Why You Should Attend This Course:

Do you or your team encounter difficulty in getting approval for your marketing campaigns? Has it occurred to you that whilst your idea sells, you may have under-estimated the financial hurdles which are blocking that approval? Or are there frequent instances where your company is unable to grow the business because marketing proposals fail to get endorsement from the finance team? This could be because the sales & marketing ("S&M") team see only the "top-line" exciting sales growth potential whilst the finance team is preoccupied with the costs of those initiatives.

This course will benefit both the marketing and finance teams by 'marrying' the marketing and financial perspectives in assessing a marketing proposal. A series of practical demonstrations and case exercises are used to help you identify & weigh all the costs (including "hidden costs") against the benefits of S&M initiatives in order to fully support the proposal from both perspectives.

The analyses learnt will apply to any business model – you may be selling through distributors or directly, using your own salesmen or a distributors' sales force, or giving incentives through sales commissions or higher salaries.

Learning Outcomes:

• (For proposers) Be equipped with practical tools to justify your S&M initiatives
• (For decision-makers) Be able to evaluate S&M initiatives from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives so as to choose the best strategies which will bring the highest value added to your business
• Understand the cross-functional impacts of S&M initiatives and pitfalls to avoid

Course Outline:

Introduction

• Objectives of S&M initiatives
• Value creation as distinct from growth

Identifying types of S&M initiatives

• Growth, product-mix optimization, premiumization or branding

Calculating ROI of growth initiatives (including breakeven analysis)

• Advertising, entertainment
• Use of sales commissions
• Reducing selling price or offering trade discounts
• Use of promotional trade rebates ("freebies")
• Incorporating "hidden" costs
• Considerations in marginal business
• Considerations in product discontinuation
• Extending credit period
• Use of prompt payment discounts

Assessing product mix initiatives

• Which products to prioritise?
• Measuring product profitability

Calculating ROI of premiumisation or branding initiatives

• Identifying & quantifying benefits and costs
• Weighing the benefits against the costs of premiumisation or branding
• Relevance of Payback Period and Net Present Value (NPV)

Inter-dependency of S&M initiatives with other business functions

• Effect of budgetary approach
• Effect of sales forecast on other business functions
• Decisions affected by the "accuracy" of S&M forecasts
• Building assumptions in forecasts

Who Will Benefit?

• Managers and Executives who are involved in developing or proposing sales & marketing initiatives
• Analysts and Finance Managers who are responsible for assessing the economic feasibility of sales & marketing initiatives
• Senior Managers responsible for approval and product managers who are involved in the implementation

Trainer's Profile:

Grace Chow runs a company specialising in customised financial training and business consulting service. She has over 20 years of working experience in public accounting, banking, fund management, and corporate training. She is highly experienced in training participants with no financial background, especially sales & marketing professionals and engineers, and at different levels from top management to executives. Grace has conducted regional financial management & related courses for a wide range of clients in the Asia-Pacific region, and has worked closely with many in developing and assessing business plans which cover strategic marketing to process improvement.

Grace holds a Bachelor of Business degree and is a Chartered Accountant of Singapore. She is also the author of a book titled "Accounting Made Simple – A Layperson's Perspective" and has also contributed a chapter to another book titled "The Essence of Financial Accounting".

Her past & present clients include Asia Pacific Breweries, Barnes Group, Bosch, Cable & Wireless, Carrier, Caterpillar, Citibank, Clifford Chance, Dumex, General Electric, Health Science Authority of Singapore, Honeywell, Hulhumale Development Corporation of Maldives, ICI, IE Singapore, Keppel Land, Maersk, Merck/MSD, Mitsubishi, National Semiconductors, Novellus, NTUC Club, OCBC, Osram, Pfizer, Raffles Medical Group, Rhode & Schwarz, Roche, SAFRA, SATS, SCORE, Shearman & Sterling, Shell, Singapore Business Federation, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore Mass Rapid Transit, Singapore National Printers, Singapore Power, ST Aerospace, Telekoms Malaysia, WDA, amongst many others.