P&L statement
Budgeting charts
Past sales/marketing plans
Industry reports
Competitor analysis reports
As a business owner, you must know everything about your target audience.
Without a deep understanding of your ICP, you could end up like a door-to-door salesman trying to sell but end up annoying everyone.
This information helps you take the necessary steps to add context and relevance to your marketing and sales plan.
You should break up your ideal customer persona (ICP) into several sections covering all aspects of your persona’s — the demographic profile, what they think, believe, and trust in, their needs, motivations, drives, and psychographic profile.
Sample questions for building an Ideal Customer Profile
Demographic | Psychographic |
---|---|
Who is your ideal customer? Where do they live? What do they do? What age group they’re in? | What do they believe in? What motivates and drives them to take action? Have they ever boycotted a brand because they’ve acted unethically? Do they pay more attention to the price or quality of the items you buy? Where do they go for advice on which products to buy? Do they prioritize their family, work, or social life? Which activity do they do most often when they have free time? Do they actively seek new experiences or prefer to stick with what they know they enjoy? |
Knowing your audience allows you to talk the way they want to be talked to. Also, you get to understand what makes them buy, their problems and pain points, and where they spend most of their time. All this is crucial for creating an effective marketing strategy.
You can even use this knowledge to segment your audience personas and personalize your marketing campaigns — a powerful tactic to market your brand in 2022.
Once you’ve gathered data and foresight, start the self-introspection process.
Ask yourself where you stand in your startup journey.
✓ How is your business performing right now?
✓ Are you performing according to your revenue estimates and KPIs?
✓ Do your business and revenue generation efforts align with market and industry trends? Do they need to align?
✓ Are you marketing and selling where your customers are looking for options?
✓ What are your strengths and weaknesses?
✓ What challenges are you facing in getting your business to the next level?
✓ Is there any better way of doing things than you do now?
All these questions will give you ideas to start the actual planning process. Moreover, you’d understand if whatever you did was even worth it.
Have you ever traveled without a destination?
Well, maybe you have. But that’s not how you run a business. You need to have an exact destination in mind — where you’re headed to.
That’s why having an objective and goal is essential for making a sales and marketing plan. Tangible and realistic goal-setting should be the #1 priority of anyone trying to succeed as an entrepreneur.
Your goals will will allow you to track if you’re making a real impact on your business. Plus, having a metric-driven goal gives you an understanding of what you need to do for success.
Your goals and objectives should be tied to your business vision and mission.
Often, we see there’s a misalignment between sales and marketing objectives. That leads to confusion and, thus, poor performance. Hence setting a SMART goal is critical for ensuring clarity.
SMART objectives for your sales and marketing plans should be:
You know you need to measure your goals and objectives in real-time.
That would ensure everything’s on track and help you red flag any deviations from your desired path.
But setting a measurable KPI for any business is a tricky business in itself. Especially when there’s a lot to plan in sales and marketing, and every business is different.
KPI or key performance indicators should be planned based on industry best practices, prevailing marketing trends, and taking stakeholders in confidence.
You can align standard industry KPIs with your business or marketing/sales goals to create your version of KPIs that will objectify your success figures.
Standard Goals and KPIs you should track
Increase sales | total number of first sales calls your sales department completed total number of closing calls your sales department completed number of contracts sent to prospects total number of contracts signed versus sent |
Grow brand awareness | Number of guest posts on relevant websites with good DA Percentage increase in referral traffic |
Generate leads | : total number of new leads brought in : percentage change in lead generation compared to other time frames. : amount of money spent to acquire one new lead : percentage of your traffic that becomes a lead after visiting your website : total number of leads that marketing accepts as qualified. : total number of leads that sales accepts as qualified. |
Improve website performance | number of visits to your website the number of unique people who visit your website average number of pages a website visitor views on your website percentage of website visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page the average amount of time that website visitors stay on your site |
Increase social media engagement | the number of new followers/fans acquired over a certain period. number of comments on your social posts number of times your social content was shared number of leads generated through your social campaigns and posts percentage of your website traffic referred by social media sites |
Acquire New Customers | Customers acquired over a certain period Percentage change of new customers compared to other time frames. the amount of money spent to acquire a new customer percentage of leads that become paying customers |
Increase the customer lifetime value | number of customers who return to buy something from you percentage of customers who renew their subscriptions average amount customers spend on buying your products or services over their lifetime. |
Always ensure that each KPI you track links to the bigger picture — where and how it contributes to your business’s mission and mission. This will add relevance to your sales and marketing plans giving you more accurate insights for the future periods.
Forecasting is an activity that predicts what your sales and marketing efforts will lead to on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis.
Creating a sales or marketing forecast involves taking the opinions of industry leaders, financial consultants, CPAs, marketers, sales managers, and your team members. It also will involve studying and analyzing the insights you gathered in step one.
A forecast will help you make better hiring decisions, budget for your expansion in a better way, and linearly predict your revenues. You can also add dynamic variables to the forecasts to analyze how your KPIs would perform under real-life situations.
Creating a forecasting and budgeting model for your sales and marketing team is highly essential to keep things in check. However, it would be best if you didn’t fall into the lure of creating forecasts for more extended periods as things are changing quite rapidly, especially after COVID-19.
Better to create a forecast for a quarter, review it based on actual expenses and performance, and keep iterating. You can also take advantage of popular forecasting tools for more accurate models.
By this step, you’d have a clear idea about your capabilities, the goals you want to achieve, the industry trends and the forecasts for the future.
This will give you an opportunity to get a bird’s eye view of your sales and marketing activities in terms of your revenue growth.
You can use this information to plug in gaps because of your assumptions and biases, analyze what’s required and the challenges you’d face to make things happen.
Identifying gaps between your existing situation and your goals based on forecasts would help you make informed decisions.
You can choose to hire more people in sales and marketing, increase your budget, try new marketing tactics, or even start an entirely different lead generation and nurturing channel to achieve your goals.
The most important part of the planning process is to understand your capabilities. If you’ve assessed your current scenario correctly, you’ll have a clear picture of who’s responsible for growth, marketing, sales, etc.
And if you’re just starting, this is a great time to start planning a structure for your marketing and sales team, starting with:
Remember, if you’re just starting to build a team and have existing team members, take them in confidence and involve every stakeholder before creating a structure.
The more aligned and closely knit your sales and marketing, the faster you achieve your growth goals.
By this step, you’re almost done with the planning. You just need to answer two more questions:
This means outlining action steps, developing marketing and sales tactics, and finalizing the cogs required to run your marketing/sales engine.
You can start by putting together a rough draft of all the insights you’ve gathered, the available resources, the budget, best industry practices, trends, and growth projections. This will give you foresight into what can work in your favour.
Build a list of action steps that you need to take to move in the direction of your goals.
1. Create marketing collateral 2. Set up analytics and UTM parameters 3. Strategize a marketing campaign | 1. Write a sales call script 2. Utilize sales enablement tools 3. Increase the number of upsells |
Okay! This is the last step of the planning process. After this, you will be left with the exact steps you need to take daily to achieve your KPIs.
But don’t take this step lightly. Think of this as the building blocks of a bridge that would take you from “here” to “there”.
You’ll need to make a list of tools, systems, and solutions you’d need to make things happen.
For example, if you’ve concluded that you need to set up a lead nurture campaign , you need a tool or platform that makes that happen.
You’ll need to evaluate the available options and pick a tool that aligns with your goals and budget.
While picking up any tool, make sure that it should:
Make sure that whatever tech stack you’re finalizing has a solid mechanism to track success and your KPIs.
This will help you ascertain success quicker. Also, communicate with all the stakeholders about the tools and success metrics.
To make things easy for you, we have prepared comprehensive templates for both your sales and marketing plans. To download the template click on the links below and duplicate the document. Then, fill in the blanks.
Download the Marketing Plan Template
Download the Sales Plan Template
If you’ve come this far with your planning, you should have a functional plan for supercharging your marketing and sales operations in the coming weeks and months..
But remember, sales and marketing planning isn’t a one-time activity. Keep optimizing your plans with fresh insights to stay on track with changing dynamics. And don’t forget to track the right metrics and KPIs.
A marketing automation platform like Encharge can help you to execute your marketing and sales plans. Don’t believe us. Check the success stories to see how others businesses are amping up their marketing and sales game now.
“encharge helped us visually redesign our onboarding flow resulting in a 10% increase in our trial activation rate .", 21 inbound marketing tools to turn traffic into revenue fast.
If you got a dollar for every person who visited your website, how rich would you be today? The bad
Before you spend a cent on marketing, you first have to understand the market and your customers.
