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S.W.O.T. Template
Sales & Marketing S.W.O.T.—A new use for a traditional tool
The S.W.O.T. Analysis, where you evaluate your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats, is well known in the business planning process. Many companies use this method
during strategic planning exercises as a way to form strategies and make decisions on new
business ventures or initiatives. It is powerful because it looks at both internal (strengths,
weaknesses) and external (opportunities, threats) forces.
As powerful as the S.W.O.T. Analysis is for business planning, it is equally powerful in sales and
marketing decision-making. By employing this traditional tool to each of your sales and
marketing activities, you can take advantage of your strengths, uncover new opportunities,
minimize your weaknesses, and eliminate your threats in amazing ways. That is, however, only
if you can be objective. Otherwise, the exercise falls flat.
While the S.W.O.T. Analysis can be applied to decisions about business planning, product
development and other strategic decision-making tasks, consider using it for the following two
sales and marketing activities:

Deciding Marketing Vehicles: Use the S.W.O.T. Analysis to evaluate each marketing
vehicle in your marketing plan. This will allow you to focus marketing efforts on the
vehicles where you have the most advantage or opportunity and the most minimal
amount of weakness or threat.

Developing Sales Presentation/Proposals: Apply the S.W.O.T. Analysis to the
development of each of your sales presentations and proposals. Be sure to focus
the analysis on evaluating each section based on issues specific to the customer you
are pitching.
As you approach your S.W.O.T. Analysis, consider the following questions.

Strengths: What advantages does your company/product have that no one else has?
What makes you most unique? Focus on those things that make your offer most
compelling to a prospect or customer.

Weaknesses: Where can you improve? Where have you made mistakes in the past?
What do you not have that other companies/products in your industry have? Focus on
those things that most detract from your offer.

Opportunities: What trends lend to your strengths? What is the potential “expansion”
potential over time? Opportunities are external factors that represent why your company
exists or should/can growth.

Threats: What challenges do you face? What are your competitors doing? What is the
overall competitive landscape? Threats are external forces that could impact your
success, such as competition, operational capacity, cost of goods increases, etc.
No matter the purpose, using the S.W.O.T. analysis can force thoughtful, strategic, and creative
thinking. And, when used properly, the S.W.O.T. Analysis not only helps you identify your
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, but it also helps you determine your
strategies for addressing each.
Integrating the magic of marketing with the science of sales.
Go-To-Market Strategies | inforequest@gtms-inc.com| www.gotomarketstrategies.com
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S.W.O.T Template
S.W.O.T. Purpose: [Enter the key purpose of your S.W.O.T. Analysis. i.e.
business planning, company/product brand positioning, marketing
activity, sales proposal development, etc.]
Instructions: Replace the placeholders indicated as brackets […] or <…> with your own
information. When finished, highlight and delete the tips in parentheses, apply your
letterhead template or follow ours by updating the header/footer with your information and
you will have a finalized S.W.O.T. Analysis. If you have questions about this template,
contact us at 206-547-2322 or inforequest@gtms-inc.com. Or visit
www.gotomarketstrategies.com for more information about Go-To-Market Strategies.
TIP: Enter your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats below, and consider what
your strategies will be in response to each. Add rows as necessary. Make sure each entry
pertains to the specific purpose of your S.W.O.T. Analysis!
STRENGTHS

[Enter Strength]

[Enter Weakness]

[Enter Strength]

[Enter Weakness]

[Enter Strength]

[Enter Weakness]

[Enter Strategy]
Strategies for minimizing weaknesses:

OPPORTUNITIES
[Enter Strategy]
THREATS

[Enter Opportunity]

[Enter Threat]

[Enter Opportunity]

[Enter Threat]

[Enter Opportunity]

[Enter Threat]
Strategies for leveraging opps:

[Enter Strategy]
SWOTTemplate.doc Prepared by:
EXTERNAL
Strategies for using strengths:
INTERAL
WEAKNESSES
Strategies for eliminating threats:

[Enter Strategy]
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© 2001-2008 Go-To-Market Strategies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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