Marketing Plan Template

Use this tool to help you develop an integrated Marketing Plan. Sections include: Executive Summary, Strategic Business Objectives, Market Segmentation, Profiling & Positioning, Marketing Communications Strategy Plans, Marketing Communications Schedule, and Budget & Results Measurement.

Sales Growth Teams Drive Revenue

Achieving ever-increasing revenue targets requires that new recruits and average performers are equipped with the right tools, resources, training, and knowledge. Establishing a Sales Growth Team can help you transfer sales & marketing Best Practices from your top performers to those who need them most. Use Demand Metric’s downloadable Sales Growth Team Charter template to set a mandate for this new team.

What are the Benefits of Sales Growth Teams?

• Increased Performance – when Best Practices are shared between top performers and those struggling to hit their goals, both the coach and the trainee typically increase productivity, which drives performance.
• Process Improvements - as leaders in the Sales & Marketing departments begin to analyze how they do their job effectively, suggestions for improving processes are a natural result. Gaps in training, system limitations, and other inefficiencies are identified and can be rectified by the Sales Growth Team.
• Open, Honest, Communication - establishing a Sales Growth Team is an excellent way to keep a pulse on the perceptions of your sales & marketing staff. Having a forum to informally communicate what is not working well will certainly provide insight into the real issues your team is facing.

Performing a Solid GAP Analysis

Examining your current situation, proposing a new situation, and evaluating the gaps between the two, is central to the strategic planning process. Use Demand Metric’s GAP Analysis Tool to document gaps in areas that need to be core competencies.

What are Common Sales & Marketing Gaps?

• Strategic Planning & Governance - do you have a prioritization process?
• Business Data & Information Assets - do you have access to metrics?
• Customer Relationship Management - is your CRM system limited?
• Demand Generation - do you conduct lead scoring or lead nurturing?
• Sales - are you conducting key account strategic planning currently?
• Performance Measurement – how well does your company measure?
• Market Intelligence & Research – do you know your market share?
• Organizational Development – are your training programs up-to-date?
• Human Resources – are you conducting skills assessments?

Measure your Marketing/Business Alignment

Being aligned with your business seems very simple and straightforward, yet many organizations feel that their Marketing department is not fully aligned with Senior Management. Measure your business alignment with Demand Metric’s downloadable Marketing/Business Alignment Tool and understand your current maturity level.

Benefits of Marketing/Business Alignment:

• Reduced Time to Market – when marketing understands the business model implicitly, Product Development becomes much more efficient.
• Increased Buy-in & Executive Support – strong communication and the ability to measure competencies will provide greater levels of credibility.
• Improved Recruitment & Retention - when marketing plays a key role in hiring & developing their own staff, it’s easier to attract new talent and retain star employees.

Map Strategy with Balanced Scorecard

Effectively developing and communicating high-level business strategy is essential for organizations looking to achieve market leadership. Additionally, creating a results-oriented culture requires a comprehensive management system. Use Demand Metric’s downloadable Balanced Scorecard Strategy Map tool as a basis for implementing a proven business performance management methodology.

What is the Balanced Scorecard Approach?

Developed in 1992 by Kaplan & Norton, the balanced scorecard provides: a method for aligning business strategy with vision & mission; a system for developing key performance indicators that drive success; and the ability to measure performance across the four key perspectives:

• Financial
• Customer
• Business Process
• Learning & Growth

A visual strategy map is created where strategic objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives are developed for each perspective.

Prioritize your Strategic Initiatives

Strategic planning is a great way to identify which initiatives can add the most value to your organization. The next step is to prioritize initiatives with a systematic method. Use our downloadable Priority Index Tool to guide you through the prioritization process, and help you drill down on the value added for each proposed initiative.

What are the Most Important considerations?

Feasibility

• Customer Value Proposition (CV) - what value does this deliver?
• Economic Upside Potential (UP) – what impact could this have on revenue?
• Industry Attractiveness (IA) – How well is this competitively positioned?

Strategic Fit

• Fit with Company Goals & Objectives (CG) – is this aligned to our goals?
• Ease of Implementation (EI) – how difficult would this be to do?
• Skills & Resources (SR) – do we have the required resources in-house?

Risk

• Over Forecasted Budget (OB) – how likely is this initiative to go over-budget?
• Over Forecasted Timeline (OT) – how likely is this initiative to go over-time?
• Technical Risk & Complexity (TR) – how complicated is this initiative?