I saw this quote this morning:

“We’ve got to have a dream if we are going to make a dream come true.”                               ~Denis Waitley

And I was reminded, again, of the importance of planning. Sometimes we focus so hard on the act of planning that we forget that the ultimate goal of planning is to know what we want to achieve.

  • Do you know which potential customers are on your wishlist?
  • Do you know what types of customers you want to attract?
planning, five forces, eight factors, swot, strategic marketing planning

photo credit: marioanima

If you’re just hoping for business to walk through the door, you’re probably missing out receiving the business you really want. We’ve always made it a priority to have a wishlist of clients. And while we enjoy working all our clients, there have been a handful that we’ve been actively recruiting. Not that long ago, I was sitting with a friend who asked me what kind of clients we were currently looking for and I had to admit, I was at a loss. See, we’d successfully gotten or were in the process of signing every client on our wishlist. A coincidence? Nope, we’d worked hard on making our dream-client list a reality.

However, I realized in that moment that we had forgotten to dream again and develop a new client wishlist. Where you want your business to grow is always, always, a moving target. You’ll never get there — and if you do, you’d better design new goals in a hurry or your business will stagnate. Businesses (and humans) do best when they are challenged, when they are reaching for the next big thing.

So, in this planning season, I’m heading back to the drawing board to identify a new dream-client list for 2012. I will probably do the compulsory SWAT, Eight Factors, and Five Forces while I’m at it, so that our business is positioned to succeed in 2012. How about you? Will you join me?

About the Author:

Tisha Oehmen

Tisha Oehmen is a professional brand strategist and a leader in the branding field. She has been named a member of the Global Guru’s Top 30 Brand Gurus. She is also the co-founder of Oregon-based Paradux Media Group and the best-selling author of the book, Finding Brand: The Brand Book Tutorial.

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