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Dear Lee,
We've talked with a lot of marketing and sales people over the past
couple of months and one thing has become crystal clear. Success in
marketing and sales requires patience, attention to details, and clear-
headed thinking.
The most successful companies have not been whining about the lousy
economy, and for good reason...instead they've been paying attention to
their customers and continuing to ask the question:
What do my customers care about?
Developing the answer to this question is the first step to growing your
business more profitably and quickly.
Marketing processes that work
Over the next couple of weeks, we'll discuss some simple marketing
techniques that can make a dramatic difference to your business. The first
step is to make sure you understand your customers' pain. This is not
something you can discover in your conference room. You need to get out and
visit your customers to ask them to describe their pain.
Invite yourself over to four or five of your "best" customers and do a
quick account review. If you run marketing, ask your sales VP to set this
up. If you're the head sales guy, invite your chief marketing officer to
join you.
You're not there to "get more business"...instead you want to ask your
customer about what's keeping them up at night and how well you're
performing for them. Think big picture here...you really want to understand
whether (and how) you can be a good business partner to this particular
client for the next couple of years.
Then ask your client a couple of additional questions:
- What did you like most about our
engagement (or product)?
- What surprised you most about the
engagement?
- If you could, what would be the one
thing you would change?
- What else do we need to do for you to
consider this engagement a success?
Talk with enough customers and you will get
an accurate picture of how your market views you...which may be
rather different than what you expect!
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What can you do today to drive more revenue tomorrow? |
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Here's another simple exercise. Gather your team together and ask each
of them to write down one thing that they think the company can do to
drive more revenue in the short term.
You'll get some wacky responses (dropping price is usually one of
them), and some gems. But you won't know until you ask...and most
managers don't ask these types of questions enough. After you collect
and read the responses, talk with your team about their suggestions and
do some additional brainstorming.
You're probably so focused on making your numbers that you don't have
time to ask the question. But guess what...your team will have some
great ideas!
Oh, and by the way, pose the question to other people in the company
too. Invite people from customer service, your implementation team, the
receptionist, etc. to join you in the exercise. You'll get as much from
the interaction as they do.
You'll learn a lot...including the fact that many people in your company
have great ideas and that nobody has ever asked them before to share
those ideas! |
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Upcoming topics |
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In our next issue we'll continue to explore tactical activities that can
help you to drive the growth of your company.
And to help us with future topics...what are the key marketing and
sales issues facing your organization?
Talk with us about your key issues... » |
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