Sales and Marketing Financial Planning and Modelling

In many organisations the sales team, the marketing team and the finance team plan separately. Sales targets are negotiated, marketing budgets are fixed before campaigns are defined, and finance sees the combined result only when it misses the plan. Forecasts are optimistic, the cost of acquiring and serving customers is unclear, and it is hard to say which channel, campaign or sales resource actually earns its cost.

This programme connects commercial activity to financial results. It moves through five stages: understanding how sales and marketing drive revenue, cost and cash; building a forecast that can be tested; setting and allocating budgets; evaluating the return on marketing and sales decisions; and monitoring performance and communicating results.

Built on recognised practice. The programme draws on established management accounting and marketing finance methods, including driver-based forecasting, contribution and break-even analysis, customer lifetime value, marketing return on investment and marketing mix concepts, scenario and sensitivity analysis, and the revenue recognition principles of IFRS 15 where they affect how sales are reported. Methods are applied in spreadsheet models that participants can adapt.

Decisions this programme improves. How much to spend on sales and marketing and where; whether a price change, discount or promotion adds or destroys profit; which customers, products and channels deserve more resources; how many salespeople a territory can support; and when a forecast should be revised.

How it is delivered. Twenty hours across five sessions, built around one running case: a business planning its annual sales and marketing budget. Participants build a driver-based forecast, allocate a budget across channels, evaluate a campaign and present a variance report, using practical spreadsheet models.

In-house option. For organisations, the programme can be tailored to your own products, sales channels, planning calendar and reporting templates, and delivered for sales, marketing and finance teams together so that they plan from the same assumptions.

Who Should Attend

Sales managers: sales directors, regional and key account managers responsible for targets and budgets

Marketing managers: marketing, brand, product and digital marketing managers who own budgets

Finance professionals: financial analysts, business partners and controllers supporting commercial teams

Commercial planning staff: sales operations, planning and business intelligence analysts

Business unit managers accountable for revenue and profit

Objectives

Explain how sales and marketing decisions affect revenue, margin, working capital and cash

Build a driver-based sales forecast from volume, price, mix and conversion assumptions

Test a forecast with scenarios and sensitivity analysis and state its key risks

Prepare a sales and marketing budget linked to objectives rather than last year's spend

Calculate contribution, break-even volumes and the profit effect of discounts and promotions

Estimate customer acquisition cost and customer lifetime value by segment or channel

Evaluate the return on a marketing campaign or sales initiative

Allocate sales resources across territories, accounts and channels on an evidence basis

Analyse budget variances into volume, price, mix and cost effects

Present commercial plans and results clearly to finance and senior management

Course Outline

How Sales and Marketing Create Financial Value

The link between commercial activity, the income statement and cash flow
Revenue drivers: volume, price, mix, retention and conversion
Cost behaviour: fixed, variable and semi-variable commercial costs
Contribution margin and break-even analysis
Revenue recognition principles and their effect on sales reporting
Common gaps between commercial and finance views of performance

Building a Forecast That Can Be Tested

Top-down and bottom-up forecasting and how to reconcile them
Pipeline-based and driver-based forecasts
Time series, seasonality and trend in sales data
Scenario and sensitivity analysis
Forecast accuracy, bias and when to revise
Structuring a clear, auditable spreadsheet model

Budgeting and Allocating Commercial Resources

Objective-and-task, percentage and zero-based approaches to marketing budgets
Sales force sizing, territory design and capacity planning
Allocating spend across channels, products and customer segments
Compensation and incentive costs and their effect on behaviour
Linking the commercial budget to the annual plan and targets

Evaluating the Return on Commercial Decisions

Marketing return on investment and its limitations
Customer acquisition cost and customer lifetime value
Pricing, discount and promotion analysis
Customer and product profitability analysis
Digital marketing metrics and attribution: what they can and cannot prove
Testing and experiments to measure incremental effect

Monitoring Performance and Communicating Results

Variance analysis: volume, price, mix and cost effects
Commercial KPIs and dashboards for decision-making
Rolling forecasts and in-year reallocation
Using BI tools and AI-assisted analysis: benefits and cautions
Presenting a commercial business case to finance and senior management
Action plan: improving commercial planning in your organisation

Competencies

Driver-based sales forecasting

Scenario and sensitivity analysis for commercial plans

Sales and marketing budget preparation

Contribution and break-even analysis

Customer acquisition cost and lifetime value analysis

Marketing return on investment evaluation

Sales resource and territory allocation

Commercial variance analysis

Financial communication of commercial plans

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