A Few Thoughts on Market Planning and Budgeting
Lisbeth Quebe, FSMPS
Expert Liz Quebe offers some insight into these critical marketing processes.

When I wrote Plan It: A Down-to-Earth Guide to Market Planning and Budgeting in the Design and Construction Industries in 2002, it was my swan song to the industry. Its publication coincided almost exactly with my retirement. However, it’s this book and this topic that have interrupted my porch-rocking at regular intervals ever since. I certainly didn’t plan that.

I believe that the topic is perennially popular because the planning process attempts to introduce a measure of calm, rational thinking to a daily “routine” that is anything but. It stops us in our tracks, makes us take stock of our triumphs and our tribulations, and makes us think and converse about the future. In a good year, it provides a roadmap that gets tattered with use, marked up with detours, and replaced with a new, more accurate version.

The process that I have found most workable over the years is logical and pretty simple. You assess where you stand; you take a look at what the world is offering (or imposing on) you; you set reasonable goals; you figure out how to accomplish them. Then you make your best guess as to what it will cost to carry out your grand plans and decide just what you can afford to do. Then there’s a whole lot of huffing and puffing and high-level decision-making and hopefully when all the dust settles, you’ve agreed on what to do. Then you make a nifty little matrix that shows who does what, and when, and you use that to drive the plan forward. At least that’s how it works in Liz’s Ideal World, which, by the way, materialized only fleetingly in my 32-year career.

Perseverance is a big piece of planning. Each year that you do it, you become more familiar with your cast of characters (including who has delusions of grandeur and who is simply delusional), what you can reasonably do, and where your money goes. So don’t be afraid to be a nagging fishwife (are there fish-husbands?) and round up all the usual suspects on an annual basis. Having the conversation is incredibly important, more important than the lovely formatted-and-bound document that will no doubt result.            

I’m looking forward to the upcoming webinar on this topic, and hope the Gods of Technology are with us. I love the fact that I don’t have to fly anywhere to give it; in fact, I don’t even have to comb my hair. And this will be the last performance—I refuse to become the Cher of the marketing world (just one last World Tour). After that, well, buy the book. I’m staying on the porch.

Looking for more advice on budgeting and planning? Talk about Market Planning and Budgeting with Liz Quebe live and in person on May 3 at 2 pm ET, part of the SMPS National Webinar Series. For details, visit www.smps.org/education/webinar.htm#plan.

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