Can you believe…

It is almost the end of the year, can you believe it? Once again, where did it go? And, if you believe the “Big Business Guru” blogs right now, many are saying “It is time to plan again…” planning is a useful business tool, but can be a panacea. It is usually not the lack of a plan that causes failure; it is lack of action.

An action plan or a sales plan or marketing plan or any plan for that matter, is only as good as the action taken… Here are a few reasons that action, sales and marketing plans fail; in the order of frequency Impression Engineers coaches see:

1. No follow-through. No internal steps are taken to implement the plan (far-and-away the Number 1 reason)
2. Not enough company resources, time, personnel, money, etc. are applied to generate or maintain success
3. If success is achieved, the plan is put on the back burner, typically causing failure after initial success.
4. Not sufficiently aligned with the goals and desired outcomes. It’s no surprise that if the actions of Sales, Marketing and others in the business are not aligned – there never was a real plan to begin with.

Plans become wishful thinking unless you take specific, measurable action. Define the plan objectives with specific measurements and act upon them. Just like that other “nasty” business word—budgets—planning and adjusting the plan should be an ongoing process, not an end of year event.

"An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied." ~Arnold Glascow~

Have a great day in whatever your adventure,

To success! To Life!

ps: My action plan is to take the next two weeks off from article writing to enjoy family and friends during the Holiday Season. Good will, blessings and harmony to you and yours, see you next year!