Companies of all sizes have one thing in common: They all began as small businesses. Starting small is the corner for those just getting off the ground. Learn about how to make that first hire, deal with all things administrative, and set yourself up for success.
A marketing plan is a blueprint for launching new products, understanding the intricacies of your market, growing your audience, and promoting your company to customers who want what you’re selling.
With a well-designed marketing plan, you can design more effective promotions and impactful campaigns, reach your customers with targeted advertising, and track your business success with analytics. Without one, you might as well throw your marketing budget down a well and hope for the best.
If you’ve been tasked with creating a marketing plan for your company, there are some basic elements to keep in mind. Though every marketing plan will reflect the specific business and industry it’s been created for, most share a few common features and can be boiled down to just one or two simple objectives. In this article, we’ll outline some of the basic elements of a marketing plan and how to write one.
When you’re ready to put the plan into action, WeWork All Access and WeWork On Demand are there to support you with hundreds of dedicated workspaces around the world, so you can seamlessly collaborate on marketing strategy in a professional and stylish office space.
A marketing plan is a document outlining a company’s future marketing efforts and goals. It can be as short as a single page or made up of many smaller campaign plans from different marketing teams.
However large and complex those plans are, the idea remains the same: A marketing plan is created to organize, execute, and eventually measure the success of a business’s marketing strategy .
Marketing plans come in as many different shapes and sizes as there are different kinds of business, but they can be broadly placed into one (or more) of a few different categories. Here are some of the most common you’ll encounter.
A marketing plan lays out your business strategy for acquiring new customers and selling more products and services. But it also serves as a way of analyzing exactly how successful your marketing efforts have been so far. Knowing this information helps steer ongoing campaigns in the right direction, aligns your marketing with your company’s values, and ensures that future campaigns are better targeted and more effective.
To understand why a marketing plan is important, just consider what would happen without one. Your advertising budget would be spent based entirely on guesswork about where your potential customers can be found and what they’re looking for. You’d have no idea which of your campaigns contributed to increased sales figures. And you’d have no baselines from which to build more effective campaigns in the future.
Elements of a marketing plan.
The basic building blocks of any good marketing plan are focused on objectives, research, competitors, and content. These objectives should be clearly defined and easily measurable goals —ideally no more than two or three—and informed by as much consumer research as you can reasonably gather.
Whether your goal is increasing your Instagram followers, driving traffic to your site, or attracting more cheese fans to your cheese store, set a specific target by which to monitor the performance of any campaign. As you develop your marketing plan and learn what’s effective and what’s not, you can set more accurate targets and begin to hone in on the strategies that really work for your company.
A marketing plan should also describe your brand’s biggest competitors and the campaigns they’re running, as well as identify any openings in the market that would allow your company to grab market share. This is where SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis comes into its own, enabling a company to shape its marketing plan around its own strengths and weaknesses.
Lastly, a marketing plan should outline the content of each campaign. Will your pre-roll video content use animation or live actors? Can you offer discounts and voucher codes to new customers? Will you leverage your mailing list to notify existing customers of a new product launch?
If your marketing plan is a roadmap, then your marketing strategy is the road. The strategy describes which tools you’ll use to hit the targets laid out by the main marketing plan document, and how they’ll be applied.
Here’s where you get down to the fundamentals of selling. Depending on who you ask, there are as many as seven P’s of marketing, though most agree on four core elements: price, product, place, and promotion.
What are you selling? How much are you charging? Where will your customers see it? And how will you promote it to them? Marketing gurus will promise you that if you can answer all of these questions correctly, you’ll be guaranteed boundless success.
Of course, in the real world it’s not quite so straightforward. But the four main P’s are an ideal starting point for anyone creating a market plan from scratch.
An enormous amount of effort and investment is poured into monitoring the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, but at some level, consumer behavior becomes what’s known as a black box. You can measure what goes into it and what comes out the other end, but what happens inside the mind of a consumer can ultimately only be guessed at based on outcomes. Even the shoppers themselves can’t reliably report on why they choose certain products over others.
That’s why tracking a marketing plan’s performance alongside more specific KPIs (key performance indicators) is crucial. Advertising spend and sales figures aren’t linked in a simple or obvious way, so measuring success on a more granular level—such as increasing conversions or returning customers—helps create a much clearer picture of how well your marketing plan is doing.
Marketing plans need to be squarely outlined and adhered to, but they shouldn’t be set in stone. You need to be able to course-correct when something isn’t landing, or lean more into campaigns when they’re working well.
Quick aside: This is particularly true when it comes to the content of social media marketing plans, which are truly effective only when they’re timely and topical. Memes are a perfect example of this: How often have you seen a promoted tweet deploy some forgotten joke from months ago, presumably because it had been left in somebody’s annual marketing plan?
But while it’s useful to have a flexible approach , it’s important that your marketing plan is resilient and doesn’t flip-flop or bounce wildly between ideas. Move the goalposts too much and your plan will quickly fall apart, leaving your campaign in chaos. Allow your strategies some time to settle in, and even if you don’t reach success, you will gain invaluable performance data for future projects.
Steve Hogarty is a writer and journalist based in London. He is the travel editor of City AM newspaper and the deputy editor of City AM Magazine , where his work focuses on technology, travel, and entertainment.
Rethinking your workspace?
Should you send that follow-up? Get your answer by discovering the best practices for pitching to investors.
If you’ve been asking questions like, how will I know when I find a product market fit? How long should I explore before launching? Or what should I initially price my product? These are all questions that founders have asked, and below are the answers from the founders who’ve figured it out.
Tom Hewitson, Chief AI Officer at leading AI training company General Purpose , offers tips for small businesses
The art of storytelling, from net margin to sales.
1. To raise money for your business
2. To make sound decisions
3. To help you identify any potential weaknesses
4. To communicate your ideas with stakeholders
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In the uber-competitive world of entrepreneurial sales, it helps to learn from the best. And, Babson College Associate Professor Vincent (Vini) Onyemah is one of the best.
We sat down with Onyemah recently to learn more about what he has been up to and why he says entrepreneurial sales is the single most important business function. We gleaned valuable information that will be helpful to entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals alike.
“I started selling when I was 11 years old to survive.”
Onyemah is from Nigeria, he speaks seven languages (he can sell in all of them), he started two businesses, and he currently teaches sales and marketing at Babson College, the No. 1 ranked school for entrepreneurship .
“Sales is the lifeblood of any organization,” said Onyemah. According to him, any business that isn’t selling is dying. Moreover, selling should start as soon as you have that lightbulb moment.
“You start selling. You hit the road. You hit the pavement. You go meet those customers that you had in mind,” said Onyemah.
“And, you let them tell you, before you invest too many resources, that this is a bad idea, or a good idea. This is why it’s bad, or this is why it’s good. This is what would make me buy the product. Or, this is my pain when it comes to this issue,” Onyemah said.
Entrepreneurial sales is, well, everything.
As Onyemah describes it, entrepreneurial sales is not just revenue generation, though it’s that, too. Entrepreneurial sales also is everything else.
“It’s selling to get revenue. Selling to convince suppliers to give you good products at a good price. Selling to suppliers to increase the number of days of credit you have. Selling to investors to put in more money. Selling to someone to be on your advisory board. Selling to your colleagues to be partners with you. Selling to get talent to come work for you. All of these are selling scenarios but people don’t see it that way,” said Onyemah.
Onyemah doesn’t just know how to teach. His last book entitled, Entrepreneurial Selling: The Facts Every Entrepreneur Should Know , came out in 2017 and the Spanish version went on sale in February of this year. It’s now required reading for all MBA students at the famed IPADE Business School in Mexico City.
“This book is based on the field research on five continents, talking with entrepreneurs about how they made their first sales, and what they learned from it,” said Onyemah. “It’s full of advice. It’s full of frameworks. It’s full of how-to examples.”
“When I say that an organization that is not selling is dying, it’s not just from the point of view of revenue generation,” said Onyemah. “It’s also the ability to convince several players to come play with you. To say yes to you. That is selling.”
“Because a tree cannot make a forest, you need a coalition of actors to be successful. For that dream to become a reality, you have to know how to sell.”
Posted in Entrepreneurial Leadership , Insights
Tagged Entrepreneurship Ecosystems , Entrepreneurship Education , Faculty
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Posted august 5, 2024 by noah parsons.
Imagine you’re going on a road trip. You know your final destination, but you haven’t figured out how to get there.
