I have lots of ways I like to approach planning and goal setting, depending upon the team, the situation, the company culture and the goals. Planning is contextual—I am equally down for a formal, rigorous, highly detailed plan, or something scribbled out on the back of a napkin. Each has their merits and their place.How you plan doesn’t matter—execution matters.
If you are a leader who eschews planning, but knows you need to do it anyway, here is a simple framework. This one was created to really focus on the most important health metrics for a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), but it is so drop-dead simple that it will work for any type of business. It’s one of my personal favorites because it kept me, and my team, so focused on the fundamentals of our success: Acquisition. Retention. Expansion.
A.R.E has substantial legs outside of the planning process itself, and can extend to day-to-day running of the company. Everything you are considering doing can be passed through this lens.
Your A.R.E plan can be done on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis (although, if you do it annually, it should be updated quarterly and monthly—not left to gather dust on a shelf!). My recommendation is to have an annual A.R.E. goal and a plan that gets updated quarterly, and reviewed monthly.
Here is a little outline for what it looks like:
- Acquisition goal:
- Here’s how we are going to acquire more customers:
- List the key initiatives to execute to reach the acquisition goal
- Here’s how we are going to acquire more customers:
- Retention goal:
- Here’s how we are going to retain more customers:
- List the key initiatives to execute to reach the retention goal
- Here’s how we are going to retain more customers:
- Expansion goal:
- Here’s how we are going to expand more into our customer accounts:
- List the key initiatives to execute to reach the expansion goal
- Here’s how we are going to expand more into our customer accounts:
This plan format is simple and focused and that’s why I love using it. It bears repeating: How you plan doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you actually execute. No plan in the world will help you achieve your goals if you don’t then go make it happen. A simple plan can help keep the focus on the most important goals, and the key initiatives to execute.
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