To help you collect the most useful data for your marketing plan, develop a three-column table:

1. In column 1, list the information you would ideally like to have to fill holes in your marketing plan.

2. In column 2, identify the source for each bit of information in column 1, such as an Internet search, talking to prospective customers, looking at internal data, and so forth.

3. In column 3, set a priority on information you will have time to spend collecting by rating them: 1 = most important; 2 = next most important; and so forth.