Roland Hanekroot joins Kym in this marketing.planning episode to discussed how SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) framework analysis as the first step to starting a Marketing Plan
Kym is joined by Roland Hanekroot, owner of New Perspectives, a business coach, mentor and author with over 25+ years’ experience working with hundreds of businesses.
Here’s what we cover in this episode:
Roland’s background
- His company New Perspectives coaching has been successfully providing business coaching and advice since 2004
- Has written three successful business books the Ten truths trilogy aimed at people who don’t read businesses but should;
- The Ten Truths for Raising a Heathy Bouncy Business
- The Ten Truths for Making your Business Grow
- The Ten Truths for Making Business Fun (free download in resources)
- Used to run a building company BAS Building Design Services for over 12 years (1990-2002)
- His goal as a business coach is to help make business fun and to focus is on fun in business as the ultimate outcome of a successful business venture
Basic breakdown of SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is defined is a study undertaken by a business to identify its internal strengths and weaknesses as wells as its external opportunities and threats.
SWOT analysis can be used as part of a marketing analysis to understand what benefits to use in your communications plus determine what markets to focus on.
Important things to note with SWOT analysis
- One key thing to note with SWOT analysis is that they are often done in isolation which is the wrong approach a SWOT analysis should always be about something within the business
- It could be about the goals, the strategic intent and the mission of the business, organisation or individual.
- Say as an example you’ve set an objective to double the turnover of the business term in the next 5 years. So that means by the end of the year, you must increase your turnover 20%, so in our SWOT we will address what are our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and threats in relation to growing the necessary 20%
- There is no point to doing a SWOT analysis if you don’t have a purpose for it to as the SWOT itself helps clearly define what is needed to achieve that purpose
- Very often people do SWOT analysis on the business as a whole, not on a particular objective or goal
- So part of your Marketing Analysis is that back at the beginning you really want to define what your business goal is. Let’s say it’s a 12-month goal, and you said increase by 20% or whatever it might be, then look at your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in relation to your 12-month goal.
- A SWOT is about two different perspectives, There’s both the internal and external perspectives.
- The first two letters of SWOT (Strengths and Weaknesses) focus on the internal elements;
- What is the Strength of the business?
- What is the Weakness of the business?
- What are the Strengths of the business that can help us achieve our objectives?
- What are the Weaknesses of the business that could potentially get in the way of the objectives.
- while the last two letters of SWOT (Opportunities and Weaknesses) look at external elements;
- What are external opportunities?
- What is up there in the marketplace that we can take advantage if to complete our objectives?
- What threats are there?
- What companies are in the same field or doing a very similar thing? What works for them? What isn’t working?
Summary
- SWOT Analysis has been around for a while but if used effectively and implemented properly can have a massive impact on a business or organisation
- If you translate the SWOT into doable action or actual physical steps you can take
- While it is important to look at threats don’t get hung up on them unless you are a Coca-Cola or a large business, Focus on the Strengths and Weaknesses, the opportunity and your goals.
You can grab a free copy of our TMSC Marketing map (in the link here https://themarketingstrategy.co/freemarketingmap) this resource will help guide you through the 10 steps of an Integrated Marketing Plan.
Listen on your Favorite App
The easiest way to listen is to subscribe on iTunes. Reviews on iTunes are the best way for us to get more listeners and spread the word, every review counts so please take a moment to do so!
Resources
Roland’s website – www.newperspectives.com.au
Book ‘The Ten Truths for Making Business Fun’ – www.funinbusiness.biz
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/newperspectivesbusinesscoaching
Google+ – https://plus.google.com/u/0/+RolandHanekroot
Don’t forget our free Marketing Roadmap. This free Marketing Map will help guide you through the 10 steps of creating your own effective Marketing Plan. You can grab a free copy of our TMSC Marketing map by clicking here