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Part of Reading sales and marketing plans with a sceptical eye
Sales and marketing plans template for buyer, quote and repeat
A sales and marketing plans template for three blocks: the buyer you aim at, the quote that takes several conversations, and the repeat purchase.
These three blocks go into a blank document once the path is written: who the buyer is, how a long sale gets decided, and what brings a customer back. Each has prompt lines to copy and a note on how it fails. The sales and marketing guide explains the section they belong to.
What to take away
- The buyer block names a behavior, not a size band, and the same segment ranked first in the market analysis.
- The quote block exists only for a sale that takes more than one conversation.
- The repeat block needs a mechanism, an owner and a cost.
- Every block ends in a number, an owner or a date. Blocks that end in an adjective get deleted.
- A block that will not fill shows which part of the plan is not settled yet.
Where these blocks sit on the path
The three blocks cover the front, the middle and the end of the customer path: who the buyer is, what has to happen before they can say yes, and what brings them back. Every step needs a named owner and an elapsed time, or it will not happen.
The customer path, seven steps
- Finds outchannel, owned by name
- Sees or readspage, listing, sample
- Gets in touchoffer, question, trigger
- Responsename, time, quote or booking
- Before yesvisit, sample, approval, finance
- Paysterms, cash lands n days
- Comes backmechanism, owned by name
Fill the blocks in the order below, because each leans on the one before. The owner has to be a real person from the team section.
Where the honest answer is that you do not know yet, write that and put a date beside it. An unknown step named is worth more than a guess.
Block one: the buyer
Define the segment by what buyers do, not by a size band. This block has to name the same segment ranked first in the market analysis. If the two differ, one of the sections is decoration.
Segment: [defined by a behavior, not by a size band]. What they do now instead of buying from us: [the alternative, including doing nothing]. What would make them switch: [the trigger]. Where we reach them: [the channel].
The alternative line is the one people skip, yet doing nothing is a competitor too, and the switch trigger tells you what the first message has to say. As the Small Business Administration puts it, market research helps you find customers for your business, and this block is where that research lands.
Each channel named on the last line needs a test card of its own. It has five lines: the channel, why your customers are reachable there, what it costs to try, how long before you would know, and the result that would make you stop.
Channel test card
- Channelname
- Why customers reachable hereobservation
- Cost to trymoney, hours, whose hours
- Time before we would knowweeks
- Stopping conditionthe number
Whatever the channel says about the offer, the FTC's small business advertising guide states that ad claims on the Internet must be truthful and substantiated.
Block two: the quote
Use this block only for anything sold over more than one conversation. Its job is to make the decision cycle visible, because the cycle is a cash fact, not a sales fact.
Stages: enquiry, qualification, quote, follow-up, decision, onboarding. Owner of each: [name]. Time from first contact to decision: [days]. Share of quotes that close: [rate, and where it came from]. Cost of producing one quote: [hours].
Work sold in month one at a sixty day cycle and thirty day terms is money in month four. That timing belongs in the projections rather than in an optimistic sentence.
The close rate needs a source. A rate quoted without one is borrowed, and no rate transfers from one business to another. The cost of a quote is written in hours, so a reader can see what a lost bid costs. How each kind of sale leaves one step unowned is shown in the customer-path examples.
Block three: the repeat
Repeat business appears in almost every plan as an assertion. A mechanism with an owner and a cost is what turns it into a forecast input.
Mechanism: [reminder, contract, subscription, rebooking, account call]. Owner: [name]. Cost per period: [money or hours]. What we will measure: [second purchase rate, relationship length].
A repeat also changes what a customer is worth. Contribution on a first order is price minus direct cost, and over the whole relationship it is the first order times expected repeats. That total sets the most you can afford to pay for a customer, and it comes from your own margin, never a benchmark.
Contribution on a first order: [price minus direct cost].
The acquisition ceiling
- First orderprice minus direct cost
- Whole relationshipfirst order times expected repeats
- Most we can paycomputed ceiling figure
- We will test atlower figure
The four numbers the model needs are enquiries by source, conversion to sale, average sale value and repeat rate. Multiply the first three and you have revenue. A metric with no owner is not measured, which is why the last prompt line names a person, a place and a review rhythm.
Enquiries by source, conversion to sale, average sale value, repeat rate.
Four numbers to track
- Enquiries by sourcerecorded by name
- Conversion to salerecorded by name
- Average sale valuerecorded by name
- Repeat raterecorded by name
When a block will not fill
Treat an empty block as a diagnostic. A skeleton this tight fails visibly, early, and in the cheapest place to fail.
| Block | If it will not fill | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer | No alternative or trigger can be named | The segment is not yet defined by behavior |
| Quote | No close rate with a source | The rate is borrowed, not measured |
| Repeat | No mechanism, owner or cost | The repeat rate in the model is decoration |
Once the blocks are filled, the sales and marketing plans checklist tests the draft against the model. Faults that survive a full template are covered in sales and marketing plans mistakes.
Common questions
I have no budget at all. Does the repeat block still apply?
Yes, with hours instead of money. The cost line then says whose hours, how many, and what does not get done in that time.
I sell in a single conversation. Do I skip the quote block?
Yes. Mark it not applicable in one line rather than deleting it silently, because a reader who expects it and finds silence assumes an omission.
Can I write the buyer block before the market section?
You can draft it, but it depends on a segment you have defined and sized. Doing it the other way round usually produces channels chosen before the customer was.
How often should the blocks be revised?
When a channel is stopped or started, or when the close rate or the repeat rate is measured for the first time.
