| Course | BU 423 Entrepreneurial Strategy |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 5 |
| Paper type | Customer acquisition path plan |
| Length | About 1,080 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | BS in Business Management |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for BU 423 Unit 5
From a Tag on the Boom to a Signed Priority Plan: A Customer Acquisition Path Plan for a Composite Mobile Hose Service, With What Each Stage Costs and Returns
Student Name
Business, Herzing University
BU 423: Entrepreneurial Strategy
Instructor Name
March 11, 2026
From a Tag on the Boom to a Signed Priority Plan: A Customer Acquisition Path Plan for a Composite Mobile Hose Service, With What Each Stage Costs and Returns
The Buyer and the Decision
Fieldside Hydraulics, the composite hose van venture developed across this course, sells to the owners and shop foremen of central Iowa contractors running three to eleven machines. That buyer does not browse for hose services. The decision happens twice: first in a hurry, when a hose has burst and someone must choose whom to call, and later at leisure, when an owner decides whether to sign a yearly priority plan. The path is built around those two moments. Everything before the first call exists to make Fieldside's number the one the foreman reaches for; everything after it exists to turn one rescue into a standing arrangement.
Blank and Dorf (2012) describe acquisition in stages, from getting customers to activating them and keeping them, and they insist that each stage be measured separately. The four stages below follow that structure, each with the venture's action, the response expected and the share of firms that move on.
Stage 1: Known Before the Failure
Action: the founder visits each of the 140 firms in the beachhead segment, at the yard or on a jobsite, and fixes a weatherproof tag to the main hydraulic lines of every machine, printed with the dispatch number and a promised response time. Two dealer parts counters also keep referral cards for customers who arrive with a failed hose. Channel reasoning: the tag puts the number where the failure happens, and the counter reaches buyers at the moment they are already paying the cost of the habit Fieldside replaces. Online advertising was considered and set aside, since none of the fifteen interviewees described searching online when a hose burst; they called someone they knew or drove.
Cost: about 210 hours of founder time for 140 visits at 1.5 hours each, valued at $35 an hour, is $7,350. Tags for about 840 machines at $4 each cost $3,360, and referral cards $400. Stage 1 costs about $11,110. All 140 firms are expected to be reached within the first four months.
Stage 2: The First Call
Action: when a tagged machine fails, the foreman calls or texts the number, and the van is dispatched. The first call carries a $50 discount, printed on the tag, to lower the risk of trying an unknown supplier during an emergency. Expected response: 35 percent of visited firms place a first call within six months, or 49 firms. This rate is an assumption; the validation record showed that failures are common in the segment, but not how many foremen will break the habit of driving to the counter. Cost: 49 discounts at $50, or $2,450.
Stage 3: The Second Call
Action: within a week of every first call, the founder returns to the yard to check the repair and inspect the machine's other hoses, listing any that look close to failure. Expected response: 60 percent of first-call firms call again within 90 days, or about 29 firms. The follow-up visit is the stage's channel because a foreman who has seen a repair hold is more likely to call again than one who receives an email. Cost: 49 visits at about $30 in time and fuel, or $1,470.
Stage 4: The Priority Plan
Action: repeat customers are offered the $600 yearly plan, which removes the call-out fee, guarantees a two-hour response and includes a winter inspection. The first inspection is given free as the signing incentive. Expected response: 40 percent of repeat firms sign, about 12 plans in the first year. Cost: 12 free inspections at about $145 each in time and parts, or $1,740.
| Stage | Firms entering | Rate to next stage | Firms moving on | Stage cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Visited and tagged | 140 | 35% | 49 | $11,110 |
| 2. First call | 49 | 60% | 29 | $2,450 |
| 3. Second call | 29 | 40% | 12 | $1,470 |
| 4. Priority plan | 12 | n/a | 12 | $1,740 |
| Total | $16,770 |
What a Customer Costs and What One Is Worth
Spread over the 49 firms that make a first paid call, the path costs about $342 per acquired customer. Spread over the 12 plan customers alone, it costs about $1,398, since every earlier stage was spent to find them.
Value is computed with the simple customer lifetime value formula described by Gupta et al. (2004): yearly margin multiplied by the retention rate divided by one plus the discount rate minus the retention rate. Each call contributes about $243 after parts, fuel and payment fees, and a 10 percent discount rate is used. A pay-per-call customer is assumed to call three times a year, a margin of $729, and to stay 70 percent of the time from one year to the next. That gives $729 times 0.70 divided by 0.40, or about $1,276. A plan customer is assumed to call eight times a year, a margin of $1,944, plus the $600 fee less a $145 inspection each winter, $2,399 in all, and to renew 85 percent of the time. That gives $2,399 times 0.85 divided by 0.25, or about $8,157.
The ratios tell the story. A first-call customer returns about 3.7 times what it cost to acquire, and the cost is recovered in about six months of margin. A plan customer returns about 5.8 times, even after carrying the whole path's cost. The plan is where the value sits. Aulet (2013) expects acquisition cost to be highest in a venture's first months and to fall as references and word of mouth begin to do the work of the founder's visits, which is one more reason the high cost of the first dozen plans is acceptable.
What the Plan Changes
The path has a warning in it. Adding up the first year, 37 pay-per-call firms at three calls and 12 plan firms at eight calls give about 207 calls, short of the 228 a year needed to break even. Harvest calls from farms and referrals from the dealer counters should close part of the gap, but the plan cannot rely on them. Two changes follow. First, the free-inspection offer moves earlier, to Stage 3, so more repeat firms sign before winter, when calls fall and plan fees matter most. Second, the founder will track the Stage 1 to Stage 2 rate monthly, since it is the least certain assumption and the one that moves every later figure. If fewer than 30 firms have made a first call by the end of the fourth month, the path is not working and the visit script and discount should be changed before more money is spent. The venture, the rates and every dollar figure in this plan belong to the composite case.
References
Aulet, B. (2013). Disciplined entrepreneurship: 24 steps to a successful startup. Wiley.
Blank, S., & Dorf, B. (2012). The startup owner's manual: The step-by-step guide for building a great company. K&S Ranch.
Gupta, S., Lehmann, D. R., & Stuart, J. A. (2004). Valuing customers. Journal of Marketing Research, 41(1), 7-18. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.41.1.7.25084
The Herzing BU 423 Unit 5 instructions
The fifth unit of BU 423 asks students to design how the venture will find, win and keep customers. Standard elements are a description of the buyer and how they decide, stages from awareness to purchase and retention, the actions and channels used at each stage, expected conversion rates, the cost of acquiring a customer and a comparison with the value a customer brings. Many prompts mention customer acquisition cost and lifetime value by name. Channels should suit the buyer rather than the founder's preferences. Composite rates are acceptable if labeled and defended. A typical submission is three to five pages with a funnel table and APA 7 citations, and the stronger ones test what happens if the assumed rates are wrong.
Inside the BU 423 Unit 5 example
The plan begins with the buyer, a contractor owner or foreman who decides twice, once during an emergency and once at leisure. Each of the four stages then gets its action, channel reasoning, expected rate and cost, including why online ads were set aside when no interviewee searched online after a failure. A funnel table totals the stage costs. The next section divides that total by paying customers and by plan customers, then computes lifetime value from yearly margin, retention and a discount rate for both kinds of customer. The ratio of value to cost shows the plan carries most of the value. The closing section adds up expected first-year calls, finds them below break-even and changes the path, with a trigger for revising the visits if first calls lag.
BU 423 Unit 5 rubric: what full points look like
Acquisition plan rubrics usually award points for understanding the buyer, the logic of the stages, the choice of channels, the cost and value calculations and the overall recommendation, with a share for professional writing. The buyer criterion rewards describing how the purchase decision is made, not just demographics. Stages earn credit when each has a measurable outcome and a conversion rate. Channels score highest with a reason tied to the buyer's behavior. For the calculations, instructors check that acquisition cost comes from the stage costs and that lifetime value uses margin rather than revenue. The strongest papers earn the recommendation points by testing the plan against the venture's needs and changing something when the numbers fall short.
BU 423 Unit 5 help before you submit
A common mistake in acquisition plans is a list of marketing channels with no stages, rates or costs, which makes the acquisition cost a guess. Another is computing lifetime value from revenue instead of margin, which inflates it several times over. Students often pick channels they know, such as social media, without evidence the buyer uses them. Some plans assume high conversion at every stage without explanation. Others calculate acquisition cost per contact rather than per paying customer. A frequent omission is retention: a plan that ends at the first purchase ignores where most of the value lies. Finally, plans rarely check whether the customers they produce are enough to cover costs, and doing so is what makes a plan credible to an instructor.
Get a BU 423 Unit 5 example written to your instructions
Send the Unit 5 instructions and the BU 423 rubric from your classroom, with any channel or budget figures the assignment fixes. We write a custom example that names the buyer first, costs each stage separately, builds customer value on its own basis and reports the ratio even when it is unfavorable. First custom sample free, back in 24 to 48 hours.
More BU 423 papers and business management samples
- BU 423 Unit 1: Opportunity screen
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- BU 423 Unit 4: Beachhead market definition
- BU 423 Unit 6: Startup cost and runway sheet
- BU 423 Unit 7: Funding option comparison
- BU 423 Unit 8: Venture feasibility file
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BU 423 Unit 5 questions, answered
What conversion rates should I assume?
Whatever the assignment supplies, and where it supplies nothing, figures you can defend in a clause. Say plainly that they belong to the composite case. A useful discipline is to run the plan twice, once at your assumed rates and once at half of them, and report what happens to the acquisition figure. That second pass often earns more than the first.
Does the plan need a budget?
It needs costs, which is not quite the same thing. Every stage should carry what moving a person through it consumes, in money or in hours priced at some rate. A total follows from that. Where the instructions ask for a formal budget by period, add one, but the per stage figures are what make the acquisition cost mean anything.
Can I count word of mouth as a channel?
Yes, if you treat it as one. Referrals arrive at some rate, from some customer behavior, and cost something to encourage. Written that way it belongs in the table. Written as a hopeful sentence about customers telling their friends, it fills space and the marker reads it as the plan running out of channels it could actually cost.
Where can I find a free BU 423 Unit 5 sample paper?
You can read the whole BU 423 Unit 5 customer acquisition path plan above without charge, with the funnel table, both lifetime value calculations and margin notes. For your own buyer and channels, send the prompt and we prepare a free custom plan, generally within two days.
How is lifetime value calculated in BU 423 Unit 5?
The sample multiplies yearly margin by retention divided by one plus the discount rate minus retention, a simple version from marketing research. It uses margin per call, not revenue, and a separate retention rate for plan customers and pay-per-call customers.