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The following details are provided
to help you understand why the various aspects of marketing being
examined are of importance to your organization and how they
can help you reduce marketing expense and add to bottom line
profits. |
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Marketing
1. Do you regularly test and quantify different:
Distribution strategies or tactics?
Advertising strategies or tactics?
Sales strategies or tactics?
1 a, b, c. Testing
and quantifying various components of your marketing program
help you optimize profits, plan better and get a better return
on investment for every marketing program you put in place.
How testing &
quantifying optimizes profits... David Ogilvy, one of the worlds
advertising experts, cites an example where a one word change
in the headline of an ad generated a 19.5 times increase in the
response to that ad. So what does that really mean? Lets say
you spend $500 on an ad. You get 25 inquiries and had a 15% conversion
of leads to sales (that's 4 sales). If, you tested your ads,
and in fact, found a headline that generated 19.5 times more,
then you'd generate 487.5 leads which would convert to 73 sales!
Which would you rather have?
Will you always
get such a great improvement through testing? Of course not.
But what if you only got a 1/2% (that's .005) improvement each
time you tested -- but you tested 1 ad per month. That's a 6%
overall increase in sales over the course of a year. Even for
a very small business, that adds up to some significant returns.
But, without
quantifying the results of everything you do, you'll never know
which ad is working and which one isn't. Or which sales approach
generates more sales than another. You must develop a plan and
the discipline to test and quantify every marketing program all
the time. Then, and only then, will you know how and what to
change to improve your profits. Back
to Quiz |
2. Would you hire a marketing consultant
or advertising agency
that did not have experience in your industry?
Hiring only from
people who know your industry and market has it's good and bad
points. The good points is that they know the players and trends
in the industry. That cuts down their time in creating a marketing
plan / advertising program for you. But, they're also carrying
all the baggage of being too familiar with the industry. They
have preconceived notions of what works and what doesn't, and
that can cost you creativity, objectivity, and your consulting
firm's total belief in a particular approach.
Back to Quiz |
3. Are new ideas and products
test marketed before introduction?
Test marketing enables
you to try out ideas for their viability and profitability before
you make a major investment in their development or roll-out.
Conducting a test market means developing a test version of your
product for market trial. You're probably familiar with the terms
used for this process in the computer software industry where
you hear about Alpha and Beta versions where the market evaluates
the product, provides feedback to the manufacturer, and helps
guide whether the tested product has market viability as is,
or with certain changes that the market might demand. Small and
large businesses can benefit from test marketing. A small business
might test market to determine the viability of a possible new
distribution channel or possibly a new service idea. All new
ideas & products should be test marketed before committing
major resources of time or money into them. And, you must be
psychologically prepared to abandon the concept if it isn't profitable.
Too often and entrepreneur is so attached to their concept that
they don't give up even when the numbers say they should.
Back
to Quiz |
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Advertising and Public
Relations
4. Do you have an advertising
plan?
An advertising plan
helps you assure that: you'll target truly qualified buyers,
that you will hit certain critical frequency rates, that you've
developed the best advertising message for each market you address,
that you can capitalize on the best advertising rates and production
economies, and that you will get the best return on your advertising
investment. Back
to Quiz |
5. Is your company's identity
program used consistently?
What you get tired
of seeing will just start becoming familiar to your market --
after months or years of repetition. Just ask yourself... how
many logos have you seen IBM, AT&T or other big companies
use? 1 is the answer, 99% of the time. And the exception usually
only occurs after many years of using the first identity program
and millions or dollars in adverting to reposition the company
entirely when introducing the second identity program. Back to Quiz |
6. Does all of your company's advertising
reflect your USP?
Your USP, or Unique
Selling Proposition, consists of the key words you use to position
your company. Here are some excellent examples of USPs that are
in use today. You'll find that they're used consistently to help
position the company or product they're attached to.
Where Do You Want To Go Today?
