Elements of the Strategic Marketing and Sales Plan
Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes
Welcome back – this is the third of a series of posts on Strategic Marketing and Sales Planning.
A good strategic plan consists of the following elements in this order:
- Data
- Assumptions
- SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)
- Key Goals
- Key Strategies
- Tactics that support the Key Strategies
- The budget that results from the tactics
We will get into the details of these elements in the next postings. And, you will be able to start the work. Some of it can be done in parallel. Some of it will be delegated. Some of it will be done in group settings. It will be fun.
These elements all look a bit rigid and permanent. They aren’t. A strategic plan is dynamic. It can be adjusted at any time. If one of your 510K applications at the FDA is delayed, you go to the plan and make the appropriate adjustments. The product launch will be delayed. This affects a lot of strategies and tactics and budget items. Advertising is rescheduled, website changes are delayed, sales training is delayed, etc.. Or, a new opportunity presents itself. Perhaps you put on a strong new distributor in Brazil who commits to a higher amount of orders than you originally forecast for that country. His team may need training in Brazil. He may need help with translation of literature, etc.. This changes the plan.
You will conduct quarterly reviews of the plan. During these reviews you and your team can make necessary adjustments. If an e-blast campaign is not bringing in the leads you expected, perhaps the value proposition needs to be reconsidered. Or, the email list provider changed. Or, a different lead generation approach entirely. You can change the plan before the problem gets worse. What if something very positive develops. Perhaps a sales promotion is more successful than you and your team anticipated. During the strategic review you could consider adding more resources to this campaign to take advantage of this momentum. In this manner, the strategic plan review becomes a closed loop management system that steers you toward gold mines and away from land mines.
In the next posting we will talk about Data and Assumptions. And, you will be able to start delegating some of this important preparatory work.
