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| | The The CopyWriters Connection Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | How To Define And Establish Sales Goals | Views: 276 | | Dec 28, 2005 6:34 pm | | How To Define And Establish Sales Goals | # | 
Steven Boaze | |
The first step in preparing an advertising budget
must be setting sales goals. Just how many
computers do you expect to sell in a month, a
season, a year? Or what will the retail sales
volume for the entire store be in each time frame?
Setting sales goals can be a guessing game, but
basic research into past sales performance, the
quantity and quality of competition, the economic
forecasts for your area and characteristics of
the population in your market area can help make
the guess an educated one. The U.S. Department of
Commerce publishes statistical information about
consumer expenditures, retail sales and expense
statistics. An hour or two spent in the
government publications section of your local
public library or visiting the web site:
http://www.commerce.gov can pay big dividends.
Another source for statistical data is the
business association that serves your industry.
Although the first sales goal you set will be an
annual figure, monthly sales goals can never be
determined by merely dividing the annual figure
by 12 months. One of the certainties of marketing
is that consumer habits change constantly. Yet
those very changes make the consumer predictable
since there is a predictable pattern of consumer
desire for almost every known commodity. While
this consumption pattern may vary from month to
month, the annual pattern repeats itself with
remarkable consistency.
Your next step after setting an annual sales goal
is to determine what percentage of that annual
volume you should anticipate for each calendar
month. You may elect to use the national figures
for your industry, but using your actual sales
figures will give much more reliable numbers. To
determine what percentage of your annual sales
were achieved in any given month, merely divide
that month's dollar volume by the annual dollar
value and multiply that amount by 100. Your
monthly share of sales percentages will be even
more accurate if you compute it for each of your
last three or four years of sales and then
average the percentages for each month. When you
arrive at your monthly percentage of annual
sales, you can provide a picture of the cyclical
nature of your business by plotting the
percentage figures.
If your business is new, you may want to double
the average percentage figure during the first
year just to establish yourself. By multiplying
the projected volume for the planned year by the
percentage allocated for advertising, you will
arrive at the dollar amount of the advertising
budget for the year. You have answered the
question, "How much should I spend?"
When Should I Spend It?
Although you know how much money you plan to
invest in advertising, your budget also must
indicate how much of that amount to spend during
each of the 12 months. Do this by transferring
the figures. Then multiply the projected volume
for the year by the percentage figures for each
month and insert the results. You now have
refined your annual dollar sales goal into a
dollar goal for each calendar month.
Steven Boaze
http://www.boaze.comPrivate Reply to Steven Boaze | | |
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