During this past week, a question was asked of the AMA Marketing Strategy group on the subject of what kind of marketing budget is required for a software product launch.

You need answers to these questions in your marketing plan:

1. What is your first year revenue target?
2 How many units do you need to sell to meet your revenue target?
3. How long is the sales cycle expected to be?
4. Do you plan to target regionally or nationally for your first set of customers?
5. How does your target audience learn about new products? (radio, print advertising, referrals, direct mail, seminars, etc.) 6. What is your expected conversation ratio from potential prospect to customer? (In other words in order to achieve #2 above (number of units) how many trainers do you have to "touch"?
7. Based upon the sales cycle, and the competition, how many times do you have to "touch" a prospect before they begin to become aware of your product?
8. Will you have a sales team? How dependent is the sales team on the marketing efforts for lead generation?

Answering all of these questions will help you develop a launch plan and a budget based upon the items you have identified as needed to develop leads.

From Suzanne M. Teele at www.aceda.com