By Nicole Wise on Aug 21, 2012 11:40:00 AM
Marketing Tips and Hints
Entry 21: Fall Marketing Goals Drive Audacious Growth
August is here and that means it’s time to get into shape for fall marketing. Get your marketing/sales team together and start thinking about what you want to accomplish this fall season. A marketing/sales goal can help bring a team together to succeed and drive growth in the company. Your goal should also be inspiring and require every individual to perform to his or her very best. At Holganix, we call these goals BHAGs or Big Hairy Audacious Goals. The concept of BHAGs was first created by business guru Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their best selling book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. According to Collins and Porras, a “true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as a unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit.”
A great BHAG might be the number of new customers you need to sell this fall season. In order to help fulfill Big Hairy Audacious Goals, we find that the best method is to break down your BHAG into small, easily accomplished chunks. Here’s how:
- Ultimate BHAG: What’s your ultimate goal in the next five to ten years? How many customers do you want to grow by in the next upcoming years? Remember, they don’t call them Big Hairy Audacious Goals for nothing, feel free to dream big!
- The year’s BHAG: After committing to grow by a certain number of customers, break down the goal by year. If your goal is to grow by 225,000 customers in ten years how many customers do you need to sell this year? 225,000 customers divided by 10 years gives you 150 customers per year.
- Fall season BHAG: how many customers do you want to sell to this fall season? This should be based on your goal for the entire year. For example, if in January you decided to grow by 150 customers and you only sold 75 customers in the spring, you need to sell an additional 75 customers this fall.
- Monthly BHAG: break down the fall season’s BHAG by month. How many customers do you need each month to achieve your fall season’s goal? For many northeastern companies, the fall season is about 2½ to 3 months. If you needed 75 customers this fall season, you would have to sell 25 customers each month. Remember to use the bell curve for seasonality.
- Weekly BHAG: How many customers do you need each week in order to make your monthly goal? If you need to sell 25 customers each month, then you would have to sell 6.25 customers each week!
- Break down your weekly goal by how many calls you should make as well as how many prepays you should send. This number depends on your marketing/sales team and how well they perform on average. However, aiming for a 0.5-1.0% close rate would be a great goal for your team!
- Break down the needed number of customers per week by zip code and the number of people in each zip code. This allows you to make sure you make the most of each possible zip code in your area. Also remember to focus on your golden streets -- those neighborhoods containing your most profitable customers.
Goals are a great way to form team unity and help drive your company’s growth. Breaking down your Big Hairy Audacious Goals into bite-sized chunks helps your team stay focused and on target.
For great sources on BHAGS, check out Jim Collins and Jerry Porras’ book, Built to Last or read growth guru Verne Harnish’s article on creating BHAGS.
Works Cited
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras
