THE MARKETING COMPUTER

WHAT WE’RE GOING TO DO TOMORROW, I THINK

The problem with planning is that, like playing a violin, it demands a number of skills and a lot of practice -- but ultimately, it’s an art form. These two remarkable programs supply the skills, and make the process of planning somewhat easier, and certainly more facile. And while they obviously can’t supply the art of planning, they facilitate the art   by removing the impediments that come from not having the skills or experience of the trained planner.

The elements of a a sound basic plan can be delineated in a check list, and that these programs do. But they are checklists of categories, in each of which are variables that can be the difference between success or failure.

Now here’s the idea. If we can reduce the variables, and quantify those elements that are fixed, then we can concentrate on adddressing just the variables that remain. We can concentrate on the art -- the originality -- the sizzle needed for the successful plan.

That’s what these programs do – and do magnificently. Actually, they do two things. They give you a template for the format, and then they tell you how to deal with the variables. And while they give you a great deal of flexibility, they also do an effective job in keeping you on the reality track. The programs know the difference between realistic planning and dreaming. This alone is worth the price for either one of the programs..

For example, in business planning, you can present all of the facts about a company, its product or service, its industry, and so forth. Most of this information is available from one source or another. Business PlanPro gives you a template to help you supply that information. You fill in the blanks (which, of course, you can do artfully or not, but a lot of the formatting does a lot of the work for you), including the facts about management.

Then you come to the variable – for example, the ability of management. How do you quantify that and present it credibly? The program can’t do that for you. But what it does do is show you how to think about it, so that you do it better.

The success in business planning comes in understanding that the external audience for the business plan is usually a source of capital. In fact, the program has specific templates for information needed by venture capitalists. The objective of a good business plan, aside from being an internal blueprint for developing and running the business, is to persuade an investor or a lender to support the company financially. The plan itself must be comprehensive but simple enough to be clear. It must be realistic, if optimistic. It must foretell the effective use of capital and other assets in making the company a success.

Business PlanPro makes it a lot easier than you have a right to expect. Starting with a basic template – you pick your plan from among a list of different business types (retail, manufacturing, service, etc.) – and then fill in the blanks. Instructions are clear in every module. You start by describing your business (what are you selling? What are the competitive differences?, etc.), and then define your market. You are then asked to define your management team – with all the right questions asked. The sales forecasting module is a gem – not only does it walk you through a complex process, but you come out learning a lot you didn’t know before about how to do it. The last step takes your numbers and puts them in a useful module. You then have a plan you can print out – clearly, with graphical projections – attractive, and persuasive. A real value for even the most experienced planner, if only because it doesn’t miss a step.

Nor does it ask you to abandon your own intelligence. There’s enough flexibility for you to bring in your own artfulness.

MarketingPlus approaches planning in the same way, but obviously with a much different template. Marketing requires far greater artfulness than does business planning, simply because it addresses a different audience, with a different objective. You need to know more about your market, and your strategy requires far greater detail and skill, than you have to detail in a regular business plan. Sales forecasting, particularly in a profession, is extremely difficult because fee structures are rarely predicated on costs, andd can vary from client to client and assignment to assignment.  Budgeting is the easiest part, because you can more easily figure out costs and allocations, and with MarketingPlus the formulae are built in. The program has an excellent template for tracking results, and another for measuring your success by comparing results to forecasts.

The tricky part is the strategy. MarketingPlus uses a template called a strategy pyramid, which takes standard marketing tools, takes your response to questions about communication, distribution, etc., and then builds a strategy for using those tools. The problem here is that even with the template, the art of marketing requires more knowledge, experience, and trained imagination than can be supplied by a computer program. But if you have to act on your own, at least this module brings you to the process more cleverly and thoroughly than, as an inexperienced marketer, you can do on your own.

For the experienced business planner, and the experienced marketer, the value of these two programs is in their templates – which assure that you don’t inadvertently miss a step, and in their skillful inquiries, which help the creative process. And again, if you can reduce the variables of those aspects of planning that simply require information input, you can concentrate on those variables that require professional skill and imagination. These are two extremely valuable programs, for both experienced and inexperienced planners.

It’s impossible to look at these programs without understanding the qualifications of their designer, Tim Berry. Berry, of whom more further on, is as well known for his planning skills and artistry as for his software designing skills. Both come into play in these two programs. These programs are not an academic’s view of how the world should be, but rather how it is. They are serious and useful tools – especially for professionals who have no training or experience in either business or marketing planning.

CPA’S GUIDE TO DEVELOPING EFFECTIVE BUSINESS PLANS, 1999. Tim Berry. Harcourt Brace & Company, Sank Diego CA, 1998. Click here to order.
Just out is a companion book to the Business PlanPro program, written just for CPAs. In fact, it contains a disk of the program as part of the book.

The difference is that the book goes somewhat beyond the simple planning process, on the assumption that CPAs have the technical expertise to develop and supply a good deal of the more sophisticated financial information.

Berry sets three specific objectives for the book – to encourage business planning, which indeed it does; to help the CPA develop a business plan for his or her own practice, and this it does particularly well; and to help accountants develop business planning as a consulting skill for their own clients.

One would assume that accountants have these skills, but that assumes too much. Certainly, accountants have financial reporting skills, and in view of the kinds of work they do for their clients, they may be assumed to have learned something about business. But in fact, except for those who have the specific training and experience in business management and planning, there’s no basis to expect that there isn’t a great deal that CPAs can learn in these disciplines.

Berry makes a significant contribution, particularly in view of the changing nature of the accounting profession and the business environment it serves. He has an extraordinary background.He has an M.B.A from Stanford, he is a former consultant to Arthur Andersen, Peat Marwick, and Touche Ross, and he has a strong background as a software consultant and designer -- all of which allow  Berry to bring a rare combination of skills and experience to his firm, Palo Alto Software (www.palo-alto.com). With his book and his programs, he is a valuable business asset in his own right.

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