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Your Sales and Marketing channels are not created equal!

Written by: Joe Dager

Article Overview: How do you go about creating sales and marketing channels and making them not competitive with each other. It is a pretty tall order in today's world and one that really takes quite a bit of time so that they and yourself are not competing with each other.

Your Sales and Marketing channels are not created equal!

How do you go about creating sales channels and making them not competitive with each other. It is a pretty tall order in today's world and one that really takes quite a bit of time so that they and yourself are not competing with each other. The Channel Advantage is a good book to start with and can be found at bargain prices. Let me give a couple of suggestion from the book and a few places on the web that you can find information.

If you are trying to find the best way to take your product to market there is a U.K business link that you can take a survey to Identify Potential Sales Channels and it will give you a set of recommendations. It is only a 5 minute exercise and well worth it.

The Channel Advantage recommends using a 4-step process to evaluate and manage each channel.

It looks straight forward but in today's world I think it is missing one component. There should be 1-block on the bottom saying consumer and final price. Distribution is so good these days that the channels cross over so effectively that the consumer has to see the same price. Many times even when there is value added services being included. So, how many sales channels do you have and do they all end up with the same price to the consumer?

I also discovered that you can have more than one Core Message and they too may not be Created Equal.





List your core messages, you can have more than one but keep it short and sweet.

1. Which one differentiates you the most?
   
   
2. Which one screams the loudest?
   
   
3. Who and what influences whom?
   
   
4. Which would could prove the most effective?
   
   
5. Which one has the highest risk attached to it?
   
   
6. Which one has the Lowest Risk?
   
   
7. Which one is the easiest to support?
   
   
8. Which is the easiest to implement?
   
   
   1. In the short term?
      
      
   2. In the Long Term?
      
      
9. Which one is the most affordable?
   
   
10. Which of them is most recognizable to your customers?
    
    
11. what are the best vehicles to reach your audience or constituents?
    
    
12. Can you combine and optimize?
    
    
13. If you decide on more than one, what is the best timing to introduce each?
    
    

So what is your core message?

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Article Tags: marketing channels, sales and marketing



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