Planning: Annual Planning Calendar

Planning: Annual Planning Calendar

Now that you know where you need to go and the levers you’ll use to get there, it’s time to map it all out across the year.

Transfer all of your events – from training, inventory, promotions, big meetings, new products, etc. – to a planning calendar.

We’ve provided a template to help you out.

This template is the same format we created when at Starbucks for mapping out the global in-store consumer promotions.

[mk_button dimension=”two” size=”medium” outline_skin=”dark” outline_active_color=”#fff” outline_hover_color=”#333333″ bg_color=”#3399cc” text_color=”light” url=”http://www.lsmguide.com/templates/Annual_Planning_Calendar_Template.xlsx” target=”_blank” align=”center” fullwidth=”false” margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”15″]Annual Planning Calendar Template (Excel File)[/mk_button]

Spread Out The Work

We highly recommend mapping ideas in a document. It allows you to see – at a glance – when you are busy (with programming, training, events) and when you have more time for scheduling events.

Include forecast numbers at the top and comparison of the increase over last year, and you’ll see when you need to push hard to make your numbers and when you can relax a bit.

Of course, you never want to schedule a new training program or something that will distract your employees during a period when focus should be on achieving challenging sales or service goals.