| Course | WMBA 6060 Marketing for Competitiveness |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 6 |
| Paper type | Channel and message plan |
| Length | About 1,010 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | Master of Business Administration (MBA) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for WMBA 6060 Week 6
The Best Salesperson Is the Technician Who Fixed the Compressor at 10 a.m.: Mapping Five Channels to How Multi-Dentist Practices Choose Equipment Service, With a Job, a Message and a Cost for Each
Student Name
Walden University
WMBA 6060: Marketing for Competitiveness
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
The Best Salesperson Is the Technician Who Fixed the Compressor at 10 a.m.: Mapping Five Channels to How Multi-Dentist Practices Choose Equipment Service, With a Job, a Message and a Cost for Each
Where the Buyer Is
The buyer chosen in Week 3 is the owner-dentist and office manager of an independent Twin Cities practice of at least three dentists. The Week 4 positioning commits the firm to have someone at the practice inside four working hours, and the Uptime Plan from Week 5 packages that promise at $59 per operatory per month. This paper asks where that buyer is when a decision about equipment service is made, and what reaches them there.
Lemon and Verhoef (2016) traced the customer journey through prepurchase, purchase and postpurchase phases, and noted that many of the contacts along the way are outside the seller's control. For a multi-dentist practice choosing equipment service, the journey has five moments.
The Purchase Process
The first moment is a trigger. Practices rarely shop for service on a quiet day. Something prompts them: an emergency that a current provider was slow to answer, a new office or expansion, or a new office manager who reviews contracts.
The second is search. Office managers ask peers in other practices, mention the problem at local office manager meetings and search online for "dental equipment repair" with a city name.
The third is evaluation. The practice compares one or two firms, usually by calling references and asking about response times and contract terms.
The fourth is purchase, typically a one-year contract signed by the owner on the office manager's recommendation.
The fifth is use and renewal, when the practice judges whether the promise was kept.
Five Channels and Their Jobs
Table 1
Channels Mapped to Moments in the Purchase Process
| Channel | Moment it serves | Job | Annual cost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Technicians on emergency calls | Trigger and evaluation | Turn a one-time repair into a plan conversation | About $4,000 for printed downtime reports and plan sheets | |
| Office manager meetings and study clubs | Search | Be the name peers mention when service is slow | About $6,000 for sponsorships and two lunch-and-learn sessions | |
| Search advertising on repair terms | Search | Be found by practices with a failure in progress | About $9,000 | |
| A part-time sales coordinator calling new and expanding offices | Trigger | Reach practices before their first failure | About $32,000 for a half-time role | |
| Referral credit for existing customers | Search and evaluation | Turn satisfied customers into references | About $5,000 at $250 per signed referral | |
| Total | All moments | All five jobs | About $56,000 | |
Costs are estimates for a composite firm; the sales coordinator would also handle renewals.
Why Technicians Come First
The strongest channel already exists. About 400 of last year's emergency calls came from multi-dentist practices that did not have a contract with Kettle River. Each was a moment when the practice had just experienced the problem the Uptime Plan solves. Today, technicians fix the equipment and leave an invoice. Under this plan, they will leave a one-page downtime report showing when the call came in, when they arrived and what the failure would likely have cost in lost chair time, with the plan described on the back. The office manager will receive a follow-up call from the sales coordinator within a week.
If even one in eight of those practices signs, that is 50 new contracts, worth roughly $175,000 a year at the typical five-operatory price, from a channel that costs almost nothing to add.
The Other Channels
Office manager meetings matter because office managers recommend and owners sign. The goal is not to sell at the meeting but to be the firm named when someone describes a slow distributor response. Search advertising catches practices at the moment of failure and should run only on repair-intent terms within the metro, where Kettle River can keep the promise. The sales coordinator reaches practices that have not yet had a failure, especially the new multi-dentist offices opening in the outer-ring counties identified in Week 2. Referral credit rewards customers for doing what they already do, mentioning a good provider to peers.
Carrying the Message Without Softening It
Every channel carries the same claim in the same words, the four-hour arrival promise with its free-visit remedy. The downtime report states the promise and the time this call was answered. Search ads use it as the headline. The sales coordinator opens with it. Ries and Trout (2001) warned that positions erode when firms add qualifications to please everyone, and the temptation here will be to soften the promise in channels where it feels risky, for example by adding "in most cases." The plan forbids that. If the firm cannot keep the promise in some area, it should not advertise there.
