Fall into the Future: Rethinking Annual Planning in the Age of AI
Harvest the Power of AI: Sowing Seeds for Next-Gen Planning
WELCOME TO FALL
You know it must be time for annual planning when the weather is finally getting cooler, pumpkin spice lattes are everywhere, Christmas decorations have been up for a month at Costco, and the Oregon Ducks just beat Ohio State. Go Ducks!
The annual planning process is critical to set your teams up for success in the next fiscal year. Done well, it provides a structured approach to aligning resources, strategies, and goals across the organization.
I generally categorize my annual planning activities broadly into five major buckets:
Strategic Planning
Revenue goal setting and forecasting
Sales capacity planning
Revenue organization annual budget
Sales Enablement
Territory and account planning
Compensation plan design
Training planning, including SKO
Cross-functional alignment
Marketing and demand generation
Channel Partner
ICP definition
Customer success and retention
Finance and key metrics
Operational Efficiency
Sales process optimization
Technology and marketing stack assessment
Data and Analytics
Performance metrics and KPI setting
Data quality and management planning
Many of these items (e.g., the budget, sales capacity planning, and metrics) will be continuously updated throughout the year. Still, the annual planning process is the right time to examine everything and build alignment across the organization on all the latest numbers and assumptions so that teams can work together.
Every one of these items could have an article (or two) on best practices. What's different this year is that organizations need to start considering how AI will impact each of these areas, how processes will change, which pilots to try, what investments to make, etc.
EXPANDING YOUR ANNUAL PLANNING PROCESS
As I've worked with clients over the past year, there are several go-to-market areas that I've noticed firms not traditionally looking at during the annual process that they should. This is a framework I've used in a number of sessions to talk about the go-to-market model and areas in which AI can have a meaningful impact.
Let's explore these areas and why they should be integral to your planning discussions this year.
WHO: Target Market and Customer Segments
AI is revolutionizing how we identify and understand our target markets. We can segment customers with unprecedented precision with advanced data analytics and machine learning algorithms. During your annual planning, consider how AI can help you:
Identify micro-segments within your broader target market
Predict customer lifetime value with greater accuracy
Discover new market opportunities that may have been previously overlooked
By incorporating AI-driven market analysis into your planning process, you'll be better equipped to answer the question, "Which are the most profitable areas in our ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)?" This insight can drive more targeted resource allocation and marketing efforts in the coming year.
WHAT: Innovation and Product Design
AI is not just changing how we sell; it's transforming what we sell. As you plan for the year ahead, consider how AI can enhance your product offerings:
Use AI-powered analytics to identify unmet customer needs
Leverage generative AI in your design process to accelerate innovation
Implement AI features that provide personalized experiences for users
Focusing on AI-driven innovation during your planning sessions will better position you to answer the question, "What new product development would attract more customers?" This forward-thinking approach can give you a competitive edge in rapidly evolving markets.
WHY: Brand Identity and Positioning
In an AI-driven world, brand identity and positioning take on new dimensions. Your annual planning should consider:
How AI can help you analyze brand sentiment across digital platforms
Ways to use AI-generated content to maintain brand consistency at scale
Strategies for positioning your brand as innovative and tech-forward
By addressing these points, you'll be better equipped to answer, "How do we position our brand to make it the most compelling?" in an increasingly AI-influenced marketplace.
WHERE: Marketing Strategy
AI is reshaping marketing strategies, offering new ways to reach and engage customers. In your planning process, consider:
Implementing AI-powered marketing automation for personalized campaigns
Using predictive analytics to optimize marketing spend and channel selection
Exploring AI-driven content creation for scaled, personalized messaging
These considerations will help you tackle the question, "How do we reach our best customers and who do we partner with?" AI can provide data-driven insights to refine your marketing strategy and partnerships.
I want to point out here that companies are starting to consider the impact that LLMs will have on search. If LLMs like Perplexity or ChatGPT with search start to become the first place people search for product information, how does a company's marketing strategy have to change? This is an emerging area that companies are just starting to consider.
HOW: Sales Strategy & RevOps
AI is already transforming sales processes and revenue operations. If you haven't already started doing these things, you should explore:
AI-powered sales forecasting and pipeline management
Intelligent lead scoring and prioritization systems
Automated sales engagement tools for personalized outreach
By focusing on these areas, you'll address the question, "Have we created the right incentives for sales to deliver the highest ROI?" AI can help optimize your sales strategy and operations for maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
IMPACT: Customer Success
Finally, AI is revolutionizing how we ensure and measure customer success. In your planning, consider:
AI-driven customer health scores and churn prediction models
Intelligent chatbots and virtual assistants for enhanced customer support
Personalized onboarding and training experiences powered by AI
These initiatives will help you create a "white glove" experience at scale, addressing the question, "What can we do to create a mass' white glove' experience?" AI can help you deliver premium service to a broader customer base without proportionally increasing costs.
WRAP UP
As we wrap up our pumpkin spice lattes and finalize our annual plans, it's clear that AI isn't just another tech trend—it's a fundamental shift in how we approach our go-to-market strategies. From refining our target markets to revolutionizing customer success, AI touches every aspect of our business. If your teams aren't already leveraging AI tools across the business every single day, then you are missing out and risk falling behind.
So, as you dive into your planning sessions this year, I challenge you to go beyond the traditional forecasts and budgets. Ask yourself and your team: How can we leverage AI to transform our business in the coming year? What pilots can we run to test AI's impact on our sales, marketing, and customer success? What investments do we need to make now to stay ahead of the AI curve?
ANNOUNCEMENT
Over the past two years, I have conducted AI overviews, training, and workshops for hundreds of organizations. The focus is helping teams understand how AI can transform their work through real-world use cases. I typically cover everything from overviews of the latest tools and ways to use them securely (so your data is safe) to hundreds of use cases that span revenue, marketing, legal, finance, and product development organizations.
I am launching a new newsletter focused on real-world use cases of AI. I will typically showcase examples across multiple tools so you can see exactly how the tools work and the types of outputs you can get in different scenarios. It's called "Intelligence by Intent" - and this newsletter will transition to that. It will include lots of RevOps and Legal examples as a starting point. I hope you will find it incredibly useful and share it with others. It will also include a YouTube channel to show the actual inputs and outputs from the tools to give you better ideas and insight.
Thanks for joining me on part 1 of the journey, and now on to the future.