Want to Increase Sales?

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There is a whole lot of information on the web and in print on what to do to get great sales results.  Part of the solution is to know what are the statistics behind some sales activities that could help influence how you approach your activities.

  • Most emails get opened at the end of a day.  According to a study done by MailChimp they found the hours between 2pm and 5pm to have the most opens.
  • Tuesday is tending to be the day of the week with the best open rate.
  • A subject line is one of the keys to whether a person opens an email.  A study shows about 35% of people will make their decision to open an email based on a quick read of the email’s subject line.
  • Key words in your subject line are important for the open rate.  Words such as “learn”, “new”, “alert” tend to grab their attention.
  • According to a recent study about 57% of recipients will mark an email as spam, and this is even when the person knows the sender too.  If the subject line and material don’t resonate, they will throw it to spam because they don’t have the time to linger over matters that don’t help them move forward.
  • For outbound cold calling only about 2% result in an appointment.  This resonates with me because of my experience with clients using this technique.  It can be very effective but requires a large volume of calls to drive results.
  • On average a study showed that sales people will spend about 25 hours each month leaving voice mails.  Does leaving a voice mail work?  It may in some cases, but from my experience it does not result in calls to action to return the call.
  • Most voice mails will not be returned.  A study done by RingLead indicates that 80% of call go to voice mail and 90% of the first-time voice mails will go unanswered.  Some say to make it effective, only leave a voice mail that is between 5 to 15 seconds long.
  • The best time to call is generally between 6:30am – 8am and 4:30pm and 6:30pm.  People are usually checking messages and catching up at these times of day.
  • A recent study found that 77% of B-to-B buyers never talk to a sales person without independent research done before making contact.  It’s important to maintain the right social media presence and website content that will provide the information needed to the buyer.
  • Another study on B-to-B business found that 84% of buyers in this market started their buying decision with a referral.  One of the most powerful sales techniques is “word of mouth” referrals from a trusted friend or advisor.  How can your company position itself with influencers in your space as the “go to” source for your product or service?
  • Social media usage for business has found sales people are 79% more likely to hit their goals.  The key is using it for business communication with a strong message for recipient.

Give these statistics some thought on how you can utilize it with the sales techniques most appropriate for your company.

Here’s to increasing our sales!

Mike

Company Growth: Know Your Speed Limit

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Have you heard the saying “you’re either growing or dying?” 

For me, growth is in the eye of the beholder.  What I mean by that is growth means different things to different people and larger is not necessarily better.  The seduction of “bigger is better” exists because you can scale, get better pricing from vendors, and have a wider impact on your market.

However, as Basecamp founder Jason Fried explains in his article “The Zen Approach to Growth,” size may be important but it should be a by-product of meeting the mission of your company.  Getting bigger means more personnel to manage, larger customer base to manage, and so on.  Employees become a number vs. a name and family.

A business owner should think about why they want to grow and how it will impact the culture.  Being intentional about your growth is important.  Careful, methodical growth where the rate of growth is at least within the company’s affordable growth rate, which I often referred to as your “speed limit.”  Every company has a speed limit, and going excessively fast has its consequences.  Know your limit and why growth is important to you.

Here’s to knowing your speed limit and staying within it.

Mike

Selling via email? Absolutely – but use these tips for success

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Communicating with sales targets via email was probably not an option for your parents’ generation of workers. Yet email is a crucial tool for today’s salesperson. But these days, as we know too well, it’s impossible to read all incoming emails. So only “smart” emails will make it through your prospects’ filter.

Here are a few tips on how to craft and send emails that actually get read:

Best time to send:  According to Mailchimp, most emails are opened at the end of the workday, between 2:00 and 5:00 p.m. So, send emails in the afternoon to be first in line. A study by Experian shows that the most emails are read on Tuesdays. Why? Maybe because the Monday rush has passed. Maybe people are moving toward a four-day work week, whether their companies approve or not. Whatever is happening, send your most important sales emails on Tuesdays if possible.

Choose subject lines carefully:  Studies also show that the subject line makes or breaks an email: 35 percent of people decide whether to open an email based on the subject line. So a “cold call” email has got to have a short, interest-catching subject line.  Email open rates drop by 60% when the subject line is more than three words, so keep it short and concise.