What the Plan Leaves Out
Trade shows, print advertising in dental journals and general social media are excluded. They reach many solo practices and dental support organization offices that Week 3 chose not to pursue, at a higher cost per relevant contact. Neslin et al. (2006) emphasized that multichannel decisions are about which customers each channel serves, and these channels serve the wrong ones.
Sequencing the Channels
The channels start in an order that reflects cost and readiness. Technicians begin leaving downtime reports in the first month, since the reports cost little and the calls are already happening. Search advertising begins at the same time. Office manager sponsorships start with the next quarterly meetings. The sales coordinator is hired only after the first quarter, once the technician channel has shown how many leads it produces; if technicians generate more leads than the office can follow up, the coordinator's first job is those leads rather than cold outreach to offices that have not yet had a failure.
Comparing the Plan With a Budget
The total of about $56,000 a year is roughly 1.6 percent of the firm's revenue. If the channels together add 70 contracts in the first year, about $245,000 in annual plan revenue, the cost per new contract is about $800, recovered in the first five months of each contract.
References
Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C. (2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 69-96. https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.15.0420
Neslin, S. A., Grewal, D., Leghorn, R., Shankar, V., Teerling, M. L., Thomas, J. S., & Verhoef, P. C. (2006). Challenges and opportunities in multichannel customer management. Journal of Service Research, 9(2), 95-112. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670506293559
Ries, A., & Trout, J. (2001). Positioning: The battle for your mind (20th anniversary ed.). McGraw-Hill.
The Walden WMBA 6060 Week 6 instructions
Channel assignments in a competitive marketing course ask where the chosen buyer actually is and what reaches them there. Prompts usually require channels mapped against the purchase process, a job for each channel, the positioning carried into a message and a rough cost per channel for comparison with a budget. Instructors expect channels chosen for the buyer's moments of need, not a standard list of media. They also check that the message keeps the positioning intact rather than softening it. A channel table normally anchors the plan. Listing the channels dropped, with reasons, proves the plan targets one segment instead of anyone a bigger budget could reach.
How the WMBA 6060 Week 6 example is put together
The paper restates the buyer, the position and the offer. A section describes five moments in the purchase process, drawing on Lemon and Verhoef's customer journey. A table maps five channels to those moments, with a job and an annual cost for each. A section explains why technicians on emergency calls rank first and estimates the contracts they could produce. A section covers office manager networks, repair-intent search, a sales coordinator for new offices and referral credits. A section insists on one unqualified message across every channel, citing Ries and Trout on how positions erode. A section explains excluded channels, trade shows, print and general social media, with Neslin and colleagues. A closing section compares total cost with the expected contracts. Margin comments flag the purchase process, the first channel and the message rule.
Reading the WMBA 6060 Week 6 rubric
Graders reward channels mapped to specific moments in the buyer's purchase process, each with a defined job. Ranking channels by how directly they reach the buyer at a moment of need shows judgment. Carrying the positioning into a message without dilution, and setting a rule against softening it, demonstrates integration. Rough costs that allow comparison with a budget, and an estimate of return, make the plan practical. Explaining excluded channels shows focus on the chosen segment. Citing research on customer journeys or multichannel management adds depth. Instructors also check consistency with the earlier positioning and price. Legible tables and tidy references take the final points.
WMBA 6060 Week 6 help from the desk
Write down the steps your buyer goes through, from what prompts a search to renewal, before naming any channel. For each step, ask where the buyer is and what they are doing. Choose channels that reach them there and give each one job. Price each channel roughly. Carry your positioning claim into every channel in the same words. Students often lose marks by listing every available medium, by assigning no job to a channel or by changing the message from channel to channel. Another frequent gap is overlooking channels the organization already has, such as its own staff. Say which channels you excluded and why. Compare the total with a budget and expected results. If you need a custom sample channel plan for your own offer, send us its buyer and price.
Get a WMBA 6060 Week 6 example written to your instructions
Send the week 6 prompt and rubric, plus your positioning statement if it is already written, so the drafted messages carry your own claim and not an invented one. It comes back within 24-48 hours and the first request is free. Note any required channel count.
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WMBA 6060 Week 6 questions, answered
Where can I find a free WMBA 6060 Week 6 sample paper?
The channel and message plan for a dental equipment service firm is reproduced in full below.
Which channel comes first?
Technicians on emergency calls, who reach practices at the moment they have just experienced downtime.
What does the plan cost?
About $56,000 a year across five channels.
What message does every channel carry?
On site within four business hours, or the visit is free, with no qualifiers.
Which channels are excluded?
Trade shows, dental journal print advertising and general social media.