2. The disciplines of creating a marketing plan and putting it into action
are distinct. The process of creating a marketing plan is highly
technical, research-based, and centered on developing a logical
marketing plan. Implementing a marketing plan is a labor-intensive,
results-driven process that is built on strategy and tactics. The
marketing plan’s execution is an iterative process that doesn’t wrap
up after one go-around. It alters and adjusts to external factors that
affect the good or service. A marketing plan should therefore always
be created by the business owner, ideally for a full year.
The business owner needs to be clear about the responsibilities given
to key employees from the planning to the implementation stages.
Making a list of the marketing activities and the people responsible
for carrying them out is the first step in an effective marketing
implementation. As the company’s leader, the entrepreneur must be
able to identify who is accountable for what and manage them so that
they carry out their duties successfully.
3. THE IDEAL MARKETING PLAN IMPLEMENTATION STEPS
STEP 1: Divide the marketing plan into small manageable pieces and manageable
timelines.
• The entrepreneur must discuss the marketing plan and the marketing objectives
thoroughly to the marketing team at the onset and establish accountabilities.
• The value proposition, the unique selling proposition, and the 7Ps or the marketing mix
must be clear with the members of the marketing team and why these were chosen to
best communicate the product or service to target customers.
• The entrepreneur must also discuss thoroughly with the marketing team critical
implementation aspects such as organizational preparedness, allotted budget,
implementation schedule, and risks.
• Promotional strategies to be implemented such as sales promotion, public relations,
advertising, direct marketing, or personal selling, and tasks to be divided must also be
explained well among the marketing team members.
• Risks must always be factored in so that the marketing team is ready to counter all the
negative effects of the marketing plan implementation.
4. • Examples of unique selling proposition, value proposition, marketing mix
strategies, and tactics for an online clothing business:
Value proposition: Virtual shopping mall
Unique selling proposition: Hand-made fashionable clothes from indigenous
Filipinos 7Ps marketing mix strategies:
1. Product – Hand-made fashionable clothes
2. Place – Online/Internet
3. Price – Penetration pricing (will start with low price until it peaks)
4. Promotion – Internet marketing (e-mails, social media, Web sites)
5. People – 24/7 helpdesk
6. Packaging – Organic paper
7. Process – Return policy of 10 calendar days
5. For a detailed and organized time line, entrepreneurs
usually prepare a Gantt chart.
A GANTT Chart is an important implementation tool
that enumerates all the planned marketing activities
into one file and arranges the marketing activities
chronologically, together with the interrelations with
each other and other dependencies.
Below is an example of a Gantt chart. It is customizable
depending on the entrepreneur’s business and own
preference. The main point is that the Gantt chart must
summarize the marketing implementation plan in one
document that every member of the marketing team
can easily access and understand. This helps them track
their performance and their deliverables.
6.
7. STEP 2: Explain and delegate the marketing tasks
to assigned individuals.
• In table 5.1, the online clothing entrepreneur
must discuss the marketing objectives and the
specific marketing tasks to assigned people so
they know exactly what they will do and when to
deliver them.
•The entrepreneur must also update, monitor,
and evaluate the marketing assignments every
week or every month depending on the
importance and urgency of the marketing task.
• From the table 5.1, assuming the entrepreneur
also planned to launch the online clothing
business using the traditional approaches aside
from the Internet and mobile, these tasks must
be explained and delegated well to the
marketing team to avoid confusions and to
execute the plans as imagined.
8. STEP 3: Keep the communication line open.
The entrepreneur must ensure that the line of communication between him or
her and the marketing team is always open to avoid implementation issues.
This is very critical because if there is a communication gap, customers will be
the ones to suffer.
• In the previous example, the online clothing entrepreneur and his or her
marketing team must ensure that they talk regularly to ensure that the
marketing execution is done as planned.
• With the advent of technology, the entrepreneur and his or her marketing
team can communicate via face-to-face meetings, landline, mobile phone, or
the Internet.
• Communication channels these days have been revolutionized by technology,
thereby leaving no reason for the modern entrepreneur to not communicate
well with his or her marketing team.
9. STEP 4: Monitor accomplishments and progress.
• Each of the marketing team member’s tasks must be monitored
and evaluated to see if the deliverables were done correctly and
timely. The entrepreneur must also review the results according to
the set standards (highly acceptable, acceptable, a little acceptable,
or not acceptable). I
• If there are marketing tasks that were not performed as planned,
the entrepreneur must help the employee. If helping the employee is
not a viable option, he or she can resort to transferring the
employee to other functions that he or she will be of better use.