    • There are also certain words in a subject line that increase the likelihood of it being opened. It may seem unoriginal, but words such as “alert,” “new,” and “free delivery” in the subject line (not only those words, of course) seem to pique recipients’ interest. Of course, the subject line should match the email content. Interestingly, words like “report” and “learn” in the subject line are likely to get your email escorted to the trash bin – perhaps because they allude to committing time that people just don’t have!

Content that inspires action:  Now we come to the content inside the email. The message should be friendly, concise, and action-triggering. It should have helpful information: why your product or service is better, what you want the recipient to know, what you want them to do next. People are busy; if it isn’t relevant to the receiver at the time, it’s clutter, no matter how fabulous you are. Give them a reason to reply!

So, send sales emails – but send smart sales emails. And think before you send each one. The last thing you want to do is flood someone’s inbox until your name equals “Junk Mail” in their mind.

3 Things Every Business Owner Should Know About Marketing

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#1 What Is Marketing?

This is a question that can inspire lengthy discourse and an entire day’s worth of discussion in Marketing 101 courses around the world. Many consider marketing to be the art and science of positioning your business and your product or service in the marketplace, creating a brand identity, and promoting awareness. I wish that I could get all of the academics to agree on my simple definition: “marketing is all the things a business does to create sales opportunities.”  It really is that simple.

Some people think that marketing is limited to those initiatives that you spend money on—advertising, websites, brochures, direct mail, public relations, and signage. Truthfully, all of these elements should fall under the umbrella of “marketing communications.”

While these are essential components of a complete marketing program, of much more importance are the marketing planning activities that come well before these programs are implemented. For example, some essential planning activities include:

  • Developing a value proposition and knowing if/how it changes by customer segment
  • Knowing your target audience—those customers most likely to buy your product or service
  • Creating a profile of your ideal customer that includes prospects’ habits, demographics, personality traits, and their wants and needs
  • Analyzing competitive strengths and weaknesses
  • Selecting the right channels through which to deliver a unified message

I can go on and on here, but the key point is that like anything else, when you do your homework before jumping into action, you’re more likely to generate the results—and return—you’re looking for.

Hint: companies that try to offer something for everyone often end up selling little to few.

#2 What Does a New Customer Cost?

Believe it or not, I come across very few businesses that track this metric, and quite frankly, it’s very important as well as easy to measure. You can calculate the cost of a new customer by totaling all of your marketing spending and then dividing that number by the number of new customers acquired. When you do this, you understand why many businesses fear the advertising man or marketing consultant because this number clearly shows that advertising doesn’t pay. Acquiring a new customer is far more costly (estimates range from a factor of five to a factor of 10) than keeping and advancing the relationships you already have.

Hint:  If you’re selling to customers one time only and you have not defined other revenue streams, it’s much more difficult to get a positive return on your promotional investments.


#3 What Is a New Customer Worth?

I’m not talking about how much profit you generate from the average customer each time he or she chooses to do business with you. Instead, I’m referring to the lifetime value of a customer. This metric is much more difficult to measure, or even to estimate. Why; because it requires very good tracking of individual customers.

Whether or not you are able to track specific customer visits and spending, the nugget of wisdom embedded in the notion of customer relationships is that building customer loyalty is valuable. There is a very strong correlation between long-term business success and long-term customer relationships. Successful marketing strategies nurture every stage of the customer lifecycle—from acquiring new customers to increasing loyalty to up-selling, cross-selling, and advancing relationships to increase customer lifetime value.

Hint: I recently received a $25 gift card from Starbucks for being a good customer. How did they know I was a good customer? They track how often I visit and how much I spend, since I put most of my purchases on a prepaid debit card. How much do you think that gift improved my loyalty to Starbucks? And what did that card really cost them?

Want to Lead the Pack? Create a New Category for Your Product

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by Michael Iverson

Every so often, I am surprised by a company that dramatically changes its industry. And, I wonder to myself: How did they do it?

My business reading list this year took me to a business classic called The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.  The authors, Al Ries and Jack Trout, provided an answer to my question.  They wrote about creating a new category for a type of product or service that’s already being sold.

How It’s Done

As an example, Ries cited the introduction of the Michelob brand of beer years ago.  For a number of years, American brewers envied the success of Heineken as a premium import brand commanding top dollar.  The marketers at Anheuser-Busch decided to develop a premium domestic brand category in hopes of replicating Heineken’s success.  Michelob became the premier domestic brand, and it transformed the way beer was marketed in the U.S.

Law 22 of The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing is the “Law of Category.”  It suggests that if you can’t be first in your category, you ought to create a new category for which you can be first.  It sounds crazy, I know, but it works—and here’s why.  Marketing consultants will tell you that surprisingly few people are interested in a product that supposedly improves upon the established leading product in a category.  On the other hand, everyone is interested in what is new.

By creating a premium domestic category, Anheuser-Busch used its talented marketers to define the category and portray the lifestyle that went with it. They succeeded in a big way, achieving an upscale pricing structure that far exceeded the dreams of most domestic brewers.

A more recent example with which I am familiar is the Under Armour brand of athletic wear.  For years, I had used the products of a company called Pro Player, which made underwear and socks for athletic use.  Its products were used by football players and other athletes, but Pro Player never really became a household name with the general public.

Under Armour created a new category in the same market space by incorporating “wick and dry” properties into its products.  A challenge for athletes is to remove substantial amount of perspiration so it doesn’t hinder a competitor’s performance.  Cotton garments tend to trap that moisture. Under Armour developed a means of dissipating the moisture.  In doing so, the company became the leader in a new category: athletic wear that stays fresh and dry.

Its marketers made the most of the products’ functional advantages, but also began to describe the company’s apparel as “attitude clothing.”  Can wearing athletic gear really change a person’s attitude?  Yes, if the wearer believes it can.  Under Amour played up the idea of its customers being underdogs and fierce competitors.  It captured the company’s place in the broader sports apparel market, as well as the aspirations of its customers.

Can It Work Locally?

Okay, so there is evidence that creating a new category works at the national level. Do the same principles apply to a local or regional business? I believe they do.  In metro Atlanta, a dental practice created its own category years ago by re-branding as “The Gentle Dentist.”  It definitely captured the attention of people who were afraid of dentists.

Here’s another example:  After years of hearing about $30,000 kitchen renovation projects, along came Frugal Kitchens & Cabinets to meet the needs of homeowners who didn’t have big money but still needed to update their kitchens. The business reached a whole new group of buyers by focusing on the less affluent market sector.

The opportunity exists for any business to create its own category and improve its fortunes. If top-line revenue growth is your challenge, ask Trillium Financial how to re-position the business to attract new customers.

What is the Best Pricing Strategy for Your Business?

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Smart business owners are always looking for ways to increase their business profits as they analyze their income statements. One area businesses can focus on to increase profits is in pricing strategy. Pricing is one of four levers that impact the quality of your profits. (The other strategies include direct cost control, indirect overhead cost control and volume).

In a competitive marketplace, businesses should routinely review their pricing strategies to maintain an edge and stay profitable.

“In addition to managing costs, our clients are continuously looking for better and smarter ways to set the optimal price so as to harvest that untapped profit while staying very competitive and maintaining a good position on market share,” says Phil Farris, Pricing Product Line Manager for Servigistics, which offers pricing software applications as part of their Service Lifecycle Management.

Small increases in pricing, even 1%, can also make a difference in the income statement. If you are holding your prices steady over an extended period of time, then you are actually giving a price break, because inflation erodes your purchasing power.  For example, if you sell a widget for $5.00 and it cost $3.00 then you make a profit of $2.00.  However, if inflation is 3% and you don’t change your price for the next three years then your cost is $3.28 and your profit is now only $1.72.

 

High or Low?  Which Way to Go?

A business has to make a fundamental choice: will it price at the higher end or the lower end? Of course, the best of both worlds is higher prices and higher volumes.  Understanding the price sensitivity in your market is important in order to get your product or service into your client’s shopping cart.

“There are generally two kinds of pricing and volume strategies,” explains Trillium’s own CEO, Mike Iverson. “High volume/low price or low volume/high price. Think about a Wal-Mart model versus a Saks Fifth Avenue model. They both might earn the same profit, but they earn it differently.”

“For service parts, high volume fast moving item are usually priced with a different and more competitive pricing strategy than low volume slow moving item,” Farris adds. “You do not want to lose sales volume by setting your price too high for products that are highly competitive.  Understanding sales volume history and seasonality for all your products is critical for setting the optimal prices at the right time.”

