If you own or manage a local Colorado business you're trying to grow it.  If you don't have growth plans you're truly unique, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Businesses that don't grow go away. They fail completely or get gobbled up by competitors looking to pick up market share. Those of us that are growing want to grow even faster, and that's what most of us spend our time at this time of year. Right now you're probably knee-deep in 2014 planning, trying to lay out the plans to achieve your goals for the year. You're evaluating 2013 and trying to see where there is an opportunity and where you're going to run into challenges.

You're going through your own GPCT already, you just might not structure it like I do.  In hopes of helping with your 2014 planning, I'm laying out a path to give some critical thought to where you really are.  What you're really looking to accomplish, and what could cause that to fail.  If you think you could use some help with your planning please give this methodology a try, it might change your paradigm on a critical challenge and the way you're going to attack it in the coming year. 

A GPCT exercise will help you evaluate your GOALS, detail the PLANS you have in place, examine the CHALLENGES you face in reaching your goals, and define your TIMELINE for accomplishing them.

Because we're a marketing agency specializing in inbound marketing assessment, strategy, and execution. We live in a digital world and spend our time helping business build and leverage their digital assets. Regardless of the size of their business or the state of their digital assets we always start out with the same conversation. 

First Step: I ask some basic questions about your business, sometimes the simplest questions spur great conversation.

“How do your customers buy what you sell currently?”

“What role does the website play in bringing in business?”

“Who and where are your target prospects?”

“Where do your prospects find what they're looking for?”

 

Next, it's time to go into your GPCT

 

• GPCT

  • Goals

  • Plans

  • Challenges

  • Timeline

 

GOALS

“Do you have any specific goals or objectives the company is working to hit in 2013?  (Revenue, sales, profit margin, etc…)”

“What is the overall inbound marketing strategy for the year?”

“How many new customers do you need to bring in to hit the goal?”

“When you do achieve your goals, what will that change in your business?

"What will it change for you personally?"

“Have you put thought into what will happen if you don’t achieve these goals?”

“What would happen if you didn’t do anything different?”

 

PLANS

“What are you trying to achieve with the website?”

“What did you do for sales and marketing last year?”

“What online marketing activities do you have planned?”

“How many leads are you generating currently?”

“Tell me about your sales team. Are they cold calling?”

“How much does it cost to acquire your leads/customers?”

 

CHALLENGES

“What obstacles do you think will keep your plan from working?”

“What assets do you already have in place to achieve what we’ve talked about?”

“What do you think is your biggest inbound marketing challenge?”

“Do you or your employees have enough time and skills to do it yourself?”

“If you or your employees spend the time necessary what is the opportunity cost?”

 

TIMELINE

“When do you need to achieve these results?”

“What do you need to put in place to hit your goal?”

“What is the timeline to achieve your goal?”

 

You can take this approach to your entire business, not just your marketing efforts as I've illustrated above. This is a lot of work, it takes some time to evaluate opportunities and determine whether we're a fit for each other or not. Each of these questions can lead to critical thought and much deliberation. I hope this article makes you think. I hope it makes you dig in and get better. Most of all I hope it helps you set lofty goals for your business, and achieve them. Good luck, and have a very happy New Year.