WHY RE-INVENT THE WHEEL

They say “There is nothing in this world of ours that’s new, different or unique”.

Everything is really a finding, development or an extension of something past, or is an amalgamation of a series of things that when joined together produces what appears to be different, novel or provides a new competitive advantage.

So we don’t have to ‘re-invent the wheel’.

All we need to do is find the most relevant or effective way to start to create something that appears to be new, different or better.

Start from that point.

For instance, there have been so many books written on the subject of sales and marketing that you can find some form of inspiration to get you moving in the right direction, e.g. how to prospect, qualify or establish you’re USP (Unique Sales Proposition).

Few of us enjoy true creativity, original thought or even a simple new idea.

So don’t try, just find the nearest information that approximates a reasonable starting point.

It works;  it’s quick and can be very effective. Try it!

Or, you know a man who can help.

HOW ‘SMART’ IS YOUR MARKETING?

I didn’t even know what they where talking about when they kept saying “Yes, but we do need to ensure its’ SMART’ though”.

I learnt later that SMART meant that everything had to be:

‘Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic & Targeted’

Well, of course what we were working on was, isn’t everybody’s project?

Perhaps, in Marketing terms this is particularly important, if only because there is absolutely no excuse for not measuring your marketing investments and tactics. We have the technology to monitor measure and report on all traffic to and from our location of business, websites, advertising and telephone communications etc.

If you measure your activity you will know how far from planned your various initiatives are, how significant is the deviation and possibly some idea as to what the data is potentially indicating.

Measurement can help you maximise your promotional investments; or as a minimum help to make your budget more effective.

Remember the old adage:

We know that half our marketing works…; we just don’t know which half!

So get ‘SMART’ and you will get much more for your buck, as our American friends tend to say.

Need help?

 Well you know a man who can.

THERE’S NO FUTURE IN KNEE-JERK MARKETING

In my experience most small firms us some sort of knee-jerk marketing.

It usually comes about following the visit of an effective salesman.

Picture this; an owner/manager gets a visit from a man who sells a ‘proven’ lead generation tool.

The prospect buys the idea, concept or ‘tool’.

Then, the prospects sits back to wait his being inundated with an avalanche of new enquiries.

Usually the promised tsunami of new enquiries never happens.

So, another dissatisfied customer comes about.

Unplanned, bright shinny and knee-jerk purchases of marketing tactics and tools usually ends up with a dissatisfied customer.

So how can a small firm avoid expensive marketing mistakes and at the same time find effective ways generate more business?

Well, calling in someone who can help you to appreciate how to establish what it is your really selling, who needs to buy it and what their frustrations tend to be when they use it, usually works well.

If you want your business to be more successful you must be more marketing savvy.

A good starting point would be to start listening to your customers, and then finding ways to deliver what it is that they want i.e. find ways to solve their problems.

If you need a head start you know a man who can help.

HEARD OF ‘ME TOO’ MARKETING?

To be different from our competitors we need to think, act and do things differently.

‘Me too’, i.e. duplicating what everyone else does, gives you no advantage at all; it means you have no competitive advantage and so the only way a customer can differentiate you from your competitors is through the prices you charge!

So you need to consider the following:

• Will our evolutionary gains be sufficient?
• Do we need to make revolutionary improvements to what we offer how we market it or support it once sold?
• Should we find out how we can re-imagine our industry, our role within it and how we communicate our new approaches to clients?
• Can we do things sufficiently differently so that we make the rules?
• If we can, we will leave our competitors behind, because they will remain stuck in their old fashioned ‘me too’ marketing ways.

Appreciating the need to change, thinking about how to go about it and actually creating real progresses is easier to contemplate rather than bring to fruition.

But it is essential that you do because the world has changed, will continue to change and the pace of change will accelerate.

The easy way to address such issues is to use a predetermined check list.

If you don’t have one, you know someone who has.

Strategy versus tactic of the week!

Eventually, we established that almost every initiative my prospective client had invested in had not paid off for them.

Why?

Sometimes that’s not easy to determine.

However, when we enquired further we managed to establish that almost every marketing tactic that they had invested in was what might be called a ‘knee- jerk reaction’ to a business problem or marketing need.

No real strategy often delivers ineffective tactical results.

So strategy is paramount.

They help to determine:

-best direction of travel

-target markets, customer profiles and their frustrations

-competitor advantages (and weaknesses)

-who can help you etc

So once you have worked out a ‘Strategy’ you can more easily determine which promotional/lead generation tactics are relevant, cost effective and which will deliver.

So if you need some clarification you know a man who can.

Terry O’Mahony