Do you know your North Star? What will the business be in 3 or 5 years?  The definition of this aspiration is key because it sets the destination as where you are going, every employee who gets on the train knows the destination and the strategic purpose behind current and future decision making.

The management will need a simple strategic framework that ensures the business stays on track. The framework ensures managers (at many levels) are empowered to say yes on things that are on strategy and, arguably more important, to say no to actions or activities that are not on strategy.

This exploration will also raise two big questions:

1. How would you proactively fund that growth?
2. For all the energy expended, how would you exit?

Developing a strategy is all about making decisions. You must decide what you are going to do and what you are not going to do, all in the context of your Core Customer.  A Core Customer being an individual persona, not a company.

Who will provide you with the greatest return?  Knowing your Core Customer is not just about marketing it is about strategy. Knowing the biggest needs of this persona will help you carve out a differentiated value proposition.

To identify your Core Customer and reveal what actions are meaningful to them we focus in three areas:

1. Defining who the Core Customer is (there may be more than 1)
2. Defining the Core Customer’s needs
3. Defining the Core Customer’s drivers
   

This methodology can help you see where you need to evolve your strategy to become more valuable to your Core Customer with scalable products rather than anyone who approaches your business.

A Market Map is a methodology that enables you to see who loves you, who are your biggest competitors, and who is holding the most power in the marketplace, it focusses on the 6 market characteristics:

• Customers
• Channel
• Competitors
• Suppliers
• Partners
• Money Flows

Drawing out the marketplace in the market map allows you to see all the players on the field.  The goal of the market map is to get a good view of all these players, where your business fits in, and what actions you may need to take as a result to move from the plateau that you are currently trapped in.  

A Market Attribution Framework is a methodology to identify a Market need and to create a differentiated strategic position in the market from which to achieve revenue growth.

There are 3 generally accepted ways to create a differentiated strategic position:

1. Serve the broad needs of a few customers
2. Serve some needs of many customers
3. Serve many needs for many customers in a super-specific market

A Market Attribution Framework may sound like a heavy lift but there is a pragmatic way  to achieve this and provide the business with the growth structure that can be fully integrated into everyday decision making.