How To Plan And Achieve Quarterly Business Development Goals
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Your quarterly business development goals act as a roadmap for the months ahead, breaking down your annual goals into smaller, more manageable chunks. Planning these goals strategically helps guide your business's daily operations and long-term growth.
As a service provider, your plan should not only focus on financial outcomes but also on service quality. Customer retention. And other key performance indicators (KPIs) unique to your goals. In this article, you’ll learn how to craft a quarterly business development plan that motivates you to act and produces tangible results.
Feel free to take notes, or purchase our Quarterly Business Development Plan Template to help guide you through the process.
What is a business development plan?
A business development plan focuses specifically on finding new opportunities, building relationships with customers, and expanding the business.
Unlike typical planning, which might focus more on day-to-day tasks, a business development plan looks at the bigger picture. It sets strategies to attract new customers, examine related industries and niches to succeed in, and introduce new services. It's all about thinking ahead and taking steps to make the business stronger and more successful in the long run.
What to include in a business development plan
A good quarterly plan should consist of several components, each catering to different aspects of your service business. We recommend including:
A Sales & Revenue Forecast: Forecasting sales and revenue for the quarter is important for setting realistic financial targets and ensuring your resources align with your revenue projections.
Operational Improvements: In the service industry, operations must be smooth and efficient, not chaotic. Consider how you can streamline service delivery, manage resources more effectively, and enhance your overall operational performance.
Customer Relations: Strong customer relations are the lifeblood of service businesses. You’ll want to consider how to enhance customer experience, gather client feedback, and build lasting relationships.
To sum it up, think about how much money you want to make. Whether or not you’re operating well. And how you want to get better at serving clients.
Our step-by-step process for setting your business development goals
Keeping the key components of a quarterly business plan in mind, follow the 3 steps below to begin writing your goals:
#1 Reflect
Before you start listing goals for the quarter, you should take time to reflect on what you have and have not accomplished and why.
One way to do this is by performing a SWOT Analysis – an evaluation of your business's internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats. This will tell you where your business stands with its internal capabilities and external environment, guiding you in setting realistic and effective goals for the upcoming quarter.
#2 Set Micro-Goals
Your goals should be S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound).
List the smaller business development goals you want to accomplish in the next 3 months. If you did an annual plan for your business, you should have an overarching theme or something BIG that you’re aiming towards for the year. Use that as a guide to set 3 micro goals for the quarter.
Here’s an example:
Theme of the year: Growth and visibility
S.M.A.R.T. goal for this year (inspired by the theme): Prioritize search engine optimization (SEO) to 20x my website traffic from 300 site visitors per month to 6,000 site visitors monthly by December 31, 2024.
S.M.A.R.T. goal for this quarter (inspired by the yearly goal): Publish 2 SEO-optimized blog posts per week to increase my website traffic from 300 site visitors per month to 1,500 site visitors per month by the end of this quarter.
#3 List Your “How”
Every goal needs a how. It’s not enough to just say you want a specific result for your business. You have to map out how you’re going to get there.
Pulling from the example above, if you want to see more website traffic through blogging, how will you ensure your blog gets more traffic? Are you hiring an SEO content writer or an SEO strategist to help you write better blogs? Do you need to purchase a resource to teach yourself how to increase website traffic?
Whatever your “how” is, list that next to the goal.
Using tools with features that help you plan & track progress
Leverage tools and systems to make your business planning process as seamless as possible. Project management software like ClickUp, Monday, and Asana are prime examples of tools that can facilitate effective planning and tracking. Whichever tool you decide to use should be able to display the following:
Metric and Goal Tracking
Use a tool that allows you to effortlessly list and monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), objectives, and milestones. With clear visibility into your metrics and goals, you can track progress effectively. Identify areas for improvement. And make data-driven decisions to keep your business on course.
Team Integration
Choose a tool that promotes collaboration and seamless communication among team members. Look for features like task assignments, real-time updates, and document sharing to ensure everyone is aligned on objectives and responsibilities. By integrating your team into the planning and tracking process, you develop a culture of accountability and collective effort toward achieving your quarterly business goals.
Data Visualization
Tools with advanced data visualization capabilities help you make sense of complex information. Visual representations such as charts, graphs, and dashboards help you easily recognize trends, patterns, and performance metrics. With intuitive data, you can quickly assess your progress and make informed decisions.
Tips to help you stay motivated while following your plan
Goals mean nothing if we don’t actually do the work to achieve them. However, being consistent isn’t always easy — especially when you’re struggling with a lack of motivation. Here are our top tips for keeping yourself encouraged while following your business development plan:
Surround yourself with a supportive network
Whether it's mentors, peers, or employees, get around people who can provide encouragement and accountability.
Set aside time for self-reflection and reassessment
Reviewing the progress of your business development goals every few weeks or months ensures that you stay aligned with your vision and remain motivated to push forward, even when faced with challenges.
Celebrate your successes along the way
No matter how small your achievements are, stopping to celebrate can boost morale and fuel your determination to keep going.
TL;DR? Here’s a quick recap of this blog
While creating a quarterly business development plan doesn't guarantee success, it does provide a clear direction and a framework for accountability. By breaking down your annual goals into manageable chunks and focusing on key components like sales forecasting, operational improvements, and customer relations, you can set yourself up for success in the upcoming months. Also, remaining adaptable and flexible will ensure that your plan remains relevant and effective in achieving your goals, even if things change.
If you want to plan the next 3 months of your business strategically, purchase our Quarterly Business Development Plan Template. It provides a step-by-step video walkthrough and editable workbook to help you break down your yearly goals into smaller, more manageable chunks.
Quarterly business development goals act as a roadmap for the months ahead, breaking down your annual goals into smaller, more manageable chunks. In this post, we’ll teach you how to create and achieve these goals!