Think Different
We Bring Good Things to Life
Get More Out of the Box
Take Comfort in our Strength
Back to Quiz |
7. Do you quantify the results of
each ad?
By quantifying the
results of each ad you'll find that some media works better than
others. You will as well, if you include ad component testing,
find which parts of each ad works best. This enables you to drop
non-working strategies and continue to develop and enhance those
that are working to optimize your return on your advertising
investment.
Back
to Quiz |
8. Do you test the components of
each ad?
By testing each
element of an ad, you can find out what size, colors, images,
and words work best. You may be as amazed as the two women who
owned separate mail box businesses. When they started testing
just color in their ads, they found that certain spot colors
generated a significantly higher response rate while other colors
generated none. If you never tested, you'd never know how differently
each element can affect your response. See number 1 above for
additional information. Back to Quiz |
9. Do you increase your advertising
in times of recession?
When economic times
are rough, advertising "expense" is often the first
thing to go. But, advertising is an INVESTMENT, not an expense.
If you have invested wisely, tracked your responses, tested and
optimized your return on investment, then you'd never dream of
cutting back. You'd know what many advertising studies have verified
for years, that you'll make more money in the long run by INCREASING
your advertising expenditures during a recessionary periods.
And, as one small business expert once told me, "small business
is always in a recession."
Back to Quiz |
10. Do you believe that advertising
can increase profits?
Whether you believe
it or not, many of the same studies cited in #9, McGraw-Hill
LAP (Laboratory of Advertising Performance) reports, Cahners
Research, and the ARF/ABP (Advertising Research Foundation/Association
of Business Publishers) all conclude that advertising does increase
profits. And, in fact, the John Morill study verifies that the
absence of advertising does in fact increase that companies cost
of sales. So advertising does work, it does increase profits,
and it will put money on your bottom line -- if you learn how
to use it properly and do your testing along the way. Click here to download a free tutorial
with more detail on this subject.
Back
to Quiz |
11. When you buy media, do you do
so based on the demographic and psychographic profile of its
audience?
A golf putter manufacturer
bartered for $20,000 worth of TV advertising -- on a network
that features old movies and championship wrestling -- NOT the
habits of the average golfer. Needless to say, they got NO calls.
Buying the wrong media IS one of The 6 Most Common and Most Costly
Marketing Mistakes. I could site literally dozens of these type
of examples -- many of them (and many helpful tips on buying
media properly) can be found in FREE downloadable tutorial "The
6 Most Common and Most Costly Marketing Mistakes -- And How To
Avoid Them".
Back
to Quiz |
12. Do you have a clearly defined
objective for every ad or campaign?
Ads can't sell every
product and service you may offer all at once, but they can sell,
or generate leads for, each individual product or service one
at a time. Many people think they're saving money by trying to
cram everything they do into one ad. It generally doesn't work.
Understand that if you generate an inquiry you can always cross-sell
the prospect on other products or services you offer. But, if
you confuse your audience by putting too much into an ad, or
not matching the audience needs well with the language in the
ad, then you'll generate few leads or sales -- defeating the
whole purpose.
Back
to Quiz |
13. Do advertising schedules incorporate
multiple contacts with the same target?
Repetition works!
It takes 9 impressions with the same prospect to get the average
individual to respond -- and they're only paying attention about
every third attempt you make. So it's important that you create
an advertising plan that reaches the same target over and over.
That means that your media evaluation process (does it truly
hit your target -- do YOU truly know what your target looks like?)
should be as scientific as possible. Really get to know who your
best market is -- what do they look like? What do they do? What
do they read? How old are they? Etc. Then take your time to evaluate
each media opportunity -- find out how much it will cost you
per "qualified contact" you reach. (Pick up a copy
of Power Marketing for Small Business for several worksheets
to help you with this evaluation process.)
Back to Quiz |
14. Do you regularly study your
competitor's advertising?
