The anatomy of presenting a plan...

October 20, 2017 by iamgpe in Execution

If you are in business (or any organization for that matter) you may find yourself presenting your plan to someone (or many someones) — in fact it may start with something that sounds like this...

"We really want to step change the business so I want you to develop a plan and present it to me and the team in a month — and to stimulate your thinking this is the stretch goal I want to hit next year <insert big goal>. You will have an hour to present.

Let me know if there are any questions and I look forward to your presentation - see ya."

As you shake your head at the supposed "stretch goal" — you then get down to work because the clock is now ticking and a month goes very quickly.

Although I appreciate there are many ways to present I will go out on a limb and suggest most leaders are looking for a slide deck with someone presenting at the front of the room or at the very least on a webinar. With that said, I present to you the anatomy of what I believe to be an effective presentation to get your point across, and more importantly, get buy-in.

The First Slide —

This is the title slide which indicates what your presentation is about and who you are. Don't assume that everyone who is listening knows who you are.

The Second Slide —

This slide sets the tone of your presentation and frames up the three things that the presentation is about:

Your Vision — a statement that looks into the future at least three years and defines a desired future state of what your plan is working to achieve.

Your Goal — In the largest font you can afford, show the financial goal you are working to achieve with the plan.

Your Strategies to achieve your goal (no less than three and no more than three) — a long term plan of action designed to achieve your goal. These strategies are prioritized in order of impact on the goal

The Third Slide —

The Revenue Walk

This is the slide where you connect your vision and strategies with the financial goal. The objective is to offer a visual perspective as to how you will achieve your goal, set priorities, and engage the audience. Also be warned this is the first slide your audience my attempt to "hijack" your presentation... meaning the audience may try to take you off your "script".

The Fourth, Fifth and Six Slide —

Strategies

This is where you present the three strategies in order of priority — one strategy per slide. Each strategy is explained and includes what is needed to make it happen in terms of structure, staff, systems and process, skills needed, and how the strategy will be executed.

The Seventh and Eighth Slide —

Organizational charts

The seventh slide is the current organizational chart (current state) and eighth slide is the required organizational chart (future state). This visualizes the team that is needed to support the three strategies, and drive to the goal (which I remind you started this whole thing). Remember (and this is a truism) — people are everything, and nothing gets done without them.

The Ninth Slide —

Situation Review

This slide offers an overview of the situation that the business operates in. This slide offers insight into the market, market share, current performance, competitive situation, and other considerations that are relevant to the goal and strategies.

The Tenth Slide —

The SWOT

The SWOT analysis highlights the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats relevant to the organization and the business situation. Strengths and Weaknesses tend to offer an internal perspective, while Opportunities and Threats offer and external one. This slide is best represented with four quadrants highlighting the appropriate strengths, weakness, et cetera.

The Eleventh Slide —

People

This is the people and performance slide that identifies the people, their performance, and their potential.

A nine quadrant grid with PERFORMANCE along the x axis and POTENTIAL along the y axis — this allows you to stack rank people from Consistent Star to Talent Risk, and then everyone in between. This helps with honest (and respectful) discussions to help develop people up or out of the organization.

The goal of slides nine, ten and eleven are to create a clear picture of the foundation you are building your strategies and future structure on.

The Twelfth Slide —

Resources and Risks

This is the slide where you summarize the resources needed to initiate your three strategies and ensure they are successful. Resources needed are normally presented in dollar. This is also where you indicate any risks that may prevent you from executing on your strategies and achieving your goal.

The Appendix (and all the other slides) —

Your presentation will at most consist of twelve slides but there is still all of that supporting material that you need handy just in case someone has a question, wants supporting material for something you did (or didn't) say, et cetera, et cetera. This is where your appendix comes in, and feel free to go wild with the number of slides you put there — but remember, they will never actually be part of your one hour presentation.

Is this the definitive template for presenting a plan?

