template.

This is the ultimate guide to creating a comprehensive and effective plan to start a business . In today’s dynamic business landscape, having a well-crafted business plan is an important first step to securing funding, attracting partners, and navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship.

This guide has been designed to help you create a winning plan that stands out in the ever-evolving marketplace. U sing real-world examples and a free downloadable template, it will walk you through each step of the process.

Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or launching your very first startup, the guide will give you the insights, tools, and confidence you need to create a solid foundation for your business.

Table of Contents

How to Write a Business Plan

Embarking on the journey of creating a successful business requires a solid foundation, and a well-crafted business plan is the cornerstone. Here is the process of writing a comprehensive business plan and the main parts of a winning business plan . From setting objectives to conducting market research, this guide will have everything you need.

Executive Summary

The Executive Summary serves as the gateway to your business plan, offering a snapshot of your venture’s core aspects. This section should captivate and inform, succinctly summarizing the essence of your plan.

It’s crucial to include a clear mission statement, a brief description of your primary products or services, an overview of your target market, and key financial projections or achievements.

Think of it as an elevator pitch in written form: it should be compelling enough to engage potential investors or stakeholders and provide them with a clear understanding of what your business is about, its goals, and why it’s a promising investment.

Example: EcoTech is a technology company specializing in eco-friendly and sustainable products designed to reduce energy consumption and minimize waste. Our mission is to create innovative solutions that contribute to a cleaner, greener environment.

Our target market includes environmentally conscious consumers and businesses seeking to reduce their carbon footprint. We project a 200% increase in revenue within the first three years of operation.

Overview and Business Objectives

In the Overview and Business Objectives section, outline your business’s core goals and the strategic approaches you plan to use to achieve them. This section should set forth clear, specific objectives that are attainable and time-bound, providing a roadmap for your business’s growth and success.

It’s important to detail how these objectives align with your company’s overall mission and vision. Discuss the milestones you aim to achieve and the timeframe you’ve set for these accomplishments.

This part of the plan demonstrates to investors and stakeholders your vision for growth and the practical steps you’ll take to get there.

Example: EcoTech’s primary objective is to become a market leader in sustainable technology products within the next five years. Our key objectives include:

• Introducing three new products within the first two years of operation.
• Achieving annual revenue growth of 30%.
• Expanding our customer base to over 10,000 clients by the end of the third year.

Company Description

The Company Description section is your opportunity to delve into the details of your business. Provide a comprehensive overview that includes your company’s history, its mission statement, and its vision for the future.

Highlight your unique selling proposition (USP) – what makes your business stand out in the market. Explain the problems your company solves and how it benefits your customers.

Include information about the company’s founders, their expertise, and why they are suited to lead the business to success. This section should paint a vivid picture of your business, its values, and its place in the industry.

Example: EcoTech is committed to developing cutting-edge sustainable technology products that benefit both the environment and our customers. Our unique combination of innovative solutions and eco-friendly design sets us apart from the competition. We envision a future where technology and sustainability go hand in hand, leading to a greener planet.

Define Your Target Market

Defining Your Target Market is critical for tailoring your business strategy effectively. This section should describe your ideal customer base in detail, including demographic information (such as age, gender, income level, and location) and psychographic data (like interests, values, and lifestyle).

Elucidate on the specific needs or pain points of your target audience and how your product or service addresses these. This information will help you know your target market and develop targeted marketing strategies.

Example: Our target market comprises environmentally conscious consumers and businesses looking for innovative solutions to reduce their carbon footprint. Our ideal customers are those who prioritize sustainability and are willing to invest in eco-friendly products.

Market Analysis

The Market Analysis section requires thorough research and a keen understanding of the industry. It involves examining the current trends within your industry, understanding the needs and preferences of your customers, and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.

This analysis will enable you to spot market opportunities and anticipate potential challenges. Include data and statistics to back up your claims, and use graphs or charts to illustrate market trends.

This section should demonstrate that you have a deep understanding of the market in which you operate and that your business is well-positioned to capitalize on its opportunities.

Example: The market for eco-friendly technology products has experienced significant growth in recent years, with an estimated annual growth rate of 10%. As consumers become increasingly aware of environmental issues, the demand for sustainable solutions continues to rise.

Our research indicates a gap in the market for high-quality, innovative eco-friendly technology products that cater to both individual and business clients.

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis in your business plan offers a comprehensive examination of your company’s internal and external factors. By assessing Strengths, you showcase what your business does best and where your capabilities lie.

Weaknesses involve an honest introspection of areas where your business may be lacking or could improve. Opportunities can be external factors that your business could capitalize on, such as market gaps or emerging trends.

Threats include external challenges your business may face, like competition or market changes. This analysis is crucial for strategic planning, as it helps in recognizing and leveraging your strengths, addressing weaknesses, seizing opportunities, and preparing for potential threats.

Including a SWOT analysis demonstrates to stakeholders that you have a balanced and realistic understanding of your business in its operational context.

• Innovative and eco-friendly product offerings.
• Strong commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility.
• Skilled and experienced team with expertise in technology and sustainability.

Weaknesses:

• Limited brand recognition compared to established competitors.
• Reliance on third-party manufacturers for product development.

Opportunities:

• Growing consumer interest in sustainable products.
• Partnerships with environmentally-focused organizations and influencers.
• Expansion into international markets.
• Intense competition from established technology companies.
• Regulatory changes could impact the sustainable technology market.

Competitive Analysis

In this section, you’ll analyze your competitors in-depth, examining their products, services, market positioning, and pricing strategies. Understanding your competition allows you to identify gaps in the market and tailor your offerings to outperform them.

By conducting a thorough competitive analysis, you can gain insights into your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, enabling you to develop strategies to differentiate your business and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Example: Key competitors include:

GreenTech: A well-known brand offering eco-friendly technology products, but with a narrower focus on energy-saving devices.

EarthSolutions: A direct competitor specializing in sustainable technology, but with a limited product range and higher prices.

By offering a diverse product portfolio, competitive pricing, and continuous innovation, we believe we can capture a significant share of the growing sustainable technology market.

Organization and Management Team

Provide an overview of your company’s organizational structure, including key roles and responsibilities. Introduce your management team, highlighting their expertise and experience to demonstrate that your team is capable of executing the business plan successfully.

Showcasing your team’s background, skills, and accomplishments instills confidence in investors and other stakeholders, proving that your business has the leadership and talent necessary to achieve its objectives and manage growth effectively.

Example: EcoTech’s organizational structure comprises the following key roles: CEO, CTO, CFO, Sales Director, Marketing Director, and R&D Manager. Our management team has extensive experience in technology, sustainability, and business development, ensuring that we are well-equipped to execute our business plan successfully.

Products and Services Offered

Describe the products or services your business offers, focusing on their unique features and benefits. Explain how your offerings solve customer pain points and why they will choose your products or services over the competition.

This section should emphasize the value you provide to customers, demonstrating that your business has a deep understanding of customer needs and is well-positioned to deliver innovative solutions that address those needs and set your company apart from competitors.

Example: EcoTech offers a range of eco-friendly technology products, including energy-efficient lighting solutions, solar chargers, and smart home devices that optimize energy usage. Our products are designed to help customers reduce energy consumption, minimize waste, and contribute to a cleaner environment.

Marketing and Sales Strategy

In this section, articulate your comprehensive strategy for reaching your target market and driving sales. Detail the specific marketing channels you plan to use, such as social media, email marketing, SEO, or traditional advertising.

Describe the nature of your advertising campaigns and promotional activities, explaining how they will capture the attention of your target audience and convey the value of your products or services. Outline your sales strategy, including your sales process, team structure, and sales targets.

Discuss how these marketing and sales efforts will work together to attract and retain customers, generate leads, and ultimately contribute to achieving your business’s revenue goals.

This section is critical to convey to investors and stakeholders that you have a well-thought-out approach to market your business effectively and drive sales growth.

Example: Our marketing strategy includes digital advertising, content marketing, social media promotion, and influencer partnerships. We will also attend trade shows and conferences to showcase our products and connect with potential clients. Our sales strategy involves both direct sales and partnerships with retail stores, as well as online sales through our website and e-commerce platforms.

Logistics and Operations Plan

The Logistics and Operations Plan is a critical component that outlines the inner workings of your business. It encompasses the management of your supply chain, detailing how you acquire raw materials and manage vendor relationships.

Inventory control is another crucial aspect, where you explain strategies for inventory management to ensure efficiency and reduce wastage. The section should also describe your production processes, emphasizing scalability and adaptability to meet changing market demands.

Quality control measures are essential to maintain product standards and customer satisfaction. This plan assures investors and stakeholders of your operational competency and readiness to meet business demands.

Highlighting your commitment to operational efficiency and customer satisfaction underlines your business’s capability to maintain smooth, effective operations even as it scales.

Example: EcoTech partners with reliable third-party manufacturers to produce our eco-friendly technology products. Our operations involve maintaining strong relationships with suppliers, ensuring quality control, and managing inventory.

We also prioritize efficient distribution through various channels, including online platforms and retail partners, to deliver products to our customers in a timely manner.

Financial Projections Plan

In the Financial Projections Plan, lay out a clear and realistic financial future for your business. This should include detailed projections for revenue, costs, and profitability over the next three to five years.

Ground these projections in solid assumptions based on your market analysis, industry benchmarks, and realistic growth scenarios. Break down revenue streams and include an analysis of the cost of goods sold, operating expenses, and potential investments.

This section should also discuss your break-even analysis, cash flow projections, and any assumptions about external funding requirements.

By presenting a thorough and data-backed financial forecast, you instill confidence in potential investors and lenders, showcasing your business’s potential for profitability and financial stability.

This forward-looking financial plan is crucial for demonstrating that you have a firm grasp of the financial nuances of your business and are prepared to manage its financial health effectively.

Example: Over the next three years, we expect to see significant growth in revenue, driven by new product launches and market expansion. Our financial projections include:

• Year 1: $1.5 million in revenue, with a net profit of $200,000.
• Year 2: $3 million in revenue, with a net profit of $500,000.
• Year 3: $4.5 million in revenue, with a net profit of $1 million.

These projections are based on realistic market analysis, growth rates, and product pricing.