• Using the example chart in step 1, add two more columns for
Performance Score and On-time Delivery Score. The entrepreneur
must check the progress on a weekly or monthly basis depending on
the nature of the business and marketing objectives. He or she
should also interpret the results so that he or she knows what to do
next.
10.
11. STEP 5: Open yourself to relevant ideas of your marketing team.
• Because the ones in the frontline are the e entrepreneur’s marketing
team members, the entrepreneur should listen carefully to all their
specific insights and findings and document them.
• They have the firsthand and idea about the behavior, psychology.
Demographics, and geography of the target market. They can better
describe to the entrepreneur the picture of reality-the marketing plan
implementation results and other relevant feedback that may not be
covered by the marketing plan.
• Marketing plans are not fully encompassing Many times, it is in the
implementation stage that the entrepreneur gets the best marketing
ideas and not on the product or service development stage.
12.
13. STEP 6: Adapt to the internal and external factors that affect the marketing function.
• The entrepreneur must always be at pace with the changes happening within and
outside the environment where his or her business operates.
• The entrepreneur must not ignore all relevant factors so he or she knows how to
counter them or follow them by devising a revised marketing plan.
• The marketing plan is a work in progress and must be revisited accordingly. It evolves in
relation to the internal movements and the market condition where it operates.
14. STEP 7: Incorporate incentives and penalties for
motivation.
• Every milestone should be celebrated, and one
of the best ways to do it is to incentivize the
marketing will always remind the members of the
team to keep themselves on their toes.
• A congratulatory remark plus a tap in the back
means the team member did a task right,
whereas repeated coaching sessions and
reminders mean the team member was not quite
effective in the task given.
• The low-performing team members should be
given reasonable chances before replacing them
or transferring them to another department or
unit. Incentives have been proven to really work
well in motivating employees.
15. STEP 8: Analyze and interpret the results.
• This final step is one of the most crucial. The entrepreneur must analyze
and interpret the overall results of the marketing plan implementation.
Each accomplished marketing task must be marked as a milestone to
recognize that a task is already executed as envisioned.
• All the relevant insights and learning must be recognized and
incorporated in the next marketing plan. Effective marketing strategies
and tactics must be maintained and monitored if they still work. If there
are signs that the strategies lose effectiveness, the entrepreneur must be
vigilant to revise them urgently.
• The entrepreneur must always be updated with the internal and external
surroundings, so he or she can always include these factors in devising new
and relevant marketing strategies and tactics for the next marketing plan.
•An effective marketing plan implementation will give the entrepreneur
an edge against the competitors. Consistent successful marketing plan
implementation, on the other hand, will sustain the business and establish
credibility to customers.
16. ACTUAL SELLING OF A PRODUCT OR SERVICE
• Typically, raising awareness is a marketing strategy's primary goal. But
the ultimate objective: of any marketing strategy is for the product or
service to be sold because this is where the revenue comes in.
• Sales may be converted to peso value, but awareness cannot. How
many sales the business owner made might provide as evidence of how
effective or unsuccessful a marketing campaign was.
• The act of actually selling a good or service could seem to follow the
right procedures.
• Sellers must have the ability to delve deeply into the demands and
needs of their clients. These facts can be seen as a large financial
commitment on the seller's part to successfully increase sales.
17. • There are various selling strategies entrepreneurs use that you can also apply
when you sell your actual product or service:
1. Cold calls - This is a selling strategy whereby the seller calls a random person
who has no relationship with the business yet but is considered as a potential
customer. This selling strategy is one of the most difficult to pull off. The seller
should expect that the customers are "cold" and skeptical when he or she sells the
product to them.
2. Consultative selling - Unlike cold calls, consultative selling is a dialog process
between the buyer and the seller (who acts as an expert consultant) as to how the
buyer's problems or pain points can be addressed by the product or service of the
seller.
3. Direct selling - This is a selling strategy that is common in the Philippines. It is
where an independent direct seller goes directly to the customer's house or office
and presents his or her products for selling.
4. Persuasive selling - This is often associated with being pushy, but persuasive
selling is different in such a way that it is selling with subtlety. This is positioning
the product or service as rare, limited, or recommended by experts. The
persuasive seller is able to engage a customer in a conversation rather than a sales
pitch. This way, the customers are put at ease.
