By Barb Van Someren
Setting goals and aligning teams are essential for success. This is especially true for startups and scale-ups in need of quick wins and long-term commercial growth. Success Mapping is a discipline that ensures all stakeholders align on the current state of the business and key objectives. This process also helps prioritize resources effectively to drive both short-term and long-term growth. By defining success outcomes at the start, you can work backward to create clear, actionable strategies that maximize efficiency and impact.
State where you’re going
Many teams we’ve worked with begin by drafting a press release stating the outcome they will achieve. As Tony Robbins notes, “Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”
Below are the steps we use to help companies translate learning into business-driving goals, and then cascade those into marketing goals and action plans to support business and success outcomes. Of course, each functional area will have goals and an action plan to deliver to the company goals, similar to our marketing goals and action plan.
Use a SWOT analysis to align teams
A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis helps teams assess both internal capabilities and external market conditions. Strengths highlight areas of competitive advantage, while weaknesses reveal gaps that need improvement. Opportunities present growth avenues, and threats outline external risks.
Aligning teams around this framework ensures that decision-making is grounded in reality and that resources are allocated strategically to leverage strengths and mitigate risks. We assume that an organization has metrics and research to validate observations on the SWOT. If you don’t, start with factual performance metrics measuring the internal and external landscape.
While the SWOT exercise seems simple, the value is uncovered in the team interchange and the consensus around which observations are most prominent and which opportunities and threats the company faces. Once the team is aligned on the current state, we can move to the next step.
Set manageable commercial goals with success outcomes
Companies often focus on a handful of key business goals because making a critical impact requires a whole organization effort. We have been asked: “Why can’t a large company have 10 or more goals?” Most agree that sticking to 5 or 6 goals, even for large companies, drives focus. Think of them as must-win battles for the company. Additionally, each goal encompasses multiple tactics, initiatives, and cross-functional contributions. Most organizations can only effectively manage a handful of company-wide priorities at a time, ensuring focus, accountability, and measurable progress.
Here are a few examples of common corporate goals:
- Expand Market Reach: Strengthen distribution channels and partnerships to enhance market presence.
- Improve Sales or Efficiency: Enhance sales training and tools to address technical and operational challenges.
- Drive Lead Generation & Conversion: Implement robust full-funnel engagement strategies for higher conversion rates.
- Strengthen Brand Positioning: Develop a compelling brand story to maintain premium positioning in a competitive landscape.
- Successfully Launch New Products or Services: Develop new messaging proof points and performance metrics to penetrate all customer channels and ramp up purchase of new product or service.
Map the marketing plan to support commercial goals
Often, marketing leaders struggle to translate corporate goals into tangible marketing plans and measurable outcomes. While some commercial goals—like improving sales enablement or launching a new product—clearly require extensive marketing activities, it’s important to recognize that marketing plays a primary or secondary role in supporting all commercial goals.
A well-structured marketing plan aligns with corporate priorities by defining:
- Strategic role: How marketing contributes directly or indirectly to achieving the commercial success goals.
- Key actions: Specific initiatives, such as demand generation campaigns, content strategies, sales enablement tools, digital engagement, and thought leadership.
- Performance metrics: The KPIs used to measure progress, from brand awareness and lead generation to conversion rates and revenue impact.
Summary
By integrating SWOT insights, commercial objectives, and marketing execution, businesses can create a cohesive strategy that maximizes impact and ensures sustainable growth. A well-mapped marketing plan ensures that efforts remain focused on the highest-value actions.
Want to join the conversation on success metrics? Check out our video Success Metrics that Actually Drive Growth and leave a comment. Or get in touch and I’ll send you our Success Mapping Worksheets. barb@health-mavens.com.