Income Statement

The income statement , also known as the profit and loss statement, provides a summary of your company’s revenues and expenses over a specified period. It helps you track your business’s financial performance and identify trends, ensuring you stay on track to achieve your financial goals.

Regularly reviewing and analyzing your income statement allows you to monitor the health of your business, evaluate the effectiveness of your strategies, and make data-driven decisions to optimize profitability and growth.

Example: The income statement for EcoTech’s first year of operation is as follows:

• Revenue: $1,500,000
• Cost of Goods Sold: $800,000
• Gross Profit: $700,000
• Operating Expenses: $450,000
• Net Income: $250,000

This statement highlights our company’s profitability and overall financial health during the first year of operation.

Cash Flow Statement

A cash flow statement is a crucial part of a financial business plan that shows the inflows and outflows of cash within your business. It helps you monitor your company’s liquidity, ensuring you have enough cash on hand to cover operating expenses, pay debts, and invest in growth opportunities.

By including a cash flow statement in your business plan, you demonstrate your ability to manage your company’s finances effectively.

Example:  The cash flow statement for EcoTech’s first year of operation is as follows:

Operating Activities:

• Depreciation: $10,000
• Changes in Working Capital: -$50,000
• Net Cash from Operating Activities: $210,000

Investing Activities:

•  Capital Expenditures: -$100,000
• Net Cash from Investing Activities: -$100,000

Financing Activities:

• Proceeds from Loans: $150,000
• Loan Repayments: -$50,000
• Net Cash from Financing Activities: $100,000
• Net Increase in Cash: $210,000

This statement demonstrates EcoTech’s ability to generate positive cash flow from operations, maintain sufficient liquidity, and invest in growth opportunities.

Tips on Writing a Business Plan

1. Be clear and concise: Keep your language simple and straightforward. Avoid jargon and overly technical terms. A clear and concise business plan is easier for investors and stakeholders to understand and demonstrates your ability to communicate effectively.

2. Conduct thorough research: Before writing your business plan, gather as much information as possible about your industry, competitors, and target market. Use reliable sources and industry reports to inform your analysis and make data-driven decisions.

3. Set realistic goals: Your business plan should outline achievable objectives that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Setting realistic goals demonstrates your understanding of the market and increases the likelihood of success.

4. Focus on your unique selling proposition (USP): Clearly articulate what sets your business apart from the competition. Emphasize your USP throughout your business plan to showcase your company’s value and potential for success.

5. Be flexible and adaptable: A business plan is a living document that should evolve as your business grows and changes. Be prepared to update and revise your plan as you gather new information and learn from your experiences.

6. Use visuals to enhance understanding: Include charts, graphs, and other visuals to help convey complex data and ideas. Visuals can make your business plan more engaging and easier to digest, especially for those who prefer visual learning.

7. Seek feedback from trusted sources: Share your business plan with mentors, industry experts, or colleagues and ask for their feedback. Their insights can help you identify areas for improvement and strengthen your plan before presenting it to potential investors or partners.

FREE Business Plan Template

To help you get started on your business plan, we have created a template that includes all the essential components discussed in the “How to Write a Business Plan” section. This easy-to-use template will guide you through each step of the process, ensuring you don’t miss any critical details.

The template is divided into the following sections:

• Mission statement
• Business Overview
• Key products or services
• Target market
• Financial highlights
• Company goals
• Strategies to achieve goals
• Measurable, time-bound objectives
• Company History
• Mission and vision
• Unique selling proposition
• Demographics
• Psychographics
• Pain points
• Industry trends
• Customer needs
• Competitor strengths and weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Competitor products and services
• Market positioning
• Pricing strategies
• Organizational structure
• Key roles and responsibilities
• Management team backgrounds
• Product or service features
• Competitive advantages
• Marketing channels
• Advertising campaigns
• Promotional activities
• Sales strategies
• Supply chain management
• Inventory control
• Production processes
• Quality control measures
• Projected revenue
• Assumptions
• Cash inflows
• Cash outflows
• Net cash flow

What is a Business Plan?

A business plan is a strategic document that outlines an organization’s goals, objectives, and the steps required to achieve them. It serves as a roadmap as you start a business , guiding the company’s direction and growth while identifying potential obstacles and opportunities.

Typically, a business plan covers areas such as market analysis, financial projections, marketing strategies, and organizational structure. It not only helps in securing funding from investors and lenders but also provides clarity and focus to the management team.

A well-crafted business plan is a very important part of your business startup checklist because it fosters informed decision-making and long-term success.

Why You Should Write a Business Plan

Understanding the importance of a business plan in today’s competitive environment is crucial for entrepreneurs and business owners. Here are five compelling reasons to write a business plan:

• Attract Investors and Secure Funding : A well-written business plan demonstrates your venture’s potential and profitability, making it easier to attract investors and secure the necessary funding for growth and development. It provides a detailed overview of your business model, target market, financial projections, and growth strategies, instilling confidence in potential investors and lenders that your company is a worthy investment.
• Clarify Business Objectives and Strategies : Crafting a business plan forces you to think critically about your goals and the strategies you’ll employ to achieve them, providing a clear roadmap for success. This process helps you refine your vision and prioritize the most critical objectives, ensuring that your efforts are focused on achieving the desired results.
• Identify Potential Risks and Opportunities : Analyzing the market, competition, and industry trends within your business plan helps identify potential risks and uncover untapped opportunities for growth and expansion. This insight enables you to develop proactive strategies to mitigate risks and capitalize on opportunities, positioning your business for long-term success.
• Improve Decision-Making : A business plan serves as a reference point so you can make informed decisions that align with your company’s overall objectives and long-term vision. By consistently referring to your plan and adjusting it as needed, you can ensure that your business remains on track and adapts to changes in the market, industry, or internal operations.
• Foster Team Alignment and Communication : A shared business plan helps ensure that all team members are on the same page, promoting clear communication, collaboration, and a unified approach to achieving the company’s goals. By involving your team in the planning process and regularly reviewing the plan together, you can foster a sense of ownership, commitment, and accountability that drives success.

What are the Different Types of Business Plans?

In today’s fast-paced business world, having a well-structured roadmap is more important than ever. A traditional business plan provides a comprehensive overview of your company’s goals and strategies, helping you make informed decisions and achieve long-term success. There are various types of business plans, each designed to suit different needs and purposes. Let’s explore the main types:

• Startup Business Plan: Tailored for new ventures, a startup business plan outlines the company’s mission, objectives, target market, competition, marketing strategies, and financial projections. It helps entrepreneurs clarify their vision, secure funding from investors, and create a roadmap for their business’s future. Additionally, this plan identifies potential challenges and opportunities, which are crucial for making informed decisions and adapting to changing market conditions.
• Internal Business Plan: This type of plan is intended for internal use, focusing on strategies, milestones, deadlines, and resource allocation. It serves as a management tool for guiding the company’s growth, evaluating its progress, and ensuring that all departments are aligned with the overall vision. The internal business plan also helps identify areas of improvement, fosters collaboration among team members, and provides a reference point for measuring performance.
• Strategic Business Plan: A strategic business plan outlines long-term goals and the steps to achieve them, providing a clear roadmap for the company’s direction. It typically includes a SWOT analysis, market research, and competitive analysis. This plan allows businesses to align their resources with their objectives, anticipate changes in the market, and develop contingency plans. By focusing on the big picture, a strategic business plan fosters long-term success and stability.
• Feasibility Business Plan: This plan is designed to assess the viability of a business idea, examining factors such as market demand, competition, and financial projections. It is often used to decide whether or not to pursue a particular venture. By conducting a thorough feasibility analysis, entrepreneurs can avoid investing time and resources into an unviable business concept. This plan also helps refine the business idea, identify potential obstacles, and determine the necessary resources for success.
• Growth Business Plan: Also known as an expansion plan, a growth business plan focuses on strategies for scaling up an existing business. It includes market analysis, new product or service offerings, and financial projections to support expansion plans. This type of plan is essential for businesses looking to enter new markets, increase their customer base, or launch new products or services. By outlining clear growth strategies, the plan helps ensure that expansion efforts are well-coordinated and sustainable.
• Operational Business Plan: This type of plan outlines the company’s day-to-day operations, detailing the processes, procedures, and organizational structure. It is an essential tool for managing resources, streamlining workflows, and ensuring smooth operations. The operational business plan also helps identify inefficiencies, implement best practices, and establish a strong foundation for future growth. By providing a clear understanding of daily operations, this plan enables businesses to optimize their resources and enhance productivity.
• Lean Business Plan: A lean business plan is a simplified, agile version of a traditional plan, focusing on key elements such as value proposition, customer segments, revenue streams, and cost structure. It is perfect for startups looking for a flexible, adaptable planning approach. The lean business plan allows for rapid iteration and continuous improvement, enabling businesses to pivot and adapt to changing market conditions. This streamlined approach is particularly beneficial for businesses in fast-paced or uncertain industries.
• One-Page Business Plan: As the name suggests, a one-page business plan is a concise summary of your company’s key objectives, strategies, and milestones. It serves as a quick reference guide and is ideal for pitching to potential investors or partners. This plan helps keep teams focused on essential goals and priorities, fosters clear communication, and provides a snapshot of the company’s progress. While not as comprehensive as other plans, a one-page business plan is an effective tool for maintaining clarity and direction.
• Nonprofit Business Plan: Specifically designed for nonprofit organizations, this plan outlines the mission, goals, target audience, fundraising strategies, and budget allocation. It helps secure grants and donations while ensuring the organization stays on track with its objectives. The nonprofit business plan also helps attract volunteers, board members, and community support. By demonstrating the organization’s impact and plans for the future, this plan is essential for maintaining transparency, accountability, and long-term sustainability within the nonprofit sector.
• Franchise Business Plan: For entrepreneurs seeking to open a franchise, this type of plan focuses on the franchisor’s requirements, as well as the franchisee’s goals, strategies, and financial projections. It is crucial for securing a franchise agreement and ensuring the business’s success within the franchise system. This plan outlines the franchisee’s commitment to brand standards, marketing efforts, and operational procedures, while also addressing local market conditions and opportunities. By creating a solid franchise business plan, entrepreneurs can demonstrate their ability to effectively manage and grow their franchise, increasing the likelihood of a successful partnership with the franchisor.

