Sales and Marketing in the “new economy” – Take action now.

Over the last two months or so Kate and I have had the opportunity to meet with business people in several parts of the country. In fact, in the last 40 days we put over 4,500 miles on a rental car traveling to cities in the state of Florida alone!

In the next several Renegade letters I’ll share some of the common marketing and sales challenges I heard from the people we met and give you a “roadmap” to create a “Renegade” sales and marketing plan and strategy that will be effective, measurable, trackable and executable. Your responses and comments are always welcome!

Let’s get started.

The common “thread” among the different business people we had the pleasure of meeting was pretty easy to identify – they all wanted to “compete and win” in the “new economy”. Making the decision to “compete and win” seemed to be the easy part.

Creating and implementing marketing and sales plans, strategies and tactics and then “taking action” seemed to be the difficult part – not surprising when you think about it.

We are all inundated with new choices daily when it comes to creating a plan to get more clients, keep more clients and generate additional sales and profits with our existing client base. It’s really hard to cut through the clutter of marketing and sales “stuff” available, choose the best and then get started with a plan.

I’m going to do my best in the next several Renegade letters to give you information and tools to help you create a real marketing plan that you can execute quickly that will get you results that you can actually track and measure.

In this first letter I want to give you a couple of things to consider before you move forward with any kind of plan. Taking a little time upfront will pay off in big dividends later.

Here is the first thing to consider:
Most businesses simply play “follow the leader” when it comes to running their business – especially when it comes to sales and marketing – but also in other areas of their business. In the “new economy” this is a dangerous way to run a business.

Take a look at your business and your competition – or any industry for that matter. What you will see is that most businesses operate within “boundaries” of about “plus or minus” ten percent of their competition regardless of the industry they are in.

If you look closely at your industry you will see that most of the advertising is the same, products and services are pretty much the same, sales and marketing tools used are about the same and even pricing and profits are the same.

The reason this happens is because most business people (especially when getting started) take a look at what others in their industry are doing in all of these areas and then choose a path for their own business that varies only slightly from everyone else.

In the “new economy” differentiation is critical.

If you want to “compete and win” it is more important than ever to separate yourself and your business from the “pack” and find ways provide “unmatched value” in the markets that you serve.

A good way to start is to make a “top 10” list of small things that you can do to improve your products and services that your competitors either can’t or won’t. Once you have the “list” of things that “make you different” create the action plan to implement all of them – not just one or two things from the list.

If you want to “compete and win” you need to consider taking “massive” action as opposed to “incremental” action.

Next, consider this:

Who is most likely to need or want (and can pay for) the products and services that you are offering?

Here is a hot tip – “everyone” is not your market.

Most businesses spend a ton of time, energy and money getting their “name out there” and hoping that at some point if they get their business in front of enough people “someone” will eventually respond.

In the “old economy” the “shotgun” approach to sales and marketing worked OK for some and not so well for others – but at least they felt like they were doing something.

Mass marketers even came up with a name for “just keeping your name out there”. They called it “branding” and most businesses, large or small, felt better about throwing money at mass advertising because it had a cool name.

Do not fall for the “branding” trap. Most businesses can’t afford to run mass advertising campaigns in hopes that people will remember them when they decide it’s time to shop around.

Here is a quick exercise that will help you “set the stage” for your sales and marketing plan. Make a list of the characteristics of your best and most profitable clients. Start by asking yourself simple questions like:

Where do they live?
What do they drive?
Do they have children?
What is their average income level?
What do they do for fun?
Where do they work?
What do they listen to?
What do they read?
What do they watch?
What clubs or organizations do they belong to?
Where do they go out to eat?Do they use Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or other social media?

Once you find a set of common characteristics you can start to look for ways to target the people that are most likely to be inclined to want what you offer and that are predisposed to buy when you reach them.

I know this sounds too easy, but most businesses will never take the time to determine who their “target market” is and how to reach them – instead they will just “keep their name out there” and hope something happens.

I’ve said this before but it’s worth repeating – HOPE is not a marketing strategy.

Take a little time between today and tomorrow to determine the things that set you apart from your competitors and who your target market really is. If you do just those two things you will already be way ahead of your competition and well on the way to attracting more clients, keeping more clients and generating more revenue from your existing clients.

Tomorrow I’ll send you the next step to creating an effective and measurable sales and marketing plan – we’ve talked about it before in past Renegade letters.

It’s the “hole” in most businesses that time, money, energy and profits “fall through” every day. The great part is that “plugging the hole” is really easy once you discover it!