Sales Plan for Any Business

¶ … Sales Plan

For any business the overall marketing or sales plan will determine how successful an entity will be. This is because new sales are the lifeblood of the business, without this consistency is when the company will experience large swings in the profitability. In the case of Stretch r' Wings, the company has created a sales strategy for marketing its new product to customers. However, to determine how effective this plan will be requires: examining the plan itself, why such a strategy was chosen, if the current plan is effective and what changes would be recommended to improve its effectiveness. Together, these different elements will provide the greatest insights as what are the overall strengths and weaknesses in the company's sales plan.

The Sales Strategy for Stretch r' Wings

Stretch r' Wings is a start up aircraft equipment manufacturer that will be manufacturing internal medical equipment devices carried on board on medical service aircraft. The way that they will be effectively marketing their medical equipment device is based on the unique features of the product to include: it is lightweight, offers ample amounts of storage, it is durable, can provide greater comfort to the patient and it is cost effective. ("Executive Summary," 2010) the sales department will not fully begin to take shape until the company has secured several long-term contracts, which is expected to occur nine months after opening the business. At which point, the company will begin by hiring a sales manager and aggressively promoting the business to secure more long-term contracts. To market the business, the sales manager will use: various brochures, direct mail, trade magazine advertisements and the internet to reach out to customers. As a result, the sales in the first year are projected: to be $6,475.00 and increasing to $137,500.00 by the fifth year. ("Strategy and Implementation," 2010)

Is the Sales Plan Effective?

The sales plan for Stretch r' Wings is effective to a certain extent. However, the plan has several weaknesses that could affect the short to medium term viability of the company to include: creating the sales department later and limiting how they are marketing the company. When looking at the first issue, creating the sales department later, is hurting the short-term viability of the company. This is because there is no concentrated effort on sales until a sales manager is hired to build the team, which is nine months after the business, has been in operation. This is problematic, because the company is basically shooting itself in the foot over the short-term, by not having an aggressive sales department in place from the beginning. Then, the way that they are planning on marketing the company is limiting their overall reach. Where, the company is only using select tools to promote the business, once the sales manager is hired. ("Management Summary," 2010) These two factors will cause the total amount of sales to be abysmal, as they are expected to drop by 70.4% during the first year. ("Financial Plan," 2010)

Is there enough Detail to communicate their Sales Plan?

There is enough information to communicate the long-term vision of the sales plan. However, over the short to medium term, there are many assumptions that are not realistic about the business world. Like what was covered previously, they have no effective marketing strategy for when the company first opens. This is when they need to be aggressively pushing for new sales, as the company's future viability will depend upon the Sales Department's success. Because the authors have not accounted for this means, that if their sales are off just little bit, the entire business could be in jeopardy.

Changes that could be Implemented in the Sales Plan

One of the first things that the company needs to do is hire the Sales Manager and begin building the sales team. To cost effectively achieve this objective, you could have the Sales Manager and staff start out on part time basis. Then as sales are increasing, they begin working full time. At the same time, you would need to use a variety of marketing tools to reach out to this market to include: visiting various trade shows along with engaging in a mass media campaign, to build the image of the brand through television and radio advertising. Once this take place, you would have to begin marketing the business to consumers at least 60 to 90 days prior to opening. These different elements will help ensure that the company has ample amounts of exposure prior to opening, which would build sales from the very beginning.