Using Business Plan Software

Creating a comprehensive business plan can be intimidating, but business plan software can streamline the process and help you produce a professional document. These tools offer a number of benefits, including guided step-by-step instructions, financial projections, and industry-specific templates. Here are the top 5 business plan software options available to help you craft a great business plan.

1. LivePlan

LivePlan is a popular choice for its user-friendly interface and comprehensive features. It offers over 500 sample plans, financial forecasting tools, and the ability to track your progress against key performance indicators. With LivePlan, you can create visually appealing, professional business plans that will impress investors and stakeholders.

2. Upmetrics

Upmetrics provides a simple and intuitive platform for creating a well-structured business plan. It features customizable templates, financial forecasting tools, and collaboration capabilities, allowing you to work with team members and advisors. Upmetrics also offers a library of resources to guide you through the business planning process.

Bizplan is designed to simplify the business planning process with a drag-and-drop builder and modular sections. It offers financial forecasting tools, progress tracking, and a visually appealing interface. With Bizplan, you can create a business plan that is both easy to understand and visually engaging.

Enloop is a robust business plan software that automatically generates a tailored plan based on your inputs. It provides industry-specific templates, financial forecasting, and a unique performance score that updates as you make changes to your plan. Enloop also offers a free version, making it accessible for businesses on a budget.

5. Tarkenton GoSmallBiz

Developed by NFL Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton, GoSmallBiz is tailored for small businesses and startups. It features a guided business plan builder, customizable templates, and financial projection tools. GoSmallBiz also offers additional resources, such as CRM tools and legal document templates, to support your business beyond the planning stage.

Business Plan FAQs

What is a good business plan.

A good business plan is a well-researched, clear, and concise document that outlines a company’s goals, strategies, target market, competitive advantages, and financial projections. It should be adaptable to change and provide a roadmap for achieving success.

What are the 3 main purposes of a business plan?

The three main purposes of a business plan are to guide the company’s strategy, attract investment, and evaluate performance against objectives. Here’s a closer look at each of these:

• It outlines the company’s purpose and core values to ensure that all activities align with its mission and vision.
• It provides an in-depth analysis of the market, including trends, customer needs, and competition, helping the company tailor its products and services to meet market demands.
• It defines the company’s marketing and sales strategies, guiding how the company will attract and retain customers.
• It describes the company’s organizational structure and management team, outlining roles and responsibilities to ensure effective operation and leadership.
• It sets measurable, time-bound objectives, allowing the company to plan its activities effectively and make strategic decisions to achieve these goals.
• It provides a comprehensive overview of the company and its business model, demonstrating its uniqueness and potential for success.
• It presents the company’s financial projections, showing its potential for profitability and return on investment.
• It demonstrates the company’s understanding of the market, including its target customers and competition, convincing investors that the company is capable of gaining a significant market share.
• It showcases the management team’s expertise and experience, instilling confidence in investors that the team is capable of executing the business plan successfully.
• It establishes clear, measurable objectives that serve as performance benchmarks.
• It provides a basis for regular performance reviews, allowing the company to monitor its progress and identify areas for improvement.
• It enables the company to assess the effectiveness of its strategies and make adjustments as needed to achieve its objectives.
• It helps the company identify potential risks and challenges, enabling it to develop contingency plans and manage risks effectively.
• It provides a mechanism for evaluating the company’s financial performance, including revenue, expenses, profitability, and cash flow.

Can I write a business plan by myself?

Yes, you can write a business plan by yourself, but it can be helpful to consult with mentors, colleagues, or industry experts to gather feedback and insights. There are also many creative business plan templates and business plan examples available online, including those above.

We also have examples for specific industries, including a using food truck business plan , salon business plan , farm business plan , daycare business plan , and restaurant business plan .

Is it possible to create a one-page business plan?

Yes, a one-page business plan is a condensed version that highlights the most essential elements, including the company’s mission, target market, unique selling proposition, and financial goals.

How long should a business plan be?

A typical business plan ranges from 20 to 50 pages, but the length may vary depending on the complexity and needs of the business.

What is a business plan outline?

A business plan outline is a structured framework that organizes the content of a business plan into sections, such as the executive summary, company description, market analysis, and financial projections.

What are the 5 most common business plan mistakes?

The five most common business plan mistakes include inadequate research, unrealistic financial projections, lack of focus on the unique selling proposition, poor organization and structure, and failure to update the plan as circumstances change.

What questions should be asked in a business plan?

A business plan should address questions such as: What problem does the business solve? Who is the specific target market ? What is the unique selling proposition? What are the company’s objectives? How will it achieve those objectives?

What’s the difference between a business plan and a strategic plan?

A business plan focuses on the overall vision, goals, and tactics of a company, while a strategic plan outlines the specific strategies, action steps, and performance measures necessary to achieve the company’s objectives.

How is business planning for a nonprofit different?

Nonprofit business planning focuses on the organization’s mission, social impact, and resource management, rather than profit generation. The financial section typically includes funding sources, expenses, and projected budgets for programs and operations.

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Strategic Planning in Business

Table of Contents

What is business strategic planning, the strategic planning process in 3 steps, what is a business strategic plan, key components of a business strategic plan, business strategic plan example, strategic plan vs. business plan.

Strategic planning is key for success in business. By planning strategically for the future, a business can achieve its goals. It’s easier said than done, but the more you know about strategic planning, the better chance you have at succeeding.

Business strategic planning is the process of creating a business strategy and an accompanying business strategic plan to implement a company’s vision and achieve its goals over time. The main goal of strategic planning is to take a company from its current state to its desired state through a series of business actions.

The business strategic planning process usually consists of defining business goals, doing a SWOT analysis to assess the company’s business environment and developing a business strategy. The leadership team is in charge of business strategic planning, as it has a very important impact on the overall direction of a company.

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Use this free Strategic Plan Template for Word to manage your projects better.

Strategic Planning is one of the three levels of organizational planning, which is the process that allows organizations to define its objectives for the future and make action plans to guide the efforts of each of its departments, employees and management levels .

The other two levels of organizational planning are tactical and operational planning. Let’s see how these three types of organizational planning differ from each other.

Strategic Planning vs. Tactical Planning

While a strategic plan is created by the top management team and defines the high-level strategic goals of an entire organization, a tactical plan has a narrower scope. A tactical plan is created by the middle management level of a business and describes the specific goals, initiatives, challenges and resources for each department and how its efforts contribute to the completion of the larger strategic plan of the business.

Strategic Planning vs. Operational Planning

An operational plan allows you to establish guidelines, procedures and best practices for the daily operations of your business. The main objective of operational planning is to ensure that your business operations contribute to the accomplishment of the strategic objectives defined in the strategic plan.

Strategic planning is very important, but it doesn’t need to be overly complex. Let’s simplify this process by breaking it down into three simple steps.

1. Set Business Goals

A business goal is simply an accomplishment that a company wants to achieve in the short, medium or long term. Business goals can take many forms such as increasing sales, revenue, customer satisfaction levels and brand positioning, among many other things.

2. Conduct a SWOT Analysis

The goal of a business strategy is to leverage the strengths of a business and minimize the impact of its weaknesses. Those two things are internal factors. The strengths of a company can become competitive advantages that can lead to business growth. There are many types of business strengths and weaknesses such as scale, speed, or R&D, just to name a few.

Threats and opportunities refer to external factors such as competitors or an untapped market. A successful business strategy considers all of these factors to define how a product or service will be created, marketed and sold, and a SWOT analysis is a great starting point.

3. Develop a Business Strategy & Strategic Plan

Once you’ve completed your SWOT analysis, you can create a business strategy that’s designed to help position your company in the market. Your business strategy guides how you produce, market and sell your product or service based on internal and external analysis.

Then, you’ll need a strategic plan to explain how you plan to execute that business strategy. To oversee the execution of a business strategic plan, managers need to manage time, costs and tasks. ProjectManager is a project planning tool that allows managers to plan, schedule and manage their team’s work. Plan your work with professional tools such as Gantt charts, kanban boards, task lists and calendars. Then track your progress in real time to stick to your strategic plan. Get started for free.

A business strategic plan is an implementation plan that’s meant to turn a business strategy into action items that can be executed over time. Business strategic plans are usually executed over the course of 3-5 years.

How to Develop a Strategic Plan

To develop a strategic plan, you should ask yourself the following three questions.

• Where Is the Business Now? Gather as much information on your business as possible including internal operations and what drives its profitability. Compare the business to competitors and note the similarities and differences in detail. This isn’t a day-to-day operational study, but a broader look at the business in context to itself and its environment. But don’t go crazy; stay realistic in terms of your business goals. Be detached and critical in your analysis.
• Where Do You Want to Go? Now it’s time to decide what your top-level objectives are for the future. Start with a vision statement , objectives, values, techniques and goals. Look forward to five years or more to forecast where you want the business to be at that time. This means figuring out what the focus of the business will be in the future. Will that focus differ from what it is now, and what competitive advantages do have you in the marketplace? This is where you build the foundation and initiate changes.
• How Can You Get There? Once you know where you are and where you want to go, it’s time to plan. What are the changes to the structure, financing, etc., necessary for the business to get there? Decide on the best way to implement those changes, the timeframe with deadlines and how to finance it. Remember, this is looking at the business at large, so consider major endeavors such as diversification, existing growth, acquisition and other functional matters. A gap analysis can be a big help here.

Once you’ve answered the above questions and have a way to achieve the long-term goals laid out in the strategic plan, the next step is making sure you have the right person to manage all of its moving parts. They must be analytical, a creative thinker and able to grasp operational detail.

That doesn’t mean the strategic plan is led by one person. It’s best to not do it alone; seek other opinions. The people in your organization, from bottom to top, are all great resources to offer perspectives from their standpoints. Don’t forget to take in the advice of stakeholders, including customers, clients, advisors and consultants.

