Many Amazon FBA Sellers need help with quarterly action planning on Amazon. Everyone wants their sales to go up each quarter, but the reality is that sales can’t go up by themselves. So FBA Sellers need to make a plan for each quarter (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4). If you’re unfamiliar with Amazon FBA, first, you need to learn how to start an Amazon FBA Wholesale business. Then, we’ll try to explain and give you the best advice for quarterly action planning on Amazon.
Why Is Quarterly Action Planning Important?
From a business perspective, quarterly action planning is important because it can motivate team members to focus on short-term objectives. Because these goals are set for the next three months rather than a more extended period, employees can often see the results of their efforts quickly, motivating them to keep improving. In addition, more motivated employees may perform better, more goal-oriented work.
Now that you know why quarterly action planning is important, you can implement it in your Amazon FBA business by motivating yourself to achieve micro tasks and objectives, planning your full year on what you want to sell, and selecting products for each season.
The 3 Key Actions
We’ve discovered three major advantages to planning each quarter. First and foremost, it is just the right amount of time. We can recall what happened in the previous season and see clearly the three months ahead of us. While the past is still fresh, now is a good time to reflect on successes and lessons learned.
Celebrating your victories is important, and you can enhance that celebration by distributing your profits as Profit First allows each quarter. Following that, quarterly planning makes it easier to make the frequent adjustments required in an ever-changing business environment. Finally, you want a structured process for your analysis so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every month, and it should also function as a communication tool for your team.
After all, the goal is to create and implement a plan, not to research and develop a process for creating a plan that always remains on your desk. This is a three-step method for ensuring that sellers are focusing on the right priorities:
- Visioning
- Analyzing
- Planning
Visioning
Let us begin with the vision process, which starts with a look in the mirror. Take a moment to jot down the following:
- List the top five victories from the previous quarter.
- List three lessons learned during the previous quarter.
- After reflecting on the past, consider the following points for today:
- Write down your deepest motivations for expanding the business.
- Take note of your current starting point; consider quantitative metrics (team size, revenue, profits, etc.), qualitative metrics (e.g., brand, team roles), and your role in the business.
- Now we look ahead and set a date, one to three years in the future, and describe the business you are establishing. Consider quantitative metrics (team size, revenue, profits, etc.), qualitative metrics (e.g., brand, team roles), and your role in the business.
After you’ve finished Visioning, it’s time to Analyze.
Analyzing
To help your business move forward, you must analyze everything and everyone while preparing for potential roadblocks. The SWOT Analysis is an excellent tool for this. Because you’re in business, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of and used this tool before. If not, here’s what you should do. SWOT means:
S –Strengths (internal). Make a list of your top five business strengths.
W – Weaknesses (internal). Make a list of the five weaknesses you see in your company.
O – Opportunities (external). Make a list of five opportunities that you could take advantage of.
T – Threats (external). Make a list of the top five threats to your company.
When you’re done with analyzing, concentrate on capitalizing on your strengths and allocating your resources to your most promising opportunities. Then, assess your top threats and ensure that they are considered in the next analysis stage.
Next, make a list of the top two factors limiting your growth. Examples are lead generation or conversion, production/fulfillment, leadership challenges, financial constraints, team dynamics, or hiring. Again, focus on what needs to be done rather than what you want to do based on your analysis. Once you’ve identified your 2 major limiting factors, come up with at least 10 ways to overcome each one.
Consider each method and decide whether it is Low Hanging Fruit (LH) or a Home Run (HR). Low Hanging Fruit is easily accomplished and makes a significant difference. However, once achieved, home runs will have the greatest impact. Highlight any methods that are both LH and HR.
Planning
Planning is the most effective way to stay on track and avoid feeling overwhelmed. Here’s what we’ve found works best.
Choose three areas of focus for the quarter. This is the result of your analysis and will most likely be either low-hanging Fruit or a home run. If you have an idea that meets both criteria, put it at the top of your list.
List 3 to 5 success criteria for each focus area. How will you know when you are finished and to your specifications? Taking a few minutes to complete the expectations for your outcome will help you or your team when executing.
Then make a commitment to stick to the plan by scheduling the tasks on your calendar each week, just like an appointment. Then you’ll have enough time to move the plan forward. You should frequently consider the end result and then reverse engineer the steps weekly to ensure you can meet your goal. Remember, you want to see your results in three months so that you can count this as a win in next quarter’s planning.