Strategic planning is the first step in most of Grey Matter’s client engagements. Although it is not a requirement that we engage in strategic planning with our clients we really encourage it. Otherwise, how do we know which of our marketing tactics will deliver on our client’s objectives?

Understanding the ultimate goal of our client’s businesses has a great influence on how we approach the engagement. If they are trying to generate sales then that involves one set of tools and approaches. If they are a non-profit, then that requires a different set of marketing tactics.

For many of our e-commerce clients we ask if we can start at the deep end of the pool – their corporate P&L. Our team has an excellent working knowledge of corporate finance and we like to help our clients in their strategic planning efforts by starting out with product-level and business-level profit and loss statement development.

Starting out with 5-year, corporate P&L allows us and the client’s team to frame the expectations for revenue and profits over a reasonable period into the future. Sometimes we are hired at the very initial stages of a business launch or when the client’s are seeking capital to start their business. In these cases we start with a series of assumptions based on what we know about the particular business vertical and what we think the growth trajectory can be.

e-commerce and digital business start-ups typically lose money as they invest in the early years and we show our clients what the path to profitability will look like. In creating this perspective we also look at the product or service level P&Ls to make sure that they fit the overall corporate P&Ls and the objectives they contain.

Once the financial roadmap has been established we can then develop the tactical marketing plan that will deliver on our clients objectives and aspirations. Sometimes the upfront strategic planning can be difficult but it is always necessary if our efforts on behalf of our clients are to be successful.