To create a strong strategic plan, one must first have a strong understanding of the business that is to expand. How does the business work? Where does the business stand in relation to competitors in the marketplace? A strategic plan is built on the bones of the following foundational elements:

• Mission Statement: The mission statement describes what your company does.
• Vision Statement: The vision statement explains where your company expects to be in the future.
• Core Values: Guiding principles that shape your company’s organizational culture.
• Business Objectives: Consider using the SMART goal-setting technique . This simply means setting up specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound objectives that your company wants to achieve.
• SWOT Analysis: External and internal factors that make up your company’s business competitive environment.
• Action Plan: A plan outlining steps that will be taken to achieve the business objectives of your organization.
• Financials: A section that shows the financial performance expectations, the budget and the resources that will be required to implement the action plan.
• Performance Measurements: Performance indicators that will be used to measure the effectiveness of the action plan.

Never forget to check your strategic plan against reality. In addition to being achievable, it must be practical for your business environment, resources and marketplace.

Now let’s look at a simple business strategic plan example. This is a strategic plan for a small construction company.

1. Mission, Vision & Core Values

• Mission Statement: To build residential spaces that provide wellbeing for our clients.
• Vision Statement: To offer the best construction experience for our clients and expand our brand throughout the globe.
• Core Values: Sustainable innovation and respect for the environment.

2. Business Objectives

• Business Objective 1: Grow operating margin from 15% to 20% over the next year.
• Business Objective 2: Reduce operating costs by 5% over the next quarter
• Business Objective 3: Increase the number of new contracts generated by 10% over the next year

3. SWOT Analysis

• Strengths: Available financing, brand visibility and know-how.
• Weaknesses: Lack of PPE, human capital and expertise in construction areas such as plumbing, electrical work and masonry, which requires subcontractors.
• Opportunities: Lack of environmentally-friendly construction companies in the market.
• Threats: Larger construction companies compete for contracts in the area.

4. Action Plan

• Business Objective 1: To grow operating margin, new employees with plumbing, electrical work and masonry experience will be hired to cut down subcontractor costs. This must be done by the end of the first quarter.
• Business Objective 2: To reduce operating costs, the company will acquire property, plant and equipment. By doing this, the company will no longer rent equipment from third parties, which will reduce operating costs significantly in the medium and long term.
• Business Objective 3: To increase the number of new contracts generated, the leadership team will invest more in the PR, marketing and advertising departments. The company will also invest in key positions for the construction bidding process such as contract estimators.
• Financials: This section will explain in detail what are the costs associated with the work items in the action plan as well as the expected financial benefits for the company.

Our free strategic plan template helps leadership teams gather important information about their business strategy, which makes it the perfect tool to start shaping a strategic plan for your business or project.

More Free Strategic Planning Templates

Here are some free strategic planning templates for Word and Excel that will help you with key aspects of the strategic planning process. Use them individually or add them to your strategic plan template for Word so you don’t miss any detail about your organizational strategy.

Strategic Roadmap Template

This strategic roadmap template allows you to map the activities, strategic projects and initiatives that each business department will execute to accomplish the objectives defined in the strategic plan of an organization.

Strategic Map Template

This strategic map template it’s a strategic planning tool that allows you to visualize all the strategic objectives of your organization and understand how they’re interrelated.

Balanced Scorecard Template

A balanced scorecard is a chart that allows you to set strategic objectives that will benefit your business in one of four key areas, its finances, internal processes, customer satisfaction and organizational learning.

Vision Statement Template

The vision statement is one of the most important aspects of the organizational strategy of a business. It’s a short but powerful statement that describes the overall direction of a company and what it intends to achieve in the future. This free vision statement template will help you focus on what matters most and define the vision of your business.

A strategic plan is a type of business plan, but there are distinctions between the two. Whereas a strategic plan is for implementing and managing the strategic direction of a business, a business plan is more often the document that starts a business.

A business plan is used primarily to get funding for the venture or direct the operation, and the two plans target different timeframes in business history. A strategic plan is used to investigate a future period, usually between three-to-five years. A business plan is more routinely a year out.

A Different Intent

A strategic plan offers a business focus, direction and action to help the business grow from the point it presently resides to a greater market share in the future. A business plan, on the other hand, is more focused on offering a structure to capture and implement ideas that initially define a business.

With a strategic plan, existing resources are prioritized to increase revenue and return on investment. The business plan is different in that it’s seeking funding for a venture that doesn’t yet exist. Where a strategic plan is building a sustainable competitive advantage in the future, a business plan is designed to take advantage of a current business opportunity.

So, a strategic plan is communicating direction to teams and stakeholders in order to achieve future goals. A business plan isn’t talking to staff, which is likely nonexistent or minimal at this point. It’s speaking to banks and other financial supporters.

Related Strategic Planning Content

• Strategic Project Management: Planning Strategic Projects
• Strategic Planning Models: An Introduction to 5 Popular Models
• A Quick Guide to Strategic Initiatives
• How to Create a Strategic Roadmap for Your Organization
• Project Alignment: Aligning Your Project to Business Strategy

Strategic planning, like any planning, requires keeping a lot of balls in the air. That means having the right tool to plan, monitor and report on all the various tasks and resources. ProjectManager is online project management software that gives you control over every aspect of creating and implementing a strategic plan. Try it today with this free 30-day trial.

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8 Business Plan Templates You Can Get for Free

8 min. read

Updated April 10, 2024

A business plan template can be an excellent tool to simplify the creation of your business plan. 

The pre-set structure helps you organize ideas, covers all critical business information, and saves you time and effort on formatting.

The only issue? There are SO many free business plan templates out there. 

So, which ones are actually worth using? 

To help remove the guesswork, I’ve rounded up some of the best business plan templates you can access right now. 

These are listed in no particular order, and each has its benefits and drawbacks.

What to look for in a business plan template

Not all business plan templates are created equal. As you weigh your options and decide which template(s) you’ll use, be sure to review them with the following criteria in mind:

• Easy to edit: A template should save you time. That won’t be the case if you have to fuss around figuring out how to edit the document, or even worse, it doesn’t allow you to edit at all.
• Contains the right sections: A good template should cover all essential sections of a business plan , including the executive summary, product/service description, market/competitive analysis, marketing and sales plan, operations, milestones, and financial projections. 
• Provides guidance: You should be able to trust that the information in a template is accurate. That means the organization or person who created the template is highly credible, known for producing useful resources, and ideally has some entrepreneurial experience.
• Software compatibility: Lastly, you want any template to be compatible with the software platforms you use. More than likely, this means it’s available in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or PDF format at a minimum. 

1. Bplans — A plan with expert guidance

Since you’re already on Bplans, I have to first mention the templates that we have available. 

Our traditional and one-page templates were created by entrepreneurs and business owners with over 80 years of collective planning experience. We revisit and update them annually to ensure they are approachable, thorough, and aligned with our team’s evolving best practices.  

The templates, available in Word, PDF, or Google Doc formats, include in-depth guidance on what to include in each section, expert tips, and links to additional resources. 

Plus, we have over 550 real-world sample business plans you can use for guidance when filling out your template.

Download: Traditional lender-ready business plan template or a simple one-page plan template .

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2. SBA — Introduction to business plans

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) offers two different business plan templates along with a short planning guide. 

While not incredibly in-depth, it’s enough to help you understand how traditional and lean plans are structured and what information needs to be covered. The templates themselves are more like examples, providing you with a finished product to reference as you write your plan.

The key benefit of using these templates is that they were created by the SBA. While they may provide less guidance, you can be assured that the information and structure meet their expectations.

Explore: The SBA’s planning guide and free templates

3. SCORE — Planning workbook

SCORE’s template is more like a workbook. It includes exercises after each section to help you get your ideas down and turn them into a structured plan.

The market research worksheets are especially useful. They provide a clear framework for identifying your target market and analyzing competitors from multiple angles. Plus, they give you an easy way to document all the information you’re collecting.

You will likely have to remove the exercises in this template to make it investor-ready. But it can be worth it if you’re struggling to get past a blank page and want a more interactive planning method.

Download: SCORE’s business plan template

4. PandaDoc — A template with fillable forms

PandaDoc’s library offers a variety of industry-specific business plan templates that feature a modern design flair and concise instructions. 

These templates are designed for sharing. They include fillable fields and sections for non-disclosure agreements, which may be necessary when sending a plan to investors.  

But the real benefit is their compatibility with PandaDoc’s platform. Yes, they are free, but if you’re a PandaDoc subscriber, you’ll have far more customization options. 

Out of all their templates, the standard business plan template is the most in-depth. The rest, while still useful, go a bit lighter on guidance in favor of tailoring the plan to a specific industry.

Explore: PandaDoc’s business plan template library  

5. Canva — Pitch with your plan

Canva is a great option for building a visually stunning business plan that can be used as a pitch tool. It offers a diverse array of templates built by their in-house team and the larger creative community, meaning the number of options constantly grows.

You will need to verify that the information in the template you choose matches the standard structure of a traditional business plan. 

You should do this with any template, but it’s especially important with any tool that accepts community submissions. While they are likely reviewed and approved, there may still be errors.

Remember, you can only edit these templates within Canva. Luckily, you only need a free subscription, and you may just miss out on some of the visual assets being used. 

To get the most value, it may be best to create a more traditional planning document and transfer that information into Canva. 

Explore: Canva’s business plan gallery

6. ClickUp — The collaborative template

Out of all the project management tools that offer free business plan templates, ClickUp’s is the most approachable.

Rather than throwing you into all the features and expecting you to figure it out—ClickUp provides a thorough startup guide with resource links, images, and videos explaining how to write a plan using the tool. 

There’s also a completed sample plan (structured like an expanded one-page plan) for you to reference and see how the more traditional document can connect to the product management features. You can set goals, target dates, leave comments, and even assign tasks to someone else on your team. 

These features are limited to the ClickUp platform and will not be useful for everyone. They will likely get in the way of writing a plan you can easily share with lenders or investors. 

But this is a great option if you’re looking for a template that makes internal collaboration more fluid and keeps all your information in one place.

Sign Up: Get a free trial of ClickUp and explore their template library

7. Smartsheet — A wide variety of templates

I’m including Smartsheet’s library of templates on this list because of the sheer number of options they provide. 

They have a simple business plan template, a one-page plan, a fill-in-the-blank template, a plan outline, a plan grading rubric, and even an Excel-built project plan. All are perfectly usable and vary in visual style, depth of instructions, and the available format.

Honestly, the only drawback (which is also the core benefit) is that the amount of templates can be overwhelming. If you’re already uncertain which plan option is right for you, the lengthy list they provide may not provide much clarity.

