CHAPTER TWENTY
Sales and Marketing Budget
INTRODUCTION
The sales and marketing budget is an important link with all other budgets. To make this link effective, the budget system should be based on a sound understanding of the vision, culture, and objectives of the organization; an awareness of the relationships among business processes and with other business functions; the ability to use external information about competitors, customers, suppliers, and public policy; and good judgment.
The importance of these factors suggests that the sales and marketing budget process should be discussed broadly and not merely in terms of how related data should be entered, stored, and printed from a computer system. Therefore, this chapter concentrates on these subjects:
- Overview of the budget process
- Special budgeting problems
- Pertinent tools
- Unique aspects of some industries
OVERVIEW OF THE BUDGET PROCESS
The sales and marketing budget process links to product, channels of distribution, and profit a group of largely discretionary expenses that focus on customers’ acceptance—on the downstream components of the value chain. Most firms try to sell profitably what customers want—that is, what the market will bear. As a result, the sales and marketing budget is a means of integrating the functional plans as well as the process capabilities of an organization. It is important that the budget be controlled because marketing expenses, which are not ...