While it might be fun to start driving and figure things out as you go, your trip will likely take longer than expected and end up costing more. But, if you take the time to look at a map and chart the best way to get to your destination—you’ll arrive on time and on budget.
Planning for your business isn’t much different, which is why a business plan is so important to your continued success.
The primary purpose of a business plan is to help you figure out where you want to go with your business and how you will get there. Writing a business plan helps you set your direction and determine a winning strategy. A solid business plan will set your business up for success and help you build an unbeatable company.
If you start off without a plan, you may go down some interesting detours, but you’re unlikely to grow quickly or stick to your budget.
“Creating a road map for my business is all well and good, but do I really need a business plan? I’d rather just get started.”
If you’re still thinking like this and decide to skip writing a business plan, you’re making a big mistake and setting yourself up to fail. Even if your business survives, without a plan, you’ll miss valuable growth opportunities and never truly be in control.
Still not convinced? Here are the critical reasons why a business plan is important for small businesses.
Documenting your business idea makes it more official. It takes rough ideas and turns them into the making of a real business.
According to a study by the Harvard Business Review , entrepreneurs who write formal plans are 16% more likely to achieve viability than those who don’t.
Even if it’s just notes about your potential business, writing things down will make you more likely to proceed with your business. Without a plan, you can’t prove to yourself, partners, mentors, or investors that you’re serious about starting.
Writing a business plan takes some of the risk out of starting a business. It helps you think through every facet of your business to determine if it can truly be viable.
Your business plan can answer these startup questions .
For those already running a business, writing a plan can help you better manage ongoing risk.
Keep your plan up to date, review it regularly and you can easily answer these growth questions and mitigate risk.
When you have a new business idea, it helps to spend time thinking through all the details.
A business plan will help you think about your:
A business plan will also help you easily share your idea with other people to get input and feedback before you get started.
There’s no need to create a detailed business plan either.
Instead, I recommend using a one-page business plan to quickly test your ideas and determine if you have a viable business.
No matter how good your idea is, you have to figure out who your ideal customers are and how you will get the word out to them.
That’s where a marketing plan comes in. It can be an indispensable tool to figure out how you get your first customers as well as your thousandth customer. It can start as a simple bulleted list of potential marketing channels that expands in detail as you need it.
Without a business plan, it’s impossible to know how much money it will cost to start and run a business. You don’t just need money for your initial purchases; you need enough cash in the bank to maintain your cash runway and keep your business afloat while you get fully up and running.
When you plan, you’ll need to create your expense budget , set sales goals, and identify how much cash is needed to keep your doors open, purchase inventory, and more.
The beauty of incorporating forecasts into your business plan is that you don’t need exact numbers to start. You can work with general assumptions and compare against competitive benchmarks to set a baseline for your business.
As you operate and collect financial data, you can revisit your business plan and update your forecasts to generate a more accurate picture of your business’s future.
Sharing your business idea with investors requires a business plan.
Investors may never actually ask for your full business plan, but they will certainly ask you questions that you’ll only be able to answer if you’ve taken the time to write a plan.
At the very least, they’ll want to see your financial forecasts, so you should be prepared for this. If you pitch your business to investors, having a business plan makes it much easier to translate the right information into a pitch deck.
In short, you’ll have all of the right information ready and available to show why your business is worth investing in.
Things rarely actually go to plan. The world is always changing, customer tastes change, and new competitors arrive.
Having a plan allows you to experiment with different scenarios to see how changes to your business will impact your forecasts, budgets, profitability, and cash flow.
Without a business plan, you’ll be reacting blindly with no way to track if your decisions are making a real impact.
Especially if you’re a young startup company, attracting employees can be hard. Without a proven track record, why should someone take a risk to work for you?
Having a business plan can help solve that problem. Your plan can help prospective employees understand your business strategy and growth plans so that they can feel confident joining your team. It’s also incredibly useful in determining when and if it’s feasible for you to hire more employees .
A great business strategy can only be successful if your team understands it. By documenting your strategy with a business plan, you can easily get everyone on the same page and working towards the same goals.
It’s even better if you regularly review your plan with members of your team. Have everyone revisit your core strategy, analyze it, and explore how it impacts individual and team goals .
A business plan is all about setting goals for your company — both financial goals and milestones you hope to accomplish.
When you use your business plan to manage your business, you’ll see which parts of your strategy are working and which aren’t.
For example, you may have invested in new marketing efforts to sell one of your products, but that strategy just isn’t working out. With a business plan in hand, you’ll be able to see what’s going to plan and where you need to adjust your strategy, pivoting to new opportunities that will drive profitability.
Regular business plan reviews , ideally monthly, will help you build a strong, resilient business.
Having a business plan not only helps you create a roadmap for your business but also helps you navigate unforeseen events. Large-scale economic downturns, supply shortages, payment delays, cash flow problems, and any number of other issues are bound to pop up. But by leveraging your business plan, you can be prepared to face each crisis head-on.
A plan helps you assess your current situation, determine how the crisis will alter your plan, and explore what it will take to recover.
With a little planning, you can even prepare your business for future downturns with this same process. Having the right plan and processes in place will make crisis planning easier and, ideally, recession-proof your business .
You might decide to sell your business or position yourself for acquisition down the road. Having a solid business plan helps make the case for a higher valuation.
Your business is likely worth more to a buyer if it’s easy for them to understand your business model, your target market, and your overall potential to grow and scale.
Remember, if you were buying a business , you’d likely want to see their business plan and any previous documentation. So, the more organized and professional your plan is, the easier it will be for a buyer to say yes.
You may be procrastinating in writing a business plan because it sounds like a lot of work. The truth is that planning is much less complicated than you think.
Start small by writing a simple business plan you can complete in about half an hour. With the emergence of AI business plan generators , getting stuck with a blank page is a thing of the past. Just be sure that you don’t just let AI write your plan for you and keep yourself involved in the planning process.
From there, refine your plan until your idea is solid. At that point, you can invest more time in a more detailed business plan. Just start with the basics and expand from there.
When you have a plan for your business, you have peace of mind. You know that you’ve invested the time to figure out a business model that works, and you’ve considered different financial scenarios so you can handle the unexpected.
Plus, you have a management tool to run your business better than your competitors.
A Journal of Management Studies study found that businesses that take the time to plan grow 30% faster than those that don’t.
Our own 2021 small business research study found that 58% of small business owners who have or are working on a plan feel confident in their business, even amidst a crisis.
A study in Small Business Economics found that entrepreneurs who write business plans for their ideas are 152% more likely to actually start their businesses.
There’s plenty of additional research linking business planning with success, so it’s a proven fact that you won’t waste time when you write your plan.
There are plenty of reasons to write a business plan, but they all relate to one thing—increasing the likelihood of success for you and your business.
Taking the time to plan is an investment in yourself and your business that will pay dividends, whether you’re starting a new business or taking your existing business to the next level.
If you’ve been putting off writing a business plan, now is the time to do it. Start by downloading one of the many free business plan templates out there, or for additional guidance, invest in an online business plan builder .
No matter what business planning tool you choose, just deciding to write a business plan will set you up to build, run, and grow your business. So, don’t wait—start planning today.
A business plan is a structured document that outlines the goals, strategies, target market, and financial forecasts of a business. It serves as a roadmap for the business, detailing the steps necessary to achieve success.
Business planning is essential because it helps businesses set clear goals, allocate resources efficiently, identify potential challenges, and develop strategies to overcome them. It also provides a framework for decision-making and helps attract investors by demonstrating the viability of the business.
Without planning, a business may lack direction and clarity, leading to inefficient use of resources, missed opportunities, and an inability to respond effectively to market changes. This can result in financial difficulties, operational challenges, and ultimately, business failure.
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Building a great business plan helps you plan, strategize and succeed. Presented by Chase for Business .
Making the decision to create a new business is an exciting yet stressful experience. Starting a business involves many tasks and obstacles, so it’s important to focus before you take action. A solid business plan can provide direction, help you attract investors and ensure you maintain momentum.
No matter what industry you plan on going into, a business plan is the first step for any successful enterprise. Building your business plan helps you figure out where you want your business to go and identify the necessary steps to get you there. This is a key document for your company to both guide your actions and track your progress.
Think of a business plan like a roadmap. It enables you to solve problems and make key business decisions, such as marketing and competitive analysis, customer and market analysis and logistics and operations plans.
It can also help you organize your thoughts and goals, as well as give you a better idea of how your company will work. Good planning is often the difference between success and failure.
Here are nine reasons your company needs a business plan.
Through the process of writing a business plan, you can assess whether your company will be successful. Understanding market dynamics, as well as competitors, will help determine if your idea is viable.
