Question

Last year a very good Sales had increased by 10 percent to $134 million, due mostly to increased sales to existing customers. Tom Thormton, president, and CEO is even more excited about the coming year because of an exciting new product development and plans for a geographic expansion beyond last year's Southeast Atlantic Coast sales area. He is meeting with you, the vice president of sales and marketing, to discuss next year's budget. "I'd like to thank you for such a great year in pushing over $130 million." greeted Tom. "As you know, I've been working on our budget for next year and feel that we have an opportunity to become one of the real players in this industry. With our earnings from last year, we are finally in a position to expand beyond our present eight-state geographic sales area by adding on New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia in the North and Louisiana and Arkansas in the South. On top of that," be continued, "I believe that at least 10 percent of our sales will be in the new packaging technology. What I really like about the new product is that it is best suited for the high end of the market-expensive products that are easily broken if not handled correctly. We've needed a product of this kind for some time and it shouldn't cannibalize our existing products, which are really appropriate for the middle of the market." "Now we just have aggressively executed our plan." added Tom. "I've forecasted sales next year for $174 million, which is right at a 30-percent increase over this year's projected sales. We have got to maintain our bottom line to help finance our growth plans, so I am setting a sales and marketing budget of S19 million, which is the same as this year's projected 10.9 percent of revenue. This is nearly a $5 million increase in your budget, which should be enough to reach our target of $174 million." 

As vice president of sales and marketing, what would be your reaction to Tom's budget? How would you begin to analyze this budget? What are the possible budget implications of the expanded geographic selling area? What about the new product introduction?