To Market To Market - Part 2

Business isn’t business…business in marketing!

And it’s all in your head! Your marketing mindset is comprised of your beliefs about marketing (whether those beliefs are right or wrong). Those beliefs manifest as thoughts, thoughts manifest as words, words become actions, actions become habits, habits become your character, and your character determines your destiny.

That’s a real mouthful! But the bottom line is, the things you believe about marketing can and will prevent you from succeeding in business or they will empower you to take action!

Your business plan is the place to define the actions and steps necessary to create an effective marketing strategy. One question to keep in mind is this: Who do you know who…? and then fill in the blank. Most businesses want to sell to the end user; but businesses will be better served if they market to people who know the end user. For example, if you manufacture purses, you don’t want to go door-to-door to sell them; so you build a network of companies that are already selling to people who want purses and you market to those companies; they in turn sell your purses. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

When most people think about marketing, they typically think two thoughts: cold calling for sales and high-cost advertising. But marketing is not sales and marketing is not just advertising. Marketing is the communication methodologies you have in place to let people know about your business and its products and services.

Marketing is what enables your customers to find your products and buy them. Then and only then will you get paid!

Proposals that Close Deals

Any time you have to put a proposal together, remember to write it for the reader. We all want to sell our products or ourselves to our clients; we want to present all the wonderful things we do; and we want to get paid handsomely! But you have to ask yourself: If I were the buyer, would I think this proposal was presented to me to be a benefit to my business or a benefit to the guy who wants to do business with me?

When you write your proposal, base it on what you’ve heard your customer talk about. That’s right…listen to your customer…talk less and really take the time to learn about your customer’s business. Every customer has complaints and they will tell you want their main issues are if you will just “listen between the lines” and look behind the obvious.

Know something about your customer and its industry. What is your customer facing on a daily basis that you can help with? What’s happening in the customer’s economic environment? Your customer will trust you more when you demonstrate that you really care. So give your customer what it needs, not what you have to sell.