The owner of an analytics reporting service brings a three-year plan: SEO, webinars, advertising and a new website. Meanwhile, sales is discussing two jobs. A small retail chain needs one clear report every month. A large company wants its own system with new integrations. The plan budgets for the website but does not say which job the company wants to repeat over the next three years.
Use the service from marketing in the P&L: a standard monthly package at 60,000 ₸, variable fulfilment of 20,000 ₸ and contribution of 40,000 ₸. In the closed month it served 20 paying companies. All figures and offers in the example are made up.
A choice must change the offer
Strategy connects the customer, their task, the value and the activities that create it. Harvard Business School describes the relationship between distinctive value, activities and trade-offs. A practical test for a strategy page is whether a salesperson can tell which request to accept and which needs a separate decision.
The service chooses small chains whose owners regularly merge exports from several stores and dispute the totals with managers. Its promise is a comparable monthly sales and assortment report with documented calculation rules. This is narrower than "analytics for any business": the client needs the right task and data from supported sources.
The choice has a cost. The company declines to promise every integration inside the standard package. In return, it expects a repeatable process: the same input format, reconciliation, report and client review. If every sale creates a new product, fulfilment at 20,000 ₸ will stop being a credible assumption.
The service's strategy page
| Question | Working choice |
|---|---|
| Who it is for | Small retail chains with a recurring data consolidation task and a supported accounting system |
| Which task it solves | Prepare a report the owner and managers can use to interpret store results consistently |
| What it promises | A monthly report using agreed data and consistent rules |
| How capability is demonstrated | A seven-day pilot on a permitted export, with reproducible reconciliation |
| How it delivers | Two supported accounting systems, a standard set of tables and a quality owner |
| How it acquires clients | Explain the task through report examples; test direct acquisition and suitable partnerships |
| What repeats | The next report, a review of changes and support for the agreed sources |
| Where the boundary lies | A new integration, separate ERP or round-the-clock support needs a different decision and price |
The working document would replace "two systems" with their verified names and supported versions. Confirm the list and versions with the developer before promising compatibility. The seven-day pilot starts under the rule in the offer sheet, explained consistently by the website and sales.
Refine the segment through conversations about current work. A chain may be small but already have useful in-house analytics. Another fits by size but cannot export its data. Store count helps identify an audience; willingness to pay for the task needs separate evidence.
How the activities support the economics
Standard sources reduce the variety of connections. Consistent calculation rules reduce arguments over totals. A sample report helps prospects understand the offer before a meeting. Sales asks about data before the pilot and avoids passing an obviously unsuitable task to the specialist.
In the closed month, 20 packages at 60,000 ₸ produced 1,200,000 ₸ revenue. Fulfilment cost 400,000 ₸, leaving 800,000 ₸ contribution. After 200,000 ₸ advertising and 400,000 ₸ other fixed expenses, 200,000 ₸ remained before tax. Fixed expenses cover marketing, sales and management pay, premises and shared services; they do not count advertising or variable fulfilment again.
Now suppose new promises raise standard-package fulfilment from 20,000 ₸ to 35,000 ₸. With the same 20 clients, contribution falls to 20 × 25,000 = 500,000 ₸. After the unchanged 600,000 ₸ of advertising and fixed expenses, the result becomes negative 100,000 ₸. Revenue stayed the same, but the actual offer changed the costs.
That calls for a review of package scope, process or price. New integrations can become a separate offer if the company can estimate and support them. Writing "standardisation" in the strategy while sales accepts every request will not work: the budget will describe one service while the team delivers another.
What a 3-5 year horizon means
A long horizon covers capabilities that do not appear in a single campaign: repeatable onboarding, a calculation library, a partner channel and a support team. It sets direction. The nearest stage gets a detailed plan, budget and progression criterion; later stages remain conditional.
The service's first stage is to establish the need and standard delivery. The team examines pilots, preparation time, rework and clients' willingness to continue. The next stage is to repeat sales and service without manual work growing with every new order. It can then assess an adjacent segment or another data source.
A date alone does not open the next stage. If most connections still need a separate developer in year two, expanding advertising under the old model is premature. If the standard works but one webinar attracts unsuitable people, examine its topic and audience first. One webinar is too little to change the market: that takes pilots, payments and client conversations over several months.
Record assumptions and review conditions
The strategy page needs an accompanying list: what the team knows, what it assumes and which observation would change the decision. For the service, the recurring need, data availability, delivery costs and continued payment matter. If buyers want only a one-off report, monthly service needs reconsideration.
Evidence might come from interviews, real pilots, a cost log or closed customer cohorts. State which question each source answers. Approval of a mockup helps assess whether the offer is understood. A repeat payment helps assess continuation. Proving that the new offer itself brought the payments needs a test with randomised groups, and a small B2B service may not have enough clients for one.
A strategy review also looks for evidence against the chosen direction. Otherwise any result becomes a reason to continue: sales are low because advertising is insufficient; delivery is expensive because there are too few clients. Write an assumption down only if you know in advance which result would change your mind.
A large deal outside the standard
Suppose a corporation offers 240,000 ₸ per month. Custom fulfilment is estimated at 180,000 ₸ per month, with another 120,000 ₸ once for the new integration. Monthly contribution is 60,000 ₸. If the client pays for and receives three months, revenue is 720,000 ₸ and fulfilment 540,000 ₸, leaving 60,000 ₸ after initial preparation, before acquisition and shared expenses.
240,000 ₸ is four times the standard monthly price, but that alone is no reason to take the job. Assess commitment length, payment terms, support costs and the capacity it would take from other clients. Three months in the calculation is a scenario; until those months happen, it is future money.
Declining may preserve the standard business. Accepting may establish a separate line if the owner allocates resources and agrees to its economics. The dangerous option is to call it standard, leave 20,000 ₸ fulfilment in the plan and hand the team new commitments without discussion.
Exercise: a page for making decisions
Complete the eight strategy rows for your product. Add three main assumptions, the observations that would test them, and one offer the company does not currently accept as standard. Name the resources the next stage needs and what will be deferred.
For the service, calculate the corporate scenario if the client leaves after the second paid and delivered month. Does that change the decision?
Two months produce 480,000 ₸ revenue and 360,000 ₸ variable fulfilment. The 120,000 ₸ contribution is entirely consumed by initial preparation. Nothing remains before shared expenses and acquisition. The decision now depends on the basis for expecting continuation, other benefits and the cost of the occupied team. The project can be assessed as a separate investment, but its third payment cannot enter results already earned.
Video: plan and strategy
A Harvard Business Review video. After watching, find a decision on your page that required turning down some possible activities.