04: Marketing and sales
A good marketing and sales section is essential and should describe the specific activities you intend to implement to promote and sell the company’s products. In preparing this section, you should consider:
- Position Decide where the company should position itself in the market in terms of its unique selling features and quality, and decide which products to focus on.
- Customers Identify your customer profile and determine how to use it to attract new customers and retain existing ones.
- Pricing Agree your pricing policy for each product or market segment, and identify where you make profits or where there is scope to increase margins.
- Promotion Identify the best promotional methods for each market segment, eg advertising, direct marketing or PR.
- Channels Compare your existing channels with the alternatives and those of your competitors.
- Sales plan Analyse the effectiveness of each sales method that the company currently uses, eg direct sales-force, telesales and the internet.
