SWOT Your Business--Part II

 

NoSpin Marketing

NoSpin Debunker #52: October 14, 2002

 

 

Please take 5 seconds for the Oct 14th NoSpin Poll: “What’s impacting your company’s growth?” (on the left side of the http://www.nospinmarketing.com/ homepage)

 

Why bother to SWOT?

 

The economy stinks. So why take the time to bang your company over the head doing a SWOT analysis when so much is out of your control? No question that the current downturn is impacting some businesses more traumatically than others, and a lot of disappointing business results can be blamed primarily on the general economic climate. But look around. A high percentage of U.S. businesses are surviving the pain, and many are even thriving. During depressed economic times, there are still lots of winners--who typically win not by sticking with their past game plans--but rather by focusing on some new thing(s) that are under their control.

 

In Part I of SWOT Your Business, I re-introduced SWOT Analysis as a valuable analytical business tool that has withstood the test of time.  In Part II of this NoSpin Debunker series, I’ll talk about how to actual conduct a SWOT analysis that is focused on Marketing & Sales. Think of a SWOT as a Cliffs Notes version of deconstructing your business, taking a fresh look, and jumpstarting your company to steer it a new direction(s) to grow your business.

 

How to conduct a Marketing & Sales SWOT

 

You can SWOT your whole company or a department, division, or specific function. A Marketing & Sales SWOT touches anything that impacts growth, hence is nearly as comprehensive as a company-wide SWOT but focuses on the Marketing & Sales functions. Regardless, here’s the approach that you should use:

 

• Put someone in charge of spearheading it—ideally a knowledgeable consultant (see below) or objective insider who will take the time and be objective.
• Take one or two weeks, not one or two months—to complete your SWOT.
• Make big lists, but right-off-the bat start, prioritizing your lists—digitally, so that that they are easy to change and modify (and you may want to take the step of weighting the importance of each STRENGTH, WEAKNESS, OPPORTUNITY & THREAT); keep prioritizing and then weed the lowest priority items at the end
• Aim for about five pages: a page for each STRENGTH, WEAKNESS, OPPORTUNITY & THREAT as well as a page for Issues/Questions.
• Focus on the present and recent past for your STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES —and not very far into the future for your OPPORTUNITIES & THREATS: 90 to 180 days, maximum.
• Review your key Marketing & Sales materials like you’ve never seen them before (a list to be provided in the next Debunker).
• Get input from at least 3-5 key people who have varying views and opinions.
• Minimize the “group grope” and meeting stuff while developing your SWOT—meet to discuss the SWOT, modify it as necessary, and develop one or more action steps.
• Ask the hard questions (the next NoSpin Debunker) and challenge all of your basic assumptions—none are sacred.
• Be objectively critical but also don’t undersell yourself.
• Get the key facts but don’t get paralyzed with analysis and fact-finding. You may need to do some other fact-finding and analysis before implementing your recommendations, but don’t get bogged down at the micro-level of detail.  
• Keep “personal” issues off the list—and handle those separately.

 

STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES & THREATS—definitions

 

The best way to identify STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES & THREATS is to ask the right questions. Generally, STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES are current in timeframe, and OPPORTUNITIES & THREATS are in the future—starting with tomorrow.

 

A STRENGTH is something that you truly do well, excel at versus the competition, can build on; something that truly differentiates your business, a key metric that is improving, etc. Most companies do surprisingly bad job of identifying what they are really good at doing.  Every company has strengths. A strength can be something very concrete like a large, growing customer base or less measurable: a well-run customer service department that keeps customers satisfied (thus helping both retention and new sales). Note that a STRENGTH can also be a weakness: e.g. you’re Number One in your market is a STRENGTH, but if you are taking that for granted—that’s also a weakness.

 

A Weakness is a real gap, a deficiency, a problem, or a key metric that is going south; something you’re not doing very well and that you should be doing better; something that’s dated that no longer applies—even though it used to; something important that you really don’t know or aren’t sure about. In fact, one good outcome of a SWOT is to discover what you really don’t know and then do something about it. A weakness can be very tangible and concrete or it can be an attitude: e.g. a complete unwillingness to invest in any marketing initiatives or a lack of understanding what to do

 

An OPPORTUNITY is a favorable external condition; something (that you haven’t acted on or taken advantage yet) that could impact you positively. Opportunities are new ways that your exploit your STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES & THREATS--new things that that you can do to potentially improve your business—that turn into recommendations and actions. This list becomes the most important part of your SWOT for prioritizing and determining what next steps to take.

 

Typically, a THREAT is something external to your business that can potentially impact you negatively: competitors (actually doing specific things vs. just being there), changing conditions in your particular marketplace, the overall economy, government regulations, etc. Threats are part of the playing field that you can’t ignore. They are part of the context of your business. Some threats, though, are internal: e.g. hanging onto the status quo when change is required or the impact on remaining if you decide to cut costs (maybe an OPPORTUNITY).     

 

You should also make an ongoing list of Issues and questions that inevitably pop-up as a result of developing the STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES & THREATS lists—for further analysis and discussion—and possible incorporation into your SWOT.

 

If you decide to use an outside expert to help SWOT:

 

ü      Use a pro who knows not only Marketing and Sales, but is also business-savvy.

ü      Give them access to the information and people they need—and tell it to him/her straight. You can fool even some of the best if you really want to—like a patient who doesn’t divulge symptoms to a physician—and then shouldn’t expect to get a very good diagnosis.

ü      Don’t expect all of THE answers: expect objectivity and unbiased analytical thinking, and someone who will put the time and effort into doing the SWOT right.

 

In the final segment of this series: SWOT Your Business I’ll provide the questions needed to construct your SWOT—and some ideas for putting it to work.

 

Also please let me know what YOU think about this debunker! And please add these unconventional business professionals to the Debunker mailing list.

 

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Tom Ranseen                           NoSpin Marketing                             615.383.7157