Total Marketing Solutions

I delivered a 1-day workshop on implementing a Key Account approach to sales for one of our most important clients earlier this week and I was struck by just how essential it is for sales and marketing to be joined at the hip if this strategic approach to sales development is to be fully effective.

Now this shouldn’t be a revelation and by and large it wasn’t to the participants on the workshop, who were all very experienced and high quality sales professionals, but as we progressed through the day it became clear that it can be easy for sales people - even experienced ones - to drop into a silo mentality and not really see the need for a truly symbiotic relationship with their marketing colleagues when faced with the challenge of winning and development those key accounts that are the key to driving growth in both revenues and profitability.

These key accounts need to be treated as ‘markets of one’ with an individual sales AND marketing plans developed and implemented if their potential is to be fully realised. We had everybody on board with this way of thinking by the end of the workshop but it wasn’t completely plain sailing!

Our last post was going to neatly lead onto the importance of marketing planning (click here for our official take on the importance of developing a good marketing plan.) But then a piece on the BNET report by business coach Ian Sanders outlined the approach taken by one Joe Oliver, of eco-entertainment consultancy Bash Creations. Whilst many would argue that in today’s landscape having a marketing plan cast in stone is far less appropriate than a flexible approach to a fluid marketplace, Joe actually has no marketing plan at all.He has found that his more liberated approach has enabled his company to be more enterprising and more robust for survival in difficult times. He has four tips for navigating your way through the unpredictable business landscape without a big strategic plan:


1.    Think fluid. Don’t get stuck to a rigid strategic plan. Instead, see where the water flows and trust your instincts — not your spreadsheet — in pursuing new options. Make sure your business is agile enough to react to market trends or new innovations in technology. If you spot a new opportunity, you don’t have to check it’s on the plan first — just go for it.
2.    Prototype. Test your ideas in the real world. Better to launch beta versions of your website, so you can evaluate and tweak as you go, rather than trying to perfect the model before you launch. Otherwise you might never get the site off the ground.
3.    Reinvent. Learn to love change and be prepared to rethink what you do and how you do it. Maybe your business feels a bit stale, a bit stuck. You might need to shake up your organization so your clients start thinking differently about you. Re-energize your organization by taking your team on an ‘away day’ to brainstorm new ideas; think laterally about how you can re-engineer your offering to grow the business.
4.    Think goals, not plans. Set objectives for the year: deadlines to meet, products to launch. It’s important to know what you want to achieve — if not necessarily how you’ll get there. This allows you to think big without initially worrying about the details. A goal may be “I need to get a new client every month.” Perhaps you don’t have a strict linear plan for how you’ll actually achieve that — you just start off the instinctive way: word of mouth, social networking, client meet-and-greets, and so on.  You can’t chart this activity on a graph, but mentally focusing on the goals will help you reach your desired outcome.

Ian argues that a timeline or a spreadsheet can’t capture those opportunities that arise from serendipity and random meetings, but if you remove the traditional business planning mindset, you’ll be liberated to grow your business in line with how the world really changes — not with what it says on a spreadsheet.
It’s a brave stance and not for everyone, but it certainly seems to suit the way Joe works and has been able to develop his business. So perhaps in this new economic landscape of 2010 it’s time to take a look at how you work and how you are best able to grow your business - choosing the appropriate path somewhere between “planned to within an inch of your life” and the rather freer approach adopted by Joe. To find out more about our thoughts on marketing planning and marketing plans follow this link.

Following on from last week’s post, what happens once you’ve got a clear idea of where you want to take your business and have a carefully crafted business and marketing plan? If it’s early days for your company then it’s time to think about developing a clear, concise marketing strategy to help you achieve your objectives. If you already have a marketing strategy, given the significant changes in the economic landscape over the past year, it’s also a good idea to revisit your strategy to check for relevance. You may well have been treading water for the past year or so in terms of marketing activity. But during this time, how far have you deviated from your initial marketing strategy in order to survive? And how do you get back on track?

Whether developing a marketing strategy from scratch, or helping clients find their way back to where they want to be, as marketing strategy consultants we ask our clients to think about three key areas:

1. Identify just how much your competitive landscape has changed. Have any new competitors emerged? If so, what are similar services of products are they offering? How have your existing competitors changed in how they tackle this new geography? Understanding how your existing and new competitors are looking to tackle the new landscape of 2010 will help you better position yourself in the market and ultimately better compete against all competitors.

2. Re-examine your target market. Time spent researching any changes amongst your target market in buying trends will give you a clear picture of who your customer is, what influences their buying decisions and what changes they are facing. Again, a clear understanding of your customers will enable you to position yourself appropriately and compete more effectively.

3. How relevant is your product or service? Whilst you may have been chasing every sale at all costs in recent times - and understandably so - this can sometimes dilute the unique set of  benefits you are able to offer. Rewriting your positioning statement can be a very useful way to make sure you are clear about what you offer, who to, and why people should buy from you. Being clear about what you offer makes it easier to communicate your particular benefits to your chosen target markets, making for more effective marketing.

Once you have a clearer strategic marketing direction, you can then set about developing appropriate marketing plans to bring real results. To find out more about how to develop effective marketing plans and marketing planning please follow this link.

When we’re asked to meet with potential customers to help them develop a suitable marketing strategy for their business, rather than hitting them with a “death by powerpoint” presentation on the virtues of tactical marketing,  we always ask what their plans are for their business and if they have a clear, well-defined business strategy in place. And in many cases, the answer is a rather resounding “No!”

But why do we ask about a business strategy if all the client wants is some help with their marketing? The answer goes right to the core of how we do business. Every piece of marketing advice we give our clients is designed to deliver results - and if it’s not part of an overall strategic direction, it’s impact will not only be severely limited but also a potential waste of valuable marketing budget. It might also be entirely inappropriate if it doesn’t reflect the strategic objectives of the company.

Our starting point for developing a marketing strategy always has to be a clear understanding of what our client wants for their business - how do they see their company developing in the future? Are they perhaps looking to sell the company in the next couple of years and enjoy an early retirement? Or are they looking to secure a steady 10% growth over the next five years with a secure dividend stream? Both directions of course have totally different mindsets and both will require a completely different marketing strategy designed to help achieve their own specific outcomes.

For many smaller, owner-managed businesses, the business strategy is inextricably intertwined with the more personal objectives of the business owner themself. Rather than looking for the quick marketing fix (there isn’t one by the way!), we take the time to listen - to their hopes for the business, the issues they are facing and the potential barriers preventing them from achieving their objectives. We first of all help them to bring clarity to their thinking and ask them some searching questions about what they really want for their business. Once we have achieved a clear view of where they would like the business to be in 2,5 or 10 years time, we can then help them develop a clear business strategy.

Once the business has a clear strategic direction to follow, we’re off and running. We can then develop a specific, appropriate marketing strategy which really will deliver the required results. It’s not a quick fix, but it works - that’s what makes us experts at what we do. To find out just how we go about developing effective marketing strategy, take a look at our resources page here.