An Overall Marketing Strategy would include:

• Schemes fo making inroads in the market

• Plans for enhancing your business

• Strategy for establishing conduits for distribution

1. Original equipment manufacturers

2. In-house sales team

3. Distributors or retailers

• Communication strategy.

1. Public relations

2. Promotions

3. Personal selling

4. Advertising

5. Printed materials

• Catalogues

• Brochures

• Flyers

Sales Strategy includes:

• A sales force strategy. You can either have the members of your sales force, if you plan to have one, as your direct employees or as independent agents. You have to work out the number of salespeople that you wish to have in your sales force and the recruitment strategies that you will adopt. You should also establish the training programs and the compensation package for the sales force.

• Your sales activities. Your sales strategy should consist of several activities, which should be clearly defined. Some of these activities are:

1) Identifying your prospective customers

2) Prioritizing the list of your prospective customers

3) Establishing the number of sales calls that you plan to make in a specified amount of time

4) Estimating the average number of sales calls that would be required for each sale

5) Working out the average revenue earned from each sale

6) Calculating the average revenue per vendor

Service or Product Line

The description of your product or service should be included in this section. You should also highlight how your product or service will prove beneficial to your potential customers.

You have to zoom in on the plus points of your products or services identifying their distinct advantages. You should also highlight the deficiencies in the existing target market which your product or service would solve.

This section includes:

• A thorough explanation of your product or service.

• Pertinent data regarding the life cycle of your product.

• Any relevant copyright, patent, and trade secret information of your product.

• Details of the research and development activities being undertaken at present or being planned for the future.

Funding Request

This section should include the amount of funding that you would be requesting for, to start the business. You can indicate the high and low limits for the funding in different situations. The following should be clearly defined:

• Your present requirement of funds

• Amount of funding that might be required over the next five years

• How you propose to utilize the funds that you receive

While detailing the above aspects, you should indicate how much money is required now and how much is required in the future. You should also mention the period of time to be covered for each request, and the type and terms of the funding that would like to apply for.

Your creditors will be extremely concerned about how you will utilize the funds. As such, you should indicate clearly in this section whether the funding is for capital expenditure, working capital, debt retirement, or acquisitions.

Finally, you must include all pertinent information about your business that you feel might have a repercussion on the fiscal situation at a later date.

You should always control the copies of your business plan and maintain a record of the people who have been given these copies. Essentially you’ll be sharing your plan of attack with potential competitors so you’ve got to be careful. It is essential you cover your six. A private placement disclaimer must be included in your business plan, especially if you need to raise capital with it.

I hope this overview will be helpful to you as you move through the remainder of 2017. Remember: plan your work, then work your plan.