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| The Optima Kart, C.E.O. |
Once you've
developed your marketing strategy, there is a "Seven P Formula" you
should use to continually evaluate and reevaluate your business activities.
These seven are: product, price, promotion, place, packaging, positioning and
people. As products, markets, customers and needs change rapidly, you must
continually revisit these seven Ps to make sure you're on track and achieving
the maximum results possible for you in today's marketplace.
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| The Optima Kart |
Product
To begin with,
develop the habit of looking at your product as though you were an outside
marketing consultant brought in to help your company decide whether or not it's
in the right business at this time. Ask critical questions such as, "Is
your current product or service, or mix of products and services, appropriate
and suitable for the market and the customers of today?"
Whenever you're
having difficulty selling as much of your products or services as you'd like,
you need to develop the habit of assessing your business honestly and asking,
"Are these the right products or services for our customers today?"
Is there any
product or service you're offering today that, knowing what you now know, you
would not bring out again today? Compared to your competitors, is your product
or service superior in some significant way to anything else available? If so,
what is it? If not, could you develop an area of superiority? Should you be
offering this product or service at all in the current marketplace?
Prices
The second P in
the formula is price. Develop the habit of continually examining and
reexamining the prices of the products and services you sell to make sure
they're still appropriate to the realities of the current market. Sometimes you
need to lower your prices. At other times, it may be appropriate to raise your prices.
Many companies have found that the profitability of certain products or
services doesn't justify the amount of effort and resources that go into
producing them. By raising their prices, they may lose a percentage of their
customers, but the remaining percentage generates a profit on every sale. Could
this be appropriate for you?
Sometimes you
need to change your terms and conditions of sale. Sometimes, by spreading your
price over a series of months or years, you can sell far more than you are
today, and the interest you can charge will more than make up for the delay in
cash receipts. Sometimes you can combine products and services together with
special offers and special promotions. Sometimes you can include free
additional items that cost you very little to produce but make your prices
appear far more attractive to your customers.
In business, as
in nature, whenever you experience resistance or frustration in any part of
your sales or marketing activities, be open to revisiting that area. Be open to
the possibility that your current pricing structure is not ideal for the
current market. Be open to the need to revise your prices, if necessary, to
remain competitive, to survive and thrive in a fast-changing marketplace.
Promotion
The third habit
in marketing and sales is to think in terms of promotion all the time.
Promotion includes all the ways you tell your customers about your products or
services and how you then market and sell to them.
Small changes
in the way you promote and sell your products can lead to dramatic changes in
your results. Even small changes in your advertising can lead immediately to
higher sales. Experienced copywriters can often increase the response rate from
advertising by 500 percent by simply changing the headline on an advertisement.
Large and small
companies in every industry continually experiment with different ways of
advertising, promoting, and selling their products and services. And here is
the rule: Whatever method of marketing and sales you're using today will, sooner
or later, stop working. Sometimes it will stop working for reasons you know,
and sometimes it will be for reasons you don't know. In either case, your
methods of marketing and sales will eventually stop working, and you'll have to
develop new sales, marketing and advertising approaches, offerings, and
strategies.
Place
The fourth P in
the marketing mix is the place where your product or service is actually sold.
Develop the habit of reviewing and reflecting upon the exact location where the
customer meets the salesperson. Sometimes a change in place can lead to a rapid
increase in sales.
You can sell
your product in many different places. Some companies use direct selling,
sending their salespeople out to personally meet and talk with the prospect.
Some sell by telemarketing. Some sell through catalogs or mail order. Some sell
at trade shows or in retail establishments. Some sell in joint ventures with
other similar products or services. Some companies use manufacturers'
representatives or distributors. Many companies use a combination of one or
more of these methods.
In each case,
the entrepreneur must make the right choice about the very best location or
place for the customer to receive essential buying information on the product
or service needed to make a buying decision. What is yours? In what way should
you change it? Where else could you offer your products or services?
Packaging
The fifth
element in the marketing mix is the packaging. Develop the habit of standing
back and looking at every visual element in the packaging of your product or
service through the eyes of a critical prospect. Remember, people form their
first impression about you within the first 30 seconds of seeing you or some
element of your company. Small improvements in the packaging or external
appearance of your product or service can often lead to completely different
reactions from your customers.
With regard to
the packaging of your company, your product or service, you should think in
terms of everything that the customer sees from the first moment of contact
with your company all the way through the purchasing process.
Packaging
refers to the way your product or service appears from the outside. Packaging
also refers to your people and how they dress and groom. It refers to your
offices, your waiting rooms, your brochures, your correspondence and every
single visual element about your company. Everything counts. Everything helps
or hurts. Everything affects your customer's confidence about dealing with you.
When IBM
started under the guidance of Thomas J. Watson, Sr., he very early concluded
that fully 99 percent of the visual contact a customer would have with his
company, at least initially, would be represented by IBM salespeople. Because
IBM was selling relatively sophisticated high-tech equipment, Watson knew
customers would have to have a high level of confidence in the credibility of
the salesperson. He therefore instituted a dress and grooming code that became
an inflexible set of rules and regulations within IBM.
As a result,
every salesperson was required to look like a professional in every respect.
Every element of their clothing-including dark suits, dark ties, white shirts,
conservative hairstyles, shined shoes, clean fingernails-and every other
feature gave off the message of professionalism and competence. One of the
highest compliments a person could receive was, "You look like someone
from IBM."
