The decisions you make and the steps you take to put your plan into action benefit from focused planning as well. In that case, you should plan the best in the marketing way. A marketing plan should be a live document. As you review your implementation results with the people responsible, you will often find the need to set new goals and make course corrections. Keep track of the original plan and manage changes carefully. Although changes should be made only with good reason, don’t be afraid to update your plan and keep it alive. We recommend using a computer for your budgets and forecasts so you can easily make changes, as described below.
Prescription for Live
Planning
1. After your plan starts, type actual results into the sales forecast, expense budget, and milestones. Compare what the plan vs. actual worksheets tell you.
2. Note when actual results indicate you need to make changes to your plan.
3. Make adjustments to future months of your cash plan, based on the actual results for the months already completed.
4. As each month closes, type actual results over your revised plan numbers.
As you look at the variance for the sales forecast for the first three months, you should see several important trends:
1. Unit sales of systems are disappointing, well below expectations.
2. The average revenue for systems sales is also disappointing.
3. Unit sales for service are disappointing, but dollar sales are way up.
4. Sales are well above expectations for software and training.