At the same time, it can be a great resource if you want a one-stop shop to view multiple plan types.

Explore: Smartsheet’s business plan template library  

8. ReferralRock affiliate marketing business plan

I’m adding ReferralRock’s template to this list due to its specificity. 

It’s not your standard business plan template. The plan is tailored with specific sections and guidance around launching an affiliate marketing business. 

Most of the template is dedicated to defining how to choose affiliates, set commissions, create legal agreements, and track performance.

So, if you plan on starting an affiliate marketing business or program, this template will provide more specific guidance. Just know that you will likely need to reference additional resources when writing the non-industry sections of your plan.

Download: ReferralRock affiliate marketing business plan template

Does it matter what business plan template you use?

The short answer is no. As long as the structure is correct, it saves you time, and it helps you write your business plan , then any template will work. 

What it ultimately comes down to, is what sort of value you hope to get from the template. 

• Do you need more guidance? 
• A simple way to structure your plan? 
• An option that works with a specific tool?
• A way to make your plan more visually interesting?

Hopefully, this list has helped you hone in on an option that meets one (or several) of these needs. Still, it may be worth downloading a few of these templates to determine the right fit. 

And really, what matters most is that you spend time writing a business plan . It will help you avoid early mistakes, determine if you have a viable business, and fully consider what it will take to get up and running. 

If you need additional guidance, check out our library of planning resources . We cover everything from plan formats , to how to write a business plan, and even how to use it as a management tool . 

If you don’t want to waste time researching other templates, you can download our one-page or traditional business plan template and jump right into the planning process.

See why 1.2 million entrepreneurs have written their business plans with LivePlan

Kody Wirth is a content writer and SEO specialist for Palo Alto Software—the creator's of Bplans and LivePlan. He has 3+ years experience covering small business topics and runs a part-time content writing service in his spare time.

Table of Contents

• Qualities of a good template
• ReferralRock
• Does the template matter?

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In this blog you will learn about the importance of choosing the right pricing strategy for a successful business plan.

Why is a pricing strategy important for a business plan?

A business plan is a written document outlining a company’s core business practices – from products and services offered to marketing, financial planning and budget, but also pricing strategy. This business plan can be very lengthy, outlining every aspect of the business in detail. Or it can be very short and lean for start ups that want to be as agile as possible.

This plan can be used for external investors and relations or for internal purposes. A business plan can be useful for internal purposes because it can make sure that all the decision makers are on the same page about the most important aspects of the business.

A 1% price increase can lead to an 8% increase in profit margin.

A business plan could be very lengthy and detailed or short and lean, but in all instances, it should have a clear vision for how pricing is tackled. A pricing strategy ultimately greatly determines the profit margin of your product or service and how much revenue the company will make. Thorough research of consultancy agencies also show that pricing is very important. McKinsey even argues that a 1% prices increase can lead up to an 8% increase in profits. That is a real example of how small adjustments can have a huge impact!

It is clear that each business plan should have a section about pricing strategies. How detailed and complicated this pricing strategy should be depends for each individual business and challenges in the business environment. However, businesses should at least take some factors into account when thinking about their pricing strategy.

What factors to take into account?

The pricing strategy can best be explained in the marketing section of your business plan. In this section you should describe what price you will charge for your product or service to customers and your argumentation for why you ask this. However, businesses always balance the challenging scale of charging too much or too little. Ideally you want to find the middle, the optimal price point.

The following questions need to be answered for writing a well-structured pricing strategy in your business plan:

What is the cost of your product or service?

Most companies need to be profitable. They need to pay their expenses, their employees and return a reasonable profit. Unless you are a well-funded-winner-takes-all-growth-company such as Uber or Gorillas, you will need to earn more than you spend on your products. In order to be profitable you need to know how much your expenses are, to remain profitable overall.

How does your price compare to other alternatives in the market?

Most companies have competitors for their products or services, only few companies can act as a monopoly. Therefore, you need to know how your price compares to the other prices in the market. Are you one of the cheapest, the most expensive or somewhere in the middle?

Why is your price competitive?

When you know the prices of your competitors, you need to be able to explain why your price is better or different than that of your competitions. Do you offer more value for the same price? Do you offer less, but are you the cheapest? Or does your company offer something so unique that a premium pricing strategy sounds fair to your customer? You need to be able to stand out from the competition and price is an efficient differentiator.

What is the expected ROI (Return On Investment)?

When you set your price, you need to be able to explain how much you are expeciting to make. Will the price you offer attract enough customers to make your business operate profitable? Let’s say your expenses are 10.000 euros per month, what return will your price get you for your expected amount of sales?

Top pricing strategies for a business plan

Now you know why pricing is important for your business plan, “but what strategies are best for me?” you may ask. Well, let’s talk pricing strategies. There are plenty of pricing strategies and which ones are best for which business depends on various factors and the industry. However, here is a list of 9 pricing strategies that you can use for your business plan.

• Cost-plus pricing
• Competitive pricing
• Key-Value item pricing
• Dynamic pricing
• Premium pricing
• Hourly based pricing
• Customer-value based pricing
• Psychological pricing
• Geographical pricing

Most of the time, businesses do not use a single pricing strategy in their business but rather a combination of pricing strategies. Cost-plus pricing or competitor based pricing can be good starting points for pricing, but if you make these dynamic or take geographical regions into account, then your pricing becomes even more advanced!

Pricing strategies should not be left out of your business plan. Having a clear vision on how you are going to price your product(s) and service(s) helps you to achieve the best possible profit margins and revenue. If you are able to answer thoughtfully on the questions asked in this blog then you know that you have a rather clear vision on your pricing strategy.

If there are still some things unclear or vague, then it would be adviceable to learn more about all the possible pricing strategies . You can always look for inspiration to our business cases. Do you want to know more about pricing or about SYMSON? Do not hesitate to contact us!

Do you want a free demo to try how SYMSON can help your business with margin improvement or pricing management? Do you want to learn more? Schedule a call with a consultant and book a 20 minute brainstorm session!

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HAVE A QUESTION?

Frequently asked questions, related blogs.

Leverage Ethical Pricing and Discount Strategies with SYMSON's AI-Powered Solutions

Pricing strategies: how to determine the selling or sale price of a product

Pricing Strategies: Pricing Strategies for Launching New Products

The STP Marketing Model: A Comprehensive Guide to Mastering Market Dynamics

7 Factors Affecting Price Elasticity of Demand

How To Implement Competitive Pricing

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6 Strategic Concepts That Set High-Performing Companies Apart

• Kaihan Krippendorff

Lessons from Microsoft, NVIDIA, Netflix, Tesla, and others.

Strategic concepts come in and out of fashion as the needs and dynamics of the marketplace change. Research and analysis of today’s landscape identifies six key strategic concepts that set outperforming companies apart: Borrow someone’s road, partner with a third party, reveal your strategy, be good, let the competition go, and adopt small scale attacks.

At the close of 2023, the California-based chip company Nvidia announced yet another quarter of record sales — an achievement that came hot on the heels of its entry to the elite club of U.S. enterprises with a $1 trillion market valuation earlier in the year. The company, whose success has been fueled by the AI boom, now holds approximately 80% of the global market share for GPU semiconductor chips .

• Kaihan Krippendorff is the co-author, with Robert C. Wolcott, of Proximity: How Coming Breakthroughs in Just-in-Time Transform Business, Society, and Daily Life  and founder of Outthinker Networks .

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3 Types of Business Strategies to Consider for Your Organization

• 13 Dec 2022

A business strategy is a framework that helps define an organization's vision, objectives, and tactical decision-making processes. Yet, identifying these essential elements can be challenging.

For an organization’s strategy to succeed, its leaders must understand its identity in the marketplace. According to Harvard Business School Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee in the online course Business Strategy , this requires “a deeper understanding of your company and a profound sense of optimism about its potential for exceptional performance.”

If you want to learn about strategies that can benefit your organization, here’s an overview of value-based business strategy, commonly implemented approaches that can achieve long-term success, and how to choose the right strategy.

Access your free e-book today.

What Is a Value-Based Business Strategy?

The most effective business strategies are typically value-based, which means prices are predicated on consumers’ perceived value of products and services rather than their cost of production. Value-based business strategies are ideal for companies offering feature-rich products and services, such as Apple and Amazon.

Several components of value-based pricing are best illustrated by the value stick. The value stick comprises four critical aspects to implementing value-based pricing: willingness to pay (WTP) , price, cost, and willingness to sell (WTS). The value of a company’s product or service depends on where each component falls.

Customer Delight

The top of the value stick represents customer delight, or the value based on customers’ perceptions of your product or service. Since a value-based strategy is customer-centric, you can drive brand awareness, loyalty, and goodwill by thoroughly researching your target market, creating open lines of communication, and building strong relationships with consumers.

Doing so enables your company to gather feedback about your services’ value and customers’ WTP. It can also help you add valuable features to products that benefit your business.

Company Margin

The middle of the value stick is the value of a product or service from your organization’s perspective, also known as the firm’s margin. Your company sets this value between its cost of production and customers’ WTP. This ensures your company earns the difference between the price being charged for a product or service and the cost of creating it.

It’s important to consider how to balance maximizing profits with customer delight to ensure loyalty and long-term success.

Supplier Surplus

The last section of the value stick showcases the value perceived by your organization's suppliers, or the supplier surplus. This refers to the total cost of producing goods or services, including physical and non-physical costs. Your company should strive to keep costs low and provide higher value to customers.

Although a value-based strategy is one of the most successful over the long term, you may need to adapt your business plan and product value according to your company’s goals and market competition.

“Ultimately, we want our business strategy to create financial success,” Oberholzer-Gee says in Business Strategy.

In the course, he outlines three essential questions your company’s strategy should revolve around:

• How can my business best create value for customers?
• How can my business create value for employees?
• How can my business create value by collaborating with suppliers?

Answering these can set your organization up for success.

3 Strategies Businesses Need to Compete

Beyond understanding the critical components of a value-based business strategy, you must also know how to implement one—especially if you own a small business. Small businesses benefit from value-based strategies because they promote customer and brand loyalty and drive product innovation to meet customer needs .

