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To create a « lead generation engine, » it is crucial to develop a coherent marketing plan involving your whole team. This process should allow you to reach and retain your customers while optimizing your costs. Your offer must be clearly defined, addressing unmet needs by the competition, with specific objectives in terms of revenue and market share. Finally, the marketing and sales actions, as well as the required personnel, must be phased and aligned to ensure the effective implementation of your plan.
E. Krieger
Every entrepreneur’s dream is to create a lead generation engine, a set of commercial and marketing actions that allow you to reach customers and retain them at the best cost.
Just like creating a business plan and developing a budget, the process that leads to the formulation of the marketing plan is as important as the plan itself: it is both an exercise in coherence and a resource arbitration that must involve all the company’s leaders; otherwise, your vision and action plans are unlikely to be shared and even less likely to be implemented.
Beyond the quality of your products and/or services, your budget has little chance of being met if you do not manage to create this famous lead generation engine and successfully transform it, particularly through impeccable customer service.
The proposed framework here is purely indicative. Every company is unique: customer base, stage of development, market maturity, type of distribution, intensity of competition… While several items are essential, it is important to focus on the critical dimensions of your plan. You can therefore adapt this model as you see fit.
Presentation of Main Activities
What are your main product-market pairs, and what are the corresponding territories? Can you briefly describe each offer, the corresponding market, and the main advantages of this offer for customers?
Here are the steps to follow to develop an effective marketing plan. Each step corresponds to a summary table based on Excel that you can easily update according to your needs.
Main Activity
Presentation of the Offer and Target Market: Can you describe your offer and the corresponding market? What unmet or poorly met needs by competitive solutions does this offer address? What are the behaviors, expectations, and barriers of your target? What are the main determinants (economic, social, technological, regulatory, etc.) of demand? What is the market size, in volume and value? What is the average price of the existing offers? What is the foreseeable evolution of this market? What are the main advantages of your offer for customers?
Revenue, Market Share, and Margin Objectives: How does your offer position itself compared to major competitors? What are your commercial objectives in volume and value: total revenue, annual sales volumes, average revenue per customer, market share, number of new customers, and retention/loyalty rate of existing customers? How do you market your offer: directly or through a distributor? How many products/services will you market? At what average selling price? At what unit cost? What would be your market share?
Main Marketing Actions and Corresponding Costs: What is the maturity level of your prospects regarding your offer: is it about making them aware of a need they may not necessarily be aware of? If your prospects have clearly identified the need(s) in question, do you need to explain your offer or even compare it favorably against competitors? If your prospects are actively seeking solutions, how do you proceed to reassure them about the overall quality of your offer? What actions are therefore to be implemented to demonstrate the value of your offer and facilitate the work of your sales force? Are these actions coherently structured? What is the link between traditional communication and digital communication?
Required Marketing and Sales Staff: Beyond external costs, what profiles do you need to market your offer: marketing, sales support, salespeople, and technical salespeople? What is the annual salary cost of this team? Are there other expenses directly related to this team: travel, performance bonuses, etc.?
Summary: Revenue and Margins on Direct Costs: What are your revenue and margin objectives for this activity? Is the evolution credible compared to the ratios in your sector?
Other Activities
The above approach should be repeated for all strategic segments of your company.
General Marketing and Sales Resources
Main General Marketing Actions and Costs: What are the « general » commercial and marketing actions, i.e., not attributable to the previous segments, that you plan to promote your entire company?
General Marketing and Sales Staff: Beyond external costs, what general profiles do you need to develop, implement, and manage your overall commercial and marketing action plan? Are there other expenses to be budgeted?
Marketing Plan Summary
Forecasted Revenue, Production Costs, and Gross Margin: In summary, what is your forecasted revenue for all these segments? Are there other operating revenues to be anticipated, such as subsidies? What is the margin on variable costs? Are there other production costs to be added? What is your final margin on direct costs?
Commercial and Marketing Costs, Excluding Salaries: What is the total consolidated amount of your marketing and commercial budget, excluding salaries?
Marketing and Sales Staff and Salary Costs: What are the total staff numbers responsible for marketing and commercial operations, including pre-sales and technical and commercial support functions?
Summary: Forecasted Revenue and Margin on Direct Costs: In summary, what are your forecasted marketing and commercial costs? What are your sales and margin forecasts on direct costs?
Schedule of Main Commercial and Marketing Actions
Can you summarize in one page the monthly schedule of the main commercial and marketing actions that will pace the current year for your company? This table will notably help understand the relationship between traditional communication and digital communication.
This simple table allows you to visualize at a glance all the actions that will continuously create and feed this famous lead generation engine.
Aligning, qualifying, quantifying, phasing, and animating the implementation: nothing revolutionary, yet it is often on the commercial front that the difference is made. Good luck, therefore, with the formulation and implementation of your commercial and marketing action plan.
