Mistake #4: Not Developing a Clear and Consistent Marketing Message

You want your target audience to know what you do or sell no matter where they see your name; you want to be recognizable. All your marketing materials, advertisements and promotions must convey a consistent look and message. This consistency throughout all media helps you achieve more from your marketing budget because the message is reinforced throughout all the media you advertise in.

Mistake #5: Believing Your Product Will Sell Itself

Many companies make the mistake of thinking that their product is so great and so different that they don’t need to market it at all. However, potential customers won’t know how great your product is or even that it exists, if you don’t tell them. Word of mouth and referrals can only take you so far. You need to advertise and market to make sales.

Mistake #6: Not Clearly Defining the Product’s Benefits

Today’s marketplace is constantly changing and highly competitive. For example, if you need laundry detergent, you have a whole aisle of different brands from which to choose. So how do you make your decision? Something has to get your attention to make you choose one brand over another. Defining the unique selling proposition for your product will help your target audience differentiate it from your competitors. Work this uniqueness into your marketing plan and strategy to reach your product’s specific audience.

Be sure to come back next week for the last four marketing mistakes and tips on how to avoid making them.

Securing a new client is only half of the battle; the other half is keeping them. Eight rules to help ensure you hold on to your clients include:

1. Know your customers. Find out not only about their product needs but also about them personally. Keep records on this information to turn your customers into friends.

2. Contact customers regularly, even if it’s just to say “Hello.” Such calls build a firmer relationship. They are particularly worthwhile if there has been a problem in a product delivery. A call to verify that all has been remedied is well regarded and can reassure anxious customers that the problem won’t be repeated.

3. Handle complaints quickly. No matter who or what was the cause, address it immediately. If you don’t, the problem will magnify in the customer’s mind to the point where he or she may consider changing suppliers.

4. Prove that you’re dependable. If you promise delivery, be sure that it is a realistic date. If you promise to call back with an update on an order, do that. In other words, if you make a promise, keep it.

5. Serve, serve, serve. For instance, if your customer is dependent on you to do business, then you may want to institute a 24/7 means to stay in touch with the customer in an emergency.

6. Show your appreciation. Let customers know that you appreciate their business. It may be enough to say, “Thank you” after you take an order and before you hang up.

7. Be timely with follow-up calls. Leave a voice mail, send an e-mail, or write a note and fax it.

8. Think before speaking. In today’s tougher times, for instance, don’t press for a bigger order if you know that your customer is having a tough time. Sensitivity now will pay off when his or her business becomes robust.

Successful succession management plans share certain common elements such as CEO support, involvement of line managers, reliance on the collection of objective performance data and expansion beyond the upper levels of an organization. The findings of the 2005-2006 Leadership Forecast Study conducted with over 4,500 leaders representing more than 900 organizations by Development Dimensions International point to the value of three system features: involvement of the top leader of an organization, line manager involvement in the identification and development of those selected for the succession planning process, and collection and use of reliable, objective performance data to guide development and placement decisions. Although one-quarter of responding organizations extend succession planning down to the frontline level, the study authors recommend extending the process “deeper into their ranks.” (Human Resource Planning [Bernthal and Wellins], 2006, pp. 38-39) (As reported by i4cp)

Teams need self-discipline, and setting operational ground rules can achieve that. Although the setting of ground rules might seem to fall under a team leader’s responsibilities, ideally the rules should be set by the group as a whole. This way, you get buy-in by the entire group.

Ground rules cover both team task and group dynamics. Which means the ground rules should cover details like the time and length of meetings and the responsibilities of members and the mission of the team but it should also cover , how decisions will be reached, and most important how conflict within the group will be handled. To help with the latter, ask team members to consider what behaviors will detract from the team’s mission and what behaviors will contribute to its achievement based on their experience on other teams.

Here are some reasons why visions fail:

1) The vision was too limited, insufficiently exciting to motivate your employees to do great things.

