A one-page marketing and sales plan

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

 Summarize the importance of marketing and sales plan; and
 Construct a simple one-page marketing and sales plan.

LET’S GET STARTED!

A marketing plan is a report that outlines your marketing strategy for the coming
year, quarter or month. Typically, a marketing plan includes:

 An overview of your business’s marketing and advertising goals.

 A description of your business’s current marketing position.
 A timeline of when tasks within your strategy will be completed.
 Key performance indicators (KPIs) you will be tracking.
 A description of your business’s target market and customer needs.

A sales plan, like its name suggests, is a document that outlines your
business' goals in relation to the selling of products or services. Typically, a sales
plan will be organized around central goals for the business to reach its financial
targets. As a base line, the goals you include in the sales plan should be specific,
measurable and relevant to the needs of your customers. The sales plan will often
form part of the larger marketing plan for your company so you'll need to be sure to
identify a target market, consider the buying attitudes and behaviors of the customers
and consider the ins and outs of the advertising strategies you'll use.

Both sales and marketing plans involve goal setting. Goal setting for a small
business is an important task because it can help to hold you, the business owner,
accountable for the tasks that will ultimately increase your profit margins and gain
new customers. While working towards marketing and sales strategies is rarely an
easy task, setting goals can help keep you on a timeline that is both challenging and
ultimately rewarding when you see the money start to come in.

Abstraction
A marketing and sales plan identify the goals, market strategy, and marketing
and sales tactics that will be used to approach the market segment best fitting the
start- up technology and application, it should help to (1) create product awareness
and market presence; (2) approach and persuade prospects; and (3) clearly specify
the product and its customer value. The brief plan will give structure to your start-up’s
marketing and sales activities and draws attention to goals and allocations of
resources in a systematic but flexible way.

The one-page plan should focus on creating the right customer experience for
the start-up’s new product application. It requires paying attention to three core
elements: (1) building customer value, (2) market presence and (3) customer
relationships.
Content of the Plan
Build customer value Build market presence Build
customer
relationship
General
content Awareness of Customer
Product technology relationship
features  Opinion leaders management
Service  Lead users  Prospect list
Consistency of  Initial
Awareness customer
contact
product/brand
 Relationshi
p
 Opinion leaders developme
 Lead users nt
 Repeat and
Access to up- selling
distribution
Educating the
market
message/experience
Structure

Definition (identify/validate)
Definition Definition
(identify/validate) (identify/validate)
 Customer value  Market  Target
 Unique selling points  Market size segment
(points of parity  Brand  Target
and difference) segment size
Goals (this period) Goals (this period) Goals (this period)
 Customer  Awareness and  New prospects
satisfaction associations of  Customers
- Product technology/bra approached;
- Brand nd demonstratio
experienc  Distribution ns
e coverage/quali  Custome
 Positive ty rs
customer word  Times in the develope
of mouth news d
 Service  Market inroads  Repeat sales
speed/recovery  Market education  Sales
 Custom
er
portfolio
Budget (this period) Budget (this period) Budget (this period)
Means (activities) and Means (activities) Means (activities)
timing (this period) and timing (this and timing (this
 Product period) period)
 Price  Promotion  Sales funnel
 Place  Customer
relationshi
p building
Project information Project information Project information
 Activity/task  Activity/task  Activity/task
 Responsible person  Responsib  Responsib
 Deadline le person le person
 Deadline  Deadline

Monitoring

Evaluation of progress Evaluation of progress Evaluation of

 Per activity  Per activity progress
 Per objective  Per objective  Per activity
 Per objective
across touchpoints

Customer value

 Price
  Brand experience
 Total cost
of
ownership

Create competition, point

of
reference
1. Building customer value. This refers to
the fact that the start-up’s product application
represents a solution for customers and thus
has customer value. This value should be
identified and optimized. This can be done
carefully considering the different product
attributes and their impact on the perceived
customer value.

2. Building market presence. The market

needs to know about your technology
and product to be able to act on it. This
requires creating awareness for both,
the market and the company.
3. Building customer relationship. To sustain the
firm, it will need a good customer portfolio. This
portfolio involves developing a prospect list of
innovative customers and approaching these
customers. By maintaining the relationship,
additional sales may be obtained.

The three elements mentioned are important for moving the start-up forward
marketing-wise. The aim is to explain why the time is right for introduction and/or to
discuss how to prepare customers for the new product.

Directions: Students will be grouped into five (5) to finish the One-Page Marketing Plan. The
output will then be submitted to the facilitator.
As a future entrepreneur, to grow your business, you need a marketing plan.
The right marketing plan identifies everything from 1) who your target customers
are to 2) how you will reach them, to 3) how you will retain your customers so
they repeatedly buy from you.
Using the guide below, create a one-page marketing plan for your future
business. (Note: Please refer to appendix of this module for the rubrics.)
 ONE-PAGE MARKETING PLAN
Title Page (List the product/service
and the specified marketing time
period to be covered.)
Product/Service (In one
sentence, describe your
product or service
including the utility it provides for
its users.)
Target Market (Which people are
most likely to buy your
product/service and/or which
audience are you most likely to be
able to impact with your marketing?)
Key Differentiation (How is
your product or service
different from those of
your competitors?)
Benefits to Customer (How does
your product provide better or
different benefits to potential
customers than competing
products? Is there a benefit or
perceived benefit that plays a key
role in customers’ buying
decisions?)
Marketing Strategy (How you’re
going to promote your business
idea. Pick one or two primary
marketing tactics you’ll
be using, and briefly describe how
you plan to execute them.)
Special Offers/Pricing (What
pricing or special offers will you
include in this marketing campaign?)
Marketing Message (What key
messages do you want to deliver in
your marketing?)
Creative (What headlines or specific
words may you use in your
marketing?)
Media (f you’re going to rely heavily
on social media, for instance, which
channels will you choose? Will you
advertise or just try to go viral for
free? Will you engage in email
marketing or inbound marketing, and
how? Talk about where and when
your messages will run. If you’re
engaging in publicity, mention the
types out outlets you’ll target and
why. Distill everything into a few
sentences.)
Profit and Loss Projection (Project
the
profit and loss of your
product/service during the
marketing time period.)
Summary
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