Marketing seems to be a difficult concept for many owners.
It is part art and part science. The Valley Economic Development Center in Van Nuys, California offers a program called the Entrepreneurial Training Program (ETP) to help business owners improve their business. Over twelve weeks, the participants cover strategic planning, competitive advantage, sales, finance, human resources, operations, leadership, and marketing.
If you asked the individuals that participate in the ETP why they are there, they will tell you that they need help marketing.
Yet, the two workshops on marketing (competitive advantage and marketing) are the workshops most often missed. It has nothing to do with the date, the time, or the location of the workshop.
It has everything to do with the subject matter.
The owners I speak with who are not happy with their business condition have told me in effect, “I already know that marketing stuff.”
My standard response is “If that is the case, why is your business in such lousy shape? Why are you here?”
This article can serve as either a refresher course, a wake up call, or validation for what you are already doing regarding marketing your business.
People
Marketing, like most disciplines, requires getting and going along with people. Make no mistake; every single person in an organization is in marketing. From the receptionist to the custodian, impressions are formed when someone representing the organization does something either well or not so well.
The bottom line: make sure that your people understand they are marketing the business. This occurs every single minute, every single day.
Problems
If your business does not solve problems, you are going to go out of business. People have needs, wants, desires, urges, and impulses that they want filled. That translates to you being a problem solver. The more problems you solve, the higher the need.
The bottom line: make sure that the problems your business solves are at the top of as many lists as possible. Your business will grow as a result.
Product
Your products and services have to solve problems and satisfy needs. What quality level will you offer? Is it your name or someone else’s? Will you guarantee what you deliver?
The bottom line: make sure your products solve problems and build equity (name recognition) in your business.
Positioning
How do you wish to appear and be perceived by your customers and your competitors? Are you a leader, or follower? Are you high priced, low priced or somewhere in between?
People equate pricing and quality with positioning. Think first class on an airliner. Now think economy. Which better fits your organization? Does each product also have that same positioning?
The bottom line: Position yourself before your competition positions you.
Promotion
This is how to get the word out about the business. What works well for your target market? Chances are, you are a follower, so see what the leaders are doing so that you can avoid the mistakes of wasting precious resources.
Testimonials are among the strongest of tools. Scientific research (“9 out of 10 doctors recommend…”) is a good selling weapon. Whatever claims you state, be sure that you can back them up.
The bottom line: Spend resources wisely when promoting your business. Money can disappear very quickly with no results to show for it.
Prospecting
If there is one part of selling that people hate, it is prospecting. The sales cycle begins by prospecting. Without taking this step, repeatedly, your business will die.
Prospecting brings new customers into the business as well as new money (Yes!). You should take the time to learn how to do it, and do it well.
The bottom line: If you fail to fill the gas tank, the engine will stop running. Prospecting equals putting gas into the tank for your business.
Place
This refers to how you will distribute your products and services to your customers. Will you do it directly, through wholesalers, through retailers, or use the Internet? How many locations will you have? What images will those trucks, delivery people, stores, bags display? If you are selling in more than one area, or in different channels of distribution, who will manage each channel?
The bottom line: Start out in one channel and do it exceedingly well before you move to another channel. Do not lose sight of the objectives of each channel, because cannibalization of sales can happen very quickly.
Price
I am a bit leery of telling people how they should price their products, because they know their industry better than I. But regardless of how you position your products, price every item so that it is profitable. If customers can “cherry pick,” (and they will) you will lose!
The bottom line: if you charge more than a competitor, have at least ten easy to understand reasons for doing so. People are usually suspicious of low prices.
Process
Marketing is a process, yet most people do not recognize it as such. The process is in effect from the time you start marketing, using whatever means you need to acquire customers.
To improve your marketing, you need to know what your process is, and how long it takes from the time you start the process, to the time money ends up in your bank account. That way you will not be discouraged when your efforts do not show immediate results.
Your business model should be set up so that you don’t just sell the customer once and never have a transaction again. Set up your business so you secure repeat business from the same customer.
The bottom line: learn the marketing process for your organization; create if it does not already exist.
Priority
No successful businessperson I have ever met got that way by putting marketing on the back burner. Marketing is, and should be, your highest priority. If you are in a slump or riding high, the only way to get what you want is to market.
The bottom line: Spend at least 40% of your time marketing and it will only be a matter of time before the results kick in.
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