An agency can research the market and competitors, but public sources will not tell it which orders are genuinely worthwhile, why a customer declined or how many projects the team can deliver. This information determines which recommendations can work for the business.
Perfect analytics are not required to begin. Gather the available data, explain where it comes from and identify the gaps. Research can then support a decision rather than simply describe the market.
Define the strategy's task
Record the decision required: selecting a segment, entering a market, changing an offer, allocating a budget or developing a particular service.
Specify the current situation, desired outcome, timing and constraints. Clarify “increase sales”: which products, in which market, at what capacity and with what acceptable level of investment?
Agree separately on the agency's deliverables: analysis, hypotheses, priorities, a channel plan, budget scenarios and an evaluation method. Advertising launches, content production and technical integrations need their own scope of work. A 90-day marketing plan helps connect strategy to immediate actions.
Share products, economics and constraints
For each service or product group, prepare:
- offer scope and sales terms;
- current prices and discounts;
- direct and other variable costs;
- order contribution after those costs;
- repeat purchases and their timing, if historical data exists;
- supply, delivery and support constraints;
- team workload and plans to change capacity.
If precise figures are unavailable, provide an explained range. Do not present an assumed margin as a calculated one or replace missing data with zero.
Note the currency, treatment of taxes, period and metric definitions. The economic model is explained in the article on marketing payback with margins and repeat purchases.
Show customers and the sales journey
Exports of completed and current deals are useful: source, product, stage, dates, amount and reason for rejection. For B2B, add information about buying roles, approvals and common obstacles.
Select anonymised examples of successful and unsuccessful enquiries. Explain what employees consider a suitable enquiry, how it is assigned and when it becomes a sale.
Complement the numbers with customer questions, objections and negotiation materials. Reviews show one part of the experience; information about rejections reveals another. If evidence is missing, customer interviews can be included in the research plan.
Gather the marketing history
Provide a list of channels, costs, activity periods, offers, pages and materials. Show what changed: prices, the website, assortment, region, team or measurement rules.
Do not stop at a final screenshot showing enquiry counts. The agency needs outcome definitions, the costs included and what happened to the enquiries later. Label which data describes the entire business and which reflects a particular platform's attribution.
Incomplete measurement is a separate strategic task. For example, first restore suitable enquiry tracking, then compare channels. There is no need to invent a precise forecast from unverified history.
Organise material sharing and access
Start with descriptions, reports and anonymised examples. Grant account access by role and only to the extent needed for analysis. Passwords and secret keys should not sit in a shared briefing folder.
For files, specify the owner, update date and usage restrictions. Share customer contacts, call recordings and documents only for a clear purpose and under appropriate processing conditions. Details not needed for research can be removed.
Assign someone on the business side who can explain the data and agree on decisions. Discuss contradictory exports at the start rather than selecting a convenient figure at the end.
A project folder template
- Task: decisions, goals, timelines and constraints.
- Offers: products, prices, scope and terms.
- Economics: costs, contribution, repeat business and capacity.
- Customers and sales: segments, stages, deals and rejection reasons.
- Marketing: channels, spending, materials and change history.
- Measurement: data sources, definitions and known gaps.
- Organisation: owners, access and approval process.
Each section needs one current source or a clear file list. Keep a separate list of unknowns: what can be clarified with employees, checked in analytics or researched in the market.
Discuss the task and required inputs through our market research and strategy service. Start with the decision you want to make, the offer list and the available sales history.