On Monday we opened up a can of worms by looking at what growth strategies need to be implemented in a business for the people and products you manage.
This has created some debate with some of our clients and colleagues with many different opinions and ideas. As we add to this conversation, here is a 30-minute video of the webinar mast class on this topic for you to watch.
I would love to have your opinion and ideas: please comment or email us.
For any business operating in today’s world of cut budgets, time constraints and failing economies, it becomes harder and harder to penetrate new markets. But with a clear marketing strategy that includes relationship building techniques and tools together with a focus on experiential and convenience as primary factors, these businesses are continuing to see growth in double digits.
So what are you doing? Do you have a clear vision and mission for your business? Do you have monthly marketing strategies and goals? Does your business plan to stay ahead or become a victim of the current economy.
Join us on Wednesday 17th May at noon to learn what makes up a strategic marketing plan and what your business needs to do to keep up with other growing organisations. Register below and make a difference to your future.
https://expertise.tv/webinar/developing-a-marketing-strategy/landing/5330
It may be tempting to abandon your long term marketing plan when you do not see it working immediately. Don’t! Stick to it and work on it every day. Be consistent in implementing it. Give it time to work.
These 5 steps can help you make the most of your long-term marketing plan:
Become the expert in all things involving your niche. Don’t limit your knowledge to the services you offer. The more you know about your niche’s priorities and challenges, the more valuable a resource you can become to them. Become familiar with other professionals who can assist your niche with challenges outside your expertise. When you’re tempted to work with clients outside your niche, make sure the time and payoff will be worth it and won’t draw you away from your commitment.
Networking, surveys, online community forums, trade magazines, and associations are all great ways to keep sharp about the things that matter to your ideal client. Also, stay on top of the news, and ask yourself how your client’s needs will be affected by changes in the business and world environment.
If your clients stop thinking that you offer a competitive advantage in addressing their needs, you lose and the competition wins. Don’t be the last to know what your competition is doing.
If you’re doing the first four steps, you’ll know when it’s time to change your tune, tweak your message, and speak a new language that’s more in tune with what your ideal client needs. Ask yourself, “Is my unique selling proposition still unique? Does anyone do it better? What one thing can I do to serve my clients better?” That’s how you stay unique.
Follow your schedule. Complete the actions you say you’ll complete in your daily schedule. At the end of the week, give yourself a grade for effort. Then give yourself another one for accomplishment. If you’re getting A’s for effort and C’s for accomplishment, troubleshoot.
A lot has been written about the attributions of sales cycle. It really is a simple step by step process.
Here are the 5 steps of the sales cycle:
1. Inform
You’ve got to inform your customers about your product. Inform them that they have a problem. inform them that they need it. create awareness.
2. Educate
People need to be educated before you can call them potential client. Educate them about your product or your service offering. How does your product solve their problem? Educate them about how it works, where it works. Do some educating marketing.
3. Sell
Don’t jump into selling unless you’ve informed and educated. Do selling campaigning.
4. Re – selling
Remember it’s 10 times easier to re-sell to an existing client than to sell to a completely new one. Re-sell should be your strategic part of your marketing.
5. up-selling
This is about the other complementary services around your product or service offering. What else can you plug in to the initial product.
Our first Lunch ‘n Learn session for this year was well attended. You do not want to miss the next one next month.
This year’s sessions will be held on the first Tuesday of every month. We highly recommend Lunch ‘n Learn, because, apart from being educative and informative, these session are a great platform to network and advertise yourself or your business. We all know that networking is a really valuable way to expand your knowledge. It helps you learn from the success of others, attain new clients and tell others about your business.
The topic of the first session today was on Marketing, looking into The Importance of Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses. It was such an insightful, well-researched presentation, wherein people walked away with very helpful information on how to go about marketing their businesses.
“I found this session to be so much informative. I thought I knew a lot about marketing, but my eyes were opened to a whole lot of new things today”, said business owner Vincent Staples who was in attendance.
As you learn how to run a business, it’s always a good idea to add variety to your content marketing strategy. Lunch ‘n Learn is one of the platforms that you can use to source information for the benefit of your business.
One of the the few things that we touched on was the Product Marketing Specification. This is about creating a persona when marketing your product or business. Do you know who your ideal clients are? What are you offering? Do you have a strategy for turning potential clients into paying clients?
Find today’s notes on www.slideshare.com and learn more about The Importance of Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses.
We trust that we will see you at our next Lunch ‘n Learn session next month on the first Tuesday of the month.
