Back To Basics

The Smith Center High School football team has won 51 games in a row and has outscored opponents this season, 704-0 (2007).

Blocking and Tackling. Blocking and Tackling. If you have a team that can conquer the basics of blocking and tackling, chances are you'll win most of the games in which you compete.

When we talk about the basics of marketing and selling strategies, we begin with research and planning. My dad used to say, "you'll never know where you're going without a roadmap." It's the same for sales growth, and marketing research can help you determine your path.

Your research should help you:

• find out what customers want and expect, in both a product and a purchase experience


• find out what customers like and don't like about your company, product or services


• find out what they would like to experience in a product or purchase


• determine what is working/not working


• determine the age, gender, lifestyle etc. of your customer


• determine what is working/not working for your competition


• determine who your competition is different from you


• determine your competitor's long-term plans

As part of your research, do an internal SWOT analysis with your management team, and with your sales and marketing team.

With your research completed, you should be able to assemble your sales and marketing team to review the results, and then write a marketing plan that addresses your customers desires and competitive issues against your company goals. The physical action of writing a marketing plan requires your team to think about your overall sales, marketing and profitability goals, and determine the best way to meet those goals. This research and planning period will also provide direction as you consider the tools you'll need to use to meet your goals: advertising, sales promotions, POP materials, employee training, PR and community relations.

Use your marketing plan to outline how to leverage what your customers want against what you want (increased sales and profits). Your marketing plan should help you determine if you need to target segments of a market or investigate new markets. It should help you understand the best approach you should take to build your brand in a market.

After the marketing plan is complete, the next step is to outline your communications plan, and the budget required to support it. This budget should include marketing communications such as advertising, promotion, publicity, and trade shows.

Marketing plans should be carefully planned to acheive both your short and long-term sales goals. They should be flexible, so they meet the changing needs of your customers' needs and wants. But they should also be fairly well fleshed out, so you guidelines that are easily understood and undertaken by your entire sales and marketing team.

Once you've finalized your plan, communicate it to your team. In an average economy, this time of year can be challenging in our business. Given our current economy, now might be the right time to upgrade your sales team. I've heard many manufacturers and distributors are letting sales people go and not replacing them. I think that's a big mistake. (You needed sales people last week, but all of a sudden today you don't?) I wouldn't advocate keeping someone on because they've always worked for you. You need the right people on the bus, and they need to be able to perform the right functions. If they can't, stop the bus and ask them to get off......With the average cost of a business-to-business sales call costing over $500 (double the cost of 5 years ago), and on the average, each sale requiring at least five sales calls* - you need to be confident you have the right salespeople in position. *info courtesy of b2badvertising.org

In today's industry, advertising is being used to assist in reducing the overall cost of doing business. The average cost of a business-to-business sales call has risen to over $500 (double the cost of 5 years ago), and on the average, each sale requires at least five sales calls. If advertising can substitute for one or more of the personal sales calls, the effect can be accomplished for pennies.