April 2006 Edition

Small Business Marketing Fundamentals
How to Hire Professionals for Branding & Image
Rocky Mountain Quality Conference
Colorado Governor Supports Small Business
The Core of Selling
Tech Corner
Some Smiles
 

SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING FUNDAMENTALS

Over the years I found understanding marketing one of the most difficult tasks I had.  So many books, so many articles, so many opinions and trying to figure out how any of it relates to me and my business.  It seemed that marketing became a large, mystical “thing” that was important but it was as illusive as a ghost.  After only 32 years I think I have a better understanding of this thing we like to call marketing.

First of all, when someone tells me they want to know more about marketing what they are really saying is they need more customers and marketing seems like a neat word to use.  Secondly, there usually is not a basic understanding of marketing, sales and the business processes involved so we use the word marketing to encompass everything.

Let’s clear up some of this mystery…

There are two basic types of marketing a new or small business needs to fully understand and utilize Strategic and Functional.

STRATEGIC MARKETING
This is the first thing you must do if you are to develop an ongoing business that is self-sustaining.  Remember the first reason a business exists is to survive!  Strategic Marketing is done at least annually and it addresses at least the following issues:

Know your competition—you must research them and learn what they are selling, how they are selling it, how much they are selling it for, whom they are selling to and what is their process of selling.  You cannot know enough about your competitors—EVER…

Your product/service mix—what are you going to sell?  How are you going to sell it, to whom, at what price and what are your selling processes.  If you do not have a comprehensive understanding of your selling processes then how can you possibly do any realistic forecasting of sales?  You need to know what products/services you are going to sell into what market segment.

Market segments—you must fully understand your market segments.  Let me explain this a bit further.  Let’s say I sell web sites for small businesses and every small business needs one.  One thing I can do is attempt to reach everyone all the time.  The reality of this is there are about 240,000 businesses in Colorado and 230,000 of them are small business.  My target is small business, but how can I possibly reach 230,000 prospects?  It costs me 65 cents to do a simple mailing that amounts to $156,000.00 and that's not in my advertising budget just yet.  I need to look at a smaller group or market segment.  I need to look at these 230,000 companies and put them into categories I can understand.  Then I need to prioritize the categories based upon some basic factors like the one I have the most knowledge of, the one I know the most people in, the one that is growing the most or projected to grow the most.  From this process you will pare down the list of 230,000 to a number that makes more sense to your time and budget.

Once you have this preliminary work done you should see a dramatic increase is your successes.  You then need to figure out where to get a list of key prospects.  Some libraries have the information and you may even have to go to the Denver Public library or their databases on line to get what you need.   You need to have definitive information such as contact person, company name, address, phone, e-mail, and web address for every one you wish to target.  You need have a solid understanding of every company you wish to target.

Product/Service Pricing—this is a major gotcha for so many companies.  If I were to sell web sites at $25.00 each I could sell thousands of them, but I would not make any money.  Remember the fundamental reason a business exists…… to survive!  At $25.00 each I would not survive.  Based upon our research we determined our starter web site will be sold at $660.00.  This eliminates some of the prospective buyers and we are sorry about that indeed.  However, when we sell one of these sites we make a reasonable profit so we can survive.  Conversely, if we sold the same six page web site for $2,000.00 then we would find even less customers, but those we find will generate very high profits.  You have to determine what you want to accomplish, with whom and at what price.

You must be constantly aware of pricing for sale or pricing for profit.  A business must make a reasonable profit to survive and to then grow and prosper.  These specifics are addressed during some of our workshops on finance.

The best place to sell—also the most forgotten—your customers.  Do you have a plan in place right now that sells to your customers?  Do you meet with them frequently and learn more about their business?  Do you meet with them just to say hello and how are you?  So many people fall into the trap of doing what the phone demands every day and lose complete track of managing their business.  Keeping in mind that your customers are your business, no customers = no business!  Remember, your customers are your competitors prospects!  If you do not have a Customer Development Plan of some sort that is organized and executed properly you just stacked the odds against your success.  Many companies, including mine derive 80% of the annual revenues from customer work, NOT new customers.  Work with someone like the local SBDC or Score to help you develop a comprehensive Customer Development Program.  Next year is much easier if you start January 1, 2007 knowing you have 80% of your projected revenues already covered…  Think about it.

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how to hire professionals for branding & image

Like so many segments of small businesses professional support for branding and image does not need to be complicated or expensive.  Most aspects of business are based in logic and common sense and branding is no different.  I've attended many workshops and seminars that tend to make branding more difficult than it needs to be.  Here are the basics that every company needs to follow to begin your branding process:

• If you have a colored logo, use the logo on every piece of literature and your web site

• Use the same color scheme as your logo on every piece of literature and your web site

• If you have a tag line, use it on everything that goes out of your office

• Make certain your business card represents your logo correctly

• Every brochure, flyer, letterhead, envelope, business card, web page, banner, post card and everything else has the same "look".  The look being the first two items above.

