This Is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See

by Seth Godin

Where are you going? What’s holding you back? It’s not clear to me why business plans are the way they are, but they’re often misused to obfuscate, bore, and show an ability to comply with expectations. If I want the truth about a business and where it’s going, I’d rather see a more useful document. I’d divide the modern business plan into five sections: Truth Assertions Alternatives People Money The truth section describes the world as it is. Footnote if you want to, but tell me about the market you are entering, the needs that exist, the competitors in your space, technology standards, and how others have succeeded and failed in the past. The more specific, the better. The more ground knowledge, the better. The more visceral the stories, the better. The point of this section is to be sure that you’re clear about how you see the world, and that you and I agree on your assumptions. This section isn’t partisan—it takes no positions; it just states how things are. Truth can take as long as you need to tell it. It can include spreadsheets, market share analysis, and anything else I need to know about how the world works. The assertions section is your chance to describe how you’re going to change things. We will do X, and then Y will happen. We will build Z with this much money in this much time. We will present Q to the market, and the market will respond by taking this action.