Studying your competitor's
advertising helps you with two major research needs -- what are
they doing and how? and how aggressive are they in the marketplace?
I suggest you keep a scrap book or file on each competitor, clipping
EVERYTHING they do and filing it by date. It'll also help you
to "shop" your competitor as often as possible to get
a better idea of how you're different and what they're all about.
Back
to Quiz |
15. Do you regularly study advertising
techniques so you can eliminate known causes of failure?
There are many studies
on advertising that will help you eliminate some of the "hard
knocks" you might have to go through without the information
they provide. And, start watching TV ads, reading all of your
direct mail, and really studying newspaper and journal ads. You'll
learn a great deal about reaching (or not) the psychology of
the particular audience they're intended for. Back to Quiz |
16. Do you get the results you think
you should from your advertising? % of business from advertising
%
It's important to
set goals for your advertising then measure your actual results
against them. But don't stop there. Take it a step further by
calculating how much your ad cost against how many leads and
sales that resulted. If you track all your inquiries and sales
in this fashion then it'll be easy for you to determine what
type of advertising is really working, what media pulls best,
and how to get the most bang for your buck. If you're not keeping
track of results then you're missing a great opportunity for
increased return on your investment. Back to Quiz |
17. Do you regularly seek new avenues
of advertising?
In today's world
a new avenues of advertising are popping up almost daily. For
instance, email advertising -- my last test pulled a 28% inquiry
rate when directed at a highly targeted list. Investigate both
new traditional media and electronic media for opportunities.
Test small, track your results and see if it's worth putting
in the mix for a more robust program.
Back to Quiz |
18. Do you regularly issue press
releases regarding organization events?
Press releases have
typically gotten my clients a 15% raise. That's maybe a year's
college tuition for one of your kids, a new car perhaps, a nice
vacation, or maybe just a bit easier life. Not bad for something
that takes little time, is fairly easy for a novice, and it gets
great results. If you've never written a press release, there
are samples in my book, Power Marketing for Small Business, and
there are many other books available on the subject. Pick one
up, plan a program, DO IT, and reap the rewards!
Back to Quiz |
19. Does your press list include
industry influentials?
Who better to keep
informed than the key people in trade and professional organizations
(or other influential positions) of your target market. The have
the ability to buy from you, recommend your products or services,
endorse your products and services, and use you as an industry
expert for articles in their trade publications. They should
get the same attention and regular media -- contact them with
something of value to their group of influence once a month if
possible.
Back
to Quiz |
20. Are press releases regularly
sent to key prospects and customers?
For non media people,
press releases look very different and tend to get a high readership.
Thus including your key prospects and customers on your press
list helps to keep them informed, generate leads, and position
you to get and keep long-term business. And, it's one of the
least expensive direct mail programs you might employ. To optimize
your results, you may want to have a business reply card developed
(buy the permit from the post office and have a designer lay
something out that will fit in a #10 envelope). Make it generic
with boxes to check for more information on your products or
services. It's an easy, inexpensive and non-threatening way to
generate leads.
Back
to Quiz |
21. Do you encourage networking
among sales staff?
Networking can turn
up many leads -- especially if you assign a particular groups
or events for each of your sales staff to work regularly. It's
important for you to help identify which organization or networking
locations are appropriate, then find the sales person who'd like
to be an expert in that particular part of your target market
and encourage them to attend all the events related to it.
Back to Quiz |
22. Have you instructed your staff
how to network successfully?
Your staff can go
hang around at events all day long -- and never get anything
accomplished. Or, they can turn their networking time into significant
profits -- if your people know how to work a room. It's important
for them to know where to go -- only events that your targeted
prospects attend, and how to identify the most likely people
to approach at the event. For instance, it's easy for your salespeople
to approach and talk with someone of a similar age and background,
but do they have the savvy and skills to approach a CEO who might
be much their senior? It's important to recognize that this may
not be "second nature" to your staff, so you might
want to consider some dialog and training to help them optimize
their networking opportunities.
