Keeping a high level of activity is one of the hardest aspects of business development. Additionally, this effort must remain aligned with the strategy and intent of the company you represent. As a business developer the responsibility for the level of activity is on you. Maintaining systematic effort is where the third plan of the three plans, the tactical action plan (or business development action plan), proves invaluable.
The tactical action plan systemizes the outcomes of the assessing, strategizing, and planning into a series of daily actions. As such it should be referred to, annotated, and updated every day. Much like the sales ecosystem that the company resides in, the tactical action plan is a living system that evolves every day.
The following post provides advice on setting up the tactical action plan in line with your targets and intent. It also explains how to use it to systematically drive activity every day.
Tactical Action Plan Setup
As mentioned above, the overall purpose of this plan is to systemize your daily business development activity. Including who to contact, when and in what order of priority. Simplicity of use is key here. At
a minimum, it should hold enough information to provide customer priority, history, and most importantly, a prompt to action.
An inordinate amount of money is spent every year on complex customer relationship management systems. My experience has been that off-the-shelf products try to be everything to everyone. They often have too much functionality, too much complexity, and no way to truly incorporate the company goals or intent. The alternative of getting a CRM built from scratch is prohibitively expensive.
A simpler way to track this information is on a shared setup in a well-known system like Excel, Google Sheets, or similar. Easy to use this system can be set up quickly and contain whatever information you need. The actual format will differ between companies, but at a minimum, it should contain the following
columns for each contact, opportunity, and lead.
The Nine Winning Elements
1. Due
Probably the most critical component is awareness of when the next action is due. Timing is determined
systematically around priority. Simple conditional formatting colours cells when the due dates are close. This visual cue allows the user to prioritize their daily actions from little more than a glance.
2. Segment
Which industry segment does this opportunity sit within? For example: mining, healthcare,
construction. This can be more detailed if required.
3. Company Name
4. Location
Where is the company or project located? Important on many levels, but particularly if you are planning face to face meetings.
5. Contact Name
The names of the contacts you are communicating with. You don’t have to know these people personally. Many of these names will be strategic in nature. These target contacts will give access to specific customers, industries, or opportunities.
6. Role
The title, or a brief role description of the contact. You can also add their place in the stakeholder assessment, i.e., decision maker, technical expert, customer champion.
7. Contact Details
Email addresses and phone numbers.
8. Priority
Priority level of the contact defines the urgency and regularity of follow up.
9. Action
Possibly the most important part. A historical snapshot of past actions and details of the next action required. Short summary bullet points are enough.
A Living Business Development Action Plan
Considered as living, the document evolves on a daily basis. As such, it is a record of historical and future effort and should be easily interrogated. Incorporating a visual prompt is essential in letting the business developer know which actions to prioritize next. Otherwise, actions will be missed or forgotten.
Updating the tactical action plan is essential for it to be a useful tool. Every time you meet a customer update with a quick summary, next action and due date. Over time it tells the story of your customers and their interactions with you and your company.
In my day job I use this tool every day and I have a great snapshot of the environmental industry across Australia. Through my daily interactions I know who the main players are and who has moved where. If a customer of ours moves to another company I still have a record of our previous interactions to draw on. It is the most accurate I can make it and yet it only takes a couple of minutes after each customer meeting or phone call to update the details. I’ve never used a CRM product this efficient.
If you’d like a copy of the template I use drop me an email (tom@tomwatkin.com) and I’ll send the excel version with conditional formatting in place. It’s nothing flash but is a good place to start your own.
Tips for Using the Tactical Action Plan
A few practical tips around using the tool are highlighted below.
Save Snapshots—as a living document the content evolves on a daily basis. While the action column grows with the addition of summaries, you may need to delete items to keep the tool manageable. Save snapshots of the document on a regular basis to make sure any items that do fall away can be found again.
Conditional Formatting—this is perhaps the simplest yet most crucial component of turning the spreadsheet into a practical tool. Conditional formatting on the due column linked to the day’s date,
using color coding, creates a visual cue to make sure actions are not forgotten.
Easily Searchable—while the tactical action plan starts small, a proactive business developer will grow it quickly. Therefore, making the plan easily searchable is critical. When setting up the plan, be disciplined with the consistency of your naming. Particularly around company names and industry segments. Data interrogation will be so much easier and pay dividends in saved time.
Changes in the Plan—there is an old military saying, no plan survives first contact with the enemy. To some extent, this is true in business as well. This is when the triple A framework shines and can help frame your thinking and action. For example, after meeting a key target contact, it becomes clear that they have no need for your offering at this time. That’s fine—remember, assess, aim, action. In this instance, assess the opportunity again in the context of your strategic plan. Aim by adjusting the priority and cadence of the action. Finally, set an action to check in over the next six to twelve months. Or make the decision to downgrade or remove the opportunity from the list. Capture these decisions in the tactical action plan and remember to communicate them to the larger team.
Next Action – Your Business Development Action Plan
I challenge you to develop your own tactical action plan right now. Either develop your own or email me for my simple to use template. Populate it with your top 10 customers. Make sure to include both existing and prospective. Contact each customer and update actions and due dates accordingly. Add the next 10 customers and repeat. I can pretty much guarantee that you will start seeing results.
Business Development Action Plan
If you are looking for a simple framework to base your business development activity around I recommend checking out my new book Business Development Begins Here. You can order it from Amazon by clicking the pic below.
If you are looking to get your business development processes squared away right now, download my immediate action plan below. This gives you the actions needed to create a system around your work winning, turning it into repeatable action and results in only 10 days.
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If you want a more proactive and personal approach to your business development I am available to help. I’ll set you on the right path and keep you accountable to future activity. I’m currently have space on my 13 week 1on1 personalised coaching program. To learn more click the button below.