Your PRODUCTS and SERVICES are vital to your business. They fulfill a need or demand in a way that is pleasing and beneficial to your customers. This drives them to continue to do business with you. This is called customer loyalty. Every business should take the extra time and effort to build a business culture that breeds customer loyalty. You should have customer loyalty in mind while you determine what products and services you will market and sell.

Products and Services Plan

Take a moment and revisit your business vision in chapter one and the competitive analysis you built in chapter five. Utilize this information to help you to determine your product and service strategy. Build out a product and service plan that thinks thru the steps that you need to take to have a solid product and service offering. What are the tasks you need to perform to create a menu of products or services? List them and arrange them in a logical sequence.

1. Select products that you would sell to your customers that would fulfill your company vision and compete in the marketplace.
2. Determine services that you would provide to meet customer demand and achieve your business goals.
3. Chose suppliers for your products and services;
   • How will you select and build relationships with suppliers?
   • Do you need to partner with other companies to fulfill customer demand?
4. Join associations or trade groups. What do they offer?
5. Acquire unique equipment or tools you need to operate your business.
6. Determine special skills or training needed to sell your products or deliver your services.
7. Evaluate technologies that will assist you in providing your products or services.