In the last blog, I hammered the importance of crafting and maintaining a long-term marketing plan. Once written, it will probably be among your most important documents.

But long-term plans are only as good as the potential changes they will help you handle. For instance, as you develop your plan, consider the host of unexpected events that can happen that would alter your path. Examples include: business changes such as mergers, acquisitions and spin-offs; market dynamics changes; organizational changes; corporation priorities; and leadership changes.

Any one of these can affect the direction of the plan, key branding, the focus and intent, and the delivery dates. You have to be on your game and think through all of these scenarios.

Earlier in my marketing career, I experienced the downside of not accounting for change, which, as I said before, is inevitable. My team had a strong plan in place ready to deliver outstanding results. Then executive leadership brought on a new CMO with specific goals for the business.

She did not share with us the big picture and corporate opportunity. She did not communicate well with us and, therefore, did not build trust. She micromanaged every aspect of our marketing strategy, but did not provide context. Perhaps most troublesome was that her leadership team – which should have been connected to us – drove changes to the plan but gave us no visibility as to why.

Eventually we found out that she was carrying out a branding exercise to help the company go private. Had we known or even had context, we could have assisted her and perhaps delivered a more comprehensive plan. If nothing else, the process would have gone more smoothly.

Since then, I’ve included the likelihood of leadership change at some level in all my long-term plans.

It’s so essential to be plugged in to the business’ goals and objectives so you can properly weave in a certain amount of flexibility. Also, this insight enables you to create contingencies you can attach to trusted team members such as sales leadership, key stakeholders, partner leadership and the marketing group. Keep them in the loop on your long-term plan and any subsequent changes and you’ll have an able team ready assist when necessary.

Equally important is to communicate your long-term plan and contingencies to your vendors. Remember, the faster they can adapt to whatever comes along, the less expensive the fix and the quicker you can get back on track.

As you share your long-term plan and contingencies, keep your message simple and straightforward. Do not bog down a process that is supposed to maintain your agility.

Change will happen. Your job is to be positive about it, maintain momentum for your plan, and be flexible. Line up your plans A, B and C so you aren’t caught off-guard and keep the lines of communication open. Do these tasks well and you’ll be seen as a strategic, reliable player in your organization.