It's amazing how many marketing  plans are derived from a need to appease the board of directors, not the best interests of the company. While the board is looking for the best return on  investment, whether of time or money, its decisions can sometimes be short-sighted or fueled by budget drivers or misperceptions of the overall  strategy. Most do run businesses and so understand the infrastructure needed to  execute the core business plan, but very few are actually marketing-savvy.

So you must determine if the plan is a short-term call to action or a  long-term equity builder. And you must warn them if their goals are unrealistic.

As the resident or external marketing expert, it's up to you not only to develop but to sell a strategic program that serves as a corporate and a product/service brand builder. It is critical that the marketing program move markets into your corner to capture mind and marketshare.

Setting and meeting expectations is the most important element in creating a winning marketing plan. First, strategize with the decision makers. Understand their goals, immerse yourself in the business value proposition and obtain consensus on the overall corporate direction. Work with the team to set  realistic goals as well as the "if this were a perfect world, we would..." idealistic goals. And finally, the most important component of job security is  to agree upon a mutually beneficial, and realistic, metric system.

As part of that process, you must determine the targets for the marketing  initiative. Develop a series of questions and work towards the development of  piercing and compelling answers. What's my budget? Who else is in this space? What are our differentiators? Who can benefit most from knowing about this information? How can I reach them? What will it take to cut through the clutter?

By performing this mini-audit early, you can initiate the development of a targeted, almost scientific marketing campaign that speaks convincingly to each  target market.

The next step is to determine the most effective tools to reach your markets -- there are always more than just one demographic. The most common initiatives include advertising, direct marketing, events and public relations. Successful long-term plans place great emphasis on advertising for developing brand  personality and resonance, and public relations for influencing the marketplace through the voices of its peers and trusted advisors.

In order to convince a discerning set of customers, the marketing plan must  include a creative and compelling strategy. Your potential customers have heard it all before, so make sure that you create a B.S.-free platform that speaks to  their pains and concerns.

Whichever programs are selected, ensure that in execution they receive full  attention and commitment of resources. Execution is key and the plan will  finally be judged by its adherence to and success under the agreed-upon metrics. ithout resources, execution will falter and the plan will fail before it is  properly begun.

Remember to present the plan, the strategy, the targets, the timeline and  "what if" scenarios to generate a strong consensus in advance. That can be the key to acquiring the resources needed to execute.

A company that shall remain nameless for purposes of this article set  unrealistic goals at the launch of a new technology gizmo that promised to  change how people communicate. The company lacked brand recognition, but its directors truly believed that the technology would be enough to carry it to  success over established, trusted companies that offered similar, if inferior, products.

The company's original goals were simple: sell products and change the world on a minimal budget. The first mistake was that no one pushed back against the  board's unreasonable expectations. The second mistake was that the team did not  negotiate with "executive row" and the board to reset the goals, increase the budget and extend the overall timeline. Instead, the marketing team tried to meet the challenge with a program that focused only on public relations.

The PR strategy itself was brilliant. The product was cool enough to win the hearts of reporters, and each published article reached thousands of people at a  fraction of the cost of advertising. The PR campaign was awe-inspiring,  achieving stacks of press coverage in all the major publications, newspapers and online e-zines. But although the product sold moderately well, the marketing campaign was deemed a failure because it didn't meet the original, unrealistic  expectations. At the end of the program, retailers claimed the lack of record-breaking sellthrough was due to poor brand recognition and that customers were willing to pay more for an inferior product with a brand they knew.

In hindsight, the team should have proposed a corporate branding campaign in concert with the PR strategy and fought for the additional budget -- this would  have helped align everyone's goals and expectations. At the very least, the board and executives could have said no to a multi-faceted strategy, leaving  them to own the ramifications of their own poor decision to ignore marketing s  recommendations.

The fusion of mutual expectations, goals, targets, strategies and results  will ensure your best shot at success. At the end of the day, buy-in on  "executive row" will make the difference between victory and defeat.