Back to Quiz |
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Sales
23. Have your salespeople been
profiled to determine their sales attributes and training needs?
Hiring a salesperson
simply because "they're experienced" is dangerous.
You must ask yourself 'if they're good, why are they looking'
and you must realize that few come from a sales environment where
they've received extensive training. Unless they've had a couple
years of successful sales experience in a large company, you're
far safer to assume that they have little if any formal sales
training. And many of the key success factors, some of which
you will be queried on below, are things that, if you don't already
utilize the information provided in this section, you can't even
assess in a prospective or staff salesperson.
Sales is a key area for you to achieve success -- if you plan
on staying in business. If it's not your personal "love"
then likely YOU'LL need some training so you can help assess
your staff's needs and direct their training. The bottom line
is YOUR success -- this is an area that deserves a significant
investment on your part.
Back to Quiz |
24. Do you provide regular sales
training?
This follows with
the thoughts outlined in #23. Training is essential if you are
going to optimize the abilities of your sales staff. Check with
your local Chamber of Commerce, Small Business Development Center,
University, or your national or local chapter of your professional
association to get recommendations on where you might find cost
effective training programs for your staff. Note: Many Speaker's
Showcase Speakers are experts in sales and not only speak on
the subject but provide training and consultation. If you'd like
a free CD to help you find an expert in sales or marketing,
click here.
Back to Quiz |
25. Do your salespeople use
scripted presentations?
David Ogilvy, world-renown
advertising guru, wrote the forward to a book called "Tested
Advertising Methods" by John Caples. In his forward he cites
and example where a one-word change to the headline of an ad
increased the results of the ad 19.5 times. Yes "TIMES"
not percent! This same principal holds true in sales presentations.
Certain words will elicit a positive response (more sales) and
certain words will elicit a negative response (or fewer sales).
But, to get to the nuts and bolts of it, if a salesperson is
working with a tested and proven script (yes, they're free to
put in their personality -- as long as they don't change the
words), they're free to really "hear" their prospect's
needs, they can focus on solving problems instead of delivering
basic information, and their results (ie. sales closing ratios)
will be more predictable making both your lives easier.
The added benefit is that you have your training system in place.
In the early years of my career when I worked in sales for large
corporations, my first day I was ALWAYS handed a script and told
to learn it by the end of the day -- when I'd be tested and role
play it with my peers. This approach takes the burden of time
and hassle off management staff and provides better overall bottom-line
results.
Back
to Quiz |
26. Do you regularly track sales
closing ratios?
Tracking closing
ratios is like tracking all your marketing numbers. It gives
you some base line figures from which you can establish a "norm"
so you can see how an individual or your sales team as a whole
is performing. Without tracking numbers like this you have no
way of telling whether you're (your team) getting better or worse
at selling your products or services, or who on a team may need
help.
Back
to Quiz |
27. Do you know exactly how many
calls, on average, it takes to make a sale?
This is very similar
to the above (#26). If you determine what "average"
is then you can see who can cut the mustard and who can't --
or at least can't without some additional help or training. In
my seminars I often ask the group if anyone knows how many calls
it takes them to close a sale. One man raised his hand and said
"yes" -- it took him "32 calls" to close
a sale. Now mind you, he was selling multi million dollar equipment
so there is a longer sales cycle than for most products, but
the average for business to business products is 7 calls to close
a sale. In fact, statistics indicate that 81% of all sales are
closed on the 5th or subsequent sales call -- yet most sales
people will drop out of the follow up process (there's a whole
big dialog and training issue around this subject) after the
2nd call. So, the average salesperson that you might have is
wasting usually 90% of their opportunities for a sale. It's up
to the owner, senior manager, or sales manager to help educate
the sales staff so they know how to and how long to follow-up
to be effective. I instruct all my clients to develop a whole
follow-up process, including the installation and training on
contact management software (if it's not already in use) BEFORE
they even think about advertising their products or services.
