Marketing! Just Creative Sales!

So many people refer to “sales and marketing” in the same breath you may be fooled into thinking that they are the same thing. Although they share the same goal, the sale of your product or service sales and marketing are different functions. The goal of sales is to make your product or service easier to sell. The goal of marketing is to make the product or service easier to buy.

Gareth Morgan of GAP Management explains, “ Marketing is everything you do to promote your business to your customers and prospects. Yes it can include selling, and advertising, but it involves a lot more activities than just those two. I like clients to think of marketing as a continuous circle, you start by researching what the customer needs are, developing your solution to those needs, telling customers about your solution and then researching again with customers to make sure you are satisfying their needs.”

Probably the most important message to understand about marketing is to “ think like the customer.” Try to see everything you do from their point of view and how you would react if you were the customer.

To be really successful you must market smarter and provide real benefits to the customer. Do it better than the competition and do it better all the time and to maximise efficiency and profitability. To achieve this you need a two stage approach to your marketing.

The Marketing plan. This provides the framework for your marketing activities. It provides the route to follow, the actions to take when, and the how you are going to implement the activities and the measurements you are going to use to measure success.

The communication or promotion plan. Here you plan how you will present the benefits your product or services offer to your target customers. You decide the tools you will use which may include everything from advertising in a Parish Magazine, to face-to-face, selling to creating a Blog. There are hundreds of methods. The key is to choose the ones that your target customers will recognise.  You will probably use a mixture of means of communicating with customers so it is worthwhile trying to link the various elements for the most effect. For example if you are exhibiting at a trade show you could send a press release before the show. Use direct mail to invite customers and prospects, use email to remind them of the show the day before and send a press release after the show. You should also decide what measurements you will use to evaluate your activities.

Answering the Who? What? Why? Where? When? and how questions will help to develop your plans.

Who?  Are your target customers? What are their characteristics? Can you develop a picture of your ideal customer? Who are your competitors? Who will implant the marketing plan?

What? What are your business objectives?  What are your strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities? What are the SWOTs of your competitors? What are the needs of your customers? What resources are needed to produce the products or services? What is the market? What are your sales and marketing objectives? What are your points of difference? What is your unique selling point? What customers do you like and what industries do they come from? Use this information to look for more of the same. What customers are most profitable for you? What market segments are the most profitable? What products are the most profitable?

Why? Why should customers buy from you? Why are you different from your competition? Why are your benefits relevant to your customers? Remember a benefit is what a customer is buying. Benefits usually, improve something, make life easier, and reduce the costs of or risks of….

Where? Will you tell the customer and prospect about your benefits?  Where will you promote your products? Where will you generate sales leads from? Where will you sell your product?

When? Timing is everything in marketing; you have to hit the prospects when they are ready to buy? Many businesses concentrate on the day-to-day business and forget about marketing for future customers. Marketing is not an instant hit process; it takes time for people to become aware of you and develop a trust that you can deliver the benefits you offer.

How? How much time and money will you devote to marketing? How will you measure the effectiveness of your activities?  How will you keep in regular touch with customers and prospects? How will you follow up sales leads?

 In developing your answers to these questions and in developing your marketing the key word is focus.  By focusing on the customers you want and developing a communication plan to attract them you can improve the effectiveness of your marketing. By focussing on a niche in the market you can compete with larger competitors. To be successful every business needs to use a powerful combination of sales and marketing techniques for survival and growth. There are as many ways as there are customers. As you discover more about your customers you will be able to develop more personalised, powerful and exciting ways to market your business.

For an impartial overview of your marketing plan and current activities, phone Gareth on 01226 290288, or email, gareth@gapmanagement.co.uk

10 Top tips to increase sales and profits

• Think like the customer
• Work out what makes your product different
• Answer the question “ customers will buy from me because?”
• Be easy to do business with
• Use power words like, free, save, new, improve, reduce, limited, how, discover
• You cannot sell to everyone so isolate your targets
• Market today for tomorrow’s customers
• Tell me what your business will do for me
• Price is not the same as value
• Identify the MAN, the buyer with the money, authority and need

Looking to grow faster?

Designed for busy managers our marketing coaching service will:

• Give you an outsider’s view of your current marketing
• Discuss how to increase sales and profits from existing and lapsed customers
• Brainstorm new ideas for products and services

Questions? Give me a call on 01226 290288

About GAP Management

GAP Management helps business owners and managers to focus their sales and marketing efforts to be more effective and to find win and keep customers, to grow their businesses and be successful whether they market in person, in print or on the web.

For personal help with marketing and sales to grow your business contact me on 01226 290288 or email Gareth@gapmanagement.co.uk