A Salesgirl's Guide to Quarterly Planning

When the business was a baby 5 years ago, we wanted to know how the heck everyone else was doing the thing so that we could know we were on the right track.

Today, we still love knowing how the heck everyone else is doing the thing so that we can learn something new to take back to our track and run even faster. 

While we aren’t pros at planning, we have been doing quarterly meetings poorly for long enough to actually get decent at them. 

Wherever you fall, here is the framework we use to plan for the business, quarterly:

We start the meeting by reviewing the list of things that everyone was assigned to come with. 

Since we come prepared (game changer!!!), we can blast our brain dumps for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and trends. This will leave you with a big fat list.

A majority of the full day meeting is spent here with this list.

Pro tip: Pay especially close attention to things that are mentioned by more than one person. If those repeat offenders are an opportunity or weakness, it should almost certainly be a tackle.

Strengths are encouraging and informative, but weaknesses and opportunities is where you should spend most of your time.

From these lists, we pull out specific projects that we want to prioritize for the next 90 days. 

These are your tackles.

Macy’s note about tackles in Slack about there being ~*SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM*~ is exciting and also can be the downfall if you don’t prioritize based on the longterm vision and goals for the business. 

Remember: There are 2/10 ideas and 9/10 ideas and they’re both technically ideas, but one you should pursue and one you should pass on. 

I wish all the tackles that we decide on could be: Write this book! Get better at what you’re already good at! Design this new thing! Make lots of money! Have fun! 

Some will be exciting and fun and new. But some will be dusty and unsexy and necessary.

The ideas you should pursue are the ones that will help you pave the way to your longterm vision. 

The Q3 tackles will be assigned to ONE person who is dubbed responsible.

Of course they may need to recruit help to TACKLE the tackle (I’ll see myself out), but having one person who speaks for each tackle is major key.

If more than one person is accountable, no one is accountable. 

Ideally, you leave a well-structured quarterly planning meeting with 1-3 tackles assigned to you.

If you can look at your list and know the result you need to get, but you’re not quite sure how you’re gonna get it…. That’s perfect.

By the end of the day, it’s like race horses out of a stall. Energized, with direction and confirmation.

Going fast is fun when you know you’re running the right way. 

I better get to work.

Xo, The Salesgirls

PS. If you don’t have a team yet or want to be a solopreneur for life or work for a boss who is uninterested, remember: you are the CEO of YOU.

There is absolutely a way that you can take these, or any other planning principles, to set yourself up for strategic forward progress in your life.