Tool Box
Issue No. 35 - June/July 2007
Six keys to sales planning
by Craig Stubing
Most owners of SMEs agree it’s desirable to have a Sales and Marketing Plan. Yet many of these same business-owners do not have a Sales and Marketing Plan for their own business.
When asked why this is the case they respond with comments like ‘Don’t have time to do it’, ‘Don’t know how to do it’, ‘Too expensive’ and ‘Don’t want to pay to get it done’.
If this sounds like you, the following idea may help. Write a simple Sales Development Statement. It doesn’t replace a full version plan but it will provide some of the benefits a full version plan provides and it will help you stay on course. It is, however, less time consuming and, if you commit to do the necessary thinking, you can do it yourself. Your team can join in.
Here’s a format that you can use. It’s built around identifying and recording six main points about your business and its sales and marketing function.
Point 1 – Clarify ‘what business you are in’ from the point of view of your customers
Think about your product, its features and the benefits they provide. Some of the benefits may be logic-based; others will be feeling-based. As a business-owner you know that you must always focus on helping your customer gain a benefit. If you don’t you won’t have a business for very long. In what ways does your business help its customers (from the customer’s perspective)?
A hairdresser may answer this question with ‘We help our customers feel good by looking good’. An accountant may answer with ‘We help our customers keep more money’ or even ‘We help our customers sleep at night’.
When writing this point you must focus on the customer and what they get in terms of benefits (not products!).
Commence writing this point with the words ‘Our Business is in the business of helping its customers…’
Point 2 – S...
