Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

Notes from our meeting on February 5th.

The way to effectively use of Social Media is very similar to traditional networking activities.

• Decide what we want to accomplish before we invest time and money in any activity
• One purpose might simply to stay in front of our prospects and clients so they do not forget us
• Use the social media vehicles our targets are using
• Stay within the culture of the social media we are using
• The more we focus on helping others rather than trying to sell, the more effective our efforts will be

If we have a mass market you are trying to reach, then Facebook and Twitter might be viable alternatives.

If we are looking to connect with professionals, then Linkedin might be a good choice.

Facebook has the best viral component tool and is also an easy way for non-technical types to provide visuals.

The Topic was “How to Select the ‘Right’ Target Market”

Ideas included:

• Identify prospects who have a pain that you are an expert in solving
• Be pragamatic, i.e. Who can you reach and who can you stay in contact with long enough for them to buy
• Chose your market versus deciding your market
• Chose a market that you are excited about
• Understand your prospects’ decision making process
• Keep multiple irons on the fire
• Consider the geography and size of your market
• Consider the lifetime value of a client
• Chose a target market where the prospects will hire you
• Apply the 80-20 rule

The participants included:

1. Ted Backman (Finance)  http://www.linkedin.com/in/tedbachman
2. David Bass (M&A) http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbassrdu
3. Mark Brown (Consulting Support) http://www.linkedin.com/in/markbrownmybizpath
4. Art Burke (HR) http://www.linkedin.com/in/artburke
5. Chris Cardozo (Sales) http://www.linkedin.com/in/theultimatesalesconnection
6. Van Carpenter (Marketing) http://www.linkedin.com/in/bizdoctorvan
7. Graham Crispin (Business Broker) http://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamcrispin
8. Bill Davis (Coaching) http://www.linkedin.com/in/billdavistn
9. Jake Finkelstein (Marketing) http://www.linkedin.com/in/jakefinkelstein
10. Lori Gayle (Finance) http://www.linkedin.com/in/lorigayle
11. Tracey Gritz (Office Efficiency) http://www.linkedin.com/in/traceygritz
12. Steve Hand (Networking) http://www.linkedin.com/in/shand
13. Jerry Helms (Web) http://www.linkedin.com/in/jerryhelms
14. Whitney Hill (Web) http://www.linkedin.com/in/whitneyhill
15. Jim Joyce (Sales) http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimjoycesalespartners
16. Brian Kinahan (Strategy) http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brian-kinahan/0/3ba/185
17. Frank Lyons (HR) http://www.linkedin.com/pub/frank-lyons/0/b92/865
18. Mike Miller (Sales) http://www.linkedin.com/pub/michael-miller/3/541/299
19. Scott Pearce (Sales) http://www.linkedin.com/in/scottspearce
20. Jack Perez (Marketing) http://www.linkedin.com/in/jackaperez
21. Tim Pedersen (Marketing) http://www.linkedin.com/in/rightbraintim
22. Marieke Pieterman (Compensation) http://www.linkedin.com/in/mariekepieterman
23. Manfred Reithinger (Six Sigma) http://www.linkedin.com/in/mreithinger
24. David Rowe (Finance) http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-rowe/3/780/249
25. Dan Scala (Coaching) http://www.linkedin.com/in/danscala
26. Jerry Seavey (Coaching) http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jerry-seavey/0/b29/900
27. Nick Trapani (HR) http://www.linkedin.com/pub/nicholas-trapani/11/789/420
28. Sue Weems (Coaching) http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sue-weems/0/790/4b1
29. Latoya Williams (Strategy) http://www.linkedin.com/in/latoyajwilliams

A ton of material has been written about sales and marketing. Most of it is geared toward what works for big corporations.

Most “textbook” sales and marketing activities require a huge investment in time and money in order to be effective. Implementing almost any sales or marketing activity with less than a complete commitment to the program is throwing your money away. 

I have found for myself and my clients that spending money on “sales and marketing” seems like a good thing, so it is easy to get caught up spending money on activities that are not cost effective.

In my business, when I stopped talking about “sales and marketing activities” with “getting customer activities,” it became obvious that many our sales and marketing activities were not producing enough results to justify the cost.  The reason it became effective was that it changed the question I was asking. Instead of “is this a good sales and marketing program?” I asked “is this program getting us customers?

One activity I stopped was casual networking, such as chamber events. Over the last 12 years, almost all of our clients and customers have come from either previous clients or people we had relationships with. We have gotten almost no revenue from the casual networking and these events can consume a lot of time. That time is being spent much more effectively now strenghtening our relationships and finding new relationships through our existing customer and relationship base.

I do not mean to imply that casual networking will not work for you. But unless you have an unlimited budget of time and money, consider looking at each of your activities in terms of how much business you are or will get.

Social Media is all the hit these days. But the challenge is that most of the hype is about connect with lots of people and getting lots of people following you.

As usual, the hype misses the real point. The rules for being successful at Social Media are pretty much the same as they are with traditional networking. 

In my 12 years of consulting, I have met thousands of people and have several hundred business cards laying around my office closet. I do not remember who gave me the vast majority of those cards, let along exchanged any valuable referrals.

Instead, almost all of the referrals I have gotten over the years that have turned into real business came from a select number of strategic networking partners I have gotten to know well. I trust sending business to them and they trust sending business to me.

It might be good for my ego to have 20,000 people following me on Twitter, but it would be much better for my wallet to have 20 people on Twitter who thought enough about what I said to send me real business. I have discovered that most of the people who are successfully using the new Social Media are following the same rules they follow for traditional networking. Relationships and trust are built with time and quality communication.

Why does connecting Michael Jordan’s name to a sneaker make it worth twice as much money to a teenager? Because it gives the sneaker the personality of the great basketball player. The teenagers want to be able to relate to the character that they respect so much. The difference in price between the “no personality” generic brand and the sneaker with personality becomes incremental profit to the business and to Michael Jordan.

Are you getting the higher profit from your product or service by giving it personality, or are you settling for the prices you can get for your product’s features and benefits?

When you developed your sales and marketing strategy, you probably have decided on your target market and the benefits your products and services would provide them. This is what almost every book and workshop on the subject tell you to do.

There is one important component of marketing strategy that many leave out. That is deciding and communicating the “personality” of your product or service.

Highly successful companies spend a lot of time and money developing and communicating the personality of their products and services.

You do not have to use Michael Jordan or other endorser to give your product personality. BMW combines the major differentiating features of its cars, highly engineered automobiles, with its advertising message, “The Ultimate Driving Machine,” to communicate a confident, take charge personality. With their personality, BMWs are not cheap and there is a waiting list to buy their top-of-the-line models.

Establishing and communicating personality is important in all industries. Restaurants can live and die by the personality that they project. Law offices and other service providers define the prices they are able to charge by the personality they project.

Before you settle for having to sell at the lowest price, look inside your business to see if there is a personality you can develop and communicate for your products and services.