Total Marketing Solutions

Now really is the time to make sure that every last penny spent on marketing is well spent and is either increasing or shoring up your market share. That means choosing your marketing tactics carefully and measuring its effectiveness every step of the way.

When your hard-earned enquiry does come in, you obviously respond quickly with exactly the information your prospective customer needs to make the right decision. But despite your compelling argument, your proposal is rejected.

But why? Have you ever wondered? Have you ever asked? If not, you’re missing out on an opportunity to learn some valuable insights in how to move your business forward. But how do you go about asking? Many people find this is an uncomfortable situation to approach. It’s actually quite easy, if you handle it professionally.

Create a Form

Create a short form or questionnaire that lists a few questions you’d like the answers to. You may want to ask:

• if the proposal itself was clear
• whether all the information the prospect needed to make a decision was included
• did the proposal offer value for money
• whether your proposed product/service solution fitted their needs
• if any element was missing from your proposal

Resist he temptation to ask to see the winning proposal or ask which company won. These questions are too probing and could make your prospect feel uncomfortable.

Ask Permission

Ask your prospects for permission to send the questionnaire. This will give them the opportunity to refuse if they don’t care to participate.

Send the Form

Email works best in these situations – it gives your prospect time to think about the answers and what information to provide. Be prepared for some to head straight for the dustbin – but by keeping it short and by thanking them in advance for their insight and help in improving how you do business, you can minimize the temptation to bin your form.

While follow-up is usually a good thing, in this case it’s not advisable. If the prospect is too busy or simply changed his/her mind about responding, let it go.

Take time to learn from the feedback

When you get your responses, review them carefully. Don’t make radical adjustments based on one or two pieces of feedback. Instead, wait until you’ve collected several forms then look for trends. If you see that most prospects are making reference to the same things, you’ll know it’s time to make some changes.

We generally find that, as Strategic Marketing Consultants, by asking a few simple questions, you can find out an enormous amount of information that can help to turn losing proposals into winning ones - increasing your ROI from your marketing investment. While no one will win every project they bid on, with some “inside information” direct from your prospects, you’ll have a much better shot at creating winning in the future and  making sure that all your marketing activity generates as much value for money as possible.

With so many articles out there focussing on the doom and gloom of the current economic situation, it was refreshing to come across this article by John Quelch on the Harvard Business publishing site. He’s a welcome positive voice in encouraging businesses to start to plan for a brighter future, when it arrives. If you’re surviving the downturn and have made the necessary adjustments - possibly downsizing, definitely shedding unprofitable customers and almost certainly deleting poor selling products from your portfolio - then now if the time to plan ahead. In his article, John recommends a number of key strategies, which we - as Marketing Consultants - find echo the advice we are giving many of our customers.  He talks about the importance of customer focused marketing - focussing on high-potential customers and taking the time to fully appreciate how the downturn might have changed your relationship with your customers and how they want to buy from you in the future. If you feel like grasping hold of a bit of optimism then take a look at his article - it might just put a spring in your step!