“Our success is a direct result of knowing how to market a brand and having the right people representing the brand.”
– Greg Norman – Professional Golfer and Entrepreneur

We all know we need to have a sales and marketing plan if we expect to meet our sales objectives. Last week we talked about the key elements of a Sales and Marketing plan. But what’s the best way to get started on a designing a system that will generate results?

Perform a SWOT Analysis. Your SWOT analysis will show you what’s working now and what resources you currently have to begin a disciplined marketing plan. The SWOT analysis shows you where you need to expend extra resources and where you can hit the ground running.

Define Your Conditions of Satisfaction for a Client. Who is your ideal customer? Who needs your product or service? What are your minimum orders? What tolerance do you have for high-maintenance customers? Take time to get clear on who you want to be doing business with and who you’re going to pass on. Not all sales are good sales.

Create a Marketing Budget. How much do you have to spend on marketing? And over what period of time? Based on your ideal client profile, what are the best avenues for reaching out to those clients? With the funds you have available, can you reach enough people to achieve your sales intention? Do you need to look for additional resources for marketing? How can you creatively stretch your budget, for instance, aligning with complimentary service providers and sharing some advertising costs?

Determine How Many Hours You Will Commit. Your marketing budget isn’t just financial. You also have to budget your time and commit to how many hours a week you will devote to networking, phoning, blogging, or whatever marketing activities will yield results. These hours have to be scheduled into your calendar, and you have to show up.

Get the Right People on Your Marketing Bus. If you don’t have enough time to market, consider hiring some part time help or delegating some marketing tasks to your staff. That being said, you need to make sure you’ve got the right people reaching out to prospects and contacts. Not everyone enjoys or is well-suited to marketing. Be sure to communicate your intentions and create a common vision that is shared by your whole team. If one person is not generating results, reorganize tasks or hire someone else.

Once you have the building blocks in place, your marketing plan will be much easier to implement. Taking these initial steps will ensure that you are pursuing the right kinds of clients and using your resources wisely. The key here is to make sure your sales intentions are always at the top of your mind, and remain the driving force behind your budget, time and marketing decisions. When you put the right kind of gas in the car, you have a much better chance of winning the race!