Of course it isn't... it's just one of many, but it has proven effective in having someone say, "I like what you are saying...tell me more." Because the honest truth is this is just the start of your plan and there's a bunch more work ahead of you — but as I mentioned, it has proven to be a good way to start.

iamgpe

Questions to Help You Mind Your Business… Question #10

September 27, 2017 by iamgpe in Execution

Question #10: Do I need to be using social media and how much do I really need to do?

This is the final in a series of thoughts and opinions by Graham Edwards and Renée Cormier — click here to read the backstory and inspiration (if only for the entertainment). It should be noted that neither of us have seen or discussed our answers before they are posted, which in our mind makes this all the more interesting.

In this blog series we will attempt to answer ten different questions business owners may need answered, using our individual and unique perspectives and approaches. It is our hope that this series will inspire both action and interaction. Please feel free to comment and ask more questions.

Graham —

I know Renée will be very enthusiastic about this question and have great things to say — I on the other hand see social media as an evil necessity and still somewhat struggle with it.

It wasn’t so long ago that I saw social media as nothing more than voluntarily relinquishing of our privacy, and self-righteously made a stand not to get involved — I would hold onto my privacy with my last dying breath (or the illusion of doing so). And then one day I heard Gary Vaynerchuk speak, and he said something profoundly simple.

He said, “Privacy is dead.”

If you have not heard of Gary Vaynerchuk he is arguably “THE EXPERT” on social media and using it to grow your business (particularly if you an entrepreneur). I encourage you to read his books (and watch his videos) if you are interested in understanding the impact and utility of social media in all its forms.

With the recognition that sadly his assertion was correct, I welcomed social media in, embraced it, and adopted the illusion that I would at least try to control it for my own branding and messaging — and with that preamble down on paper let’s start with a definition.

This is how Wikipedia defines Social media —

The variety of evolving stand-alone and built-in social media services introduces a challenge of definition. The idea that social media are defined by their ability to bring people together has been seen as too broad a definition, as this would suggest that the telegraph and telephone were also social media – not the technologies scholars are intending to describe. The terminology is unclear, with some referring to social media as social networks.

A 2015 paper reviewed the prominent literature in the area and identified four commonalities unique to then-current social media services:

1. Social media are Web 2.0 Internet-based applications,

2. User-generated content (UGC) is the lifeblood of the social media organism,

3. Users create service-specific profiles for the site or app that are designed and maintained by the social media organization,

4. Social media facilitate the development of online social networks by connecting a user's profile with those of other individuals or groups.

In 2016, Merriam-Webster defined social media as "Forms of electronic communication (such as Web sites) through which people create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, etc."

And this definition manifests itself in websites, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, beBee, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Instagram, Medium, Tumblr, et cetera — all available for you to get involved with 24/7, 365 ¼ days a year.

It’s probably best to break this question into three sections —

The first section: Do I need to be using Social Media?

The second section: What Social media should I use?

The third section: How much do I really need to do?

The first section to the answer of the tenth and final question

Your need to use Social media is completely dependent on your business objectives, the type of business you have, and what your overall marketing plan looks like. I suppose technically (in this day and age) you don’t have to use social media but I will admit I struggle to think of a business situation where some sort of social media wouldn’t come into play. I think the question you should ask is why wouldn’t you get involved with social media? For example, if you sell a product of any kind, at the very least, you will have to set up a website — (thanks to Amazon) people now like to order on-line from the comfort of their bedroom.

So the answer to this section is yes you should be using social media (with some important considerations). As an aside, if you are actually able to come up with reasons your business shouldn’t engage in social media I would be very curious as to the reasons — please let me know.

The second section to the answer of the tenth and final question in a series of questions by Renée and Graham

This section starts to touch on some of the considerations I alluded to above. What social media you use will depend on which social media will communicate your message most effectively (and this will be very dependent on the type of business you have). You also need to look at social media “holistically”, and not as individual platforms that operate independently; it is important to view social media platforms as pieces that make up the whole of your social media activity which actively complement, engage, and play off of each other (as well as your more traditional marketing channels). I believe it is important to understand your branding strategy and the networks you are looking to develop, and how you will use your social media to engage potential customers. It is imperative to understand that social media is not simply a new marketing channel to statically push your message through but rather an opportunity to initiate a dialogue and have a conversation with your customer.

