In a few short weeks, 2024 will be upon us, and between now and then, there's a mountain of work to do. Most are focused on the here and now: wrapping up open business, finalizing contracts, sending holiday cards to their clients, advertising end-of-year discounts to squeeze more pipeline into 2023. While all of these activities provide value (and there's no doubt every company wants to end on a high note), many forget to look AHEAD and make plans for tackling the first quarter of the new year.
As a business leader responsible for driving growth in 2024, your next 30 days should be focused on the future. The excitement of finishing the year off strong fizzles out quickly when the end of January comes and the business fails to meet their goals. It feels like you're at the bottom of the mountain with no clear way to the top. We get it—we've all been there! To help you reach that first milestone of your next 12-month journey, below are five tips for setting your business up for success.
1. Territory Planning
It doesn't matter if you're a sales manager of ten selling software or a business advisor responsible for growing your book of business. Understanding where and who you're going to put your time and energy into takes planning. First, take inventory of your CRM. Do you have the right accounts identified, and do you have enough of them to "feed" your sales team? If not, you need to harvest more. A business intelligence tool like Emerald Intel can help. We profile licensed cannabis and hemp companies across the US and Canada, providing everything from licensure types and status, to parent-child company hierarchies, to physical addresses. You can also visualize territories using our Mapping tool, which shows you the location of every cannabis and hemp company within that region. Ready to create territories or a target list? Connect Emerald Intel with your CRM or marketing automation tool and sync the data over with the click of a button. Territory planning is your first step to success.
2. Identify Key Decision Makers
Territory planning is a great first step, but it's only half the equation. Have you defined your Ideal Customer Profile? Even if you have, revisiting your definition of the ideal buyer and details about them never hurts. This should include understanding your buyer's pain points and key challenges, their role within the organization, and job titles to keep an eye out for. Identifying contacts who may not be the decision maker, but would heavily influence the decision are also worth profiling and reaching out to. Once you have your ICP defined (or refreshed), it's time to take stock of your contact database. Do you have the right people? If you do, is there contact information accurate? Either way, refreshing contact data is critical to outreach success. Emerald Intel profiles over 80,000 cannabis and hemp professionals across the US and Canada, and we're adding new profiles every day. Use our database to update current CRM contacts or add new ones and benefit from verified, direct email addresses and phone numbers.
3. Market Research
In an industry like cannabis and hemp, regulations and laws are still in flux. While this may add to the industry's complexity, it should also be seen as an opportunity. For example, on November 7, Ohio legalized adult-use cannabis across the state, however recreational marijuana sales are not expected to begin until late 2024. The Ohio Cannabis Control Commission is still in the process of developing regulations for the recreational market, and it will take some time to issue licenses to dispensaries and other businesses. If your service or solution is a fit for start-up or fast growing companies, Ohio would be a great state to focus on in 2024. Emerald Intel collates all industry news into one place to provide our users with a macro and micro view of the market. We also tag news articles to individual company profiles when their name is mentioned, giving you additional context on prospects to inform outreach. Using market intelligence to direct your efforts will bring you one step closer to a successful January.
4. Craft Your Message
With territories, key decision makers, and market research complete , your marketing team can focus on what they do best—communicating the right message to the right buyer. But this tip isn't just for marketers. A successful company is one where marketing and sales work together to refine key messages. Identify the regions/people/challenges you want to prioritize in the first quarter of the new year and get to work creating campaigns that will drive interest and opportunity. There's an equal amount of effort from both sides needed to make a campaign successful. Marketing: create content (blogs, e-books, checklists), build out digital ads, schedule a webinar or event. Sales: include that content in your outreach, use Emerald Intel's news feed to inform your communications to specific companies, and follow up with marketing-generated leads in a timely fashion so you can capitalize on being top of mind.
5. Set It and Forget It
If you can successfully complete tips 1-4 before heading into the New Year, enjoy the holidays so you can come back refreshed and ready to work! Before you put that out of office message up, ensure impacted teams know what's expected from them upon their return. If your current tech stack allows it, pre-schedule your first set of emails, social posts, etc. so your campaign kicks off on-time and isn't impacted by team members who may need a couple extra days to get back into the swing of things. The cannabis and hemp industry doesn't stop just because you're taking a few days off, so stay in-the-know with Emerald Intel's industry news feed. Who knows, maybe breaking news will impact your January plans, but now you have the intel you need to pivot!
Preparing for the New Year can feel overwhelming, but with the right business intelligence partner, you can head into 2024 with all the cannabis and hemp data you need to jump-start your pipeline and meet your January business goals.
Feeling a bit unprepared? Let Emerald Intel help! Book a demo and gain access to our robust cannabis and hemp database to set your business up for 2024 success.