Close '24 Strong, Start '25 Stronger: Key Business Moves For Immediate Impact

As we enter the final quarter of 2024, business leaders face the dual challenge of closing the year with strong results while ensuring their teams are prepared for success in 2025. Effective business execution and workforce planning is critical to strike this balance—ensuring your organization delivers in the present while setting the stage for strong growth in 2025.

In this article, I share strategies I've used to assess my team's key attributes for success, approaches we've implemented to close Q4 effectively, and how to develop a workforce plan that aligns with your business goals for the coming year.

1. Assessing Your Current Team’s Attributes for Success

A thorough assessment of your team’s current performance is essential as you move into Q4. Understanding where your organization excels and where improvements are needed will help you address immediate priorities while planning for the future.

Key attributes to evaluate include:

Customer Activity:

Are your team members regularly engaging with customer stakeholders in meaningful discussions? Review progress-to-date in 2024 regarding the quantity and quality of meetings. Ensure that goals and tracking for these interactions are in place and understood moving forward. Strive to incorporate current customer feedback into your growth plans for 2025.

Pipeline Generation and Project Progress:

Is your team consistently creating new opportunities or advancing key initiatives with prospective and current customers? Whether it’s sales pipelines, product development, or internal projects, understanding the flow of work and how efficiently it’s moving is essential to building momentum. This is also an opportunity to reassess and confirm your ideal customer profile (ICP) and ensure the business is fully aligned around this.

Conversion Rates and Deliverables:

How effectively is your team converting opportunities with prospective customers or growing current customer partnerships? This could mean winning new business, closing projects on time, or successfully implementing key business initiatives. High conversion rates indicate efficiency and alignment with business goals. It’s crucial to understand these conversion rates at each stage of the sales cycle or project timeline.

Internal Collaboration and Leadership:

Assess how well your team collaborates across departments or functions. Are they strong team players who can also step into leadership roles when needed? High-performing teams share knowledge, provide support, and contribute to the overall success of the organization. It's crucial to identify your top performers in this area, and ensure they are heard and empowered at this key juncture.

Performance to Goals/Quota:

How is your team performing relative to established goals? Whether it’s revenue targets, project deadlines, or operational milestones, assessing their performance helps you understand who is excelling and who may need additional support or coaching.

By evaluating these key areas, business leaders can better understand their team’s capabilities and make informed decisions about how to close Q4 effectively while preparing for the future.

2. Closing Q4 2024 Strong: Tactical Execution for Business Leaders

While preparing for the future is critical, the immediate focus in Q4 is to finish the year on a strong note. For business leaders, this means ensuring that teams are aligned on high-priority goals and that resources are being used effectively.

Here are some strategies to ensure a successful close to 2024:

Pipeline Inspection and Project Reviews:

Frequently review all active pipelines or major projects across the business. Are key deliverables on track for completion? Are there high-value projects or deals that need extra attention to close by year-end? Prioritize efforts on initiatives with the biggest impact.

Strategic Account or Project Planning:

Whether working on key client accounts or major internal initiatives, ensure detailed planning is in place. Identify key decision-makers, influencers, and stakeholders involved in each project. Make sure your team is strategically positioned to deliver results. Utilizing consistent planning structures, such as the RACI model, ensures that each person knows their specific role and expected results.

Multi-Threading Across Customer Departments:

Encourage cross-functional collaboration with your customers to advance key initiatives. Whether it’s project deliverables, product or service rollouts, or new partnerships, involving multiple stakeholders reduces risk and increases the likelihood of success. This approach fosters collaboration, keeps initiatives moving, and anticipates potential roadblocks with customers.

Agreed-Upon Timelines and Accountability:

Establish clear timelines for all key projects or goals in Q4. Ensure everyone understands the deadlines and deliverables needed to hit year-end targets. Building accountability at every level keeps the team focused on execution. This is particularly important for new contracts that need to be signed by year-end with prospective and current customers.

By focusing on these tactical steps, business leaders can maximize their team's efforts in Q4 while setting the stage for a strong finish to 2024.

3. Business & Workforce Planning for 2025: Laying the Foundation for Success

While closing Q4 is crucial, business leaders must also look ahead to ensure their teams are prepared for success in 2025. Workforce planning is key to building an organization that can achieve its goals and drive long-term growth.

Here’s how to align your workforce and strategy for 2025:

Anticipated Revenue and Business Goals:

Start by setting clear revenue and business goals for 2025. These goals should be based on historical performance and future growth opportunities, and they should reflect a balance of ambition and realism. Your workforce plan should support these goals, both in number and expertise required.

Corresponding Pipeline and Project Goals:

With revenue and business targets set, work backward to determine the corresponding pipeline or project needs. Whether it’s sales leads, product development, or strategic partnerships, ensure your team has the capacity and resources to generate and execute the required volume of work.

Collaboration with Other Departments:

Work with department heads across sales, marketing, operations, and product development to ensure workforce planning aligns with the broader organizational strategy. It’s crucial to hear from department heads on how they plan to improve productivity and effectiveness, especially in their people strategy. A collaborative approach ensures all departments are moving in the same direction and contributing to the company’s 2025 goals.

Ideal Team for 2025:

Based on your 2025 goals, assess whether you have the right team in place. In addition to the roles themselves, ensure you understand the key attributes someone needs to succeed in those roles. Are there key roles that need to be filled, such as project managers, technical experts, or customer success specialists? Identify gaps and plan to fill those roles heading into 2025.

Address Personnel Gaps:

Whether through performance improvement plans (PIPs) for underperforming employees or by hiring new talent, addressing personnel gaps is essential for achieving 2025 goals. Be proactive in workforce planning, and make adjustments as needed to ensure you have the right team in place. Don’t wait to make necessary changes for success in 2025.

Enablement on New Products, Services, or Systems:

Understand how people in your organization are being trained on your offerings and areas of expertise. Ensure your team is fully enabled on any new products, services, or internal systems that will impact 2025 performance. Enablement should include training sessions, clear documentation, and ongoing support to equip everyone for success.

Operational Cadence for 2025:

Establish an operational cadence to track progress from day one in 2025. This could include regular leadership meetings, performance reviews, and project tracking sessions. A structured approach ensures accountability and allows for real-time adjustments to stay on track toward your goals. Make sure employees are aligned on the upcoming operational cadence so that 2025 doesn’t require a reset once the year begins.

Conclusion: Balancing the Present with Future Success

For business leaders, Q4 represents both an opportunity to close the year strong and set the foundation for a successful 2025. By assessing your current team’s attributes, executing a tactical Q4 plan, and preparing a strategic business plan, you ensure that your organization is poised for both immediate and long-term success.

At HireIQ Solutions, we specialize in helping business leaders with business planning, workforce planning, talent assessments, and recruitment strategies. Whether you need help closing Q4 or building your team for 2025, we are here to support your goals and drive your organization’s success.