This is also the time to develop financial projections for your business plan, like estimated startup costs, a profit and loss forecast, a break-even analysis and a cash flow statement . By taking time to investigate the viability of your idea, you can build goals and strategies to support your path to success.
A proper business plan proves to all interested parties—including potential investors, customers, employees, partners and most importantly yourself — that you are serious about your business.
As a business owner, the bulk of your time will mostly likely be spent managing day-to-day tasks. As a result, it might be hard to find time after you launch your business to set goals and milestones. Writing a business plan allows you to lay out significant goals for yourself ahead of time for three or even five years down the road. Create both short- and long-term business goals.
Prevent your business from falling victim to unexpected dangers by researching before you break ground. A business plan opens your eyes to potential risks that your business could face. Don’t be afraid to ask yourself the hard questions that may need research and analysis to answer. This is also good practice in how your business would actually manage issues when they arise. Incorporate a contingency plan that identifies risks and how you would respond to them effectively.
The most common reasons businesses fail include:
Lack of capital is the most prevalent reason why businesses fail. To best alleviate this problem, take time to determine how your business will generate revenue. Build a comprehensive model to help mitigate future risks and long-term pain points. This can be turned into a tool to manage growth and expansion.
Whether you’re planning to apply for an SBA loan , build a relationship with angel investors or seek venture capital funding, you need more than just an elevator pitch to get funding. All credible investors will want to review your business plan. Although investors will focus on the financial aspects of the plan, they will also want to see if you’ve spent time researching your industry, developed a viable product or service and created a strong marketing strategy.
While building your business plan, think about how much raised capital you need to get your idea off the ground. Determine exactly how much funding you’ll need and what you will use it for. This is essential for raising and employing capital.
You will have many investments to make at the launch of your business, such as product and services development, new technology, hiring, operations, sales and marketing. Resource planning is an important part of your business plan. It gives you an idea of how much you’ll need to spend on resources and it ensures your business will manage those resources effectively.
A business plan provides clarity about necessary assets and investment for each item. A good business plan can also determine when it is feasible to expand to a larger store or workspace.
In your plan, include research on new products and services, where you can buy reliable equipment and what technologies you may need. Allocate capital and plan how you’ll fund major purchases, such as with a Chase small business checking account or business credit card .
From seasoned executives to skilled labor, a compelling business plan can help you attract top-tier talent, ideally inspiring management and employees long after hiring. Business plans include an overview of your executive team as well as the different roles you need filled immediately and further down the line.
Small businesses often employ specialized consultants, contractors and freelancers for individual tasks such as marketing, accounting and legal assistance. Sharing a business plan helps the larger team work collectively in the same direction.
This will also come into play when you begin working with any new partners. As a new business, a potential partner may ask to see your business plan. Building partnerships takes time and money, and with a solid business plan you have the opportunity to attract and work with the type of partners your new business needs.
When you start a business, it's easy to assume you'll be available to guide your team. A business plan helps your team and investors understand your vision for the company. Your plan will outline your goals and can help your team make decisions or take action on your behalf. Share your business plan with employees to align your full staff toward a collective goal or objective for the company. Consider employee and stakeholder ownership as a compelling and motivating force.
A marketing strategy details how you will reach your customers and build brand awareness. The clearer your brand positioning is to investors, customers, partners and employees, the more successful your business will be.
Important questions to consider as you build your marketing strategy include:
With a thoughtful marketing strategy integrated into your business plan, your company goals are significantly more in reach.
Your business plan determines which areas of your business to focus on while also avoiding possible distractions. It provides a roadmap for critical tradeoffs and resource allocation.
As a business owner, you will feel the urge to solve all of your internal and customers’ problems, but it is important to maintain focus. Keep your priorities at the top of your mind as you set off to build your company.
As a small business owner, writing a business plan should be one of your first priorities. Read our checklist for starting a business, and learn how to take your business from a plan to reality. When you’re ready to get started, talk with a Chase business banker to open a Chase business checking or savings account today.
For Informational/Educational Purposes Only: The views expressed in this article may differ from other employees and departments of JPMorgan Chase & Co. Views and strategies described may not be appropriate for everyone and are not intended as specific advice/recommendation for any individual. You should carefully consider your needs and objectives before making any decisions and consult the appropriate professional(s). Outlooks and past performance are not guarantees of future results.
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Equal Opportunity Lender, ©2023 JPMorgan Chase & Co
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Successful salespeople are far from your average employee.
For stellar sales reps, their approach to work goes much further than hitting their number each month. If you’re ready to knock your sales career out of the park, it’s time to put yourself in the mindset of an entrepreneur, managing your sales market the same way you would manage a business.
First, let’s talk about what it means to think like an entrepreneur as a sales rep. Whether you manage a specific territory, customer account, or service, there is likely a segment of your company’s business that you are responsible for when it comes to generating revenue. That’s a big responsibility, especially in a competitive landscape, but I know you’re up for the challenge.
As the business owner of your market, your attention should be on more than just your monthly quota. You should have a solid understanding of your target market, how current and world events may be impacting your industry and customer, and what other companies who offer products to your customer demographic are prioritizing.
When it comes to thinking like an entrepreneur, your mindset becomes more important than your skillset. After all, if you’ve made it this far as a rep that means you have the foundations of selling down. Now it’s time to expand upon your knowledge to take your business acumen to the next level.
Here are some ways salespeople can tap into an entrepreneurial mindset to make more sales.
How would you approach your work if you had full ownership and were accountable for the success or failure of your business? Chances are, you would take it seriously and would do as much as you could to avoid failure.
When you’re striving to close your deals and make the sale, are you doing so to make more money for your company, or are you closing the deal because you know that’s what your manager expects of you? The latter is an example of having an employee mindset and being more motivated by the opinion of company leadership than what’s best for the company. The former has a mindset of an entrepreneur who is motivated by growing their business and seeing it grow.
This is an important shift for reps who are accustomed to having an employee mindset. Having an entrepreneur mindset makes you more accountable to provide an excellent experience to your customer, helping you drive more sales in the long run.
Think of a small business owner you know or a business influencer you follow on social media. Imagine you had a question about their product and went to them for the answer. Chances are, they are an expert in the benefits and features of their product and can speak on why their customers need their offer with authority.
As a seasoned salesperson, it is crucial you position yourself as an expert when it comes to your market and the products you’re selling. Although you may not have created the product, you should be able to speak as if you had. When you’re talking to a prospect or customer, you want them to think of you as their go-to for the problem they are looking to solve which requires a perceived level of expertise.
Establishing a sense of expertise over your sales cycle gives you authority and ownership over what you’re selling and how you engage with your customers.
Successful entrepreneurs know their ideal customers very well. They know what their pain points are, how they can benefit from using their product, and they likely engage with their customer base frequently. The key to having positive engagements with customers is by listening to them.
By leveraging strong active listening skills and behaving like an engaged entrepreneur who is genuinely interacting with and getting to know their customers, you will understand exactly what your customers need. With this approach, you can receive valuable feedback from your potential buyers and current customers that can help you better serve them in current or future deals.
Brick-and-mortar business owners are often very involved in their local communities, knowing what’s going on in the areas near their business.
For salespeople who support a specific territory or region, having this same sense of ownership and engagement when it comes to serving your area can give you a competitive advantage over others in your market.
Though you may not physically be present, you should know what is going on in the area your customers are located in. Whether that’s staying on top of local news, major events, or new businesses opening in your territory, understanding what’s top of mind for your regional customers provides valuable insight into how you can best support them.
Entrepreneurs are constantly looking for ways to provide new and exciting offers to keep their customers engaged. This doesn’t always involve launching new products or offers — this can also include identifying the underserved needs of your customers or potential customers and speaking to ways your offering can close that gap.
When an individual is looking to establish a business, they usually start by creating a business plan to map out their venture before launching. As a sales rep, you should take a similar approach.
Creating a sales business plan as you enter a new sales cycle or start gearing up to sell a new product is incredibly valuable. Having a strategic plan laid out identifying what you would like to achieve in the coming sales period, quarter, or year can be helpful in keeping you aligned and accountable to your goals.
Check out this post to learn more about creating a business plan as a sales rep.
Business owners, especially solopreneurs , tend to be creative problem-solvers who are good at thinking on their feet and handling a variety of things being thrown their way.
As a sales rep, you can embody the creative spirit of entrepreneurs by looking for new ways to do things. Whether you are identifying processes that can save time and reduce admin, or you look for new ways to engage with customers, challenge yourself to feel a level of dissatisfaction with the status quo. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and try new tactics that can best serve your customers or business as a whole.
