Ch-1 2 This is Marketing
A Better Business Plan
If you want to know the real status of a business and how it is doing, a boring business plan isn’t the option you should go for as it just gives us a plan of all the expectations that we have to comply with.
A good business plan should include 5 things:
Truth, Assertions, Alternatives, People, Money.
The Truth tells us about the realistic situation. It gives us an overview of everything that affects a business, in a very specific manner. It doesn’t give us any expectations or unrealistic goals. It just states the reality.
The competitors, the position of the market, the wants and needs of the people and who are doing better than us in the market.
The truth is better when it’s more elaborate and precise with all kinds of data. You can present the truth with the help of market analysis, share pricing, spreadsheets and presentations etc.
Then comes the assertions. This tells us how we are going to seek for a change. How we can do better and reconstruct things in a better way?
What action will help us develop what? Assertion tell us what we need to for a certain thing to happen. For example, if a company needs a particular client, what exactly do they need to change about their previous working methods so that they can progress and be successful.
You are in the market to make change happen, to create that tension by telling stories and making connections. You have a specific audience. You have to decide what is it that you are going to do and what influence will it have on the market. Assertions answer “What?”
All assertions can’t be achieved and some of them tend to be inaccurate so when this happens, alternatives come in place.
When a particular assertion doesn’t work an alternative of it can be used. It’s like we have planned on going with Plan A (selling the product through retail stores) for the sale of a product but due to lockdown Plan A did not work so we went for an Alternative Plan B (online store) for the sale.
Now comes the people, on your team, who are going to work with you, not the general resume stuff. It’s about their abilities and their attitude and ethics. If you want to go deeper you can see what is the worldview of the people you are seeking to serve or are working with and their status and beliefs.
The last part is the money. How much? For what? The whole layout of it and how much is needed and how much will be spent on what. This section is there to answer everything about money.
Once you come up with the answers to Who’s it for? What’s it for? What change am I seeking to make? and work towards it, You see a shift happen and that’s when you change culture.
Capitalism is there to bring change and build culture. And the answer to the above mentioned questions will definitely give you the clarity to seek change and will make things much easier.
Most of the marketers have the same purpose. To benefit both sides, to bring about change, create that tension, engage with stories and connections. But this isn’t a purpose, it’s just what marketers do.
A good business plan will include the answers to Who’s it for and What’s it for? making it very pervasive and precise.
Even if all this doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter. That just means you have ruled out one of the possibilities of a quest and you can now go on to find a new one!