 

Value Pricing

Attracting customers and increasing value of a product or service to make the business stand out from the competition should be a priority.

“In the current economy, what I’ve seen in pricing is that many manufactures have held their prices, but added value; for example, buy one, get one free,” says Iverson.

Farris adds, “With new software tools and automation, our clients are finding it beneficial to change prices more frequently to maintain their preferred price positions in the market. We are also seeing an increase in the number of special prices (discounts) being offered to customers and also more demand for promotional pricing.”

 

Pricing Plans Pay Off

Pricing responses to market and income pressures differ from business to business. Yet, conscious business owners should consider the role price is playing in their income statements and develop both short-term and long-term strategies.

“We see clients who are very price margin conscious and some cost increases will immediately trigger a price change to maintain acceptable margins or it will force a renegotiation with a supplier to lower cost,” says Farris.  “On the other hand, for some products a flat cost line will often result in a flat price line over long periods of time.”

Pricing is just one lever that moves your bottom line. Pricing strategies should be flexible enough to respond to real time economic issues. We will discuss in future issues the other levers driving your bottom line: direct cost control, indirect overhead cost control, and volume.  Remember, pricing is the gateway to getting your product or service into your clients’ hands.

The Hidden Cost of Doing Nothing to Market Your Business

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by Tara Lamboley, CEO of REV Demand

Oftentimes I am asked “Who is your biggest competitor?”  And I always answer:  “Indecision.”

It’s quite true that the biggest hurdle we at REV (and I suspect many of you) must overcome in converting a prospect to a customer is to get that prospect to decide to do something, to make a change.   It’s often not the case that the prospect decides to business with another company—it’s that they don’t decide to do anything at all.

In his article “The Cost of Doing Nothing,” Michael Lippig of IDCON, Inc. asserts that:

“The cost of maintaining the status quo for professional services business owners is enormous. The status quo affects each and every one of us every hour of every day, at work and at home. We have come to accept doing nothing as a safe and acceptable alternative. We even make it the default solution.”

So why do business owners who want to grow their businesses default to doing nothing?  There are many reasons we can recite, including lack of money, lack of time, lack of desire, unsure of what to do, etc.  If we do nothing, it seems like a safe choice that protects our valuable time and resources.

However, there is a hidden cost, as Lippig writes:  “Doing nothing is the management equivalent of a baby’s pacifier. It makes us feel safe and comfortable. But there is a cost to doing nothing. Economists and accountants frequently refer to it as ‘opportunity cost;’ what you could do yourself with your resources if you were not doing what you are doing right now.”

By doing nothing different this quarter than last quarter with your marketing, you can be sure you will cost your business the following:

  • Your e-newsletter, direct mail, social media updates, prospecting emails, etc. will not go out, and so your prospects will get colder
  • Your customers—past, present, and future—will not hear from you enough to make repeat, expanded, and new business a consistent reality
  • You won’t build your reputation online and offline as an expert in your field that prospects must seek for solutions
  • You won’t invest in that training to make yourself that much more knowledgeable in your field of expertise
  • You won’t connect with strategic partners that can expand your sales capabilities
  • You won’t get off the unending roller coaster of project work and cyclical sales

Make no mistake:  When you decide to do nothing about marketing your business, you are still making a decision.   You are deciding to stay where you are and not grow your business.  You are saying you are comfortable with your current income, profitability, and lifestyle.

Of course, sometimes doing nothing may be the best decision for you at this time.  If you have other life priorities that need to take precedence right now over growing your business, it makes sense to maintain the status quo.

However, if you are ready to grow your business, then you have to start doing something to push your business forward (i.e., marketing) and/or stop doing the things that hold you back (i.e., not marketing).

Need help?  REV Demand offers a free, 1-hour, no-obligation assessment of your business development capabilities (including current marketing strategy and tactics as well as sales goals and processes).  We’ll help you build a plan of action to grow your business.  Contact us for more information.

What are the Benefits of a Diversified Revenue Stream?

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by Michael Iverson, Principal of Trillium Financial

When you think about the way America’s small businesses get started, it should come as no surprise that a relative few have revenue streams that could be considered diversified. A great many startups are the result of the entrepreneurial recognition of a market need.  In many instances, the market need is that of a single, sizeable customer.

