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.

HAVE A CLEAR VISION

Human beings have a lot in common. For instance most of us tend to:

• Be overly optimistic about our ability to perform and the timescales involved
• Expect things to work themselves out
• Underestimate our competitors
• Lazy in one form or another

These character traits can get us into a lot of trouble. They tend to stop us from making meaningful and realistic plans about our futures. I have found that the larger a company or team is the more likely they are to have a vision backed up by a fully thought out plan of action. This is normally because bigger organisations tend to be able to employ higher calibre personnel. Smaller firms tend not to have any systematic form of business planning and most don’t really have any idea of where they want to get to i.e. they have no Strategy so any broadly relevant direction will do.

If we are to be successful, grow and avoid the pitfalls of poor business planning it is imperative that we have some sort of idea where we are going, why and what it will take to get there. It starts with vision and a sense of mission and cascades down through strategic and tactical business planning. How else can our marketers know what is expected of them?

So be on a mission, know what is required, deploy your limited resources appropriately and you will succeed.

If you have any problems you know a man who can help.

Specialist Construction Marketing Strategy & Sales Planning

As a specialist marketing and sales consultancy within the construction industry, we assist clients to market their services and products, help to train their sales professionals and provide business improvement advice. We often receive requests from  SME’s to provide them with marketing strategies, tactics and lead generation tools to help power their business expansion.

Research and planning activities help us to produce marketing strategies, sector plans and even simple ‘I must do lists’ that help businesses to improve their bottom lines.

Specific and thorough research help us to recommend the most appropriate ways forward, taking into account all the relevant issues e.g. viability, positioning, cost and speed and volume of response etc.

Cost effective marketing not only influences prospective clients, it also motivates them to take action i.e. get in touch. We are able to advise on a wide range of alternative solutions to clients various marketing challenges.

If you are considering how to best retain your existing clients, reactive lost clients, enter new markets or sectors, launch a new product, increase lead generation and sales conversion, you know a man who can help you.

In the current extremely hard business climate, we believe that marketing is one of the most important and valuable business investment any firm can make. It is the ultimate way to create a return and leverage your assets!

So what are you waiting for, just do it!