11 Cures for Market Planning Syndrome

11 Cures for Market Planning Syndrome
What is Marketing Planning Syndrome? It’s a complex sickness that afflicts 90% of small business owners because they don’t operate with a marketing plan.

You will know you have this syndrome if you have any of the following symptoms:
? You hate to plan.
? You find it boring.
? You think your business is different, so you don’t need to plan your marketing efforts.
? You don’t like to write.
? You think plans are too much paper work.
? You tried it once and it didn’t work.
? You don’t know where to begin.
? You just don’t have the time to make a marketing plan.

Studies show that if you consistently use a plan to spell out how you are going to attract new customers to your business, you will be 30% more successful than a business that doesn’t plan.

Let me share 11 ways that can overcome the Market Planning Syndrome to make your business more successful.

1. Make market planning your highest priority. You may be good with financials; you may be a good technician at producing your product or service; you may even be a good salesperson. But none of these activities brings fresh prospects to your business. Marketing is the only activity that brings a steady stream of prospects to you. If you don’t get new customers, you have no business!

2. Write it down. A plan in your head is just wishful thinking. When you write it down, you give concrete shape to your efforts to attract more customers.

3. Keep it simple. A plan does not need to be complicated or long. The format of your plan is less important than the effort you take to create a future direction for your business.

4. Focus on clear targets. Fuzzy thinking produces fuzzy activities. Energy comes from selecting a very specific target and then focusing on that target. You can’t do this with generalities. You can’t focus energy on a generality. Generalities do not motivate, inspire or move people to action.

5. Make your efforts measurable. What gets measured gets done. We pay attention to what we measure. Measuring implies accountability. Measurable means being specific about dates, amounts, quantities, quality and the target results you have selected.

6. Incorporate your plan into your monthly calendar. Once you identify the activities you are going to use to attract more customers, incorporate them into your monthly calendar. Then each month perform the activities that are due that month.

7. See your plan as preventive medicine. When you let your business drift, you will run into problems, sometimes terminal ones. Planning is prevention, anticipating and strengthening aspects of your business so you can eliminate problems that rob your time, energy and money.

8. Don’t wait until your plan is perfect. Plans are always in transition. Get started and make corrections along the way.

9. You don’t need all the answers! If you have a clear target, there are forces that will begin helping you find the right solutions—solutions that may not have been in your mind when you started. Good plans create success. When you are clear about what you want, the how-to-do-its will unfold for you. You attract what you focus on!

10. Act on your plan. Plans without action are merely day dreams!

11. Commit to your success. Success starts with a firm commitment and decision that you are going to succeed. You must make the decision that you will succeed with your plan.

To strengthen your decision, add positive emotions to it. Imagine what it will feel like when you succeed. How good is the feeling? Einstein said the imagination is far more powerful than the intellect. The more emotion you attach to your planning targets, the more success you achieve.

The key is to decide what you want. Tap into the feelings of what it will be like to have what you want and then move forward without any doubts.

Conclusion

I hope these suggested cures for Market Planning Syndrome motivate you to create your own plan on how to attract more customers to your business in the next three months or six months or year. It’s the easiest, no-cost way to create a more successful future for your business.

If you would like a follow-up article on how to create a simple and effective market plan, email me at al@successfulmarketingtools.com with the subject line. Marketing Plan, and I will send you a free article on how to create a marketing plan that moves your business forward. Check out www.successfulmarketingtools.com for other
Al Hanzal, 2005.
Hanzal Enterprises, Inc.
4191 Granite Court
Eagan, Minnesota 55123
651-485-3340