Positioning
The next P is
positioning. You should develop the habit of thinking continually about how you
are positioned in the hearts and minds of your customers. How do people think
and talk about you when you're not present? How do people think and talk about
your company? What positioning do you have in your market, in terms of the
specific words people use when they describe you and your offerings to others?
In the famous
book by Al Reis and Jack Trout, Positioning,
the authors point out that how you are seen and thought about by your customers
is the critical determinant of your success in a competitive marketplace.
Attribution theory says that most customers think of you in terms of a single
attribute, either positive or negative. Sometimes it's "service."
Sometimes it's "excellence." Sometimes it's "quality
engineering," as with Mercedes Benz. Sometimes it's "the ultimate
driving machine," as with BMW. In every case, how deeply entrenched that
attribute is in the minds of your customers and prospective customers
determines how readily they'll buy your product or service and how much they'll
pay.
Develop the
habit of thinking about how you could improve your positioning. Begin by
determining the position you'd like to have. If you could create the ideal
impression in the hearts and minds of your customers, what would it be? What
would you have to do in every customer interaction to get your customers to
think and talk about in that specific way? What changes do you need to make in
the way interact with customers today in order to be seen as the very best
choice for your customers of tomorrow?
People
The final P of
the marketing mix is people. Develop the habit of thinking in terms of the
people inside and outside of your business who are responsible for every
element of your sales and marketing strategy and activities.
It's amazing
how many entrepreneurs and businesspeople will work extremely hard to think
through every element of the marketing strategy and the marketing mix, and then
pay little attention to the fact that every single decision and policy has to
be carried out by a specific person, in a specific way. Your ability to select,
recruit, hire and retain the proper people, with the skills and abilities to do
the job you need to have done, is more important than everything else put
together.
In his
best-selling book, Good to Great,
Jim Collins discovered the most important factor applied by the best companies
was that they first of all "got the right people on the bus, and the wrong
people off the bus." Once these companies had hired the right people, the
second step was to "get the right people in the right seats on the
bus."
To be
successful in business, you must develop the habit of thinking in terms of
exactly who is going to carry out each task and responsibility. In many cases,
it's not possible to move forward until you can attract and put the right
person into the right position. Many of the best business plans ever developed
sit on shelves today because the [people who created them] could not find the
key people who could execute those plans.
There’s no doubt now that regardless of what industry you’re in, you
need to market your business online. The barriers to marketing online are low
and the upside is huge! While the benefits are almost never ending, here are 7
powerful reasons to get your business online and fast!
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| The Optima Kart |
Credibility
Businesses that can be found online have more credibility. Why? Because
your customers can get online and check you out.
More than ever, people are researching the internet before making buying
decision. If you have a website that explains all of your services or products
in detail, you’re more likely to get the sale.
Also, being online gives you a chance to list your qualifications. It
provides a place to show off the associations you’re part of like the Better
Business Bureau and so forth.
Cost Effective
In business we say “cost effective”. For starters, getting a quality
website up and running has never been easier. Gone are the days where you need
to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a company website.
It’s as simple as buying a domain, getting some hosting, and setting up
a Wordpress site – all of which can be done in a few hours.
Also, advertising your business is incredibly cost effective as you can
set the exact amount you wish to spend and then see your immediate ROI. In
fact, in many cases, you can produce amazing results advertising for free
through places like Craigslist and Backpage. It’s a very low entry cost (free)
with potential huge returns.
Customers
Your customers are online. Are they going to find you or your
competition? Do all you can to get listed in the local search results. Learn to
dominate your niche online. Be where your customers are looking for you.
Naturally you need to have a website, do some SEO, produce some great
content, and connect through social media. That will put you in place to be
found by your customers.
Connections
Once your customers have found you online, be sure to connect with them.
With the various social media platforms, it’s never been easier to stay in
touch with your customers.
You can increase traffic through your doors by offering specials through
Groupon, Living Social, and Google Offers. You can build up customer loyalty by
using tools like FourSquare and Facebook Places. You can even give customers
“inside information” by connecting with them on Twitter or Facebook.
Close
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a salesperson that never calls in sick,
works 24-7, and presents the exact right message to your customers every single
time? You can! It’s your website!
Many companies still have “legacy websites”. These are the kind of sites
that talk about a dopey mission statement, list hours of operation, and company
address. Who cares!
Your customers are searching for a solution to their problems. Let your
website (and your social media outlets) save the day! If done right, your
website can “close” your customers automatically.
Customer Service
Because you’re a superstar at growing your business online, why not use
the same tool to address all of your customer service concerns? One of the
easiest ways to slim down customer service issues is to set up a F.A.Q.’s
section on your website.
Want to address the concern immediately? Have one of your employees
monitoring Twitter and get your customer an answer instantly. By interacting
directly, you’ll resolve the problem quickly and your reviews on Yelp will
skyrocket!
You can also use your awesome customer service skills to reward your
best customers. As mentioned before, you can incentivize your customers by
using platforms like Foursquare or Groupon. You can even offer secret deals if
they join your mailing list or a special “elite members” closed Facebook page.
Cash
What business wouldn’t love to generate more revenue? Are you a brick
and mortar business? What want or need does your business satisfy? Turn that
expertise into an information product of some sort!
Let’s say you have a kitchen remodeling contractor. You can take your
years of experience and create a series of how-to videos and sell them on your
website.
What if you’re a product-based business? Let’s say, for example, you own
a clothing boutique. You can create an online store that features your best
clothing. You can even direct your in-store traffic to your website for special
inside deals.
By creating on online
portion of your business, it creates an additional revenue stream. It also
takes your business from a local business to a global enterprise with unlimited
income potential. In short, you become scalable.
