The corporate community makes use of various terms in talking about business planning – business strategy, sales planning, marketing technique, business plans, and marketing schemes. But as different as these terms sound or spell, they cover same concepts — how to improve sales and getting the company “out there”. Efficient business plans and marketing schemes have to be strong, cost-effective, and most of all, practical.

As such, an efficient business plan takes several important elements: products, services, market size, competitor activity, marketing, and production costs.

Since a business’s’ selling point and source of income are the type of products and service it offers, it’s reasonable to pay these much attention. Product and service evaluation ought to be part of all business plans and marketing schemes a business formulates. Product evaluation entails product testing, improving quality control, product style, and marketing. In product testing and quality control, it’s essential to ensure that the company’s product is all it claims to be. For example, if company A wants to claim that its product washes off stains in less time than the leading brand B, it must test and enhance its product An against product B. Doing this permits company A to adjust the formulation of product A to beat product B. The testing process can also serve as evidence if the company A puts advantage of product An in their advertisements.

Business plans and marketing strategies aren’t complete without including service assessment. A company’s employees can make or break the business by attracting or turning customers and possible clients off. The business might think about hiring the services of a mystery shopper who can pretend to be a client to get a more objective service evaluation. The mystery shopper has the benefit of anonymity and the staff would treat him as an regular client. The company’s head honcho will not get the same results because, naturally, the staff would act their best with the big boss around. Let us again take the example of An and B and make them competing groceries. If company A hires a mystery shopper to visit both stores, A gets the benefit of assessing its own shop and that of its competitor. Company A, with the help of the evaluation, can fire unproductive workers, reward the very good ones, and implement new courtesy policies that beat that of B’s. Statistics show that clients are more likely to support company with effective and courteous staff over a competing business that offers the same products. Therefore, by enhancing service, a company has the advantage of being more cost-effective (firing unproductive employees) and increasing sales.

Expansion is one goal of entrepreneurs. It could be physical expansion or putting up new stores, or an expansion in terms of market size. Market size expansion has an excellent deal to do with efficient marketing. It is essential for business plans and advertising schemes to have provisions for ads. There are many ways in which a company can advertise its services and goods: paid email-reading sites, promotions, print ads, radios, televisions, along with other audio and visual media. Consulting statistics about the media habits of its target market, a company can identify what medium is more effective. Though taking risks is part of business, it helps to be realistic and supported by fact.

Business plans and marketing schemes play important roles in the success of a business. Business analysts affirm this by saying that by coming up with new business plans and marketing schemes regularly, businesses prevent being stagnant and are able to continuously deliver great services and products. With time, these are the companies that last.