Using market analysis to aid the development of a marketing strategy is a prudent strategy as it feeds real-time, relevant information into the process.

When consider the factors that might affect your strategy look both internally & externally. Customers, markets and competitors are all important considerations and your market analysis should feed into the support of any  decisions made.

How to evaluate risks to the achievement of objectives

Risk evaluation determines the level of importance that particular risks can have to your strategy. These risks can either be recognised and accepted with no further action taken or very direct action can be taken to prevent or minimise the negative effects that they could bring.

The identification of risk can often require specialist knowledge. For example, risks that are related to legal or financial rules or regulations may not be fully appreciated by those without relevant professional qualifications and/or experience in those area.

Once identified, try to rank them in high, medium or low order to facilitate their evaluation which can include legal requirements and costs. This kind of prioritisation facilitates the appropriate direction of time and money toward the most important risks first.

Forecasting sales by product and/or service

A sales forecast is a month-by-month forecast of the level of sales you plan to achieve for your business. Having a sales forecast will help you avoid cash-flow problems and manage your resources properly. The process of forecasting sales requires a good sales strategy that realistically maps out sales pipelines and is an accurate depiction of the reality of the “sales” landscape.  Often within the process of forecasting is a SWOT analysis (discussed earlier).

Forecasting requires an good understanding of your buyer’s behaviour, without that you are not going to fully anticipate changes in that behaviour that is often predicable. Understanding buyer behaviour is something we discussed early on in this course. Forecasting is continuous, it is after all an educated guess as we look into the future and details that affect our view of the future can change quickly, sometimes dramatically.

Follow this link for a good example of a restaurant sales forecast: http://articles.bplans.com/a-detailed-sample-restaurant-sales-forecast/

Up Next

Next we’ll talk about what you should include in your marketing strategy.