The Otago set piece needs to dominate, territory needs to be won and opportunities have to be taken.
"Given the laws of the game, the opportunities tend to come from the areas of the field which are a bit closer in [to the tryline]," Martin said.
He said in the games Otago had so far been involved in, there has been few long-range tries, so territory was more important than ever in winning games.
The Otago side blew a couple of opportunities last week in its close win over Northland, and Martin said the side had to be more ruthless in nabbing scoring chances.
It has yet to gain a four-try bonus point, and although that would be nice, Martin said the first and foremost goal was to secure a win.
"We need consistency.
We had a better set piece last week and we want to keep working on that and moving forward."
The return of Chris Noakes' educated left boot should help the Otago side in its battle for territory, while the backs will want to create more chances and break the line more often.
Martin said the side had started well last week, unlike its first two games against Southland and Canterbury, when it had conceded points early on.
"But when you start well you need to get some reward and get some points. We didn't do that last week, missing a couple of penalties."
The side flew north yesterday and had a run at Mt Smart Stadium yesterday afternoon.
The start of the Air New Zealand Cup has been dominated by wet weather with many sides struggling to hang on to the ball in the soggy conditions.
Martin said the games so far had been typical winter rugby, with slippery ground conditions, making handling difficult at times.
Playing on a Thursday night was not a big issue, as players were used to playing at all different times during the weekend, he said.
Counties-Manukau coach Greg Aldous said his side might have started the season well, beating Auckland 17-6, but reality had set in with two heavy losses against Bay of Plenty and Wellington.
"Auckland is not the Auckland we know and we had a lot of guys who had been in the Auckland age group system and were up for that game. But then we played against the two top sides in the competition," Aldous said.
The team had been working on its one-on-one tackling, after being exposed in the past two games, and maintaining its discipline.
He said some of the players were finding it hard to back up after short turnarounds from game to game, but people just had to step up.
Otago was a well-disciplined side, and he expected it to try and dominate through its forwards, and control territory.
He said the game was more about his side sticking to its systems and processes and if they did that, the win should look after itself.
Aldous, in his first season as an Air New Zealand Cup coach, said it was a challenge getting the side up every week, and with a young team - 15 players new to first-class level - it was a case of learning fast.
Otago v Counties-Manakau
Mt Smart Stadium, tonight 7.05pm
Otago: Glen Horton, Lucky Mulipola, Brett Mather, Aaron Bancroft, Karne Hesketh, Chris Noakes, Toby Morland, Steven Setephano, Craig Newby (captain), Seko Qaraniqio, Tom Donnelly, Ross Kennedy, Ben Nolan, Jason Macdonald, Keith Cameron.
Reserves: Peter Mirrielees, Jed Vercoe or Sam Hibbard, Paul Grant, Eben Joubert, Sean Romans, Daniel Bowden, Ben Smith.
Counties-Manukau: Siale Piutau, Leila Masaga, Niva Ta'auso, Dean Cummins, David Raikuna, Tanner Vili, Samisoni Fisilau, Gary Saifoloi, Fritz Lee, DJ Forbes, Andrew van der Heijden (captain), Jamie Chipman, Jayden Murch or Eugene Beneke, Lance Poching, Simon Lemalu.
Reserves: Ilaisa Maasi, Eugene Beneke or Rob Katu, Rupeni Nasiga, Viliami Fihaki, Romi Ropati, Kevin Farrell, Sherwin Stowers.
Referee: Josh Noonan (Canterbury).
