It is necessary to convey to the entire team the high importance of strategic tasks, their priority. Otherwise, you will not avoid serious problems. It happens that employees know perfectly well what their strategic tasks are, but are more busy with sorting out simple current problems (i.e. there is a lot of work and they have no time for strategies). Meanwhile, the line staff should deal with small things, while the task of leading managers is to implement the strategy. And if they are distracted by trifles, then they thereby make their subordinates understand that strategic tasks are not so important, they were simply invented for some reason by the management.
Strategy is a kind of big secret.
Sometimes managers adhere canada email list to this line, fearing information leakage. Strategic planning of tasks is kept secret, their essence is known literally to a few leading specialists. At the same time, they themselves have to implement most of the tasks, which is sometimes simply physically impossible. This is generally a wrong approach. All employees should be aware of their strategic tasks. Service department managers should know what to do to improve the quality of service in the near future. Or if, for example, the priority in the strategy is low prices, then the production and purchasing departments should certainly be aware of this. Keep secret the figures on expected profits or information regarding the release of cool new products on the market, from which a real sensation is expected.
Strategy lives separately from the company's team.
That is, it is thought out, created, everything is clearly written and understandable in it, but only the manager reads it, and several times a day. Meanwhile, it is vital to convey its contents to literally every employee. A loader must know how important it is to ship on time, and a lawyer must understand how important timely documentation is. The strategy will not bring results if the operating segment simply carries out its actions out of habit and in the old-fashioned way, without understanding the strategic importance of the tasks set.
There must be "passes" in strategic sales planning.
This means periodic stops in the process so that you can calmly evaluate your achievements and, if necessary, adjust your further actions. This is also clear from the balanced scorecard, which assumes tracking both intermediate and final results. For example, a new retail facility is being built. The volumes of work are planned, and an action strategy has been developed. Then, every month, you need to check what is already ready, how much it matches the planned indicators, and whether adjustments are needed in the actions. Perhaps the construction and opening of the project's stages are strictly in accordance with the schedule.
Continuous improvement of strategy in pursuit of the ideal.
This can lead to complete forgetting for what purposes it was originally developed. Frequent changes to the strategy can eventually confuse the developers themselves. As a result, it turns out that in pursuit of perfection, a plan was created that is in fact completely ineffective.
Fear of spending too many resources (financial, time, human) on the strategic sales planning process.
Of course, to achieve something, you need to work hard. The path to success is never easy. And it is at least strange to think that a cool result will appear instantly. Yes, to achieve something significant, you will have to spend time, effort, and money.