One of the things I am guilty of when starting a new business is jumping feet first without the proper planning. I frequently jump into a business without a completed business plan or marketing plan - and the first few months are rocky as a result! One of the reasons for this poor planning is the time investment required to properly write the documents necessary.

Now we have a solution! The One Page Computer Consulting Marketing Plan is not a replacement for a full marketing plan, but a quick and easy way for you to organize your thoughts around the four P's of marketing: Price, Place, Promotion, and Product. The One Page Computer Consulting Marketing Plan will provide you a template around which you can write your full marketing plan - or a simple way for you to show potential business partners or sources of startup capital that you have thoroughly thought out much of the business side of your consulting company.

Description of Your Consulting Business

At the top of the One Page Computer Consulting Marketing Plan is a line for you to fill out a description of your consulting business. This decription is your business in a nutshell, for example:

Description of Your Consulting Business: Sharepoint and Collaboration Software Consulting for Mid-Size Firms

or

Description of Your Consulting Business: Software Development Services for Logistics Companies

The description should be as narrow as possible, identifying what your consulting services will be and who the target customer is.

Consulting Service Customers

In the Customers section, you will identify your target customers. Fill out a general description of your target customer (e.g. Mid-size companies with small IT departments who need additional expertise), the target company size (e.g. $1 - $10 million in annual revenues), market segment (e.g. Healthcare firms), target customer title (who you are selling to, e.g. MIS Director), geographic area (e.g. Atlanta, Georgia), whether or not your target customer are home users, and other relevant information.

Business Competition

The Business Competition section has information regarding your competition in the specific technologies and market you are targeting. You might feel like its ok to rush through this section, but do spend some time researching your competition and fill out this section in detail. Be sure to fill out your real competition, large consulting firms are often not your competition as they service a different type of customer and provide a service you cannot.

Planning

The Planning section identifies your annual marketing budget, goals your marketing effort should attain, strategies to meet those goals, and general industry trends you should be aware of in the IT consulting space.

Sales Planning

It is important to identify your sales planning process. First, you should identify your pricing strategy. In our article on setting your hourly rate, we identified three ways to set your hourly rate: cost plus, competitive based pricing, and value based pricing. Review those methodologies and identify how you will set the price of your services in this section.

Placement is where you will sell your services. If you are offering home consulting services, it would be good to resell your services through local computer resellers. If you are selling corporate consulting services, you might be able to team up with a larger consulting firm to resell your specific niche consulting services.

Promotion is the section where you outline what advertising plans you have for the next year. Will you sponsor a golf outing? Will you utilize radio advertising? Newspaper ads? TV ads? How will you promote your services?

The People section of the sales planning process outlines who will sell your services. Is there a salesforce of one (you) or do you plan on hiring sales people? Can you use sales reps to sell your services?

Relationships provides you a section to outline what relationships you already have that can help you sell your consulting services. Do you know every IT manager and director in town? Friends with the CIO of the largest company in town? Have connections with purchasing agents in your local university's IT department?

SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis let's you look internally at your new venture (Strengths & Weaknesses) and externally at the marketplace (Opportunties & Threats).

Strengths are the things that your company has that could put you at a competitive advantage. Do you know a unique technology inside and out? Do you have connections other people do not? Do you have a government contract for your consulting services?

Weaknesses are things within your firm that put you at a disadvantage. Are you weak in sales? Do you not have the certifications you need? Are you underfunded? Do you need to hire staff?

Opportunities are areas in the market which you are well served to take advantage of. For example, are there no other consulting firms with your expertise in the area? Do you have the ability to bid on government jobs where your competitors do not? Do you have the only security experts in town on staff?

Threats are things in the market which could be detrimental to your company. Is there an economic recession in your area? Are companies in your market not hiring consultants? Is the job market tight and you have to pay more for talent?

Once you have finished the One Page Marketing Plan, you have a great tool which can used on its own or for the preparation of a full marketing plan.

Download in: Microsoft Word Format - Adobe PDF Format