My suggestion would be to start with three social media platforms when you develop your social media strategy and be prepared to participate — get really good at it, learn, and expand from there. THERE IS A TRUSIM THAT IS BECOMING QUITE APPARENT AND IT GOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS: IT IS BETTER TO HAVE NO SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS THAN ACTIVATE SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS THAT ARE NEVER USED — SETTING UP A COMPANY FACEBOOK PAGE, A TWITTER ACCOUNT, LINKEDIN, INSTAGRAM, ETC AND NOT USING THEM DOES NOT A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY MAKE.

The third section to the answer of the tenth and final question in a series of questions by Renée and Graham to Help You Mind Your Business

I’ve noticed there is a chain of events that occurs with the adoption of social media —

The realization (sometimes grudgingly) that social media is needed to move the business forward (and more often than not, there is also the belief that you don’t really have to understand it — just pretend that you do).

A saving grace perception occurs that the upfront costs are low and the costs can be kept low by giving it to someone who is young and “knows this stuff” — then it’s hands off.

Leadership takes a top shelf position as they try to understand what is happening, question why it doesn’t seem to be working, and asking that ever popular question, “Where’s the ROI?”

My experience is this chain of events tends to lead to static social media channels, no integration with other channels (or brand messaging), and the eventual reallocation of resources for something else (that more often than not isn’t very customer engaging).

So to the question of how much do you really have to do?

YOU NEED TO GO ALL IN and ensure any social media you use is as active as possible (forever creating dialogue with your network).

Leadership needs to truly understand the value of social media and the degree it wants to adopt social media—strategy and guidelines for the social media channels need to be set by leadership, as well as participation and engagement.

It does make sense to give the heavy lifting to a marketing associate or manager with social media roles and responsibilities, but they need to be operating under those guidelines set by leadership, and then after that shouldn’t be micromanaged — and given the latitude to build a dynamic network with their own creativity.

Social media is designed for the bold, the humble, and the patient — there are a lot of people “out there” and it is naive to believe just because you “said something” that anyone will care (or even hear you). My experience is it takes time to catch people’s attention, and more importantly hold it.

These are my guiding principles on this subject so far:

Quality prevails.
It takes more time than you would imagine
It is called “social media” because there is an inherent expectation to be social.
Identify lead and lag indicators to determine performance, and don’t use revenue.

One last thing on this subject since I learned privacy is dead — you will never move your business (or your brand) forward unless you seriously adopt a social media strategy.

I am very certain that there will be the obligatory summary and wrap up on our little series, but until then I want to thank you for reading.

iamgpe

Renée —

This is an interesting question because I often find myself in the position of having to manage expectations around social media and digital marketing. Many business people who are not specialists in this area are under the naïve assumption that social media marketing is all you really need to do and that your Twitter or Facebook account will supply you with a gazillion hot leads almost immediately.

I’m here to tell you that social media marketing requires time and effort to become effective and it should be only one of several tools you use to capture leads and build brand awareness.

So the short answer to the above question is yes, you do need to use social media for your business if you want to grow and remain in touch with the real world. Bear in mind that you should only do as much as you can consistently manage. I am anticipating you will want a little more direction, so please keep reading. Here are some things to consider as you set out to build your social presence:

Consider which social media sites your audience will frequent: You don’t need to be on every site. Just maintain a regular presence on a few key sites that your audience is most likely to frequent. For example, if your target market is over 65, you may want to consider keeping your direct mail campaign while also advertising on Facebook. The young folk find Facebook rather passé but seniors and the elderly are a fast growing demographic on Facebook. My 89 year old mother has been on Facebook for years. Seniors tend to not engage on social media, so don’t expect a ton of follows on your Facebook page, but your advertising on Facebook could be very effective.