For instance, I once made the acquaintance of a woman who helped manage the investments of a state pension fund.  One of the challenges of her position was keeping abreast of corporate governance matters for a universe of nearly 2,000 stocks owned by the pension fund.  Her team had a fiduciary duty to vote the shares in the best interests of the pensioners.  Yet, keeping tabs on executive compensation plans, auditor changes and corporate acquisition proposals for 2,000 different stocks was nearly impossible, given the small staff of the pension fund.  Why wasn’t there a service that could provide advisories on the stocks owned by her fund and other pension funds?

To make a long story short, she left the pension fund to become an entrepreneur and start the business that would address the very need she had identified.  She started a fiduciary advisory service to track corporate governance issues of stocks held by pension funds.  Her former employer became her first customer.

Starting Out

In the early years of a startup, it’s not uncommon for a business to be strongly dependent on its first customer. For some startups, it is 100 percent of first-year revenues and more than 50 percent of second-year revenues.

No matter how solid that first customer may be, it is prudent to become less dependent on the customer by diversifying the revenue stream.  Keep the original customer happy by providing outstanding service, but develop new customers as quickly as you can.

Diversification of revenues provides financial stability for your company, reduces business risk and makes your business infinitely more marketable when it comes time to sell.   Diversification can be number of customers, geography of customers, and product offering.  One of the metaphors that I have heard over the years is a three-legged stool offers more stability then a two-legged stool.

Shoot for 15%

As a goal, try to diversify your business to the point that no single customer is responsible for more than 15 percent of revenues.  Until you achieve that goal, the possible loss of your largest customer (due to reasons as varied as a change of ownership or a sudden downturn in the customer’s industry) carries significant financial risk to your business.

I have met any number of business owners who have lost a customer responsible for 30 percent or more of their revenues.  The results can be devastating.  Imagine having taken on debt to expand the business, only to lose a customer of that size.  Some businesses can’t survive that kind of a hit; others survive, but with great difficulty and sacrifice in the way of layoffs and contract renegotiations.

As many of my clients know, it’s not easy to achieve the 15 percent target. It’s not uncommon for talented service providers to be approached by a large customer who wants more of their time, not less. I advise clients to be disciplined and politely dismiss opportunities that would make them more reliant on a large customer.

Even though the initial financial rewards may be tempting, there is an important trade-off in terms of autonomy.  A business owner who hitches his wagon to a single customer often feels more like an employee than a business owner.

Is your business in need of a more diverse base of revenues?  We have ideas about acquiring new revenue streams. Give Trillium a call at (404) 353-2148 or send us an email.

Marketing Strategies for a New Economy

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by Bernadette Peters, Natural Marketing Services, LLC

What an interesting time to be running a business?  Everyone is trying to speculate about what is going to happen in real estate, with gas prices (and the shortage), the election and in the economy overall.  Small businesses are responding in a variety of ways . . . some are ceasing all extraneous spending . . . others downsizing . . . and many are “hitting the streets” in an effort to boost their sales.

We can’t throw in the towel – small business is still the fiber of our economy . . . but now is an even more important time to make some smart marketing decisions.  Below are a few key principles to help your business continue to thrive in the midst of tricky times . . .

Retain, cross-sell, up-sell

We all know that the most time-consuming and costly part of marketing is capturing a prospect’s attention, and then building trust so they will buy from you.  Marketing analysts say that the cost to acquire a new customer is 5-10 times greater than to retain an existing customer.  So why not spend your time and resources keeping your existing business, cross-selling to your current customers and encouraging former customers to buy again?  You already have a good bit of contact information, a buying history and hopefully some other knowledge about them.  Use this to re-connect, stay in touch and demonstrate the value you bring through your products and services.

Promote products/services people need in this economy.

Think about the products or services you offer that save your customers money, increase efficiency, simplify life and can contribute to their key values.  Focus on promoting those products and services rather than your entire inventory.

Give them a “taste” of what you have to offer.  Consumers have become a lot less risk-tolerant.  They want to get a sense that their purchases will count.  We are seeing fewer impulse buys and more calculated, well-thought out purchases.  You may want to consider breaking down your offering into a more appealing price point – a massage therapist may want to offer a 30 minute massage rather than the typical one hour . . . an IT services provider may want to put together a package of computer services with specific diagnostic and service deliverables the will speed up the performance of the computer for a flat rate.

