Marketing and Sales Strategy
What this domain tests
This domain tests whether you can convert a market position into a priced, channelled, measurable plan: segmentation and targeting, positioning, the marketing mix, and unit economics that show whether a customer is worth acquiring.
Core rules
- STP. Segments must be measurable, accessible, substantial and differentiable. Targeting then chooses where to concentrate limited SME resources.
- Positioning. One sentence: for [target], our [offering] delivers [benefit] unlike [alternative], because [proof]. Vague positioning fails exam items that ask for a discriminator.
- Mix. Product, price, place, promotion - plus people, process and physical evidence for services. Price must be consistent with positioning and channel margin.
- B2B buying centre. Initiator, user, influencer, decider, buyer, gatekeeper - the sales approach differs from consumer marketing.
- Customer economics. CLV = margin per period × retention/(1 + discount rate − retention). Compare with CAC; LTV/CAC above roughly 3 and a payback under a year is healthy for an SME.
- Channel. Adding a direct online store to an existing dealer network creates channel conflict unless price and territory rules are set first.
Worked example
A subscription service bills KRW 300,000 per customer per year at a 40% gross margin, so margin is KRW 120,000. Retention is 80% and the discount rate is 10%. CLV = 120,000 × 0.80/(1 + 0.10 − 0.80) = 120,000 × 2.667 ≈ KRW 320,000. Equivalently, 120,000/(0.10 + 0.20) = KRW 400,000 using the standard perpetuity form; state which convention you use. With CAC of KRW 150,000 the ratio is about 2.1–2.7, and payback is roughly 1.25 years. Lifting retention to 85% raises CLV to KRW 480,000 - a bigger lever than a 10% price rise here.
Traps that cost marks
- Computing CLV from revenue instead of gross margin.
- Ignoring churn in a multi-period calculation.
- Confusing brand awareness with preference.
- Adding a channel without resolving price conflict.