The 4 Steps to More Effective Marketing Plans

Marketing Plan Category
 

In our prior post, we discussed how creating a successful sales and marketing plan requires both front-end and back-end accountability. We then described the different elements of front-end accountability. In this blog, we’re covering the back-end accountability elements that complete a tight, closed-loop sales and marketing plan.

  1. The first element of back-end accountability is daily scorecards. Too many businesses are not aware of which marketing tactics are working for them and which are not. By tracking your marketing initiatives, whether through a software solution or simple spreadsheet plotting, sales and marketing teams can more effectively identify where their time and money is best spent.
  2. The second element to back-end accountability is making sure the scorecards are distributed to the appropriate team members responsible for monitoring sales and marketing results.
  3. The team members must then continually reconcile those scorecards to the original plan projections. Are you on track to celebrate reaching your goal? Or are you set for that dreaded sales gap?
  4. There’s always the potential of missing the goal and having a sales gap. That’s where the final element of back-end accountability comes in: have a list of Plan B’s. Having a list of sales and marketing initiatives ready to deploy in the event of a sales gap:

• Decreases the time to develop ideas thereby increasing the amount of time for contingency initiatives to work

• Reduces stress and panic on the organization

• Eliminates gut reactions and impulsive decisions that could make the situation worse

Putting together front and back-end accountability isn’t costly, but it does require a shift in how you manage marketing and sales. But the work is worth it because it enables you to finally take control over your sales and marketing.

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