Though it may be a big mindset shift, thinking like an entrepreneur can unlock endless potential for your sales career. For more career development advice, check out this list of Entrepreneur Books Every Salesperson Should Read .
Outline your company's sales strategy in one simple, coherent plan.
Powerful and easy-to-use sales software that drives productivity, enables customer connection, and supports growing sales orgs
Why A Thoughtful Business Plan Is Essential For Success
Starting a business is an exciting journey, full of opportunities and challenges. For women entrepreneurs, particularly those transitioning from corporate life to entrepreneurship, the path can feel daunting. But with the right roadmap (a well-thought-out business plan), you can navigate the uncertainties and set your business up for success.
A business plan is more than just a document; it's your blueprint for building and growing your business. It outlines your goals, strategies, and the steps you need to take to achieve them. A strong business plan not only guides your decisions but also communicates your vision to potential investors, partners, and employees.
Here’s why a business plan is crucial and how you can create one that will steer your business toward success.
1. clarifies your vision and objectives.
As you build out your business plan it forces you to think deeply about your business idea and if it’s a viable idea. What exactly are you trying to achieve? What are your short-term and long-term goals? By putting these thoughts on paper, you create a clear vision that will guide every decision you make.
Researching and writing a business plan requires you to analyze your market. Who are your competitors? Who is your target audience? What are the market trends? This understanding helps you position your business strategically and identify opportunities for growth.
A business plan includes your marketing strategy, sales approach, and operational plan and outlines how you will achieve objectives. This strategic framework ensures that your efforts are aligned and focused on achieving your goals.
If you need financial support to start or grow your business, a well-prepared business plan is essential. Investors and lenders want to see a clear plan for how you will generate revenue and repay any loans. A business plan that demonstrates a thorough understanding of your industry and a solid strategy is more likely to attract funding.
A business plan serves as a reference point, helping you make informed decisions that align with your long-term goals. By consistently referring to your business plan, you ensure that every decision contributes to the overarching vision and objectives of your business, ultimately driving growth and success.
A business plan includes milestones and key performance indicators (KPIs) that allow you to track your progress. Regularly reviewing your business plan helps you stay on course, adjust your strategies as needed, and celebrate your successes.
The bottom line is that creating a business plan is a crucial step in turning your entrepreneurial dreams into reality. It’s your roadmap, guiding you through the complexities of starting and growing a business. For women entrepreneurs, especially those transitioning from a corporate career, a well-thought-out business plan can provide the clarity, confidence, and direction needed to succeed. Take the time to craft a business plan that reflects your vision and sets the foundation for a thriving, profitable business.
Home » Advice » Sales & Marketing » What is a sales and marketing plan?
Everyone has heard the saying ‘without a plan, you plan to fail’, right? And this rings especially true when it comes to sales and marketing plans for your business. Sales and marketing plans are put in place by sales and marketing teams to outline specific goals and the steps that should be taken in order for these goals to be reached.
The sales and marketing teams of any business play a pivotal role in the business’s overall success. One of their most important tasks is developing practical, structured and detailed sales and marketing plans. Large or small, your business needs to have a plan if it wants to enjoy success.
In this article, we look at what is involved in the average sales and marketing plan, the importance of goal setting, and how these plans affect your business.
Small businesses usually merge their sales team and marketing teams, while larger businesses usually separate their sales team from their marketing team. In either case, you can create separate sales plans and marketing plans or create a combined sales and marketing plan. Sales and marketing are very closely linked, and even if plans are separate, they will feed into each other and affect each other at some point.
Before you rush into creating a sales and marketing plan, there are a few things that you should be certain of, including:
Make sure that you have gathered all of the information and documents you need before creating your plan; otherwise, you will just have to make dozens of edits as new information comes to light.
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 by x per cent etc.). The goals should also be realistic, and research should be done into current market trends and competitor brands to help create goals that are achievable.
Aside from very specific goals, a good sales and marketing plan should also consist of:
Overall a sales and marketing plan should be a blueprint that team members can refer to for when they need to remind themselves of sales and marketing objectives and what steps need to be taken in order to meet the business’s goals. Every member of the sales and marketing team, and even employees part of other divisions, should have a copy of the sales and marketing plan.
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 should overall stay true to the brand’s identity.
Sales and marketing plans play a vital role in keeping your business relevant and staying on track with its various objectives in the sphere of sales and marketing. 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 goals 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.
If detailed steps are put in place and sufficient research is done, executing your sales and marketing plan should not be a problem at all. There should also be contingency plans laid out if certain things do not go according to plan. The results from sales and marketing should be closely and regularly monitored so that the entire team is aware when certain goals have been achieved and their hard work has paid off.
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.
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. 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 goals and are one step ahead of your competitors.
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Ask any businessman which is more important, their product or how it's sold, and you're likely to get a long explanation on why product takes the cake any day of the week. They are not wrong. You don't have a business if there was nothing to sell.
But, as we enter an era of hypercompetition, how we sell has become at least as important, if not more important. than the product itself. There is barely any industry that isn't exploding with products and/or services. From healthcare to IT to eateries, we are swamped with endless options. A simple search for SaaS companies in Crunchbase alone returns over 9,600 hits!
And that's only a tiny fraction of the total number of vendors out there. Being outcompeted and cash-flow problems are the main reasons cited by companies that fail in annot survive their first few years.
People in sales are acutely aware of both those challenges and many more. They are also the ones who are best equipped to tackle those problems, which might be why 15 percent Fortune 500 CEOs started in sales . Sales made realists out of them. They know what works, what doesn't and they are competitive as hell. Those are the qualities you will need as an entrepreneur.
So, without further ado, here are five skills why sales makes the perfect starting point for your career as an entrepreneur.
Related: Here's Why so Many Successful Entrepreneurs Got Their Start in Sales
Tenacity is what sales people are best known for. It is a well known fact in sales circles that sales is mostly a numbers game -- success is often a process of elimination. We start with a general set of assumptions about how a business should look and work. With each failure, an assumption is ruled out, making the next move slightly better.
Complete this cycle enough times and you are bound to achieve your goal. Salespeople understand this cycle better than anyone. Being persistent is important in business as a sale rarely happens on the first contact.
Obviously, such resilience to adversity is vital to entrepreneurs who have to wade through a lot of failure before succeeding. Here are some ways you can make both yourself and your organization achieve unshaking grit…
Understand that you cannot do it alone : There is this really persistent myth that all the best salespeople (and entrepreneurs) are just flooded with self-motivation. This is just downright false. Everyone needs some help every now and then. Instead of focusing your efforts on simply getting people who seem intrinsically motivated (everyone looks motivated in interviews), your efforts are better spent trying to make a culture of motivation a pervasive part of your organization.
Related: How to Motivate Millennials, By Millennials
Have occasional meetings with your team : Sooner or later everyone asks - "why me?" When the going gets tough, it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking you're the only one facing problems. Giving yourself and your team members a chance to vent frustration and learn that they are not alone can radically help you/them persevere. There is a good reason why the humble sales kickoff remains a pervasive part of modern corporate work culture.
Meetings such as these are remarkably empowering. They help to acknowledge a person's strengths, overcome their failures and gives everyone the opportunity to celebrate each other's accomplishments.
Foster healthy competition within your organization : While collaboration and teamwork are important aspects of productivity, every organization needs a competitive spirit to drive progress. But competition, if not managed properly, can devolve into petty office politics and selfish maneuvering. Healthy competition instills a sense of pride and playfulness all while respecting everyone around.
In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team , Patrick Lencioni lists the fear of conflict, which drives people to hold back their opinion out of fear of reprisals as one of the main reasons why teams fail to perform, in turn creating a team of "yes men."
He instead suggests that a spirit of healthy productive conflict where people debate on the issues they are facing without any fears in order to help the organization achieve its goals.
Think of it as a game: Gamification is all the rage today, and for a good reason, too. It shifts our perspective from interpreting situations as a challenge rather than a threat. Seventy percent of business transformation efforts fail due to lack of engagement. However, you can easily circumvent the hardships by turn a hard task into a game.
Many companies are successfully using gamification to drive business. Airlines issuing frequent flier miles, loyalty programs such as Samsung Nation, the success of Pokemon Go, U.S. Army's America's Army all are great examples of gamification being put to good use. Workplace gamification can be used to drive up productivity. Consider the following...
Focus on small wins : Teresa Amabile, Baker Foundation professor at Harvard Business School in her article The Power of Small Wins notes the results of a study of 12,000 diary entries from 238 employees in seven companies.
