The 5 Phases of the Marketing Process

This is usually the high visibility media coverage that has the most sex appeal and seems to stand out in the minds of all marketers. In this phase, you must make an average of nine impressions on your prospect in order to get a prospect to take action, make an inquiry. You can make an impression through any method of marketing communication, from a feature article in a publication, paid advertising in any media, a seminar presentation, presence at a trade show, a telemarketing phone call, etc. And, only every third attempt to reach the prospect actually does. This phase could take weeks or months to achieve, depending on the aggressiveness of your marketing communications plan.

Although any of those methods can help you make an impression, and all are excellent choices, we easily remember the glitzy TV commercials used to promote major consumer products. Some cost millions of dollars to produce. In fact, because they’re so good and so well-tested to be sure the message they contain truly speaks to their intended market, they’re an excellent educational resource for you.

Instead of channel-surfing during the commercials, watch and learn from them. Determine the demographic and psychographic groups they’re addressing. Then observe a few minutes of the program they’re in. Are they are well-matched to the characteristics of the program’s viewers? You’ll find most of the commercials from large, national advertisers are well-targeted. Then observe some spots that are locally produced. Even though they can’t afford as much glitz, is the message well-crafted? Does it reach its intended target effectively?

When someone is interested in a product or service, he or she must take an action: pick up the phone and call, stop by your location to visit, fax a request for information, or take some other decisive action. Within the linear time frame of the communications process, the inquiry only takes a moment.

You should note here that nearly half the people who express an interest in what you do will actually buy the product or service they inquire about -- but not necessarily from you. Who they buy from depends on how well they’re treated at this phase and throughout the rest of the buying cycle.

The actual statistics, according to the Inquiry Management Institute, show that 26.6 percent of inquiries resulted in a purchase within three months. An additional 21.6 percent were likely to buy in the future.

Please don’t let the words "buy" or "purchase" confuse you here. Even if you don’t have a physical product or service product for sale, and you just want to get people to embrace a certain idea or change their behavior, the principles are the remain the same. You’ve got to "sell" them on the new idea or behavior, and all the psychological rules for selling physical products still apply.

Back to the main point, however. Each inquiry must be handled appropriately if you want your prospect to continue moving forward in his or her decision making process.

• 18 percent of inquirers never got information they requested

• 43 percent got information too late to be useful

• 72 percent were never contacted by a representative.

Again, this phase takes only moments on the linear timeframe, but every other action taken in every other earlier phase of the communication process, leads the "buyer" to a favorable decision. 

This phase literally can take a lifetime. We must view customers for their lifetime value, not just the immediate value they bring when they make one favorable decision. It’s cost you far more to get the first sale, than it’ll cost you to get a second sale from the same customer or client. In fact, it’ll cost you 80 percent less to get that second or subsequent sale from the customer than it did to get the first. 

Consequently, customer service must be an active part of the marketing and sales communication process.

When you considering budgeting as a small organization, it's important to note that we're not just talking about money. We're talking about time, money, and energy -- all of which are at a premium in most small businesses. That's why it's vitally important for you to optimize the results of your budget. The following depicts what type of budget most organizations have (even if it isn't a written budget, this pretty closely represents their "spending" pattern) in relation to the 5 Phases of the process.

1. Concentrate on closing more of the leads that come into your business. That way you can reduce your advertising expenditures and increase sales as well.
2. Turn customer service into a "proactive" practice within your organization. Some companies do this by having each employee 'adopt' certain customers. For instance, salesperson A gets everyone who's last name starts with an A, B, C or D. It then becomes their job to personally get to know those customers through phone calls, follow-up notes, etc.

Don't have a budget? Doing everything yourself? Even so, then your budget is time and energy, and you only have so much of that to go around.

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