Use sites like LinkedIn and Twitter for business to business content and keep an eye on beBee.com. This is an international blogging platform which focusses on personal and business branding. The site is rich with interesting content and has a very engaged community which is growing quite rapidly. There is a lot of great opportunity for beBee members to really connect in meaningful ways to conduct business and build friendships. I have had great success there.

Have your content professionally managed: People who think that today’s youth are automatically qualified to run social media campaigns drive me crazy. There is actually an art and science to social media that your average kid just doesn’t have knowledge of. You also need a certain level of business acumen in order to do a good job. Think about it. Age is not the best qualifier for any job. Knowledge and expertise, however, have a lot of value.

Beware of the pretenders: It makes me very sad when I hear of people who have used social media services which do not actually serve the client. I once spoke to a guy who was signed up on a “Rockstar” plan for $1000 a month. For that, he got 2 tweets a week of content that the client had to produce himself! Sadly, this self-proclaimed expert had only a few hundred followers on Twitter. This is wrong on a lot of levels. You really need to tweet out quality content several times a day. The content should be comprised of both original and curated content and should consist of links to articles, blogs, memes, etc. You also need to have a large following in order to have any reach at all, or at least be able to garner shares from those who have a significant number of followers from your target market. It takes a few minutes at most, to compose a statement of 140 characters. If it’s not done with links to quality original content and access to a broad audience, it isn’t worth much on any level.

The internet is fraught with people who call themselves growth hackers, and SEO wizards. They rarely deliver anything of value, but by the time you realize that, they’ve taken your money and moved on. They are the charlatans of the 21st century. Anyone who tells you that you can get a million visitors on your site in three months is full of crap. If you looked up the number of prospects you would do business with, would it be ten times more? Would it even be a million? Think about it in terms of the 80/20 rule. If 20 per cent of your prospects landed on your site, how may would that be? If all of your prospects and potential prospects landed on your site, how many would that be? Duh! Unless your product has enormous mass appeal, you haven’t got a hope in hell of getting that kind of traffic. Yes, I know there are companies that produce content that promises that kind of success. They rely on your complete gullibility for success. They hope that your ignorance, along with the fact that you will not be able to do the work yourself, will compel you to call them to create an internet marketing miracle for you (which will not happen). Just because it says so on the internet doesn’t mean it’s true!

Produce relevant content: Having a mix of content types is a good thing but you must be careful about quantity and quality. Affinity based content, which is entertaining, inspiring and not vulgar in nature is typically good. Some people use controversial content to get people talking and create brand awareness. Candice Galek of Bikini Luxe did this beautifully on LinkedIn with her bikini clad beauties on a business site. Who doesn’t need a swim suit? Her campaign was nothing short of brilliant and now the name of her company is widely recognized. She did get a lot of flak, however, and plenty of trouble from LinkedIn, I hear.

So how should you mix your content? When it comes to content mix, the 80/20 rule is a good one to follow with 80% being directly related to your business and 20% affinity based. Also, 80% of your content should be original content and 20% curated.

Produce well written original content: The content you produce needs to be well written. Poor grammar, typos and spelling errors will obscure the message and frustrate your reader. I like to keep my content in a skimable format knowing that most people will only skim a blog post, anyway. You will notice that most of my blog posts have bold faced points next to a brief explanation. I like to do that because it helps the reader learn something without necessarily having to take the time to devour every word. Let me know what you think.

A Few Rules of Thumb:

1. It is better to have one social platform that you manage fully than several that you neglect.

2. Generally speaking Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the best days to post your most important content. Regardless of the site, studies show that posting between noon and 1:00 PM also tends to yield high engagement.

3. Use backlinks to other posts and relevant websites to help you gain more traction.

4. Be a good social media citizen. Share content generously, comment freely and play nice. Never engage in a battle with trolls or anyone you don’t agree with.

5. Leverage the reach and influence of people with a large following in your industry. Ask for shares from them, freely share their content and mention them in your posts, if appropriate.