In prospecting, build trust, go deep

As you pursue new prospects, your approach is what matters most.  Since we see and hear over 3400 marketing and advertising messages each day, it is difficult for a business to capture a prospect’s attention to get them to make a purchase . . . especially in this economy where people are more careful when parting with their money.

When promoting your products or services make the investment in time or money to generate an attractive, professional design and compelling message.  The call to action should require very little risk on the part of your prospect.  Get them to take the next step by offering valuable information or free or low-cost “samples” of what you do.  In this economy, consumers won’t make a decision by simply seeing an ad or mailer . . . you’ve got to go for the easier close, and build a relationship with a prospect through multiple steps.

Focus on the personal touch

Historically, challenging economic times have precipitated a return to core values and close relationships.  Personal connections with clients and prospects will prove to be an effective strategy when marketing your business.  Networking, phone calls, face-to-face meetings and hand-written cards bring the personal connection in our media saturated world.  The idea of doing that might seem daunting, but when integrated with your traditional communication and promotional programs, you can be both effective and efficient.

We are seeing a return to the traditional “drip campaign” where calling programs are integrated with mailings and email to individuals.  Natural Marketing Services has partnered with a direct marketing company called, Telesales, Inc. to provide these types of drip campaigns for our clients, as well as lead generation programs, customer retention, surveys and studies.  They have also seen a return to personal touch with their clients as the economy has changed.

Most importantly, you can’t spend too much time watching the news and listening to all the analysts’ opinions about the economy!  Your business makes a contribution to the economy too, and now is the time to focus ON your business, your customers and your prospects.

If you are interested in scheduling a low-cost marketing strategy session to jump-start your business, call Bernadette Peters from Natural Marketing Services at 678.643.3899.

Phased Approach Makes Marketing Planning Easy AND Effective

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by Bernadette Peters, Natural Marketing Services, LLC

It’s the new year again.  We’ve all been working on budgets, evaluating our financial strength and setting goals for the new year.  One of the biggest challenges for any business owner or manager is creating a marketing plan.  There’s a misnomer out there that the plan requires several months of work and the final result is a large tabbed notebook of strategies and initiatives.  But that’s not necessary to create a plan that you can implement in 2010.

As a marketing services provider and consulting firm, we have worked with a lot of small businesses.  They all need a marketing plan, but didn’t necessarily have the budget or time to go through the full marketing planning process.  So we developed a phased approach that any business can use to produce positive results in the short-term and over the long term.

It looks like this:

  1. Evaluation/Discovery
  2. Strategy Document
  3. Implementation Plan

Evaluation/Discovery:  When a business is small, the owner or manager has a pretty good sense of where his or her customers are coming from, which marketing strategies are working or not working and the general areas that the business needs to focus on to grow.  But as a business expands, owners and managers “wear fewer hats” and are more disconnected from the reality of their marketing effectiveness.  The evaluation and discovery process provides real data to get the owner or manager back in the driver’s seat.  Actionable data is the result of this process.  During our client marketing strategy session, we go through a discovery process which looks like this . . .

  1. Financial – this discussion centers around revenues, profit margins (per product/service or customer group), average number of transactions, average transaction amount, growth goals for the following year.
  2. Target Market – we look at existing customer demographics, psychographics, buying behaviors, then combin the financial data with this information to determine adjustments to the desired target market, and products/services that go with that market.
  3. Database – since data is everything, we look at the types of data that the business maintains on their current customers, inactives, prospects and strategic/referral partners.  We evaluate trends through reporting that will help shape our strategy phase of the plan.  We also look at the marketing tracking – activites that lead to new sales, retention, or cross-sales to existing customers.
  4. Marketing activities and infrastructure – this is probably the most time-consuming part.  We look at all marketing, communication and sales initiatives for the year, evaluate their effectiveness and prepare for the decisions we will make in the strategy phase of our plan.

And guess what?  If you never get past the first phase, you’ll still have created something valuable to make a difference in your marketing.  But if you want to go from “good” to “better,” move to the Strategy phase.

Strategy: This is where we take all the data from Discover/Evaluation and create ideas to improve on what’s working, make decisions to remove what is not working, and then reallocate funds or effort toward new marketing initiatives that we will test and track in the coming year.  The result of this process can be a one-page marketing plan listing specific goals and high-level initiatives or a multi-page document with enough detail to get the process started.

