So you had a successful business quarter. How do we plan for the next one to keep seeing those improvements and get more wins? Read on to find out.
Photo Credit: wayhomestudio
Most businesses usually go into the year with a strategic plan in place, mostly aiming to work as efficiently as possible to increase their customer base and boost revenue and growth. Even though this plan works for most businesses, it is not specific or defined. Getting more specific with your quarterly or annual business plan helps you achieve success throughout the year by learning what does and doesn’t work.
Successful quarterly planning helps you take stock of your accomplishments thus far and determine what you hope to achieve in the next business quarter. Proper foresight sets you up for success by helping you see where to invest resources or time and make smart decisions accordingly. Ideally, it helps to make a plan for each quarter to accomplish the objectives lined up with the goals you’ve set for the year.
With that said, let’s look at five tips that will help you plan your next successful business quarter:
Review the previous business quarter.
First, we’ll need to look back at the just-concluded business quarter to see what you achieved. Go over your wins and losses from the past three months to understand what did and didn’t work. You might be tempted to only focus on the good parts of your successful business quarter, but your losses will be equally important in your assessment. Evaluate your failures to keep your team from repeating the same mistakes in the next quarter.
Look at the goals you accomplished and how you achieved them to see if there’s anything you can bring into the next quarter. When analyzing the previous quarter, you’ll look at four main areas:
- Performance: This will help you determine why you did not meet some goals.
- Market: Look at where your business is in the marketplace and see if there were any changes.
- Staffing: Did you get the right people on your team during the previous quarter?
- Profits: Determine if there were any gaps between your intended profitability and the results you achieved.
After thoroughly going over the previous quarter, you’ll need to let go of any leftover feelings over anything that happened, be it good or bad, and focus on what’s to come. Take the lessons you’ve learned and leave everything else behind.
Set goals and KPIs for the next quarter and create an action plan
I’m assuming you have goals you’ll want to aim for in the next quarter. If this isn’t the case, then make sure you set some, so you have something concrete to work towards. Establish clear and comprehensive goals and break them down into smaller actionable objectives. Don’t forget to prioritize them and assign each task to someone specific. This person will be fully accountable for their assigned objective or task during the upcoming quarter.
Holding a specific person or team responsible for a particular goal, objective, or task will help you track their progress throughout the next business quarter. Additionally, set up Objective Key Results (OKRs) to measure the business’s progress and health.
Communicate the plan
Now that you’ve established a plan for a successful business quarter, what are you going to do with it? Communicate it to your team, of course. Ensure your people understand all the business goals and objectives you’ve set. Make sure they know what they need to do to accomplish those goals.
Don’t forget to slip some incentives for the team in there as well. Let them know that there are potential rewards or perks if they hit their targets. You’ll be surprised at how much morale and performance will increase. This reminds me of an episode of The Office when Andy Bernard, Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin Scranton, promised his employees that he would get a tattoo of their choosing if they doubled their sales. Surprisingly, morale went up so high in the same afternoon that he started looking for ways to demoralize the team. Needless to say, he got the tattoo. (Season 8, Episode 2 titled, “The Incentive” if you’re curious)
Well, you don’t necessarily have to get some ink (unless you want to), but incentives don’t always have to be financial perks. You can find other ways to make the team happy and celebrate their individual or collective successes.
Schedule reviews and measure performance
Once your team starts doing the work, the next step is reviewing and measuring their progress. Make sure you set up regular weekly or monthly meetings to conduct reviews. It might be easy to forget when things get busy, so schedule those meetings and set reminders BEFORE everyone starts working on the strategy for the next quarter.
Pro- tip: Have a visual chart showing what you’re working towards so that everyone knows if they are on the right track. It can show what each team is working on and their collective progress. This might even create an opportunity for some healthy competition in the office.
Clue your team on the results
Lastly, as you’re working on the plan, reviewing results, and crushing your goals as a team, let everyone know the results of their efforts. Communicate the good and the bad. If the results are good, it is an opportunity to celebrate because we all know the benefits of celebrating all wins, big or small. If things are not looking good, you can discuss what changes you’ll need to make to help you get back on track.
Ultimately…
Successful quarterly planning requires a strategy that employs SMART, broad goals to help you achieve measurable and actionable results for guaranteed success. This helps everyone on the teamwork together to accomplish a shared goal while remaining productive, engaged, and accountable.
Now that you have these five sure-fire tips in your back pocket, go forth and be fruitful this next quarter!