Amabile found that the employees who journaled their experiences and tracked their successes reported a much higher rate of motivation. She explains that the practice of recording our wins, no matter how small actuates the reward circuitry of our brains which results in feelings of pride and accomplishment.
Related: How Gamification Is Engaging Customers and Employees Alike
Remember how cashflow can be a problem for a new startup? Impressing investors to back your idea is just about the hardest thing there is, and for a good reason too. Investors are approached all the time by founders who promise quick returns on their investments. Most fail to deliver.
To become a better networker, you need to have a plan. First, identify all the places where your prospects or investors like to hang out. Many professional networking places are good options. These include…
Chamber of commerce events
Professional meetings
Alumni events
Meetup groups
While professional spaces are nice, informal networking is a better option as people are not thinking about work there.
Consider going to...
Sporting events : Sharing a sporting passion with someone is a great way to open a conversation with them.
Gym/Yoga/Pilates/MMA Classes : Try helping someone out with their bench-press, then strike up a conversation with them. You could consider opening with - "Well, my work has been giving me hell so, I need to blow off some steam here."
Book clubs : Often organize meetings to discuss new books. You won't even need an ice-breaker here.
Charity organizations : Many businessmen and investors donate to and visit charities regularly. Talking to them about issues the charity deals with is a great way to build a relationship with them.
Social media : Are you member of any group that deals with areas of interests specific to your business? If not, then join them and start conversing with people on them. You can also create your own groups and communities and invite people to them.
Networking is an easy thing to mess up. Keep in mind the following:
Don't make it all about you : Whatever you do, don't approach people with the intention of taking something. Instead, try and find out what problems they are dealing with and then offer to help.
Know your story : Don't be afraid to share your challenges, triumphs and failures once you become comfortable with someone. Doing so will help you build your own personal brand .
Be clear on your USP : When the time to tell people what you do does arrive, be sure of what you are offering. You should be able to boil down your USP to - "I work with [target market] to help them solve [their problem]."
Follow-up : 80% sales require at least 5 follow-ups after a meeting. Add your contacts on social media, send interesting, helpful content and respond to their posts to keep in touch with them.
Follow the 70-20-10 rule of content sharing : While the rule is for sharing content on social media, it will help you build your personal brand as well.
Develop a thick skin : You will be hearing "no" a lot. Get used to it and never take it personally.
Leverage your team's networks : Everyone you know will have their own networks. Ask your employees or partners to provide referrals whenever possible.
Related: The 3 Things You Must Do to Build Your Network
Persuasion is the ability to get other people to see your point of view and agree with you. Suffice to say, it is an extremely important skill and one that you will need in your entrepreneurial kitty if you want your business to survive.
A study of 17,000 serial entrepreneurs by Target Training International found that persuasiveness is rated as the number one skill.
Fortunately, persuasion can be mastered as well. Here's how to...
Persuade, don't manipulate : Firstly, it is important to recognize that being persuasion is NOT manipulation .
To persuade, you need to focus on what's important to your prospect, not yourself.
Go out of your way to help your prospects : In doing so, you can tap into the reciprocity norm , which states that people feel strongly indebted to those who help them.
Position yourself as a thought-leader : Think of yourself as a provider of solutions. Publishing interesting and insightful content that solves problems is a great way to build a loyal audience.
Share both the positive and the negative : When it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. In which case, showing you are aware of potential drawbacks will help you win confidence. You can always follow it up with how they can overcome said drawbacks, too.
Understand context and timing : Even the most well-crafted elevator pitch will fail if it is irrelevant. Framing your communication such that it fits your prospect's situation will make it more relatable, therefore persuasive.
Timing is obviously very important here. Try and find out what your prospect's current challenges are how your solutions can assist them.
Compliment your prospects : Circles back to the reciprocity norm. Did you know that complimenting someone had the same effect as giving them a gift ?
Don't be afraid to speak out : Being a little cocky can actually help you win someone's approval.
People automatically assume that confident people know what they are talking about.
Brett Cohen, a Youtuber for instance, dressed up as a celebrity and went out on a walk in New York City to see how people would react to his presence. The result was shocking and hilarious!
While not exactly a double blind study, his social experiment is a perfect example of how a little confidence in the right context can go a long way to helping you persuade others.
All entrepreneurs know the importance of setting goals. Heck, everyone today does. But whether they actually achieve them is a totally different story. A study by University of Scranton found that 92 percent of people never achieve their New Years goals . Their goals are either not specific, too ambitious or not in alignment with the person.
The same applies in business as well. While there are many reasons given for a startup's failure, it invariably boils down to a lack of planning or foresight.
Salespersons understand the need to set smart, realistic goals early on and turn it into a process.
Because they are constantly under pressure to perform, their goal setting skills are refined to a very high degree, too.
Typically, businesses require goals, KPIs and targets in order to function properly.
Goal refer to the general objective you are trying to achieve. For example - increasing profit margin.
KPI or Key Performance Indicators are metrics that tell you whether you are moving in the right direction. For example - a company's Client Acquisition Rate.
Target refers to the benchmark you are trying to achieve against a KPI. For example - acquiring 10 new clients per month.
Salespeople have their own goals, KPIs and targets which they achieve over and over again. Since their commissions are tied to performance, their goals tend to take a lot more tangible form.
As a business person, you need to break down your goal into concrete, measurable indices that your team understands and pursues. Constantly measuring whether your company is on track is the only way to ensure your goals are consistently achieved.
The first art you should master is making a habit out of writing down your goals.
Seeing your goals in front of you is strangely empowering and gives them a very concrete feel.
Some people like to write a post dated check for themselves, while others simply write it down on the back of a napkin. Whatever your prefered method is, make sure it is something you can see every day.
Next, consider following the SMART formula for goal setting . SMART stands for...
S pecific (Simple, easy to explain)
M easurable (You can put a number on it)
A chievable (You are confident it can be done)
R elevant (Realistic, it helps you achieve your objectives)
T ime Bound (There is a time limit within which it should be attained)
Your goals should be specific .
Be very clear on what actions that you need to take in order to achieve your goals. Consider asking...
What is to be attained? How it is to be obtained? Who all will be involved? Which resources will be used?
Your goals should be measurable . There should be a starting point and an endpoint for each goal. This is where KPIs can help you out. By defining realistic KPIs and measuring them, you can keep a close eye on your progress.
Your goals should be achievable . While optimism is great, each step of your goal should be within your reach. That's not to say that your goals shouldn't be challenging.
Questions to consider...How you could achieve your goals? How long it will take to achieve them?
Your goals should be relevant . Relevance can be both personal as well with respect to your company. Are your actions actually helping you fulfill your desires, or, taking your company in the direction that you want?
Your goals should be timely . Open-ended goals have a way of becoming unimportant. Putting a time limit on your objectives makes them a lot more real while providing a challenge to you. However, ambitious time limits can hurt rather than help your business. The best way to figure out how much time you need is to look back at the amount of time you required to complete a similar activity.
Related: Use This Acronym to Create and Complete S.M.A.R.T. Goals
By far the biggest reason why startups fail is because they have a product that no one wants. That's just another way of saying that most entrepreneurs are utterly detached from their respective target markets.
Sure, everyone thinks that their idea can change the world. But do they actually have the data to back that hunch up? While you can always run your own market research or hire a company to do it for you, nothing beats on the ground, first hand experience.
As salespeople are the ones responsible for promoting the product, they know their customer's evaluation, objections and potential upgrades. Many companies rely on insights from their sales teams in product development.
Truly innovative companies try their best to engender collaboration between sales, customer relations and product development teams. In doing so they not only allow new ideas to flow quicker, but remain grounded in their approach as well.
Letting the users know that their feedback was taken into account empowers them and can help you develop a deeper rapport with them.
Uservoice in their survey - The Influence of Customer Feedback on the Product Development Cycle, found that product teams considered feedback from customer relationship and sales teams the most vital.
By starting out in sales, you will already have a good idea on what direction to take.
With the US economy already back from the 2008 recession, we are again seeing an increase in startup activity. Trends in Europe and Asia are taking a similar route.
Not only are more people expressing interest in starting a business, but governments are starting initiatives to support them as well. In other words, it has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur. Startups are rebounding and the trend is expected to continue. While the development is a boon for the economy, it also means first time businesspeople can expect increased competition.
Consequently, it is best to arm yourself with the right tools for the job before even getting into it. For those looking for a career as an entrepreneur, sales remains a great starting point. It can help new entrepreneurs gain crucial skills in overcoming the very challenges that cripple most startups.
