Millennial Generation: Part 1
March 20, 2014Family Office Planning
March 25, 2014
Introduction
The right marketing and sales plan can increase enterprise value, foster long-term success and fuel profitable growth in all areas of a company. Since marketing and sales planning is a large subject area, in this piece we will give a brief overview of its main elements.
The Benefits
Not everyone sees the value behind a sales and marketing plan, and it is often overlooked. It takes time and energy, as do most plans, and businesses may fail if there isn’t a commitment to plan and revise as needed. Why is a marketing and sales plan important? What value will it bring to your company? Here are a few benefits of having a formal marketing and sales plan in place:
- Promote profitable growth
- Understand the needs and wants of current customers and target market
- Determine the demand of product or service
- Build a powerful brand
- Analyze the company’s strengths and weaknesses internally
- Identify market trends, threats and opportunities
- Provide alignment for financial, operational and managerial functions of a business
- Establish timelines and metrics for everyone to follow to reach business goals
Marketing and Sales: The Overlap
If you think about it, marketing is all around you: from the toothpaste you use in the morning, to the ads you see on your commute to work, to the decision of entering Starbucks versus Dunkin Donuts! The same applies to your business. Marketing is in everything you do, and is present in every output of your company. A few examples are the performance of your sales team, company website and emails, product and service delivery, organizational culture, pricing, positioning and advertising.
Marketing can also be viewed as the link between the internal organization of a company and the external world, which includes customers, suppliers, competition, and other stakeholders. Successfully aligning the business goals and objectives of the company with sales and marketing goals, and tracking performance metrics for future marketing strategies, key components of effective marketing.
