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by
Bill Dueease
President
The Coach Connection
Copyright © 2003 by Bill Dueease
The profits of a business are
totally dependent on marketing. Otherwise
few, if any, sales will be generated.
But what is marketing anyway?
Let's discuss the eight secrets business
owners can use to greatly improve their marketing and business successes.
Secret #1: Give marketing top priority.
The primary reason any customer chooses to buy your products or services
is because of effective marketing. The marketing process starts at the
very beginning and continues forever! Marketing consists of four separate
functions, known as the four P's:
1. Product - Develop your products and/or services to ensure they
fill the needs of your potential customers, so they will want to buy from
your business. You have full control over this marketing function.
2. Pricing - Set your price structure to ensure that the business
will achieve the desired profits and that customers will perceive the
value of the benefits they receive to be greater than the prices they
pay. You have full control over this marketing function.
3. Positioning - Position your products and/or services to allow
potential customers easy interaction with the business to evaluate and
purchase your products or services. You have full control over this marketing
function.
4. Promotion - The final step is promotion, where you communicate
with your potential customers (normally through a communications medium)
about the existence and benefits of your products or services to attract
them to contact your business to learn more. You will have only partial
control over this marketing function.
Marketing is culminated in sales when your customers’ perception
of the value of their benefits exceeds the price they pay for products
or services. You generate successful sales only when you complete positive
Product Development, Price, Positioning, and Promotion. In fact, you will
want your business to be a marketing machine.
The sales process is frequently part of the promotions function, however
it can incorporate all four of the marketing functions, depending upon
the type of products or services offered and the make-up of your targeted
customers.
Secret #2: Do not confuse advertising with marketing.
Advertising is only part of the last marketing step (Promotion) and it
occurs late in the game. Many people think advertising is all there is
to marketing, and they overlook the other three very important earlier
marketing steps. Yet, they have total control over the other three marketing
steps, which are far more important than advertising. Consequently, you
will want to develop the other three functions that you control first,
to allow advertising to succeed.
Secret #3: Base your marketing on customer perspectives.
Owners believe their power and freedom
of choice, as the boss, means that they don't have to deal with the opinions
of others. "I am now my own boss" is only partly true. You are
in virtual control of either succeeding or failing to convince - The Customer-
to buy your products or services. You want to avoid imposing your opinion
on your potential customers. Create your vision of your business to provide
the value you want to your chosen customers through the products or services
you provide, which is critical to the success of your business. THEN,
focus on EDUCATING your target customers on the value they will receive
from your products or services to fulfill their perceived wants and needs,
from Their Perspective.
Secret #4: Research your potential customers.
When you have determined who your
target customers are, learn everything about:
- What your target customers THINK they want to buy
- Why your target customers THINK they buy
- How your target customers THINK they buy
- When your target customers THINK they buy
Secret #5: Screen out undesirable customers.
You have the right and obligation
to determine which potential customers you will agree to serve. You should
screen out undesirable customers early so you can focus more attention
on customers you want to serve. Sadly, owners often may not know how to
select desirable customers from the pool of potential customers they encounter.
As a result, they often spend too much time, money and energy trying to
deal with a handful of hard-to-please customers who frequently demand
lower prices at the expense of better customers, who go elsewhere because
they were ignored.
Determine the key criteria to decide which potential customers are desirable.
You will want to encourage undesirable customers to visit your competitors,
so they will waste their time, money, and energy on them instead of you
doing so..
Secret #6: Give existing customers full attention.
Owners frequently become so focused
on getting new customers that they ignore their existing repeat customers.
Your business will probably not survive without repeat business. Repeat
customers present a wealth of opportunities to you.
- They frequently provide you excellent feedback
- They provide an excellent reference and referral service (read free
advertising)
- They are the least expensive to service
- They provide the most likely source of additional business
- Their unnecessary departure causes substantial damage (upset customers
will complain to 5 to 9 other people)
Stay close to your existing customers and learn as much as you can from
them.
Secret #7: Create a positive identity that is distinct from your competitors.
Most customers compare. They need good reasons to choose your product
or service over others. You complete more sales when you understand your
competitors extremely well and position your products or services for
positive customer comparison.
Secret #8: Consider the overwhelming power Emotion has on the buying
process.
Human emotions govern the buying
process (some say over 80% of the entire process is emotional). Yet owners
frequently focus their energies on price and avoid the real emotional
reasons customers will buy. You will want to know and feel the emotional
connection your potential customers will connect to your business, your
products and/or services, and the way customers interact with your business.
Design your marketing program to address the emotional issues to attract
and keep the right customers.
The normal human thinking process of deciding to buy almost always starts
with an emotional need. The emotional need causes the customer to consider
buying something to fill it. The search and evaluation of the possible
choices of products and or services is also frequently emotional, and
additional emotional forces are often added. The price issue usually comes
in near the end. Normally, customers ask about prices to help justify
the emotional decisions they have already made. In fact, the request for
the price from normal customers is a very strong buying signal (does the
cost allow them to buy what they want and is it fair for what they decided
to get?).
Encourage customers to enjoy their emotional buying choices. Once the
purchase is made, far too many businesses can't wait to shuffle the customers
off and almost treat the customers like they have some disease. This frequently
causes customers to experience buyer’s remorse. Yet, this is the
time to finalize the sale once and for all and begin the process of future
sales. Congratulate your customers on their buying choices and encourage
them to enjoy the emotional benefits they sought from the purchase. Business
owners succeed when they know how to deal with this emotional process
and permit the customer to complete this process through final payment.
What a wonderful opportunity! You can take charge of your entire marketing
effort and attract the customers you desire with much less effort and
less cost.
Provided as an educational service by Bill Dueease of The Coach Connection,
where “connecting great people with great coaches” is their
goal.
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Bob has been instrumental in my development
as a businessman and person. His knowledge and experience are invaluable,
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Fountain Valley, California
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