At this point if you don’t have the time or resources to move into the implementation phase, you can use this document to move forward.  We suggest going back through it to rank the initiatives in order of potential effectiveness (A, B, C), then list target dates for each initiative.

Implementation Plan: If you have a team to help you implement the marketing strategies, we highly suggest moving to this phase which will take your plan from “better” to “best.”  This is where you put specific information to your plan.  Each initiative will have associated tasks, resources needed to implement them, and time required for each step.

Although Microsoft Project may be more software than you need for this process, you may want to consider using it or something similar.  One of the key features we use is the “predecessor” fields so if one step gets delayed or an initiative re-prioritized, you can easily change the target dates of all associated tasks for that particular project.  You may want to use something as simple as an excel spreadsheet.  Remember, for each marketing initiative, you will want to test and track its effectiveness, and possibly adjust the marketing channel or message in order to find the most effective approach.

Here are some metrics we recommend tracking.  This works for direct response initiatives (promotional programs, events, mailing, advertising), but is not as effective for branding strategies.

Response rate – you will need to define what a response is for you.  It could be a sale, an inquiry, the prospect giving you an email address, etc.  Response Rate = # of responses/number of impressions (mailings sent out, number of ad copies, etc.).  The goal is to increase responses.

Cost per Acquisition – what it costs the business to acquire a new customer.  This can be tracked on a business level, customer group level or even a campaign level.  The goal is to reduce it over time. On a business level, you can divide what you spent on marketing or sales and marketing by the number of new customers acquired for that year.  That will be your baseline.  We’ve had clients track it on their business customers separate from their consumer customers, or even by affinity group.  On the campaign level, you can track what you spend on the campaign and divide by the number of new customers you acquire directly from that campaign.

Just remember that in everything, even marketing, there’s a good, better and best approach.  Going through the evaluation and discovery process will provide you with a good sense of what needs to be done in the new year.  The strategy phase will provide a better approach with identified initiatives, and the implementation phase offers the best approach toward achieving your growth goals in the new year.

One Crazy Idea Can Revolutionize Your Business

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by David Shavzin

“We are too busy mopping the floor to turn off the faucet.”
Anonymous

Trying new things is always a good idea. We get stuck in ruts as individuals and as companies. “We have always done it this way, so why change?”   It can be hard to get out from under the day-to-day fires and step back to THINK.

Even in the best of times, we need to keep reinventing how we do things. But certainly during these challenging times! Even if the years since 2009 have been an economic anomaly, they have clearly changed the business environment, including every industry and every aspect of the economy.

You’ve likely heard the definition of insanity (attributed to various people, including Albert Einstein): “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.” If you have not been hitting the sales targets you had set, are you going to keep doing what you have been doing? What are you going to do to ensure a successful year? What are your customers doing differently? How can that impact you? How can you adjust to take their new habits into account?

You cannot – and do not want to – change everything. But, how about one thing? Just one “crazy” idea.

Here is an example: Sales at The Home Depot were down due to housing market problems and lower consumer spending. Sound familiar? So, they decided to sell off parcels of their parking lots. They are taking pieces of those giant parking lots and selling them to retail outlets such as fast-food, pet stores and auto parts. Imagine being in the boardroom when that idea was suggested!!

Here is my advice: Get together with your partners, your management team, your employees or a couple of friends or colleagues. Brainstorm and come up with your “parking lot” idea.

Get in a room with a white board, a flipchart or paper and pen. Ask everyone to help you brainstorm new ideas…laughing is allowed, criticizing is not, everything gets Written Down, as reasonable or wacky as they sound. If you can, have someone facilitate to keep you on track – they should not participate but keep you focused. Alignment and agreement among the owners or the management team is critical.

The ideas may be slight twists on something you are doing today, or they may be the most ridiculous-sounding ideas you have ever heard – at first! They may have something to do with operations, finance, human resources, production, marketing, sales, customer service or any other part of your business. New markets, new products, new staff member, an improvement to your production or sales process.

How can you make at least one of these ideas fit your business this year? It may or may not work. If not, go back to that list and try something else!

David Shavzin is President of Shavzin & Associates, Inc., a Certified Management Consultant, and a master of crazy ideas. He can be reached at (678) 795-1750 or dshavzin@shavzinassociates.com