Adapted from content excerpted from the American Express® OPEN Small Business Network
In previous sections, you've been asked to define your
product, positioning, pricing, target customer, market, and
competition. Now you need to wrap up all those assumptions into a
cogent sales and marketing strategy. Think of this statement as an
action plan for how you will get customers to buy your products. It
will support the tactics you describe later on in this
section.
Your strategy may be only a few sentences in length, or it can
be a couple of paragraphs. Important elements for a sales and
marketing strategy include who you are targeting with your initial
push and what customers you have designated for follow-up phases.
Other elements of a sales and marketing strategy are:
- How will you find your prospects, and once you find
them, how you plan to educate them about your product.
For instance, if you are using direct mail, you might
want to talk about what kinds of mailing lists you plan
to purchase.
- What features of your product or service you
emphasize to get customers to notice your product.
- Any sort of innovative marketing or sales techniques
you will employ. For example, you may sell your product
by mail order when your competitors use only traditional
retail channels. Or you may be the first in your industry
to offer leasing.
- Will you focus your efforts locally, regionally,
nationally or internationally? Do you plan to extend your
efforts beyond your initial region? Why?
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