Remember, most of your competitors will probably not consider taking the same line, giving you will a massive head-start. You can eliminate many assumptions very early in your career while your competition grapples with them. Sales experience offers many more benefits than the points covered above as well…
You learn to work with a wide number of people regardless of your "type."
You will gain a zen like mastery over your time.
You will become an expert in closing.
You will become more realistic in your approach.
Even if you choose not to pursue a career in entrepreneurship, sales experience can be utterly rewarding in it's own right. Not to mention, it can open doors to other career options, too.
Content Strategist, Writer at Quill Canvas
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With anything you set out to do in life, it’s a good idea to have a plan. This same advice holds true when you start your own business .
A business is a risky venture. You can make a lot of money, you can break even or you can lose a lot of money. Every entrepreneur has high hopes for a profitable venture, but sometimes a closer look shows that your business might succeed after all.
A business plan is a chance to evaluate your business. You will get a closer look at how you propose your business will be organized, the financial situation of the business and smaller details, like marketing and planning a budget. You get to see every aspect of your business at once.
A business plan can help you clarify your goals and see if your idea will be profitable in the long run. Plus, you’ll be able to foresee problems you may experience down the road. While writing the business plan, you may examine various areas and see that the business is actually not going to be profitable. This will help you save time and money in the long run.
What is in a Business Plan?
A business plan outlines your plans for the various aspects of the entrepreneur’s proposed business. It may include information about human resources, marketing, finances, operations and intellectual property. It is essentially a document that outlines sub-plans for each area of business. If the goal of the business plan is to obtain a loan, then it will focus primarily on finances and ways you plan to raise money.
Why Do You Need a Business Plan?
A good business plan can help you accomplish the following:
Raising Money
The primary goal of a business plan is to raise money. Therefore, your plan should focus on how will business will work and what you will be spending money on. It should be well-researched and well-written if you want an investor to back you up financially. Investors want to see your future goals and how you see your company in the future, so include a cash flow projection and profit and loss analysis. Plus, a study showed that start-ups with a business plan raised twice as much money as those that didn’t.
Learn More About Drafting a Business Plan
A business is a significant undertaking. You need to start with a business plan that will outline what you hope to achieve in the end. You wouldn’t build a house without plans, so why would you start a business without one?
If you’re considering entrepreneurship, Godfrey Legal business firm in Orlando can help you get started on the right foot. With more than three decades of experience, we can help you draft a viable plan so your business venture has the greatest chance of success. Contact us at (407) 890-0023 today for a consultation.
entrepreneur.com/article/74194
inc.com/articles/201107/5-reasons-why-you-need-a-business-plan.html
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In this new era, sales and marketing teams have to operate within the interests of the customers. To be successful, these teams must focus on their strategies and actions keeping in mind the buyers’ problems and opportunities.
In any organization, the sales and marketing departments play a pivotal role in the success of the business. The unique and important role of sales and marketing is proving to bridge the gap between potential customer needs and the products and services that the organization has to offer.
An added advantage that sales and marketing teams can exploit while working together is the exchange of information and ideas between the teams can help improve results and create a seamless experience for prospective buyers.
Sales include the activities and operations involved in the promotion and selling of goods and services.
Marketing includes the process of promoting, selling and distributing a product or service.
These statements help us understand 2 very important aspects of the relationship between sales and marketing:-
Even though both the functions are grouped separately, their functions overlap each other. Businesses that understand the critical areas where these functions overlap can immensely benefit from the combined efforts of both the teams.
A key responsibility of sales includes follow up. This means following up with the leads generated by the marketing department.
Nowadays modern sales focus on relationship-building between the buyer and the seller. An effective salesperson can understand the needs of the buyer and develop a rapport delivering a persuasive (not too pushy) message differentiating the company’s product from its competitors.
A salesperson is responsible for turning leads into customers and is judged on his or her ability to close the deal. Also, by checking in with an existing client, a sales team member demonstrates that he or she has a long-term interest in the client’s success and is not just a one-time sale.
Brand awareness is one of the key responsibilities of a marketer. An effort to build awareness of the brand and its product and service is the first step in the process.
Engagement efforts help build an initial awareness campaign to deepen a consumer’s connection to the company or the product.
Conversion is a critical transition of a potential customer to a known lead. For marketers, conversion marks as the completion of the web form which starts from the instigation of a chat to a customer service line. Retention, on the other hand, helps a business grow its repeat customers. This function of marketing helps maintain awareness and engagement after a sale.
For Sales: All these skill sets can be achieved with the guidance of sales training online or a university degree. A certification or qualification marks you as a professional who is able enough to handle such responsibilities. A sales training online or a professional course gives you an added advantage while being considered for a job.
For Marketing: Marketing courses online help you achieve the desired skill set you need to get a better understanding of the field. These courses help you to get into the customers’ mindset and understand the connection he/she might have with your products or services and how you can make it better as to turn them into leads.
More Information:
Ultimate Guide to Career in Marketing
Advantages & Scope of Digital Marketing
Objectives of Learning Sales & Marketing Management
Why pick a career in marketing communication & advertising?
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Institute for justice clinic on entrepreneurship—significant achievements for 2023-24.
The Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship (IJ Clinic) continued to be a lifeline for small businesses in Chicago in 2023-24 through our meaningful representation of low-income entrepreneurs, advocacy for economic liberty, and outreach to small businesses throughout the city. Particularly in the South and West sides of Chicago, entrepreneurs and small business owners struggle to navigate the changing economic and regulatory landscape. IJ Clinic students and attorneys were able to provide invaluable guidance to clients and lawmakers so that the small businesses that are key to our economic future can survive and even flourish.
The IJ Clinic is delighted to work with Chicago entrepreneurs looking to transform their companies and communities. In our role as outside general counsel for a select group of client businesses founded by low-income entrepreneurs, we forge long-term relationships and are uniquely situated to gain insights into the business objectives and operations of clients.
In 2023 we bid farewell to a few clients who graduated, and in 2024 welcomed three new clients with student participation in reviewing prospective client applications, interviewing candidates, selecting and onboarding them as clients.
Our clients feature businesses across various industries and neighborhoods.
The IJ Clinic advises on a wide array of contracts and issues ranging from entity structures, finance, real estate, employment, IP strategy and protection, and customer and vendor facing contracts.
Students benefit from frequent client interactions, leading meetings, scoping out projects and delivering results. In addition to researching legal issues, students develop communication skills including how to deliver creative solutions and sometimes unwelcome news.
By providing free legal services to our clients, we help them transform their companies and communities. Details of our engagement with and representation of our clients are confidential, of course. But here is a sampling of some of the major projects students worked on for clients in the past year:
As one of our clients expressed to our student team as they prepared to graduate , ”Before you go ... your impact on our business plans went beyond our expectations. You gave us the power to add new options for important decisions and more confidence once our choices were made. [Our business] quickly became able to move faster with more complex transactions. Great students ask good questions. And we got a lot of the right questions when we needed them to catch our attention.”
The IJ Clinic acts as a watchdog, advocating for legislative reform to knock down excessive regulatory and legal barriers that keep entrepreneurs from making their dreams a reality.
In addition, the IJ Clinic led the continuing efforts to root out inequities in occupational licensing in Illinois. In the previous year, the IJ Clinic drafted and lobbied for two bills that passed in the Illinois General Assembly. Under the moniker CLIMB, standing for Comprehensive Licensing Information to Minimize Barriers, the new laws were designed to present the General Assembly with more information, data, and context about the unintentional or excessive burdens that the State of Illinois places on people starting jobs. Occupational licenses impose strict requirements for individuals who want to enter an occupation, like barbering or make-up artistry, or social work. By their very definition, they exclude people who cannot afford to meet the requirements (and put some people into debt to meet them). And that makes it very difficult for the low-income entrepreneurs we serve to start innovative or traditional businesses and to hire eligible employees. In one CLIMB bill, Public Act 102-1078, we designed a task force to analyze occupational licensing for low- to moderate-income occupations, with a focus on equity. In 2022-2023, we led the effort to set up the task force, collect and analyze relevant data, and present the task force with the information needed to complete their report. One key finding of our analysis of public occupational licensing data revealed that only 1.7% of low- to moderate-income licensees ever faced discipline from state regulators, and sixty-six percent of those disciplinary actions were initiated for state revenue collection, not for scope-of-practice infractions that could impact public health and safety. Our goal is to have a General Assembly that is well informed of the facts about individual people’s challenges, not just the goals of the trade associations and trade schools that benefit from exclusionary, restrictive licensing.