After all, what good is it to spend money to generate leads if
you're not equipped to follow-up long enough to turn your advertising
expenditures into and investment instead of a loss.
Back to Quiz |
28. Do you know how long your sales
cycle is?
I've seen many a
frustrated salesperson who thought they were going to make their
fortune quickly. That's because they were never given a notion
of the "reality" of the length of the sales cycle.
It's easy to get yourself psychologically prepared -- whether
you are the employer or employee -- if you're dealing with facts
about how long it REALLY takes to close a deal. The company mentioned
in #27 knew that it could take up to two years to close a deal.
Thus no one was disappointed, didn't make any undoable commission
quota, etc. Get real by tracking the contacts, length and other
aspects of your sales process so you can accurately forecast,
hire, and relax.
Back
to Quiz |
29. Do you provide your sales people
with a defined and tested prospecting method?
Again, don't leave
it to your sales staff. test, quantify, and analyze different
prospecting methods to see which produces the most cost-effective
results.
Back
to Quiz |
30. Do you provide your sales people
with a defined follow-up procedure?
If you leave the
follow-up process to your sales people you'll get all sorts of
(generally) unprofessional attempts -- and not many results.
Generally your sales people are not strategists, they're not
professional communicators who can write concise sales literature,
and they usually don't understand the process they need to follow
to be successful. This process or procedure needs to be developed
by management, possibly with the help of a qualified sales consultant
or advertising agency. Understand that without a good follow-up
process, you may as well just throw out about 90% of the money
you're now spending on advertising. So it's certainly worth spending
time learning this and investing in making a sound follow-up
procedure for your sales staff.
Back to Quiz |
31. Are sales managers educated
on successful sales strategies?
Very few sales staff
or managers are educated on truly successful strategies and how
to employ them with their sales forces. These strategies include
many of the subject areas covered in this section, so if you
or your sales manager can answer most of the questions in this
quiz correctly, or if you answer them correctly but do not employ
the strategies outlined, then some additional education may be
in order. Your trade or professional association might be a good
place to start, or the American Management Association has excellent
training programs that might be perfect for you.
Back to Quiz |
32. Is all prospecting material,
correspondence, and ad copy approved by top management?
A direct mail letter
(huge mass mailing) arrived the other day. The first word in
the headline was spelled incorrectly. This is not a good first
impression of any company. Copywriting is not something that
is intuitive to most people. Although they often speak a good
sales message, ask them to put it on paper and it's generally
very weak. So, as management, you may consider having a number
of professionally produced brochures, follow-up letters, etc.
available in digital files so your people can do an easy copy
and paste, or work from a pre-approved template.
Back to Quiz |
33. Is all follow-up correspondence
approved by management?
Again, it's not
good to leave this to the personal strengths of your individual
sales people or managers. You'll end up with a mish mash of follow-up
materials with no way of assuring professionalism, accuracy,
or track results. Creating approved messages should be part of
management's job.
Back
to Quiz |
34. Do you have a customer call-back
system in place?
If you are not currently
using a contact management program that I can guarantee you're
losing some sales. If you are using a contact manager, but not
using functions like "automated processes" (found in
Gold Mine and I suspect others) which automatically follow up
with prospects by email, letter, or triggering your staff to
make a phone call, then you're on the right track but need more
horsepower of a better organized system. Calling customers and
prospects on a regular basis will keep your costs of sales down
significantly and your bottom line looking better and better.
Besides, how many times have you seen staff members not being
very productive? Why not assign 5-10 customer calls to each sales
staff member each day? One business I was working with did just
that and tripled their sales! And no, you won't come across sounding
pushy -- just helpful. With a well organized and managed database,
you'll have notes as to your customer's preferences. So if you're
a retailer for instance, you may note that a customer especially
likes Red Sweaters. When red sweaters come in, you can give the
customer a call...."hi, so and so, you mentioned when you
were in before that you really liked red sweaters. So I'm calling
to let you know we just received a supply of them in. I thought
you might want to come take a look before the selection is picked
over."
