This is the first of three articles by Rod Way looking at business from a marketing angle.

Your destination should not be an accident!

A colleague asked me recently – can you help me put together a marketing plan for a new client? Of course, I was delighted to offer some assistance and duly unloaded a sound bite that may have seemed rather simplistic. Marketing is anything but simplistic, but the act of convincing a prospective customer to purchase a product or service, is pretty simple – right?

If it were that simple – we would all have more customers than we knew what to do with. We would cruise about in our luxury 30m vessels, waited on by a team of people at our beck and call.

 

Why is marketing viewed as a luxury?

Throughout my career, I have been involved mostly in the sales and marketing arena – across a wide range of businesses and industries – large and small. A common thread that persists in many businesses is the notion that marketing is a luxury. It’s seen as an expense that they can ill-afford but begrudgingly do, under duress. This is rather counter-intuitive, as without understanding customers’ needs and presenting a product to meet these needs (also known as marketing) – businesses would not exist.

At Advantage Business, we believe it is the result of a lack of understanding around the value that your marketing can offer if done well! Doing it poorly will cost you dearly. Doing it well will return dividends that many businesses can only dream of.

 

Where to begin?

So where do you start? If you want to build a marketing function or process that delivers a repeatable, profitable, measurable return on your scarce resources. You need to develop an intimate understanding of your business.

“What?” I hear you say – you know your business better than anyone!

Really? I’m going to challenge that.

  • Do you understand the makeup of your revenue and profitability at a customer or product level?
  • Are you clear which products or services are delivering the best profit margins? This knowledge allows you to focus on developing more products like them and how to add to this pool of profitable products.
  • Do you understand the needs of your customers and why they chose you (or not)? What keeps them coming back or sends them off to your competitors?
  • What do your team think of your customers, management, operations? Are they comfortable sharing ideas to improve business outcomes or customer satisfaction?

 

Ask the right questions

There are dozens of points of interest to enable you to develop a plan to make your business perform better. Read on to understand the four starting tips to begin to unlock your hidden treasures.

  1. What is your destination? If you are a leader of a business or work in a senior role within a business – you need to determine your business’s destination and share it with your team. Otherwise, how can anyone help you to get there?
  2. What is going to delight your stakeholders? Delighted stakeholders will walk over hot coals for you!
  3. What are your business values? These describe or guide how you want to operate – your rules of engagement. If your team or customers don’t align with your values – you probably need to find a new team or new customers.
  4. Do you have a plan? No, not the impressive 30 pager that sits in the bottom drawer of your filing cabinet. It should have a maximum of three pages and capture the above along with your priorities and actions to keep you on track.

Next steps

Armed with the above information, your business will be ready to realise your dreams for success. You can then engage in a much more considered way and build a better business.

Advantage Business promotes the view that each business is unique. Taking a tailored approach will ensure the business is positioned properly to optimise the benefits for all stakeholders – staff, customers, suppliers, shareholders. Talk to us today about taking the first steps to get your business and your life back.

By Rod Way

 

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This is the first in a series of 3 articles looking at business from a marketing angle.

Read Rod’s second article ‘Simple rules to give your marketing clarity‘

marketing success