18. • Selling is a process. When selling a good or service, a salesman must
go through a set of processes. However, because the relationship
between the salesperson and the customers is so dynamic, the
salesperson may decide to skip some steps. A salesperson might
occasionally need to go back and do something from the beginning
before continuing.
• The strategy a salesperson uses may also change based on the sort of
client. Dealing with a consumer differs from dealing with a commercial
customer, for instance. A consumer will buy a product to use
themselves, but a business customer will buy a product to use
themselves or to resale for a profit. However, these are the steps to
successfully selling a good or service.
19. STEPS IN SELLING A PRODUCT OR SERVICE
STEP 1: Find prospects.
• the entrepreneur has to choose an initial group of people that has common
interests and preferences that the entrepreneur has to find. This mechanism
lessens unnecessary marketing and selling expenses and makes the strategy more
effective and suited to the primary target market.
• These primary target markets are also called sales or prospects. These
prospects have to be screened as to their potential profitability and longevity
with the business. The entrepreneur must segment the prospects according to his
or her preferred demographics, psychographics, behavior, and geography. When
an entrepreneur begins to gather a number of new customers, he or she can
leverage on them by asking for referrals.
STEP 2: Sell credibly to your primary target market (sales presentation).
• The selling presentation is one of the most challenging tasks in selling. The
entrepreneur or his or her sales team/agents must contact the prospects in any
of the possible channels where they can be easily reached such as face-to-face,
Internet (e-mail, Website, social media). Mobile phone, landline phone, text
message, affiliates, or any other creative and strategic channel where they will
be enticed to buy.
20. • This initial selling, phase determines who in the household is the decision-
maker and how the product or service can be of use to them. But all of these
pieces of information are difficult to acquire if the customers do not trust the
business. Therefore, the sales team or sales agents must establish credibility
from the beginning and give the customers a compelling reason why they should
trust the business.
• Once trust has been established, the sales team members must come up with
a convincing, proposition about the product that will catch the customers’
attention.
• Once attention has been given, they have to offer a deal that will inspire the
customers to act. Last, they have to institute a selling tactic that will actually
prompt customers to buy the product or service.
• There are FOUR TYPES OF SALES PRESENTATION as follows:
a. Stimulus response – offering the customer a compelling proposition that
triggers them to initiate purchase
b. Formula selling – follows a standardized selling approach or based on a
formula
c. Canned presentation – is a sales presentation memorized by the presenter
d. Need presentation – is a question-and-answer presentation with the aim of
understanding the exact needs and wants of the customers
21. STEP 3: Manage customers’ inquiries and objections.
• Customers are not buying for the sake of buying. They are the entrepreneur’s major
critique. They are usually asking questions related to price or value proposition. They
need to be assured that the value of their money is satisfied by the value of the product
or service.
• Some of these objections are also coming from those who are not interested to buy.
Therefore, the challenge for the seller is to address the unique needs of customers
based on their interests, needs, and situations to proceed with closing the sale.
STEP 4: Close the sale.
• The entrepreneur must close the sale by ensuring that both the seller (entrepreneur)
and the buyer agree to the conditions of the sale. The entrepreneur must inspire the
buyer to instigate an action by making a firm commitment to buy the product or avail of
the service.
• In processing the sale, the entrepreneur should ensure that the customers will have a
seamless buying experience so that they will be encouraged to repeat transacting with
the business.
• Incorporating a value-added feature or service in the sales process also makes a dent
in the minds of the customers, triggering them to do a repeat transaction. In essence,
closing a sale is not just a transaction but an organic ending of the sales process.
22. STEP 5: Develop a long-lasting relationship with customers.• Closing the sale as
stated is the organic end of the sales process. However, when one process ends,
another one begins. Closing the sale spearheads a long-lasting relationship with
customers.
• The entrepreneur must ensure that he or she asks for customer feedback
regarding the product or service sold so that he or she knows if the customer is
satisfied or no.
• The entrepreneur should assess the product or service satisfaction of customers
and confirm if their satisfaction is complete.• Entrepreneurs must also prepare
their after-sales strategy to entice customers to come back and repeat the
purchase over and over again. This way, the entrepreneurs will save on additional
marketing expenses to acquire new customers, because maintaining happy
customers is more cost-effective than getting new ones. In short, the entrepreneur
(seller) must maintain the good rapport that he or she has with loyal customers.
• There is no single formula or just one best way to become effective in selling.
Focus on the needs of the client. Always try to offer him or her value. Then
everything will fall into place.
