Planning and strategizing with clients is something I not only excel at, I thoroughly enjoy it as well!
Last Friday I was in Chicago for an intensive strategic planning day with a client. I will be sharing more about this particular client in the coming months as she has a new book coming out.
Friday was a busy day and it was all about structuring the rest of 2015 from all angles. We looked at an editorial calendar, upcoming coaching groups, marketing, and the book launch schedule. We also worked out a plan to leverage her content in more places.
Strategic planning is not an event, it is a process. There were steps to our planning process and I would love to share them with you.
Our Strategic Planning Process
1. We discussed her business environment and tried to predict what impact this environment could have the future of her business this year and going forward. This included other coaches and their offerings as well as client needs.
2. We established the common focus that will provide our direction. We wrote a short, simple, inspiring vision that establishes where she wants to go. We set intentions and documented what needs to be achieved in key focus areas in order to realize her vision.
3. We determined who our key players were in the achievement of her vision and what role each player had in our success and whether or not new team members were needed. We mapped out the roles they would take going forward and a plan to communicate the vision and the roles to the other team members as well as a plan to acquire team members in needed areas.
4. We determined our key projects for achieving her vision. We looked at the tasks that are most important, what takes the most time, and effort, and where our priorities will need to be to find success.
5. We developed our milestones and calendared our potential outcomes, deadlines, and first-high-level-glance-established our project plans.
Lots of details were involved. We both left with take-aways and will regroup in a month to complete our process.
Most of all, we were deep in the thick of things together and it was a wonderful experience. I am so grateful to be allowed to participate with her in her business in this way. It really helps us nurture her business and better enables her to share her gifts and live her purpose.
Do you do strategic planning with clients? What are the steps that you use?