Everyone has heard the saying ‘without a plan, you plan to fail’, right? And this rings especially true when it comes to a company’s sales and marketing plans. Put in place to outline specific goals and the steps that should be taken in order for key business goals to be reached, they are an essential part of sales and marketing teams’ strategy and overall business plan.
Sales and marketing plans play a pivotal role in a business’s overall success. With a practical, structured and detailed sales and marketing strategy, companies large or small, can outline how they are going to generate business leads and then capitalise on these through new business.
In this article, we look at what is involved in a typical sales and marketing plan, the importance of goal setting, and how these plans affect a business.
Table of Contents
Differentiating sales plans and marketing plans
Small businesses usually combine their sales team and marketing teams, while larger businesses may actually keep them separate. In either case, you can opt to create a separate sales plan and marketing plan or create a combined one. Sales and marketing efforts are very closely linked, and even if the plans are separate, they will feed into each other.
Before you begin creating a sales and marketing strategy
Before you rush into creating a sales and marketing strategy, there are a few things that you should be certain of, including:
- Your previous year’s financials, number of products sold etc.
- Previous marketing plans to draw from
- Your exact target market
- Which team members will be responsible for coming up with the plan
- What time period you want to create a plan
- In-depth knowledge of trending sales and marketing strategies
- What sort of marketing plan your competitors are using
- Options of the latest tools, technology, and applications that you could use for your plan
- Knowledge of your current problem areas and weaknesses and what needs to be improved upon (using SWOT analysis)
- Any skills or ‘hidden talents’ that your sales and marketing team possess that could be used to elevate the plan
Make sure that you have gathered all of the information and documents you need before creating your marketing strategy; otherwise, you will just have to make countless edits as new information comes to light.
What should be included in a sales and marketing plan?
The most important part of any sales and marketing plan should be the goals that are set within it. The goals should be very specific (i.e. sell x amount of products, gain x amount of followers on social media, improve engagement with the target audience by x per cent etc). The goals should also be realistic, and market research should be carried out looking into current trends and competitor brands to help create goals that are achievable.
Aside from very specific goals, a good sales and marketing plan should outline some of the following:
- An executive summary providing a concise overview of the plan, including key objectives, strategies and expected outcomes
- A detailed list of marketing tactics that are going to be implemented, and timeframes for each
- What tools, applications and marketing channels (including social media platforms) will be used in the sales and marketing campaigns
- How sales will be maximised by following up on the leads generated
- Which team members will be responsible for the specific tasks laid out in the plan, and which team members will assume leadership positions
- Milestones leading up to each ‘end-goal’ to measure success
- The incentives, bonuses, and commission involved for when goals are reached
- Potential obstacles that may be encountered along the way
- The marketing budget and estimated costs of each marketing initiative
- The resources that your team currently has available to them
Overall a plan should be a blueprint that team members can refer to for when they need to remind themselves of company sales and marketing objectives and what steps need to be taken in order to meet the company business goals. There are plenty of free marketing plan templates available should you need a helping hand getting started.
Everything in the plan should be laid out cohesively in a way that is easy to understand. There should be the use of visuals, such as branding, graphs etc, and these should overall stay true to the brand’s identity.
Why is a sales and marketing plan so important?
Sales and marketing plans play a vital role in keeping a business relevant and staying on track with its various objectives. An outline helps keep things organised, ensuring that every member of the team knows what is expected of them, what they are working towards, and what sort of incentive they can hope to enjoy should the marketing goals and sales be achieved.
Without a structured and detailed plan in place, you run the risk of complacency, confusion, and not being able to keep up with your competitors. You should do a thorough competitor analysis and look at market and industry trends to ensure your own marketing plan is reflective of current market conditions
Executing your sales and marketing strategy
If detailed steps are put in place and sufficient research is done, executing your sales and marketing plan should not be too difficult. Getting your value proposition across to potential customers should be achievable, though there should also be contingency plans laid out if certain things do not go according to plan.
The results from sales and marketing activities should be closely and regularly monitored so that the team is fully aware when certain key performance indicators and business objectives have been achieved.
How often should a sales and marketing plan be done?
This will differ from business to business, but it is recommended that a detailed sales and marketing plan should be created at least every year. Some businesses create seasonal sales and marketing plans for specific festive, busy seasons and a changing target audience, including existing customers.
The original plan can always stay in place, with slight tweaks being made to it need be, such in the cases of new marketing plans being implemented or when new employees are added to the team. Elements of a strategy, such as a social media marketing plan or a new product launch marketing plan, will need to be more flexible than other aspects that remain largely the same year on year.
Even if you use the same plan for a few years, it should be referred to regularly and inspected for any areas that need changes to ensure that you are always headed towards achievable business goals and are one step ahead of your competitors. If your target customers change, this need to be reflected in your plan.
Conclusions
A comprehensive marketing and sales plan is essential, especially for those operating in a highly competitive landscape where the need to demonstrate your value proposition to potential customers is high. With a robust strategy combing elements of good marketing and sales techniques, a company can hope to attract the attention of potential customers with their product or service offering and then their sales teams can capitalise on those leads.
Through the many strands of a marketing strategy, from PPC and paid ad campaigns to search engine optimisation, content marketing and more, companies should hope to attract new customers that sees them get a return on their investment. Only with a solid strategy that brings together both marketing and sales aspect of a business effectively can key metrics and revenue targets hope to be met.
