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Marketing the Right Way
By: John Kypriotakis
I guess any amount of marketing versus no marketing at all is a step in the right direction. For an industry that depends on others marketing activities for much of its revenue a lot more should be done. Why do I say this? In our work with clients we are finding that for some printers marketing is just an afterthought, a pet project, something to do when they have idle presses, etc.
The owner or the sales manager often handles it or (yikes!) it is assigned to each sales rep to take care of individually. More often than not it is a short-term project to be done when we have time (translate: when we are slow) instead of an ongoing, strategic, and deliberate process.
For marketing to be most effective it has to be part of a bigger picture and it has to be congruent with the goals of the organization. In addition, it has to be an integral part of any other sales efforts in the marketplace.
Where do you begin? First decide what you want to accomplish through your marketing efforts. You need a target, a goal, a purpose.
Once you have the goal defined, devise the strategy on how to get there and finally all the tactical steps necessary to meet your strategic objectives.
Next, be sure you do have a message to communicate. Here are a couple of key questions worth asking and taking the time to find real answers to: What is it that makes you unique and/or valuable to the marketplace? Why would someone do business with you instead of somebody else?
Once your value proposition is defined, proceed with the strategy on how to communicate it properly. Approach this from two angles.
The first and most commonly discussed way to communicate this is through your sales channel and any other mass methodology you can use such as direct mail, trade shows, your website, etc.
The second, and the one often overlooked, is marketing through all of your employees efforts in every interaction they have with the customer. So when you ask What makes us unique and/or valuable to the marketplace? the answer not only needs to be defined, but it needs to be communicated to everyone in your organization. The reason? Marketing/Selling and Customer Service is Everybody's Business. As such, all employees need to know your company's value proposition and be able to articulate it.
Employing the assistance of the whole organization in your marketing, selling and customer service efforts leads to another key concept: Customer Knowledge as a means to Customer Loyalty.
The basic premise of this concept is that the more time your customers invest in developing effective communications and processes with your organization the less likely they will be to switch suppliers. Ultimately this is the optimal condition for both organizations.
Why would customers invest time to show you the way? How does all this affect your long-term relationship with them? What could you do with all this newfound knowledge that will benefit you and them?
This is a unique concept and we would need more time (and space) to develop and explain properly. We are planning to do so in a future article.
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John Kypriotakis is President of Lysis International, Inc. a Tampa based sales management consulting firm specializing in Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service.
Phone 813-792-8500 - E-mail: need_info@salesandmanagement.com
