When planning your marketing for the coming months, there are some people you should include in the process as they'll be the ones involved in executing the final thing.

Sales manager

You should work closely with your sales managers to look at future sales targets and how to increase profit. They'll be able to give you a better idea of past sales performance, well performing team members and comments from customers.

The sales manager would also be a great person to include in SWOT analysis (looking at the Strengths, Weaknesses, Objectives and Threats of the business). The sales manager will be able to look at the sales team objectively to help you work out where they fit into this plan.

This can create a great basis for the planning of your marketing going forward.

Sales team

Ask the sales team what they might do to draw in more customers. They're the ones speaking to your customer base on a regular basis and may already have some thoughts abut how you can increase revenue.

It's the sales team who will be implementing a lot of what your marketing plan suggests. From promotions and sales to events and sales calls. Get them in board at this early stage and they'll be excited to get started.

Administration and finance

Your administration and financial staff will be able to cast an expert eye on your budget and financial forecasts. They will also be able to give advice on their side of things. Perhaps administrative staff could put promotional material into letters to customers, or could start to send out a monthly newsletter.

HR

A marketing plan might mean you'll need to hire new staff to implement certain ideas. Speak to your HR department to start the hunt for suitable team members.

HR can also help to create a strong employee brand, which can contribute to your marketing plan. If your staff are correctly portraying your brand then it's going to make the image of the business much, much stronger.

Customers

Market research will help you to work out how receptive your customers will be to different marketing activities. It's a great start to any marketing plan as it gives you information that can help you to make decisions on things like sales, advertising, online activities and events.

Play close attention to this as it's these customers you'll be targeting with your marketing activities.

It can also be helpful to run a finished marketing plan past key members of staff, even if they haven't been involved in putting it together.