The Sales and Marketing section of your business plan will make or break the prospects for your venture. A great idea is meaningless if you cannot find customers. Carefully drafted and logical financial projections are irrelevant if nobody buys your product. In the Marketing and Sales you must convince first yourself, and then the reader, that there is indeed an eager market for your product. Your Marketing and Sales section will probably be in two or three sections. The first is a Market Analysis, the second a Marketing Strategy, and third is a Sales Strategy. Depending on your business, you may choose to roll the Sales Strategy into the Marketing Strategy section.

In your Marketing Analysis subsection you lay out for the reader the market in which you will be competing. This is not the place to go into detail about your ideas and concepts, but to carefully and analytically describe the larger environment in which you will be participating. Most of the research you do for this subsection will probably be in a library, or talking with experts (perhaps your competitors) in the industry. Other great sources of information about an industry are suppliers who sell to the industry, sales representatives, equipment manufacturers, brokerage firm analysts, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers. Be sure and identify voids in the market which are currently not served, and which you presumably will be filling.

The first stage of your Marketing Strategy includes setting marketing objectives (where the organization wants to be at the end of the strategic planning period) and goals (the objectives with specific numerical benchmarks and deadlines attached to allow management to measure achievement). The second stage is specifying the core marketing strategy, i.e. specific target markets, competitive positioning and key elements of the marketing mix. The third is the implementation of tactics to achieve the core strategy.

Depending on your business, sales may be a critical component of your success. Remember, "nothing happens until the sale is made." How will you reach your customers? How will you close the sale with your customers? Who will we use to call on our customers? These questions are critically important for most manufacturers, publishers, software firms, and many service providers. Don't overlook the importance of formulating an effective sales strategy!

The best products in the world have no value if you can't get them into the hands of your customers. Your distribution strategy is important to consider early on because of the effect it has on other parts of your planning process. It can affect every thing from the location of your business to your exit strategy (due to its influence on profitability).

An article stressing the importance of distribution can be found at:

Additional information on distribution channels can be found at the following links.