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Market Strategy Essential Today!
| Guest post by: Dave Ferguson |
Article Overview: The great Thomas Jefferson once said, “The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.” My twist on that is, “The business owner, sales professional, self-employed professional, salesperson, etc, that stops marketing is a person guaranteed to fail. I have found the biggest failures around marketing are due to the general misconceptions around what marketing really is. The truth is, there is a big difference between advertising and marketing. In our Sales to Marketing Bootcamp, we clearly define and separate the two.
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Free Download - Seven Steps To An Attitude Transplant By Dave Ferguson |
Market Strategy Essential Today!
The great Thomas Jefferson once said, “The man who stops
advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save
time.” My twist on that is, “The
business owner, sales professional, self-employed professional, salesperson,
etc, that stops marketing is a person guaranteed to fail.
I have found the biggest failures around marketing are due to the general
misconceptions around what marketing really is.
The truth is, there is a big difference between advertising and
marketing. In our Sales to Marketing
Bootcamp, we clearly define and separate the two.
So what is marketing?
How does marketing differ from selling?
Let me first give you my simplest definitions of selling and
marketing. Selling is one-to-one
persuasion, converting leads to customers, and kind of like a ground war. Marketing is one-to-many education,
generating qualified leads, and much like the air support in a war.
In a more complex way, marketing is “selling on steroids.” It is the continual education process of your
customers, prospects and referral sources on why it is advantageous for them
and/or their clients to do business with you.
At the heart of marketing, you the owner or manager, must understand
deeply the needs/wants of your customers and then provide them with sufficient
value.
Done properly, you will have massive leverage and who doesn’t want that?
I often work with owners, CEO’s, and other professionals
building marketing strategies for their company. I use a simple process, using what I call a
Marketing Wheel. It’s a very open and
visual process which normally creates an awesome think tank. We start by covering all the current
marketing they are doing and then move on to a process whereby we agree on and
add true marketing activities to the wheel.
Most of the time, when we start the process the wheel has too few marketing
spokes to support the company’s goals and plans. When we are done we have a well supported
wheel with the right marketing spokes for your organization. Few companies do this exercise internally so
it is usually an eye-opening experience.
Other companies pay an outside company to provide them with a marketing
plan. Usually not an eye-opening
experience unless you’re looking at the bill they give you. With the help of an
objective outsider, coming into an organization and working with its key
people, your marketing wheel (plan) will perform much better on the business
highway.
It has been my experience, especially in these weakened
economic times, that people and businesses have, for the most part, abandoned
marketing strategies. If you don’t have a marketing strategy and you aren’t
marketing, chances are your competition will keep moving forward while you stay
afloat, at best.
At the end of the day, a good marketing plan produces results. Just about everything else in a company is a
cost with little to no return on investment.
With that said if you could only afford to invest in one area of your company,
I suggest you invest in what produces results.
If I can help, call me and “ASK
COACH DAVE."
Prioritise your business’s needs!
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Article Tags: business owner, economy, leadership, market strategy, marketing, marketing plan, marketing strategy, money, selling, success, truth
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About the Author: Dave Ferguson RSS for Dave's articles - Visit Dave's website Dave Ferguson, has over 20 years of corporate experience at the senior level. He has held positions of Senior Vice President and National Sales Manager at companies such as Wells Fargo, HSBC and other financial institutions. Dave's broad range of experience at these prestigious companies where he coached, mentored, trained and developed leaders makes him uniquely qualified to coach you and those in your organization. Dave's clients value his diverse and solid background as they put their trust in him to guide them and their companies through whatever challenge or situation develops. Dave's coaching process provides personal and business management strategies - a balanced solution to help his clients work less, earn more and enjoy richer lives. Dave additionally is a sought after public speaker and also has developed several workshops and bootcamps designed to help people improve. He is also a certified member of the John Maxwell Team, and is proud to be able to offer the internationally recognized leadership expert's programs to his clients. He can be reached at Dave@AskCoachDave.com. Click here to visit Dave's website   FireUp Your Employees The Five Bes of Customer Service Crossing Your Street Of Success Do you need an Attitude Transplant Reap Rewards with the Right Reputation |
Related Forum Posts
Book: Secrets of Six Figure Women
- Secrets of Six Figure Women: Surprising Strategies to up your earning and change your life
Barbara Stanny, 2002
Jacket:
Maybe you've noticed - a subtle trend is gathering steam. Quietly and steadily, the number of women making six figures or more is increasing, and it continues to rise at a rate faster than for men. From entrepreneurs to corporate executives, from white collar executives to free lancers and part timers, women are forging careers with considerable financial success.
Through extensive research and hundreds of interviews, including dialogs with more than 150 high earners whose annual incomes range from $100,000 to 7 million, Stanny discovered that ...they all had certain traits in common:
1) a profit motive
2) Audacity
3) REslience
4) Encouragement
5) Self-awareness
6) Non-attachment
7) Financial knowhow
She amplifies on these in the book itself.
Table of Contents
Intro: Welcome to the era of the six-figure woman
1. The Queen in the Countinghouse
2. The Lowdown on low earners
3. Raising the bar
4. Strategy 1: The Declaration of Intention
5. Strategy 2: Letting go of the ledge
6. Strategy 3: Get in the Game
7. Strategy 4: Speak Up
8. Strategy 5: The Stretch
9. Strategy 6: Seek Support
10. Strategy 7: Obey the rules of money
11. Claiming our power
Appendces:
Resources and websites
Tips for getting out of dent
Investing Basics: Wealthbuilding 101
Re: How should i promote a new website?
- ignore this message IF it's already been stated. I haven't had a chance to read all the replies and i have to jet from the office...
I suggest marketing where ever your Target Market congregates. If it's a forum of concerned parents - go there. Strike up a deal with the forum owner (JV) and have him promote it to the list of members (Integration Marketing).
If you want to go with Forums then i would partner with a parent who is a frequent poster/moderator on a particular Target Market Forum and have him/her add your link to their signature.
That was just a thought but it's not as intense once you get buy in from the Forum owner or high ranked poster/moderator.
Hope that sparks some new ideas.
Re: Ideas For Business
- Hello Lucy,
you may consider this list for Ideas for Business: (Top 23 list)
Rank Company
1 Google
2 Genentech
3 Wegmans Food Markets
4 Container Store
5 Whole Foods Market
6 Network Appliance
7 S.C. Johnson & Son
8 Boston Consulting Grp.
9 Methodist Hospital Sys.
10 W.L. Gore & Associates
11 Cisco Systems
12 David Weekley Homes
13 Nugget Market
14 Qualcomm
15 American Century Invest.
16 Starbucks Coffee
17 Quicken Loans
18 Station Casinos
19 Alston & Bird
20 QuikTrip
21 Griffin Hospital
22 Valero Energy
23 Vision Service Plan
Re: What can you do if your franchise is hit by a scandal?
- GT - Brilliant Strategy...
What can I add? I'm at a loss for words...so I'll shut up now...
Re: Do Women Play the Stock Market?
- I also play Stock Market.....
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