2) The vision was superseded by a competitor’s larger vision. Your vision was okay but another firm came up with a better idea.

3) The vision was too large and therefore unachievable. Your people knew it and felt they would be wasting their time building what Italians call “cathedrals in the desert.”

What can you do if you suspect your marketing efforts are less than satisfactory? Start by avoiding the following ten biggest marketing mistakes:

Mistake #1: Not Developing a Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is a critical part of every successful business. It helps you to design your product and service to fill a market niche, identify your target audience and then identify what you need to do to get your target audience to buy your product or service. The plan will help you design the objectives and tactics to further develop your marketing efforts in the future.

Mistake #2: Not Planning a Marketing Budget

To be successful, you need to spend money to publicize, market and advertise your business. As a general rule of thumb, you may spend at least ten percent of your revenue on marketing efforts. Essentially, these costs keep your company going and your products selling. No matter what size your company, you need to have a marketing budget.

Mistake #3: Not Targeting a Specific Target Audience

Understand that your market doesn’t include everyone. No matter what product you have, not everyone is going to want to buy it. So decide on your target demographic and use appropriate media outlets to reach that audience. For example, if you have a diet product, you may target women ages twenty-five to fifty-four, who are ten pounds or more overweight. Then you need to advertise in women’s magazines or during women-oriented television and radio programs. Trying to appeal to everyone won’t work.

In an effort to keep this blog posting a manageable length it has been broken into three posts. This week mistake 1-3 has been released next Thursday mistake 4-6 and the Thursday after that will be mistake 7-10.

(Authored by Peter Koeppel the founder and president of Koeppel Direct, For more information, visit: www.koeppeldirect.com )

Sales objections come in two categories: product-knowledge questions and barrier-to-sale questions. The first are easier to handle; all you need to do is explain features more fully and describe the benefits. They actually make it easier to make a sale.

Barrier-to-sale questions reflect hesitations or objections. Follow this three-stage process to handle these:

First and foremost, don’t get angry. You’ll never make up the lost ground if you lose empathy with the customer.

Next, really listen to the customer’s question or concern. Use phrases like, “I see your viewpoint.”

Third, and finally, clarify with questions. Probe for the reasons behind the prospect’s resistance. If the customer offers generalities, work to break these into specific issues that you can handle one by one.

HR can build its business savvy in five ways – by learning about operations, working with the board, absorbing like a sponge, mastering performance assessment and becoming an outsourcing expert, according to Kristen B. Frasch, a staff expert at Human Resource Executive. First, be willing to learn and work outside the HR realm. Next, understand how HR contributes to shareholder value. Third, read, meet people, enroll in courses, attend conferences and expand your frame of reference. Fourth, understand how data is measured against benchmarks to determine relative performance. Last, learn to asses the relative merits of outsourcing or offshoring work. (Human Resource Executive [Frasch], September 2006, p. 52) (As reported by i4cp)

Yes, a vision begins with an idea, but that idea doesn’t become a reality until you get followership for it. What does it take to get followership? Involvement in the planning makes the vision a reality. If your people don’t participate, you’ll never know whether they have wholly bought into the assumptions inherent in the vision or not. Or be aware of problems that need to be addressed to make the plan succeed.

Good planning begins with information, and much of that information can come from the management team.

A new product idea can come from anywhere; it may be a brand new concept or it might be a simple repositioning of an existing product. Most successful new products share the following characteristics:

• A relative advantage. Stovetop Stuffing came up with a re-sealable can, allowing a cook to prepare any number of servings at a time. Jello-Pudding recently did the same. To customers, this packaging offers a distinct relative advantage that is enabling them to pull ahead of the competition.
• Newness. There is a quality of “new” that inherently interests potential consumers. If that feature is easy to see and experience, then that newness is marketable.
• Easy to try. The easier you make it for a prospect to test our product, the more likely it will succeed.
• Ease of use. If the product’s use involves lots of instructions or assembly, or training, then that product may have an uphill battle.