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Creating a Cisco HCS Practice Business Plan

The purpose of this session is to help partners improve their revenue and profitability by developing a practice that is based on Cisco HCS Practice. Ultimately, partner organizations that align all business functions with a clearly articulated business strategy are the most successful. Through this session Cisco seeks to assist partners in fine-tuning their strategic thinking, understanding the components of a solutions-based practice, and aligning their sales and marketing activities for success.

This Cisco HCS Business Planning Guide should be developed prior to utilizing other tools. It is recommended by C3 and Acumen that the partner completes the HCS Maturity Model, developed by C3 and Acumen, prior to completing this guide.

CREATING A HCS BUSINESS PLANNING PROCESS FOR GROWTH

CHOICE: DETERMINE YOUR CURRENT STATUS AND CREATE VISION

These questions are designed to help you easily assess the current and potential future direction of your organization. Use this tool along with questions from the Value Proposition exercise every six months to review your current thinking, the market conditions, and your execution.

1. What types of projects are you best at securing and delivering? What types of projects should you avoid?

2. What must you do to ensure a consistent sales/revenue stream?

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3. Name your top three competitors.

4. Define why you can win against each of them.

5. What are your main business drivers that:

Increase revenues: ________________________________

Increase profits: ___________________________________

Lower costs: ______________________________________

Where is your future?

Where should you be focused? What are the tactical actions you need to execute?

1. Describe what your company should look like in 2 years.

2. What markets/services/products must you focus on to grow your business?

3. How will this move affect your business operations?

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4. What departments within your organization will this affect?

5. What must you give up to ensure success of this new focus?

6. How can you leverage your experiences for new growth?

7. What is your exit strategy? Acquisition? IPO?

8. What would you change in your organization if you could do so immediately?

9. What new Competencies or Specializations will you add in the next 12 months?

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CREATING A HCS BUSINESS PLANNING PROCESS FOR GROWTH

BUSINESS OF CHOICE: CREATING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

It is time to define your actions and goals, and to make some choices.

SMART Goals

The easier it is to form a mental image of a goal, the more likely that goal will succeed at directing our activities. Stated differently, if a goal is difficult to conceptualize, it will also be difficult to act on.

A proven way to achieve goal clarity is represented by the acronym, SMART: keep written goals specific (clear and easy to understand), measurable, appropriate (consistent and supportive to the associated outcome goal), realistic (the “right” degree of difficulty), and time-bounded or within a due date.

In addition to these time-tested guidelines, research shows that the most effective goals are positively expressed, that is, the goal describes the desired actions to accomplish rather than the undesired actions to avoid.

A common pitfall is to set too many goals at once, which usually results in becoming overwhelmed and losing focus. It’s important to set the “right” number of goals – enough to sufficiently direct activities, but not so many that nothing gets done.

And finally, flexibility is critical. People should proactively revise goals – in difficulty and scope – as soon as conditions substantially change. When the environment, for example, becomes non-responsive for an already challenging goal, and that goal is not revised to match the new circumstances, discouragement and self-defeating anxiety can lead to burnout and failure. Interestingly, many individuals find it easy to revise their goals upwards (i.e., make them more challenging); however, they are usually reluctant to lower them.

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Business Vision and Objectives

Determine Your Estimated Revenues per Practice Segment

Practice Area New Clients Existing Clients

% of 2013 Revenue % of 2013 Revenue

My vision for our business in two years is: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

My revenues in one year will be: $ ____________ In two years: $__________________

In order to achieve my goals I will need to take the following three actions:

1. ______________________________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________________________

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My personal objectives are: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

CREATING A HCS BUSINESS PLANNING PROCESS FOR GROWTH

SAMPLE BUSINESS PLAN OUTLINE

1. Executive Summary

1.1. Objectives

1.2. Mission

1.3. Keys to Success

2. Company Summary

2.1. Company Ownership

2.2. Start-Up Summary

3. Product/Solution Development

4. Market Analysis Summary

4.1. Market Segmentation

4.2. Target Market Segment Strategy

4.3. Service Business Analysis

4.3.1. Competition and Buying Patterns

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5. Strategy and Implementation Summary

5.1 Services Offering

5.2. Marketing Strategy

5.2.1 Marketing Plan

5.2.2 Competitive Positioning

5.3. Sales Strategy

5.3.1. Sales Forecast

5.4. Milestones

6. Management Summary

6.1. Personnel Plan

6.1.1 Hiring/Staffing Schedule

7. Financial Plan

7.1. Important Assumptions

7.2. Break-Even Analysis

7.3. Projected Profit and Loss

7.4. Projected Cash Flow

7.5. Projected Balance Sheet

7.6. Business Ratios

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CREATING A HCS BUSINESS PLANNING PROCESS FOR GROWTH

SALES AND MARKETING PLAN SAMPLE OUTLINE

2013 SALES AND MARKETING PLAN OUTLINE

ASSUMPTIONS:

Competitive landscape remains stable

Key sales metrics remain stable

Lead generation activities will accelerate

New sales hires ramp within 6 months of hire

Drivers:

Excellent product quality and function

Added sales capacity

Excellent references

Our reputation/marketing in market

Targeted marketing campaigns

Focus on sales execution:

i. Defined sales process in place

ii. Win/loss metrics tracked

iii. Tighter reporting on sales opportunities

iv. Monthly sales training planned

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v. Dedicated sales management

Metrics:

New account revenue goal of $1,100,000

Total of 10 new accounts

Average sales opportunity of $150,000

Estimated average lead-to-sale ratio of 20:1

Estimated average sales cycle time of 3 months

Estimated average lead-to-sale cycle time of 6 months

Gross pipeline value of 4 times the next two quarters’ revenue goal

Estimated average conversion to prospect ratio of 3:1

Estimated win rate of 50% of qualified prospects

Risks:

Customer issues and support

New competitors – price/market share loss

Loss of key people as technical resources

Opportunities:

Add a % increase in Net New clients

Open new vertical market

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Build recurring revenue base

Metric Assumptions:

Gross pipeline supports 6 months of sales (assumed sales cycle time)

Qualified prospects lead new account sales goals by 6 months (assumed sales

cycle time)

Leads support new account sales goals by 9 months (assumed sales and lead

development cycle time)

Conversions (suspects/leads converted into qualified prospects) lead new

account sales goals by 6 months

CREATIING A HCS BUSINESS PLANNING PROCESS FOR GROWTH

THE ESTEEM EVALUATION AND SUCCESS ROADMAP

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Exercise: Develop Objectives to Develop a Solutions Practice Using the ESTEEM Formula

The objective is for the partner organization to understand business strategy and the need to build execution into the planning stages.

Environment, Strategy, Tactical Effect, Execution, Evaluation, Measurement

The top three objectives that are required for my firm to begin to create a better planning process are:

1. __________________________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________________________

The top four business drivers required for my firm to grow are:

1. __________________________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________________________

4. ___________________________________________________________________

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CREATING A HCS BUSINESS PLANNING PROCESS FOR GROWTH

ROADMAP FOR SUCCESS

Partner Execution Worksheet

Focus, Discipline, Accountability, Achievement

The purpose of this tool is to allow the management team to determine the key objectives that must be accomplished to create a successful HCS Practice and assign responsibility to the appropriate person to complete the necessary tasks. The President can use this tool to “inspect what you expect” that each person is accomplishing their tasks. This tool can be used in conjunction with the HCS Project Accountability Worksheet.

Partner Name: _____________________ Department: ______________________

Major initiative/objective ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Timeline

________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________

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Assumptions to achieve objective

1. ________________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________________

3. _________________________________________________________

4. __________________________________________________________

5. __________________________________________________________

Strategic market objectives/goals Measurement of success

1. ________________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________________

3. _________________________________________________________

4. __________________________________________________________

5. __________________________________________________________

Potential obstacles to achievement of market success

1. ________________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________________

3. _________________________________________________________

4. __________________________________________________________

5. __________________________________________________________

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Actionable tactics to achieve goals Person accountable/time

1. ________________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________________

3. _________________________________________________________

4. __________________________________________________________

5. __________________________________________________________

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APPENDIX A

Business Plan Questionnaire: Short 10-part Checklist

Partner’s Company Name:

As you think through your business plan, keep in mind the following areas as a checklist.

1. Executive summary: (Provide a succinct summary of the type of business, market focus, and resource requirements, e.g., people and funding.)

2. Company description/philosophy: (Describe history of business, purpose and objectives of business in its marketplace, and the company’s competitive advantages and/or primary expertise.)

3. Mission Statement: (Describe company’s overall strategic direction, goals, and vision for the business.)

4. Management and key personnel: (Outline the company’s organizational structure and describe the background of key executives.)

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5. Company’s product or service: (Describe current and future product(s), specific added value, packaging, patents, copyrights, etc.)

6. Target market: (Provide an in-depth description of your target industries and markets, their sizes, projected growth, relevant segments, and scope. Include target geography, distribution strategies, competitive analysis, and future developments that might be expected.)

7. Sales strategy: (Discuss how [Partner Name] products will be sold, the function of your sales organization, and the pipeline of potential sales.)

8. Marketing Strategy: (Discuss how you plan to substantiate and fulfill the sales numbers in number 7 above)

9. Financial: (Develop a two year history and 1 year projection of information concerning the cash flow and revenue projections for the [Partner Name]-related business. Examples include proforma cash flow, balance sheet, and income statement.)

10. Future Goals: (Describe where you see the company and all associated practices in 1, 2, 5, and 10 year increments)