Here are three strategies you should consider implementing in your business.

Related: 3 Methods for Identifying & Leveraging Your Customers’ Needs

Driving Company Value Using Differentiation

Creating higher product value requires differentiating your services from competitors’. According to Business Strategy , differentiation is one way for smaller businesses to succeed when competing with larger platforms.

The first step to differentiation is considering the type of investment required. A larger competitor, for instance, can produce sizable investments at a lower cost by spreading a fixed cost over several transactions. This means differentiation works best for smaller companies when it's achieved with modest variable costs.

For example, group buying—also known as collective buying—is a strategy in which a company agrees to sell a product or service in bulk at a lower price. E-commerce retailers commonly use collective buying. Smaller companies can take advantage of it by offering products at scale or upgraded feature tiers to like-minded customers.

This method ultimately lowers the fixed cost of customer acquisitions because current customers recruit new ones who benefit from a lower price point. It can also increase value in ways that don't depend on product scale. For example, network effects —when a product or service gains value as more people use it—are beneficial because they increase WTP.

Focusing on Neglected Platform Participants

In addition to differentiation, another approach highlighted in Business Strategy is focusing on the WTP of a consumer group less favored by a competing platform.

Large organizations serve multiple customer groups and subsets, which can make differentiating your product and establishing your ideal customer profile (ICP) daunting. However, it’s difficult for those businesses to ensure every customer is happy because of the scale of their operations.

By targeting neglected customers unhappy with competitors' products or services, you can differentiate your offerings and win their business by better meeting their needs. To do this effectively, return to the essentials of value-based business strategy: Research your target market, gather feedback so you can address customers’ pain points, and develop trust.

Catering to Small Groups of Customers

Another business strategy to consider is focusing on customers who value connection. By doing so, you can significantly increase brand loyalty and develop customer advocates who recruit others and increase retention.

eHarmony, the online dating platform, is used as an example in Business Strategy. Within the competitive landscape of dating sites, customers’ WTP is often pulled in opposite directions as websites attract more members. Yet, an increase in membership can create more competition among users when trying to find someone to date, which can deter people from using the platform and decrease its perceived value.

Consider one of eHarmony’s competitors, Match.com. While Match.com’s membership price is lower than eHarmony’s, its large number of users lowers the value of its services for many consumers. Unlike Match.com, eHarmony sells its services to a small group of consumers to remove the possibility of them experiencing too much rejection when seeking a dating partner. Its users, in turn, pay a premium price for that experience and help the business succeed.

Choosing the Right Business Strategy

Developing a value-based business strategy is one of the best ways for your organization to excel. Once you’ve set your business goals, adapt your strategy by differentiating your products and services from competitors’, marketing to neglected customer bases, and targeting consumers who want a specific experience.

Taking an online course, such as Business Strategy , can help you understand how to implement strategy within your organization and shed light on why some companies are more successful than others.

Are you interested in learning more about business strategies that can improve your organization’s bottom line? Explore our online course Business Strategy and download our free e-book on strategy formulation.

About the Author

The Ultimate Guide to Product Marketing in 2023

Learn about the power of product marketing, how it can help your bottom line, and impact the success of your products.

THE ULTIMATE PRODUCT MARKETING GO-TO-MARKET KIT

Ensure that your whole team is aligned with four planning and internal enablement templates for your next product launch.

Updated: 02/02/23

Published: 02/02/23

Product marketing is essential, even if you only sell one or two products at your organization.

But what is product marketing ? How do you market a product, and how does that differ from conventional marketing strategies? Let’s find out.

What Is Product Marketing?

Why Is Product Marketing Important?

Product Marketing Duties

Product Marketing Strategy

Product marketing examples, what is product marketing.

Product marketing is the process of bringing a product to market, promoting it, and selling it to a customer. Product marketing involves understanding the product’s target audience and using strategic positioning and messaging to boost revenue and demand for the product.

What makes product marketing unique? How is it different from conventional marketing? Let's unpack the differences.

Product Marketing vs. Conventional Marketing

Product marketing is strategic whereas conventional marketing is all-encompassing.

Product marketing is considered a component of conventional marketing. In fact, if you look at the seven Ps of marketing , you’ll see product marketing is one of the most important aspects of a business’s marketing efforts.

Free Product Go-to-Market Kit

Free templates to ensure that your whole team is aligned for your next product launch.

• Product Launch Template
• Product Roadmap Template
• Sales Plan Template

You're all set!

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Product Marketing Go-to-Market Kit

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Product marketing is about understanding a specific product’s audience deeply and developing that product’s positioning and messaging to appeal to that audience. It covers the launch and execution side of a product in addition to the marketing strategy for the product — which is why the work of a product marketer lies at the center of a business’s marketing, sales, and product teams.

Conventional marketing is focused on broader topics under the umbrella of marketing, such as lead generation, SEO, and anything related to acquiring and converting new leads and customers . It’s about promoting the company and brand as a whole, including the products sold. These marketers make sure there’s a consistent, on-brand message behind all of the company’s content.

To understand it better, let’s look at product marketing goals.

Product Marketing Goals

Product marketing is focused on driving demand for and adoption of a product among existing customers. It’s focused on the steps people take to purchase your product so product marketers can build campaigns to support this work.

Usually, product marketing is executed with several goals in mind:

1. Understand your customers better.

When you implement a product marketing strategy, your target audience can see the value of having that specific product in their lives. Understanding how many customers gravitate to your product lets you conduct customer research.

2. Target your buyer personas effectively.

Alongside understanding your customers, you can figure out the type of buyer persona to target in the future. Knowing the exact needs of your target can help you when innovating your product to better suit their needs. Creating a value proposition can help with this. 

3. Learn about your competitors (products and marketing tactics).

When you market your product, you can compare your strategy and results to your competitors. What features and benefits of their products make a statement within the market? What ideas haven’t they explored? What does their product offer that yours doesn’t? You can use this research to your advantage when crafting your product marketing strategy.

4. Ensure the marketing, product, and sales teams are all on the same page.

Making your product offering abundantly clear for buyers and employees is mutually beneficial. Every team working together in your business can better understand the product's purpose and better communicate that in their operations.

5. Position the product appropriately in the market.

In product marketing, you want your product, brand image, and tone consistent and evoke the right feelings intended for your audience. When you brainstorm your brand positioning , some questions to consider are:

Is this product suitable for today’s market?

How is this product different from our competitors'?

Can we further differentiate this product from our competitors' offerings?

Are there any products we’ve sold in the past that we wouldn’t market or sell again? If so, why not?

6. Boost revenue and improve sales.

There are also questions you, as a product marketer, will have to ask yourself and reflect on regarding your product. Asking yourself these questions will help you ensure your product is successful among customers.

Is this product appropriate for our customers today?

How is this product unique from similar products of our competitors?

Is there a way to further differentiate this product from our competitors? 

Are there any products we’ve sold in the past that we wouldn’t market or sell ever again now that we look back? If so, why not?

As you can see, product marketing requires you to look at your products strategically to ensure they’re successful among customers in your current market.

Why is product marketing essential?

Product marketing is a critical part of any business’s marketing strategy. Without it, your product won’t achieve its maximum potential among your target audience.

To illustrate its importance, let’s look at an example of successful product marketing. During the 1950s, Volkswagen sold a bus. Although now considered a classic vehicle, the bus remains an icon for the car company decades later.

The cool part? Volkswagen announced their new VW Bus — it’s electric and features sleek, modern styling. Volkswagen’s marketing for the vehicle is eye-catching, unique, and fun, and it complements the original “hippie” vibe the company was once known for.

Image Source

Volkswagen also released a TV commercial for the bus that’s clever, minimalist, and on-brand. It introduces the new vehicle with the song The Sound of Silence playing in the background (hint: electric cars are silent) and ends with a short message on the screen for viewers to read: “Introducing a new era of electric driving.”

This sentiment touches on the fact Volkswagen is contributing to society’s interest in electric, eco-friendly vehicles. It also relates to this being a new era for the bus.

This is why product marketing is important: Because it highlights not the company but the product itself, ensuring longevity in the market.

But who works on this type of marketing? Who helps create content that excites consumers about new and updated products, like the Volkswagen bus? Who encourages consumers to buy? Product marketers.

Now, let’s take a look at the specific responsibilities that product marketers (or product marketing managers) face in their typical day.

Product Marketing Responsibilities

• Identify the buyer personas and target audience for your product.
• Successfully create and carry out your product marketing strategy.
• Work with and enable sales to attract the right customers for your new product.
• Determine your product’s positioning in the market.
• Ensure the product meets the needs of your target audience.
• Keep your product relevant over time.

Your responsibilities as a product marketer may vary slightly based on industry, company, products, and company size and resources. If you’re working for a startup, you may be a product marketer who also helps create the content the broader marketing team produces due to limited resources and budget. As the business grows, you may move onto a team whose sole job is product marketing.

Let’s take a look at six common product marketing responsibilities.

1. Identify the buyer personas and target audience for your product.

You must identify the buyer personas and audience for your product so you can target customers in a convincing way that makes them want to purchase. This will allow you to tailor your product and its features to solve your audience's challenges.

Pro tip: Use templates to create buyer personas for your business. A tangible outline of whom you’re catering to can help align different teams in your business and better position your product in the marketplace.

2. Successfully create, manage and carry out your product marketing strategy.

A product marketing strategy (which we’ll review shortly) allows you to create, build, and execute content and campaigns — this supports the steps that will lead your buyer personas and customers to make a purchase.

3. Work with and enable sales to attract customers for your new product.

As a product marketer, you have to mamusta direct relationship with sales. You’ll work with sales to identify and attract the right customers for the product at hand and provide sales enablement materials to reps to ensure they understand the product inside and out, along with its features.

This way, you and your teams are on the same page in termregarding being shared with customers, allowing you to provide a consistent, on-brand experience for anyone who comes in contact with the product.

4. Determine your product’s positioning in the market.

One of the most important parts of your job is determining the product’s positioning in the market. Think about this process in terms of storytelling — your positioning requires you to create and tell the story of your product.

As a product marketer, you’ll work with the broader marketing team and the product team to tell this story by answering critical questions like:

Why was this product made?

Whom is this product made for?

What challenges does this product resolve?

