With the first of the year on hand, many benefits professionalswill be making the business equivalent of New Year’s resolutions: abusiness plan. Most will face this task with dread. After all, noone ever got into sales out of a love for paperwork.

Business plans, however, are far more than paperwork; they arean extremely effective means of guiding your business throughchange and aligning your team. I’ve explained how business plansaccomplish this magic in previous columns. Suffice to say theTrailblazed Sales Project Study found a high correlation betweenhaving a business plan and sales success. You can make substantialsales without a business plan, but it’s easier with one.

The good news is that writing a business plan doesn’t have to behard. The book that grew out of the study, Trailblazed: ProvenPaths to Sales Success, lays out one simple approach tocreating a meaningful plan.