Building Profit
Feb 1, 1998 12:00 PM
Designing and implementing a sales and marketing plan is much like constructing a building. For builders, the initial step is to create a set of blueprints that establishes the project's overall objective and identifies key suppliers and the participants' relationships among each other. Before physically assembling the structure, a proper foundation is laid, thereby ensuring a solid, stable base. Workers, however, can perform as expected only when they are fully prepared and given the proper materials, and ongoing coordination among them is essential to both efficiency and the prevention of costly mistakes. As the framework is completed, the structure begins to take shape, physically foreshadowing its completed form. Eventually, the final pieces are added, and the completed building is revealed to the world. Similarly, almost any contracting firm that enjoys a degree of financial success will have some sort of sales and marketing strategy, even if it happens to be locked tightly away in various fragments inside the owner's mind. Rapid advances in technology, along with their subsequent effects upon consumer mentality, not only impact the actual systems you design and install, but they also influence the very structure and organization of your business. Consequently, a written plan, crafted in a multi-stage process, iscritical to the generation of larger profit margins. In this month's issue, you will find valuable insight into several concepts that should all be considered when you develop your own plan. Topics range from producing a consistent sales volume to fair pricing strategies and from business expansion options to competitive intelligence. Constructing a building without the proper blueprints would be unnecessarily difficult if not impossible. Likewise, you should not have to operate your business and compete without one for your sales and marketing strategies.
Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus
