Critical Numbers in Marketing Plans

Back in the office, I always here about how important marketing plans are when making a pitch. Given my rather lean experience with this type of endeavor, I've witnessed how the panel put much weight on financials (i.e. sales forecasts) to the point that they even asked for a proforma income statement. I guess ye' old bottomline still captures the fancy of most people. Im not sure if this is a fair assessment but I get the impression that as long as the financials are good (let's say projections were based on solid research/number crunching), even if the product itself is not that great, its possible to get a nod as long as the numbers are really convincing. Its easy to turn a blind eye on other areas when the bling bling of profits catches ones attention.