Measuring performance is important in any activity or development, so adequate feedback can be provided.
But so many of our business activities are subjective and difficult to measure.
Even objective measures should be questioned.
In marketing, I like to use three objectives to target performance of the grain sales throughout the season:
- Cashflow requirements are met
- An adequate level of profit
- Appropriate protection to lower prices
These should be objective for the particular business.
Note that they are all something that can directly be influenced and acted on. Benchmarking based off the market over the year should only be done when reflecting on the tactics of the strategy.
When setting objectives, we need to consider what profit levels are achievable, what risks will we encounter to influence this profit, what cashflow constraints do we have, and what are we going to do to protect against low prices?
We don’t know where the market will be in September, so we shouldn’t be saying “we need to sell 20% in that month”.
FGA’s strategic model accounts for these, while being dynamic enough to model our actions as prices and production moves.
Acting without defined intent is risky.
Acting without some sort of strategy is guessing.
I urge you to have intent and strategy with your marketing.