This is a helpful but not pushy approach that can be adapted
to any type of business. And, you want an improvement in the
bottom line? Do this religiously and you're sure to see one!
Back
to Quiz |
35. Must your sales people report
their activities regularly?
It's vital that
you get sales reports from your people so you can develop a set
of management statistics that help you identify key elements
of the sales process (ie. how many calls & how much time
it takes to close a sale), project better for the future (if
you track your numbers, it's easy to turn business up simply
by doing more of proven lead generation practices), and keep
profits rolling in. Back
to Quiz |
36. Does management provide your
sales people with leads?
Leads are the greatest
thing in the world. It can reduce a salesperson's time in tracking
down the lead and put them right into the actual selling process.
Many people don't know that nearly 1/2 of all the leads that
come into an organization actually turn into sales for the product
or service that was inquired about. But, they won't necessarily
buy from you -- if you don't follow up appropriately, do what
you say, and treat the prospect at a REAL lead. There isn't a
phone call or walk in to your business that should ever occur
without your staff getting complete contact information. You've
already expended the money to get the lead. If you let it go
cold, you've just thrown your money out the door!
Leads, when handled correctly, will shorten sales cycles and
improve profits.
Back
to Quiz |
37. Do all inquiries receive a response
within 48 hours?
The faster you respond
the more likely you'll be to get the deal. Remember that a new
prospect is constantly evaluating whether or not they want to
do business with you by the way you handle them in the post-inquiry
follow-up process. In other words, if you are slow in responding
to a question (you were going to call them Tuesday but didn't
do so until Friday), they'll think you'll also be slow in responding
when they need post-sale service. They have nothing else to base
their impressions on as to whether they want to do business with
your firm except what happens in this process. It's vital to
respond quickly and have a follow-up program in place (before
you start advertising) that allows you to stay in touch with
the prospect easily.
Back to Quiz |
38. Do you know the disposition
of every inquiry within 48 hours of the inquiry?
Typically salespeople
do not understand the value of the leads they receive. The often
try to "cherry pick" or work what they perceive as
the best leads leaving many untouched. But, there's not known
method to look at a name and determine whether that person will
buy or not. Remember that nearly 50% of all leads turn into sales,
so it's important that you impart to your staff this fact and
be sure they work, and report to you on, the status of all leads.
Back to
Quiz |
39. Do you know precisely what it
costs to generate an inquiry?
Many people get
caught up in the wrong numbers. For instance, it's common to
talk about direct mail lead generation in terms of the percentage
response, like 1%, 3% etc. That is a basis of measurement surely,
but not one that really matters. What matters far more is "how
much did it cost to generate a lead" and as you'll notice
in the next question the real issue is "how much does it
cost to generate a sale". Without tracking your marketing
statistics in this fashion you'll never truly know what advertising
is most cost effective.
Back to Quiz |
40. Do you know precisely what it
costs to make a sale?
As mentioned in
#39, this is the key question you need answered to truly evaluate
advertising media & messages. There are many media with which
you can generate inquiries. Let me give you a scenario. Lets's
say you use media "A", you spend $2000, generate 10
inquiries, and close one deal for $500. That means your cost
of a lead is $200 and your cost of sale is $2000 (which may actually
be OK if the lifetime value of the new customer is higher than
$2000).
Then you try media "B" in which you spend $1500, get
14 leads and turn two into sales at $500 each. All of a sudden
your cost per lead is $107 and your cost of sale is down to $750.
Keep in mind that truly cost-effective sales leads only become
so when: 1) they're are worked according to a process that is
timely, thorough, and long enough. 2) That once you get a new
customer that every care is taken to nurture that customer for
the greatest life-time value (ie. continuous contact via mail
& phone, plus excellent service.) and 3) That you work hard
to educated them on an ongoing basis of new products and services
you have to offer them (related to #2). Back to Quiz |
41. Is the productivity of each
sales person tracked regularly?