The IJ Clinic provides educational seminars and community events aimed at offering entrepreneurs practical advice on starting and growing a business, with a healthy dose of inspiration along the way.
South Side Pitch : The IJ Clinic continues to shine a spotlight on innovation and inspiration from Chicago’s South Side entrepreneurs. South Side Pitch is a competition for businesses that culminates in the finalists facing off before a panel of prominent judges, Shark Tank style. In 2023, we had a live audience of over 105 attendees at the Polsky Center while also presenting a professional live video stream for a group of viewers. Rodney Trussell of R City Kitchen, through his own unique pitch, won three awards: First Place, The Community Favorite Award, and the Rustandy Center Social Impact Award. He went home with $15,500. Second Place went to April Preyar of Justus Junkie, Inc. In this tenth annual event, we reviewed more than 100 applications, exposed hundreds of Chicagoans to the twenty-five semi-finalists who posted video pitches and five finalists whose businesses contribute so much to their South Side neighborhoods. Often, South Side Pitch participants are prospective clients for the IJ Clinic where we can further support their business visions and growth.
Pitch Perfect: An opportunity for Chicagoland businesses to develop and hone the all-important business pitch hosted in the Green Lounge. In June 2024, our first Pitch Perfect of the year was open to any Chicago area business. As one participant noted “... I will incorporate all the knowledge I gleaned from the event last night as I move forward in my business. Also, I will definitely share information about this event to others I feel will equally benefit from this program.” In 2023, we also held Pitch Perfects in August and November with partner organizations like The Urban Juncture Foundation and its Build Bronzeville Small Business Development Center. Overall, nearly sixty participants attended all three Pitch Perfects in 2023.
Workshops: In 2024 the IJ Clinic has already hosted two workshops, one focused on vacant lots advocacy and another on website optimization for businesses. The IJ Clinic collaborated with 2022 South Side Pitch finalist CJ Harris of That’s So Creative, LLC to host the workshop “Make Your Website Work For You!” The IJ Clinic also hosted a roundtable with community leaders and local entrepreneurs who have encountered obstacles to obtaining city-owned vacant lots and who wish to reform the acquisition process. The group plans to reconvene in November or December of 2024 to consider any progress made by the city which has announced initiatives to streamline certain city processes to help make sure vacant lots in disinvested communities are given back to those community members.
Lunch Talks : In April 2024, the IJ Clinic collaborated with two student-led organizations, Impact Initiative and the Law and Business Society, to present two Lunch Talks. These two lunch talks included IJ Clinic clients Connie Anderson and Clifton Muhammad from The Record Track on revitalizing their neighborhood record store and Professors Tom and Amber Ginsburg’s creative and regulatory journey to transform an abandoned synagogue on the South Side into a green community arts center.
Generous with their time and openly sharing their experiences, we so appreciate our IJ Clinic alumni.
In January 2024, we held a happy hour for IJ Clinic alumni in New York City to reconnect with Professors Catherine Gryczan and Beth Kregor.
During the school year, IJ Clinic alumni were guest speakers in our seminar meetings. One spoke about her experience as a lawyer and advocate for businesses in the cannabis industry, and a pair of alumni shared their career paths before and into their roles as in-house counsel in a sports team, a financial firm, and a food services business.
While we are very proud of our achievements for our clients and community, we are also proud of all the aha moments when our students’ skills take a leap forward, when they make new connections between the classroom and the world, when they deliver difficult news, when they identify solutions to clients’ problems in a creative but practical way. Those moments of reflection and discovery are significant achievements too.
Here is how some of our students described the experience:
“I began my 3L year quite worried about whether I would be ready to practice law in just a few short quarters. But during my time at the Clinic, I learned such a wide array of hard and soft skills that I'm ready to enter the legal profession with confidence!”
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For many entrepreneurs, especially first-timers, business plans are daunting: Building a 50-page document that details every aspect of a theoretical business is no small task. It can be tempting ...
A business plan is essential as an entrepreneur. It helps you set clear goals and guidelines for how you will manage your business. A business plan may also be needed to set employee goals, obtain funding or even to sell your business one day. In this article, we discuss the importance of a business plan for entrepreneurs, as well as a few main reasons why you need one.
What is a business plan, and why does it matter? In brief, a business plan is a roadmap to success. It's a blueprint for entrepreneurs to follow that helps them outline, understand, and cohesively achieve their goals.
Why a business plan is important for entrepreneurs Although business plans can be time-consuming and at times tricky to navigate, they are worth the effort. It helps you as a business owner clearly define your goals, avoid costly mistakes, mitigate risks, define your target market and define a pathway to execute your vision. It also helps others - employees, strategic partners, lenders, or ...
Importance of Business Plan to an Entrepreneur - A business plan is an essential road map that entrepreneurs use to navigate the difficult process of starting and expanding a profitable firm. It performs as a strategic instrument for outlining the goals. Also, serve as a financial prediction of a company.
A business plan is a comprehensive document that outlines a company's goals, strategies, and financial projections. It provides a detailed description of the business, including its products or services, target market, competitive landscape, and marketing and sales strategies.
The importance of a business plan can be critical for entrepreneurs. Take your first step to becoming an entrepreneur with our special guide. Read on.
2. It's not as hard as you think. A business plan is a written tool about your business that projects 3-5 years ahead and outlines the path your business intends to take to make money and grow revenue. Think of it as a living project for your business, and not as a one-time document. Break it down into mini-plans - one for sales and marketing, one for pricing, one for operations, and so on.
Writing out your business plan forces you to review everything at once: your value proposition, marketing assumptions, operations plan, financial plan and staffing plan.
Learn how to create a complete sales and marketing plan for your online business. 2 free fill-in-the-blank templates included.
There are so many reasons to create a business plan, and chances are that more than one of the following will apply to your business. 1. A plan helps you set specific objectives for managers.
In conclusion, Marketing is an essential aspect of any business, and it is especially important for entrepreneurs. Marketing can help entrepreneurs increase brand awareness, generate leads, build trust and credibility, stand out from the competition, and ultimately drive sales. Entrepreneurs who prioritize marketing and invest in effective strategies will be better positioned to succeed in a ...
A marketing plan is a document outlining a company's future marketing efforts and goals. It can be as short as a single page or made up of many smaller campaign plans from different marketing teams. However large and complex those plans are, the idea remains the same: A marketing plan is created to organize, execute, and eventually measure ...
A business plan is a very important and strategic tool for entrepreneurs. A good business plan not only helps entrepreneurs focus on the specific steps necessary for them to make business ideas succeed, but it also helps them to achieve short-term and long-term objectives.
We sat down with Onyemah recently to learn more about what he has been up to and why he says entrepreneurial sales is the single most important business function. We gleaned valuable information that will be helpful to entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals alike.
Long-standing businesses write a business plan. Here's why you need a business plan to successfully start, manage, and grow your business.
Here are nine reasons your company needs a business plan. 1. Prove your idea is viable. Through the process of writing a business plan, you can assess whether your company will be successful. Understanding market dynamics, as well as competitors, will help determine if your idea is viable.
Why Salespeople Should Think Like Entrepreneurs First, let's talk about what it means to think like an entrepreneur as a sales rep. Whether you manage a specific territory, customer account, or service, there is likely a segment of your company's business that you are responsible for when it comes to generating revenue. That's a big responsibility, especially in a competitive landscape ...
4. Secures Funding. If you need financial support to start or grow your business, a well-prepared business plan is essential. Investors and lenders want to see a clear plan for how you will ...
The sales and marketing teams of any business play a pivotal role in the business's overall success. One of their most important tasks is developing practical, structured and detailed sales and marketing plans. Large or small, your business needs to have a plan if it wants to enjoy success.
Related: Here's Why so Many Successful Entrepreneurs Got Their Start in Sales 1. You will become tenacious. Tenacity is what sales people are best known for.
A business plan outlines your plans for the various aspects of the entrepreneur's proposed business. It may include information about human resources, marketing, finances, operations and intellectual property. It is essentially a document that outlines sub-plans for each area of business. If the goal of the business plan is to obtain a loan ...
The unique and important role of sales and marketing is proving to bridge the gap between potential customer needs and the products and services that the organization has to offer. An added advantage that sales and marketing teams can exploit while working together is the exchange of information and ideas between the teams can help improve ...
The Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship (IJ Clinic) continued to be a lifeline for small businesses in Chicago in 2023-24 through our meaningful representation of low-income entrepreneurs, advocacy for economic liberty, and outreach to small businesses throughout the city. Particularly in the South and West sides of Chicago, entrepreneurs and small business owners struggle to ...