As a follow up to this post, I would like to direct you to a beBee post I wrote last year called, Is Social Media Marketing Enough? It talks about how to create an integrated approach to your marketing. The reality of marketing is that an integrated approach which combines traditional media and advertising with social media will be most effective. I also have a free downloadable e-booklet called 20 Content Marketing Tips to Supercharge Your Sales. Of course, if you need anyone to help with your marketing communications, just let me know!

Thanks to the social media platform beBee, Renée Cormier & Graham Edwards developed a business relationship and friendship that typically involves regular meetings, goal setting sessions, etc. Our meetings often provide the fuel for plans around business strategy, blog ideas and more.

Questions to Help You Mind Your Business... Question #9

September 18, 2017 by iamgpe in Execution

Question #9: How will I know if I am successful?

This is the ninth in a series of thoughts and opinions by Graham Edwards and Renée Cormier — click here to read the backstory and inspiration (if only for the entertainment). It should be noted that neither of us have seen or discussed our answers before they are posted, which in our mind makes this all the more interesting.

Graham —

I don’t know — you will have to tell me.

Since success needs to be measured against the goals and objectives you set for yourself, it goes without saying only you will know if you’re successful. Sure, there are societal norms and conventions that you can use to benchmark yourself against, but in the end you define your own success.

Oh everyone has an opinion on this; just ask anyone and they will have quite the perspective on it — although I’ve found if you keep pressing you may find they actually struggle to articulate what success really is. I’ve even checked the Internet and found a site called Lifehack — sure enough Missy Yost offered up 20 definitions of success you should never ignore (bless her heart).

Success is always doing your best
Success is properly setting concrete goals
Success is having a place to call home
Success is understanding the difference between need and want
Success is believing you can
Success is remembering to balance work with passion
Success is taking care of your needs
Success is learning that you sometimes have to say no
Success is knowing your life is filled with abundance
Success is understanding you cannot keep what you don’t give away
Success is overcoming fear
Success is seeing your child graduate
Success is learning something new each day
Success is learning that losing a few battles can help you win a war
Success is loving and being loved back
Success is standing your ground when you believe in something
Success is not giving up
Success is celebrating small victories
Success is never letting a disability hold you back
Success is understanding you control your destiny

So there you go.

You may be saying to yourself, “But gpe, we are talking about how will I know I’m successful with my business.” Again, I will say, “I don’t know — you will have to tell me”. You have goals and objectives for your business don’t you?

iamgpe

PS: The only perspective I can really offer is when you set your Goals & Objectives, set them HIGH.

Renée —

I think this may be a bit of a lame question, but as I recall, I was the one who came up with it, so I’m going to provide you with my best answer. People define success in many ways, and it is different for everybody. For some, you are successful if you have a lot of money. For others success is the result of having completed any goal. Are you successful if you don’t have a spouse and 2.4 children? Are you successful if you never own a house or a car? Ask the Dalai Lama.

Years ago, I was listening to a Brian Tracey tape (yes, it was a while ago) about success. He gave a definition that always stuck with me, which was something along the line of achieving any goal with integrity. He went on to say that money is not a measure of success per se. Drug dealers have enormous amounts of money, but you can’t really call a criminal a successful person. They lie, cheat, steal, kill and corrupt to reach their goals. A runner who shoves a competitor out of the way in order to win, is not a successful runner, even if he is first over the finish line. The journey to success is as important as the end result.

So how will you know if you are successful? Look around you. What are you grateful for? Have you set goals in your life? Have you achieved any of them? Have you achieved your goals with integrity? Have you ever failed?

I think truly successful people, never really arrive. Not that they cannot be satisfied, but rather, they find it difficult to stop challenging themselves. Success breeds success. I also think that failure breeds success. You cannot know what you want until you experience what you don’t want. Most successful business people have had their share of failures too. Being able to recognize what is not working and why is a good thing. Have you made mistakes? Did you learn from them? Are you still moving toward your next goal? Do you feel good about the things you have done? Are you a happy person? I daresay, if you can answer yes to these questions, you are likely quite successful.

The definition of success to me is not necessarily a price tag, not fame, but having a good life, and being able to say I did the right thing at the end of the day. - Jeremy Luke