Making a plan – the Vision/Goals/Objectives/Steps template

When making a plan, any king of plan, it is sometimes difficult to know where to start, and how to end up with an actual plan.

As a assistant brand manager, I came across the V.O.S.T. template. This template include the following hierarchy of strategy implementation:

1. Vision
2. Objectives
3. Strategy
4. Tactics

Also quite straight forward, I have found as a consultant than the template can become quite confusing due to to each level’s labeling. First, we often use strategy a overall name, when here it is more considered as an operational level in this template. Second, objective oftens calls for KPIs (Key performance indicator), whereas in this template Objectives are considered as a higher level.

In practise, I use a similar template, but find the labels more telling for operational people and small business owners. The concept is that to achieve 1 Vision, we are going to determine the main Goals that need to completed. We can determine how well we complete this Goals, by carefully creating  Objectives that can be quantified and monitored; which one will be monitored only via the implementation of operational Steps

Example:

VISION	OBJECTIVES	GOALS	STEPS
Be the leader in industry A	Increase Market share	Increase new customers acquisition by XX%	Hire 2 new state agents
			Build distribution deal with
			Attend xx trade events
		Increase conversion rate by %	Develop new landing page
			Develop new customers incentives:
			Ensure enquiry calls are followed up in 24hrs
	Maintain an innovator role	Increase recognition rate by %	Create new PR campaign
			Maintain current advertising
			Engage with social media communities
		Ensure new collection innovation	Collaborate with Trend agency
			Follow up survey