If you do these simple, and very inexpensive items you've gone a long way down the road toward developing your brand. Don't be mislead down a path of expensive consulting, studies, surveys and focus groups at the early stage of your business.  Keep it simple and inexpensive.

Don't allow some outside professional lead you down a path that you don't understand or make you uncomfortable.  You are the business owner so you have the right to demand explanations that you fully understand.  It is the job of the consultant to help you understand, it is not your job to take their words for granted, or to make decisions without your 100% comfort.  Don't let them get by with telling you, "trust me, I've done this for years and I know what is best for your business".  Keep in mind, no one knows your business better than you do!

Next month we will share more information about branding and the non-look aspects of branding.
 

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rocky mountain quality conference

Mark your calendars for April 17 - 18, 2006 to attend this premier event, "Back to basics; people, processes & technology".  Greg Goettsch is one of several speakers for this event to be held at The Arvada Center for the Arts & Humanities, 6901 Wadsworth Boulevard, Arvada, CO.

Greg is honored to be selected as one of the presenters and his paper is "It's the "Who", not the "Do", That Makes the Business Work" which addresses the power of leadership rather than control, and developing the skills that directly impact your P&L.

To learn more visit www.RMQC.org.

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Colorado Governor Supports Small Business

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Colorado Governor Bill Owens has extended help for Colorado’s over 493,000 small businesses by signing into law HB 06-1041.

For more information, visit the Office of Advocacy website at www.sba.gov/advo.
 

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the core of selling

I've been to so many sales seminars in the last 30 plus years that I cannot remember them all.  I also have very few notes left because they all tell you essentially the same things to do.  You have to prospect, you have to qualify, you have to follow up, you have to practice the "close" and there are hours and hours spent on how to do these steps.  There are worksheets and workbooks, there are role playing exercises to get us to practice the six steps of a sales process, yet so many people fail miserably.

The failure rate of sales in small business is extremely high and from my experience there is one core reason for this, a lack of listening skills.  Listening is one of those skills that I see so few people attempting to teach.  Listening takes respect and intention, it doesn't just happen.  It is a skill that can be learned if one chooses to learn.

The secret to good sales is asking the right questions that will allow your prospect to talk about themselves in the best light, and to listen.  If you are thinking about what you want to say next while the person is talking, you are not listening.  This is a very simple process, but oh so difficult to execute.  Ask a question, listen intently, think about what was just said, and respond to what was said.  So many times I've observed someone focusing on what is rattling around in their head and not listening.  Once the prospect stops talking many sales people start talking about their own subject (which is frequently different than what the prospect needs or wants) and completely miss what the prospect just told them.

This behavior is disrespectful, non productive and dramatically lessons the odds of getting any sales from that prospect.

Look for more articles on the Simplicity of Sales.

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TECH CORNER

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some smiles

1) When I die, I want to die like my grandfather--who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car."
--Author Unknown

2) Advice for the day: If you have a lot of tension and you get a headache, do what it says on the aspirin bottle:  "Take two aspirin" and "Keep away from children."
--Author Unknown

3) "Oh, you hate your job? Why didn't you say so? There's a support group for that. It's called EVERYBODY, and they meet at the bar."
--Drew Carey

4) "The problem with the designated driver program, it's not a desirable job, but if you ever get sucked into doing it, have fun with it. At the end of the night, drop them off at the wrong house."
--Jeff Foxworthy

5) "If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there is a man on base."
--Dave Barry

6) "Relationships are hard. It's like a full time job, and we should treat it like one. If your boyfriend or girlfriend wants to leave you, they should give you two weeks' notice.  There should be severance pay, the day before they leave you, they should have to find you a temp."
--Bob Ettinger

7) "My Mom said she learned how to swim when someone took her out in the lake and threw her off the boat. I said, 'Mom, they weren't trying to teach you how to swim.'"
--Paula Poundstone

8) "A study in the Washington Post says that women have better verbal skills than men. I just want to say to the authors of that study: "Duh!"
--Conan O'Brien

9) "Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant?? I'm halfway through my fish burger and I realize, Oh my God.... I could be eating a slow learner!"
--Lynda Montgomery

10) "I think that's how Chicago got started. A bunch of people in NY said, 'Gee, I'm enjoying the crime and the poverty, but it just isn't cold enough. Let's
go west.'"
--Richard Jeni

11) "If life were fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead."
--Johnny Carson

12) "Sometimes I think war is God's way of teaching us geography."
--Paul Rodriguez

13) "My parents didn't want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty and that's the law."
--Jerry Seinfeld

14) "Remember in elementary school, you were told that in case of fire you have to line up quietly in a single file line from smallest to tallest. What is the logic in that? What, do tall people burn slower?"
--Warren Hutcherson

15) "Bigamy is having one wife/husband too many. Monogamy is the same."
--Oscar Wilde

16) "Suppose you were an idiot ... And suppose you were a member of Congress... But I repeat myself."
--Mark Twain

17) "Our bombs are smarter than the average high school student. At least they can find Baghdad."
--A. Whitney Brown

18) "You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, 'My God, you're right!  I never would've thought of that!'"
--Dave Barry

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