Today’s Business Task: Create a tactical plan that helps keep you on track towards reach that SMART business goal (and yes, I have templates for you).
Tactical Planning Template
Grab the template for this tactical planning exercise so you can build this as you go through the post.
This was one of the most important pieces I learned during the business class I took recently, and something I currently have hanging on my wall.
Contents
Tactical Planning vs Strategic Planning
Before we dive into building this thing, we need to understand what a tactical plan is.
This sounds like an uber-boring topic, eh? Once you get the hang of it, you won’t think that anymore. This is really powerful stuff for business owners.
Here is how Business Dictionary explains these two:
Strategic planning is a ”systematic process of envisioning a desired future, and translating this vision into broadly defined goals or objectives and a sequence of steps to achieve them.”
Tactical planning is “a systematic determination and scheduling of the immediate or short-term activities required in achieving the objectives of strategic planning.”
Now that we got the very technical definitions out of the way, here is how I think of these two:
Strategic planning is figuring out what you want the future to look like, and breaking that into goals. If you want to grow a business that brings in 3 million in revenue, what business goals do you need to accomplish to get there?
Characteristics of a Strategic Plan:
- Long-Term – 3-5 years out
- Broad Goals
- The why behind your work
- More stable and don’t change much
Tactical planning is breaking up those goals into workable tasks that we can start scheduling into our task management system and calendar. We take the goals from above and put together specific plans for how to reach those.
Characteristics of a Tactical Plan:
- Short-term: 1-2 years
- Narrow and focused goals
- How you are going to reach the strategic plan goals
- These can be changed quickly
Tactical Planning Template
Grab the template for this tactical planning exercise so you can build this as you go through the post.
The Steps to Tactical Planning
One of the more powerful things I learned was that of a Tactical Improvement Plan, or Tactical implementation plan as I’ve found it’s also called. I like the latter name better, because it reminds you that it’s about getting sh*t done, as opposed to improving.
Either way, this plan consists of 6 pieces:
1. Goals
These are not just any goals, we want to use SMART goals. They are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time bound, AND include “why” you are working towards them.
Real Life Example:
My first goal for this plan was to “Develop a set of key packages for clients that bundle relative services based off the scope of work by 10/15, in order to increase efficiency of the sales process.”
2. Tactics
These are the strategies you are going to be using to achieve the goal above. These tactics are not the actual tasks you’ll accomplish, but the kinds of things you’ll be doing to reach that goal.
Real Life Example:
Taking the goal above, my tactics were:
- Take inventory of everything I’m currently doing and categorize them
- Put together a comprehensive packaging of those services
- Implement the new packages
These don’t have dates, they aren’t ready to be put in my task management system yet, so let’s move on to the action steps that I’ll need to get these done.
3. Action Steps
As I alluded to above, action steps are specific tasks you can put into your task manager and schedule a date for completion.
Think of this part as building your “to-do list” to make sure you achieve those tactics.
Real Life Example:
For this tactical plan example, here are the action steps (in bold) for each of the tactics listed above:
- Take inventory of everything I’m currently doing and categorize them
- Create a list of all services offered (what it is, why it’s done, etc.)
- Categorize each service into buckets based on necessity to the core package and type.
- Decide on a core package offering that stands alone but is also a lead into upselling other services.
- Put together a comprehensive packaging of those services
- Put together a full breakdown of what’s included in the core package
- Determine “tier 2” packages for customers
- Come up with an a la carte menu for other add-ons and services
- Creates a sales proposition (copy, who it’s for, etc.)
- Implement the new packages
- Identify appropriate pricing structure
- Add new packages to the website
- Reach out to existing clients and put them into a package
4. Resources
Next, we’re going to determine resources needed for each of those tasks, so we know what we’ll need to have in order to start the work.
Resources can include things like financial resources, materials, software, equipment, current employees, new employees, and outsourcing work.
Sometimes, the resource is as simple as your time. For others it might be another person, tools you need to acquire, etc. My resources are in bold below:
- Take inventory of everything I’m currently doing and categorize them
- Create a list of all services offered (what it is, why it’s done, etc.)
- Resources Needed: Past client files and proposals
- Categorize each service into buckets based on necessity to the core package and type.
- Resources Needed: My time
- Decide on a core package offering that stands alone but is also a lead into upselling other services.
- Resources Needed: Past client files and time
- Create a list of all services offered (what it is, why it’s done, etc.)
- Put together a comprehensive packaging of those services
- Put together a full breakdown of what’s included in the core package
- Resources Needed: list of services and time
- Determine “tier 2” packages for customers
- Resources Needed: list of services and time
- Come up with an a la carte menu for other add-ons and services
- Resources Needed: list of services and time
- Creates a sales proposition (copy, who it’s for, etc.)
- Resources Needed: time and copywriting help
- Put together a full breakdown of what’s included in the core package
- Implement the new packages
- Identify appropriate pricing structure
- Resources Needed: computer, time, and research
- Add new packages to the website
- Resources Needed: computer and time
- Reach out to existing clients and put them into a package
- Resources Needed: computer and phone calls
- Identify appropriate pricing structure
5. Deadline
Next, we are going to determine a deadline for each of these tasks in the tactical plan. Without the time piece, you’re going to get bogged down in trying to figure out what is due first and when you’re actually going to have this goal done.
- Take inventory of everything I’m currently doing and categorize them
- Create a list of all services offered (what it is, why it’s done, etc.)
- Resources Needed: Past client files and proposals
- Due: 8/30
- Categorize each service into buckets based on necessity to the core package and type.
- Resources Needed: My time
- Due: 9/3
- Decide on a core package offering that stands alone but is also a lead into upselling other services.
- Resources Needed: Past client files and time
- Due: 9/5
- Create a list of all services offered (what it is, why it’s done, etc.)
- Put together a comprehensive packaging of those services
- Put together a full breakdown of what’s included in the core package
- Resources Needed: list of services and time
- Due: 9/10
- Determine “tier 2” packages for customers
- Resources Needed: list of services and time
- Due: 9/13
- Come up with an a la carte menu for other add-ons and services
- Resources Needed: list of services and time
- Due: 9/15
- Creates a sales proposition (copy, who it’s for, etc.)
- Resources Needed: time and copywriting help
- Due: 9/23
- Put together a full breakdown of what’s included in the core package
- Implement the new packages
- Identify appropriate pricing structure
- Resources Needed: computer, time, and research
- Due: 9/30
- Add new packages to the website
- Resources Needed: computer and time
- Due: 10/3
- Reach out to existing clients and put them into a package
- Resources Needed: computer and phone calls
- Due: 10/15
- Identify appropriate pricing structure
6. Person Responsible
The last step is figuring out who you are going to make responsible for each of those steps. This helps us tremendously when we do add each action step to our task manager because we know who to assign it to., and who to follow up with if that part is falling behind.
I’m not going to re-paste my steps here, because all of mine rely solely on me to get them done. If you have a team, please make sure you’re not skipping this step.
Tactical Planning Template
I hope you see how helpful taking the time to break down everything into manageable steps can be in reaching your goals. A tactical plan can help you achieve your business goals
You can download this template to use to set your goals and create a full tactical plan.
Tactical Planning Template
Grab the template for this tactical planning exercise so you can build this as you go through the post.