Again, this is a
management issue. If you're not tracking a salesperson's productivity
regularly, then you won't know when they're having problems nor
when the entire team is having problems. It's vital that you
watch these statistics and react to them in some meaningful way
if necessary.
Back
to Quiz |
42. Are salespeople compensated
on a commission/bonus system based on productivity?
It's far easier
to motivate people when they can name the amount of their reward
(ie. commission) than when they're on a fixed salary. But remember,
even seasoned salespeople go through slumps, personal problems,
call reluctance, etc. Even with the best compensation plan in
the world, they should receive guidance, intervention when necessary,
and training on a regular basis so they are equipped to optimize
their sales.
Back
to Quiz |
43. Does management regularly perform
post sales call audits?
It's amazing the
difference between one person's perception and the reality of
a situation. In other words, your report back from a salesperson
on a particular call they made might have been that "things
went fine". But if you ask the prospect, you may get answers
like, "I kept asking him/her questions and instead of answering
them the told me what they thought I should know." (This
just happed to me personally as a customer of a major phone company!)
Without random, post sales audits, you'll never get a truly good
handle on the reality of the situation nor will you spot some
important training needs within your organization.
Back to Quiz |
44. Does management occasionally
accompany sales staff on sales calls?
There's no better
way to stay in touch with customers and sales staff needs then
to go out on some calls occasionally. All too often decisions
are being made on situations that the decision-maker hasn't experienced
him or herself ever, or for some time. It's generally very illuminating
to accompany a salesperson for a day every so often.
Back
to Quiz |
45. Do you track account activity?
Again, this is an
area that if you are tracking what each account is doing (this
may all be done by computer) then you'll see if activity is dropping
off for a customer. If they've been a good customer for a long
time, it may be time for a senior manager or owner to step in
and make a personal call on the customer to find out why they
haven't been buying lately. It could be a very valid reason that
can't be changed, like they've moved out of the area or an illness
is keeping them away, or it could be something that you can and
should fix -- "last time I was in your salesperson Joe made
me so angry...". You'll never know what business is going
away and what you can recapture if you're not tracking the account
activity.
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46. Are management reports generated
and used to help fine tune sales programs?
All the the areas
we've mentioned above that require tracking should be developed
into some standard report that would be generated for management
on a weekly basis. And, management needs to USE it to help find
areas that have become weak and help provide the methods necessary
to shore up that area of the sales/marketing department.
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47. Are sales aids (brochures, ads,
literature, videos, etc.) created by trained professionals?
Just because your
company owns a publishing program doesn't make anyone on your
staff a qualified designer. If you do have a designer on staff,
more power to you. But so often people mistake the "tool"
for the "talent". You're talking about your image and
your key messages here. Do NOT leave those vital areas in the
hands of an amateur!
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48. Do you attend 2 or more marketing
seminar(s) per year?
The more your learn
the more you earn. Even when I do this for a living, I learn
at least one valuable new concept from every seminar I attend.
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49. Do you thoroughly read at least
1 marketing periodical every month?
Similar to the above,
you can't stay on the leading edge of your industry and expect
to optimize sales and profits without staying informed. Read
as much as you can about your industry and the various functions
like sales and marketing if you truly want to optimize your profits.
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50. Do you read at least 4 marketing
related books per year?
Again, you'll learn
from each one. And you'll be reminded of things that you already
know but have failed to put in place in your business. Keep in
mind that the average entrepreneur uses only 12% of the available
marketing resources to promote their company. What would happen
if you could systematically add some new techniques on a regular
basis and get your company using even 25%. You'd be doing things
twice as well as most of your competitors. So do you want to
be average? Or do you want to be successful? That is the question.
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