What makes this product unique?

5. Ensure your product meets the needs of your target audience.

You must also make sure your product meets the needs of your customers and target audience. Through the research to determine your buyer persona and target audience, you should have uncovered the pain points and challenges you’re working to solve with your product.

If your product doesn’t meet your customers' needs, they’ll have no reason to make the purchase or choose your product over your competitor’s.

6. Keep your product relevant over time.

Your product needs to stay relevant over time. As needs, expectations, and challenges change and evolve, it’s your job to ensure your product marketing strategy and the products themselves remain relevant among customers.

This means you may have to manage slight changes in your product marketing strategy (which we’ll discuss next) or updates and modifications to the product itself (you’ll likely work with the product team, which creates the effect, to do this).

7. Guide marketing strategies for new products.

In product marketing, you'll need to pay close attention to what worked in your strategy and what didn't so you can better plan marketing strategies for new and future custom products . Pay attention to where your audience is and what they are looking for. What channels got the most traction and led to more converted leads?

All this information and more should be applied to marketing strategies for new products.

Your product marketing strategy serves to guide the positioning, pricing, and promotion of your new product. It helps you take your product from development to launch and informs what new audience(s) and markets to which to launch and market your product.

Now, let’s take a look at five steps that can help you optimize your product marketing strategy.

1. Define your product’s target audience and buyer personas.

As a product marketer, one of the main roles you have is to define a specific target audience and create buyer personas for the product being sold (different products will likely have different target audiences). This is the first step to marketing your product.

By understanding your customers and their needs, challenges, and pain points, you’ll be able to end that all aspects of your product marketing strategy (as in the rest of the steps we’ll define below) are tailored to that target customer and persona. This way, the product and the marketing content created for the product will resonate with your audience.

2. Determine the positioning and messaging to set your product apart.

After your customer research and learning about your audience, you’ll have identified their needs, challenges, and pain points. From here, you can think about how to highlight the ways your product resolves those challenges for your customers.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean you’ve differentiated yourself from your competitors. After all, they are your competitors because they solve your customers' needs in a similar way to your company.

The key to setting your product apart is positioning (which we touched on earlier ) and messaging . Positioning answers key questions your customers might have about your product and what makes it unique and then turns those answers into the main points behind your product’s marketing strategy.

It’s your job as the product marketer to ensure your customers and audience know the answers to these questions and don't have to dig around for (or make assumptions about) them.

Examples of questions you’ll need to answer to develop your product’s positioning and messaging include the following:

What specifically makes our product unique?

Why is our product better than our competitors’?

Why are our product’s features ideal for our target audience?

What will our customers get out of our product that they cannot get from our competitors’ products?

Why should our customers trust and invest in us and our product?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you can compile these responses into one impactful and shareable statement that captures your positioning and messaging. To do this, follow these steps:

Turn the answers to the positioning and messaging questions into an elevator pitch .

Use action words to excite your customers.

Ensure the tone of your statement captures the style of your brand.

Focus on the benefit of your product as a whole (not just one specific feature).

Pro Tip: As product marketers, you should ensure the sales, product, and (the broader) marketing teams are also aware of your positioning and messaging around the product so they, too, can communicate the same information to prospects and current customers.

This allows you to ensure the entire company is consistent in the content and information they share about your product. Additionally, you can provide this information to your support team if you think it’s necessary, as they may be fielding support calls and working with your customers who’ve already invested in the product.

3. Set goals for your product.

Next, you’ll want to set goals for your product. These will vary based on your specific product, the type of company you work for, your overall marketing goals, and more — your goals will be specific to your business and situation. However, let’s review some common goals product marketers aim to achieve:

Increase revenue

Engage with customers

Improve market share

Gain customers from competitors

Boost brand recognition

Pro Tip: Feel free to combine several goals or choose one to focus on — every company and product will have different plans. The key is ensuring you view and set these targets in the SMART goal format, meaning they’re specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

Use a free template to help you create and achieve your SMART goals.

4. Price your product.

As a product marketer, you’ll also have to contribute to the discussion of the price of your product . Depending on your company, you might work with other teams on this part of the strategy, or it might be a job just for you and your fellow product marketers. Either way, you can consider competitive vs. value-based pricing.

Competitive vs. Value-Based Product Pricing

Competitive pricing means you’re basing your product’s price off similar products your competitors sell. It’s ideal for companies that have an effect similar to one that several other companies sell.

Suppose you believe your unique features warrant a significantly higher price e of your competitors’. In that case, you might price your product above the other similar products on the market. An excellent way to evaluate the fairness of the pricing of all of your competitors is by studying financial reports and industry trends.

Value-based pricing allows you to maximize your profit, although it’s a bit more time-consuming to establish in comparison to competitive pricing. It’s ideal for companies selling a product with very few competitors on the market or one with exceptionally new and unique features.

Value-based pricing quantifies your item’s value in a way your customer can relate to their profitability. It allows you to base your product’s price on its value for your customer rather than whatever the market, industry trends, and your competitors say.

5. Launch your product.

Now it’s time for the most impoessentialt of your role as a product marketer — not to mention, the most exciting: the launch of the product you’ve been marketing.

There are two main parts to the launch to focus on as a product marketer: the internal launch (what goes on within your company upon product launch) and the external launch (what goes on outside of your company, with customers and audience members, upon product launch).

Internal Aspects of a Product Launch

As previously stated, your job as a product marketer entails ensuring the entire organization is on the same page about your product. This way, your customers only receive consistent and accurate details about the product.

The marketing, product, and sales teams at your company should be aware of the following information:

The product’s benefits

Any available product demo information

Sales training opportunities on your product and details about how it’s used

What the positioning and messaging looks like

Who your buyer personas, and ideal customers are

What the goals for your product include

What your product’s features are

The pricing of your product

How your product is being launched to customers

Now, you might be wondering how to provide this information to marketing, product, and sales. Which channels are ideal for sharing these details with your fellow employees?

Here are a few examples of ways to do this:

Sales enablement kit (ideal for sales)

Presentation (ideal for the broader marketing department and product)

Knowledge base (ideal for support)

External Aspects of a Product Launch

Externally, there are many ways to market your product launch so your current base of customers, prospects, and target audience learn about whatever it is you’re selling.

First, determine where you’re going to focus your product marketing efforts. Here are some examples of channels and places to do this (you might choose several of these or just one to focus on depending on your needs, goals, and resources).

Social media

Product launch event

Website landing page

Exclusive product preview (prior to the official launch)

Promotional event/ campaign (in-person and/ or online)

On whatever channel you choose to focus your product launch marketing efforts, you should include relevant product information ( focused on your positioning and messaging ) so prospects and customers can learn all about your product and why they need it. This includes your product’s features, what makes it unique, pricing, demos for customers, training for customers, and any other materials you’ve created and want to share.

Congrats! You’ve just worked through the steps to marketing a product. Remember, this process is one that should be thought about and updated as your products change and evolve so they remain relevant among your customers. (This shouldn’t be an issue as long as you have a member of your team focused on product marketing, considering it’s one of their main responsibilities.)

Now that you know how to create a product marketing strategy, how do you market a product across your channels? Let’s take a look.

How to Market a Product

• Create a product marketing deck for other marketing teams.
• Publish product-focused content on your blog.
• Insert product mentions naturally in your existing marketing collateral.
• Try comarketing with a similar brand.
• Launch PPC ads and bid on your and competitors’ keywords.
• Focus on the benefits, not the features.

1. Create a product marketing deck for other marketing teams.

Non-product marketers — i.e, social media marketers and content marketers — won’t have the full know-how on your product, impeding them from marketing it properly on customer-facing channels. As a product marketer, your job isn’t necessarily to execute marketing campaigns or write content. Instead, your job is to enable specialized teams — such as your social media and content team — to market your company’s products effectively.

The first step is to provide a deck, presentation, or document that outlines your product marketing strategy to other marketers. That way, when it’s time to execute on a strategy, they know the positioning they are aiming for, the wording they are to use, and the personas they are targeting.

2. Publish product-focused content on your blog.

A blog is primarily a place to attract inbound leads. Rather than trying to hammer them with information about your product, you might write content that helps them solve an issue instead, and then offer them a free guide or ebook to help them further.

But did you know that your team can publish content that attracts inbound leads and encourages purchases and sign-ups? At HubSpot, we call this product-focused content. It’s just as helpful as our other content, but with a critical difference: It has a call-to-action to try one of HubSpot’s products.

For instance, our blog post, What is a CMS and Why Should You Care? , aims to inform readers about content management systems, but then includes a call-to-action to try CMS Hub .

While the blog post is still informative and not overtly promotional, it still promotes one of our products. In the same way, you or your content team can write helpful content for your readers, help them the inbound way, and still encourage customers to try your offerings.

3. Insert product mentions naturally in your existing marketing collateral.

If you’ve had a longstanding marketing strategy prior to beginning product marketing, we have good news: You can retroactively market your product in existing collateral. For instance, if you already have an expansive library of blog posts, you can update them with information about your products (so long as the mention is natural).

Recent social media posts can also be candidates for an update, and your website content should also change to show your brand new product. Internal links from related pages can help drive traffic to your new product pages.

In addition, if your marketing team has created marketing offers in the past, you can have them update the offer and add a call-to-action to try your newest product — like in this example from HubSpot’s Case Study Templates offer , where we prompt users to try CMS Hub.

4. Try comarketing with a similar brand.

Comarketing is an excellent way to market your product to a related audience. You can do something as simple as filming a video together, writing a collaborative blog post, posting on each other’s social channels, or running a webinar.

Your product should be an excellent match for the other company’s customers. Ideally, both of your products can be used in conjunction and not compete directly. For instance, Ankor Software and HubSpot partnered for a webinar, but Ankor Software doesn’t compete with HubSpot CRM — it complements it.

5. Launch PPC ads and bid on your and competitors’ keywords.

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an essential product marketing tactic. While content and social media marketing can help you attract inbound leads, you can get the attention of even more potential customers by posting PPC ads on search engines.

When setting up your PPC campaign, bid not only on general product keywords (such as “crm software” or “[insert category]”), but on your own branded terms and your competition’s as well. That way, customers who are considering purchasing the same product from a competitor will consider you as an alternative.

