How to Connect with Your Customers

Sales and Marketing Basics for Your Small Business

How to Connect withYour Customers .................2How to Create aMarketing Plan ..................3How to Create aSales Process ........................6How to ImplementYour Sales Process ..............9How MicrosoftTechnology CanBeneﬁt Your Sales andMarketing Processes .......11Summary ............................15For More Information ....16

Contents

How to Connect with Your Customers

Your business may be solid and growing steadily. But creatinga successful marketing strategy, finding opportunities to sellproducts and services, and connecting more effectively to currentand prospective customers is a demanding job.Answer the following questions to see if your business canimprove upon any existing system inefficiencies.• Do you have a complete view of your customers and have youidentified the best prospects based on this view?• Is your customer information dispersed among e-mailmessages, documents, and databases?• Do you need sophisticated marketing materials, yet you can’tafford a professional printer?• Do your sales representatives have a process for following upon sales leads?This guide provides basic sales and marketing practices,demonstrating how to develop and use a tactical marketing planand sales process. You’ll learn about a range of Microsoft salesand marketing solutions you can use to manage your customerinformation better and engage your clients with professionalmarketing materials you create in-house. It’s all designed to helpyou attract and retain customers and sell more effectively.

How to Create a Marketing Plan

A good marketing plan can shape the way you connect to your existingcustomers and attract new ones. It can also help you determine the typesof customers you should target, how to reach them, and how to track theresults so you learn what works to increase business.If you don’t have a marketing plan, creating one is not difficult. A successfulmarketing plan doesn’t have to be complex or lengthy, but should containenough information to help you establish, direct, and coordinate yourmarketing efforts.To help you through the process, we’ve identified five steps you shouldfollow. These encompass information gathering before you write yourmarketing plan, the drafting of the plan itself, and updating the plan afteryou’ve created it. Along the way we use Margie’s Travel, a new 25-persontravel service company, as an example.

Download thesehelpful marketing plan templates at ofﬁce.microsoft.com:

Communicationsplanning guideMarketing tactical planMarketing budget planMarketing strategyquestionnaire