Clarity and Focus are imperative to the success of any organisation.

As we draw nearer to the end of the calendar year, we start to plan and think about our business goals for 2014. But why don’t we think further ahead? Perhaps now is the time to devise your 2020 strategy!

Let’s start by asking ourselves some questions. What sales figures do you want to be achieving in 7 years’ time? How many sales staff do you want on the team? How big an office do we want by then? What changes do you want to make to the structure of your sales force?

So, now you have the answers you have some targets you want to achieve… and you know when you want to achieve them by. Now you must answer the all-important final question…. How?

If you really want to achieve long term goals, you must plan for them now and retain focus on the path you must take to achieve them.

If your goal is to increase the sales force by 25%, you must plan when you place adverts for new staff, when you will interview, what sales training you will put in place. Perhaps you currently have team leaders who you want to develop with leadership and management training across the next year so that they are ready to recruit and motivate their own teams.

We may think that we are fantastic at setting ourselves smart objectives that we will use to drive our business vision. But without the right planning, preparation and execution we are running our business blind. Ensure your business has 2020 vision with forward thinking and backward planning.