6. Focus on the benefits, not the features.

Regardless of the channel or platform you’re promoting your product on, highlight the benefits customers will experience, not the features of your product. Not only can features feel jargony (like “Customizable attribution models” or “Automated contact workflows”), but they shroud the benefits and alienate non-technical customers.

Try, instead, leading with the benefits, such as “Know where exactly your leads come from” or “Save time by automating tasks using contact workflows.” For instance, on the Marketing Hub page, the features snapshot reads:

“ Attract visitors through blogging, social media, ads, and more. Convert visitors into customers with landing pages, email, marketing automation, ABM, and more. Track ROI with revenue attribution reporting. All powered by the customer data in your CRM to enable personalization at scale .”

Using benefit-first language will engage customers and prompt them to try your products. The “how” of the benefit — such as features or functionalities — come after.

Let's review four real-life examples of stellar product marketing.

Apple is a household name for leading technology products and software. Not only are its products gorgeously well-designed; it’s also super useful. But Apple's product marketing doesn't focus on the many product features — it markets the user benefits.

Apple doesn't simply list the impressive features of their products; the brand uses those features to tell consumers who they could be and how they could work if they have those products. Apple tells a narrative using its products and encourages people to buy in the process.

Billie is a women's razor brand. In a highly competitive market, Billie has helped its products stand out. How? It established a sharp competitive edge (no pun intended) by doing what no razor brand had done before — show body hair in its advertising.

Not only did this advertising approach get Billie's audience talking about the brand, but they also appreciated the brand's accurate portrayal of women's bodies and body hair. These differentiators were more than enough to set Billie apart from other razor brands and products.

3. Pepsi Cola

As a brand, Pepsi has positioned itself as one with youthful energy and excitement, and this can be seen consistently through its product marketing campaigns.

Pepsi's customers are mainly aged between 13 and 35 years old with modern and active lifestyles, so it only makes sense to hire popular celebrities like Doja Cat for a commercial in a homecoming tailgate.

Through highly targeted positioning, repetitive advertising, and consistent branding, Pepsi has become a truly global household name and product.

4. MailChimp

There are dozens of email marketing tools on the market, but MailChimp hasn't been fazed by competition. In fact, the company has risen above its competition by positioning itself as more than an email marketing tool: it's an all-in-one marketing platform that helps businesses grow.

Like Apple, MailChimp primarily highlights its benefits for the end-user, not just its product features. A recent rebranding and site redesign further drives this narrative home.

Start Marketing Your Products

Product marketing is the process through which a company brings a product to market. Being a product marketer (or product marketing manager) means you’re at the center of your company’s marketing, sales, and product teams.

You’re an integral part to the success of your product, as you create and manage your product’s specific marketing strategy, but you also serve as a liaison between all three of these departments, ensuring everyone is on the same page with your product, it’s features, capabilities, and more. So, start developing your latest product’s marketing strategy to ensure it’s a success among your target audience and customers.

This post was originally published in February 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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What Is Sales Performance Management? Examples and Tips

Learn how to keep your sales reps — and your business — on the right track with a solid performance strategy.

Terry Walsh

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You set targets for your sales organization and rely on all your team members to work together to hit them. But with so many moving parts at play, you need a reliable way to monitor sales activities, analyze results, and create action plans to increase performance. Enter sales performance management (SPM).

In this article, we’ll walk through how to set up a sales performance management process, tools you can use to save time, and tips for helping your team succeed.

What you’ll learn :

• What is sales performance management?

Why is sales performance management important?

Key components of sales performance management.

• 4 tips for better sales performance management

What to look for in sales performance management software

8 sales productivity pitfalls (and how to avoid them).

Get the Sales Productivity Workbook and avoid pitfalls like bloated tech stacks and approval bottlenecks.

What is sales performance management (SPM)?

Sales performance management (SPM) is a process that helps sales organizations track, manage, and improve the work of their sales teams. This includes everything from forecasting to implementing training programs, monitoring activities, quota management, and incentive planning.

SPM focuses on guiding sales reps toward achieving company goals. It measures things like how well a team performs against targets, sales velocity, and sales cycle length.

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Sales performance management is important because it supports your sales team’s overall strategy. At the center of that is efficiency; it aims to streamline and automate simpler tasks so sales reps can focus on selling and leadership can focus on improving business strategies.

I’ve seen SPM used to optimize a salesperson’s daily workflow, helping them get in front of customers more often and boosting sales opportunities. It can also help determine why certain sales reps are closing deals and others aren’t.

Maximizing impact is the new sales mantra, according to  State of Sales  research. Part of that is creating a more efficient sales team. A solid SPM strategy can help you:

• Fine-tune sales forecasts:  Accurate forecasts require regular data analysis. When you have a deep understanding of the trends and patterns of your past sales performance, it becomes quicker and easier to forecast and budget resources.
• Align sales strategies with KPIs:  Analyzing key  metrics  — like conversion rates, customer satisfaction, and churn rate — gives leaders a better view of sales performance. They can then develop strategies to address weaker areas and improve overall sales efficiency and effectiveness.
• Optimize sales processes:  Data can point to which sales process steps take the most time or haven’t produced strong results so you can examine why. It may reveal certain knowledge gaps you can address with  coaching  as well as which workflow functions you can  automate  for higher productivity.

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A sales performance management strategy is like a puzzle. Each piece is unique and plays a specific role. But when you put them all together in the right way, these individual pieces create a unified vision. It can show your team what success looks like.

Here are the key components to think about:

Sales planning

A sales plan helps reps understand company objectives and gives them a roadmap for meeting them. This includes an outline of target customers, potential obstacles, and revenue goals.

Your team’s efficiency relies heavily making sure each rep is making the most of their skills, native talent, and experience, which is why sales territory planning is key. Territory planning matches your reps with the territories and customers they’re best suited and gives them strategies for closing more deals based on data — market trends, sales forecasts, and more.

For example, if your goal is new customer acquisition for a specific territory, you might plan to refresh lead nurturing sequences, expand partnerships in the area, offer special promotions, or host events to capture more new leads.

Sales compensation and incentives

To help keep reps motivated to meet the goals you set for them, you can implement various  commission structures and bonuses. These monetary rewards help you recognize top performers and set the bar for success.

When your team needs an extra boost to achieve a specific goal or meet quota, incentive compensation plans — especially  SPIFFs (Sales Performance Incentive Funds)  — are a good option. Beyond increasing sales, they can strengthen morale and encourage teams to hit short-term goals by providing extra compensation beyond their base salary.

Quota management is also a critical part of SPM. It involves setting, tracking, and achieving specific sales goals over certain time periods. Done well, it helps keep reps motivated and rewards those who reach their goals. Effective sales quotas are realistic, data-backed, and aligned with company goals.

Sales training and coaching

To empower sales teams to hit quota, you need to ensure they have the training and coaching necessary to do their jobs. This isn’t just onboarding; this involves ongoing support from sales managers, call coaching, and continuing education on best practices and the latest sales techniques. (Read more about this in our article on sales enablement .)

Sales insights and strategies

The focus here is on what you sell and how much of it you can and will sell. It includes things like pipeline management, price setting, and  go-to-market strategies  — all of which rely heavily on data.

Your SPM strategy should be fluid, adaptable, and backed by data. You must regularly analyze your performance against your goals. If the results are falling short, dig into why and modify your strategy accordingly. Look at how your products, territories, customer segments, and teams perform to decide where you’re doing well and where you could improve. Then, decide what tactics to apply in weaker areas for better results.

For example, if you see that one of your products or services is underperforming compared with others, look into possible causes by reviewing deal data and insights stored in your CRM. Perhaps you need to adjust your  pricing strategy  or certain sales call techniques to address the problem.

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4 tips for better sales performance management

Sales performance management is ultimately about helping your team meet the goals of the business. Here are a few tips to set them up for success:

• Be transparent with your team:  When changing your strategy or shifting direction, communicate with your team. Explain the new targets and how you plan to meet them and be clear about what success looks like so everyone understands how they fit into the bigger picture. Make sure your reps have access to the data they need to be successful, such as tracking their progress toward meeting quotas.
• Set high and attainable goals:  Use data insights — past performance, market trends, and sales forecasts — to set realistic goals you feel confident your reps can meet. When reps feel capable of meeting goals, chances for success are much higher than if they don’t. Attainable goals not only help keep your organization moving forward, but they also contribute to positive morale.
• Test, learn, and adapt:  Learn from the past with  sales analysis . By pinpointing what’s working and what’s not, you can see where opportunities exist to adjust sales strategies, improve onboarding processes,  develop coaching plans , and increase overall sales performance across your organization.
• Reward high performance:  Rewarding high performance is a great way to keep your teams motivated, productive, and closing more deals. Recognizing achievements is not only a good way to promote employee retention, but it can also be a great way to set expectations and create examples of what success looks like.

When choosing SPM software , you want a solution to help you become more efficient, productive, and effective at selling and meeting your sales targets. Let’s break down a few key features of Sales Cloud’s sales performance management software to show how it can help you do this:

• Automated plans and workflows:  This feature allows you to build incentive compensation plans quickly and easily as well as streamline and automate complex commission workflows. You can also automate tedious manual processes — like admin tasks — so your team is free to focus on selling.
• Real-time reporting and dashboards:  Create intuitive reports and dashboards in minutes and align organizational priorities to seller motivations. Empower your reps with visibility into commission trends, performance data, personalized analytics, and commission statements. These allow reps to track their progress toward goals and view potential earnings within the platform.
• Intelligent territory assignments:  Designate and assign territories to the best-suited reps and allocate resources more efficiently with data insights and automation. Align your accounts, reps, and territories to business priorities and resources. Then, publish assignments within the platform when the plan is finished. You can also visualize your territory plan holistically and make adjustments based on forecasts to ensure maximum impact.

Improve your sales performance management process for better results

Sales performance management is an essential piece of the puzzle for sales organizations. From setting expectations and implementing incentive programs to tracking progress and holding teams accountable, SPM helps you stay competitive and reach your targets. While creating an effective sales performance management plan takes time and effort, it’s crucial for your organization to thrive.

Attain quota faster and speed up sales ops 

Learn how Sales Performance Management helps you connect customer data to sales planning and execution. 

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