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Chapter
1. Getting Ready: Research & Planning © 2002 - Jody Hornor |
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa In This Chapter: --Target Marketing --Positioning for Profits --The Sales Process --Assemble Your Tools --Avoid Costly Mistakes --Involve The Troops --Book Table of Contents |
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For the past ten years, every time I begin a seminar, I ask participants to give me a show of hands as to who has a marketing plan. Without fail, a whoppin' 12-15 percent of the participants in the room raise their hands. Lack of planning is just about as common as business failure ... gosh, I wonder if there could be a connection?! It seems easier to most entrepreneurs to run out and do something... make an ad, go on a sales call...whatever. And yet any activity without some research and planning behind it, is likely to yield poor, or costly results. It is so much easier to spend some time in this phase of your marketing to get some education, do some research, make a plan, and devise the most cost-effective methods to implement it. Part of the planning should include market research. At a minimum you should investigate your target market:
Poorly planned or ill-executed attacks on a marketplace can have lasting negative affects on your company. In addition to an immediate loss of revenue, marketing efforts are often the first impression that prospective clients have of your organization. From that first impression, both conscious or subconscious decisions are made by your prospect as to whether or not they'll do business with you. For instance, in an information package for a large telecommunications provider, there were several typos and grammatical errors. Sloppy mistakes like these are great ways to create a negative first impression, particularly when considering the company involved. Developing a marketing strategy can save and make you substantial amounts of money. You’ll:
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One client company developed a product "because they could." It took them a year and a half to get the product ready for market. Then, they took the product to a trade show. Sure enough some people were interested. About a month later they wandered into my office to get some help. They told their story. When I asked them how many prospects they had for their product, they didn't know. A quick look in a directory determined that they had only 4000 prospects for their product nationwide -- not enough to make their product commercially viable on a long-term basis. Then they told me the leads they had from the trade show were over a month old, and maybe they should develop a brochure or something to send to the people. Too late for that, credibility was lost and the prospects had likely found a solution from a competitor. Research and planning could have prevented their loss. Conversely, another small manufacturer devised a marketing strategy that eliminated a salesperson (plus their commissions, overhead, management time, etc.) from almost every sale made. This strategy also enabled the firm to penetrate a national market with virtually no expansion cost or overhead. Overall, this strategic planning effort resulted in a 111 percent increase in sales and a 59 percent decrease in sales expense. |
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