subject: Entrepreneur's Coaching Center - A 6 Step Marketing Plan [print this page] Many business fail for want of sales and sales often suffer because of poor or total lack of planning. Before your fork out money to hire people, especially sales people, you need a marketing plan.
To begin, let's be clear. Marketing and Sales are different. I know, "elementary, my dear Watson," but you would be surprised to know the number of people who do not know or appreciate the difference. Marketing is about who is needs your product or service, is likely to buy it, and why they would buy it. Sales on the other hand is communicating that message and giving people a reason to by from you or your organization versus someone else.
A marketing plan should be developed before you hire people or rent space, just to be basic about it. If you, the entrepreneur, and do not know why people want and need your product or service, how could anyone else, especially a customer? Since sales and the resulting revenue is the life-blood that keeps business alive and produces growth, resources devoted to enhancing that process can only pay big dividends. Marketing is communicating the whys to the potential buyer i.e. Why do I need this? Why should I buy from you versus someone else?
So here are 6 steps to help you develop a marketing plan:
1. Identify the features of your product and service
2. Determine the benefits of buying or owning your product or service
3. Identify the number of people who would buy your product and service, where and how they can be contacted
4. Determine the means you will use to communicate to those people you have targeted
5. Implement your plan
6. Measure the results in terms of sales
Identify Features
Think carefully here! Don't just settle for the surface or obvious features. Drill deeper. Look at what you can appeal to prospects. Go beyond product features. Look at pricing, delivery, and value features. Get them down on paper so you can communicate them to prospects, suppliers and employees.
Determine the Benefits
A Swiss Army knife, has 109 features but maybe only a handful you will ever use. Think carefully through the the features and learn t translate them into benefits. An example is XYZ Cleaners is nearby, inexpensive, delivers and stands behind their work. Those are all features. The right person would benefit by being able to stop by on the way home from work instead of making a special trip, they would be able to save money, not only on gas but on the cleaning price itself, and can count on replacement if a garment is damaged. WoW! Where is that cleaners?
Determine Market Demographics and Psychographics
Many people identify their target market by buying a city map, putting and X at your location, placing a cup over the top of the X and drawing a circle around the cup and believing that all, inside the circle is the target market. They might be right, but most likely, they are wrong. You may be in the middle of a low income neighborhood and selling a high priced product. Not many, nearby are going to by your product. So determine not only where the buyers are but what they look like and think about before you start.
Use Multiple Means to Deliver the Message
Don't simply depend on one message deliver system, us multiple means to deliver your message, radio, TV, email, direct mail, networking, etc. Direct is still one of the most efficient means of delivering a marketing message and also one of the least expensive.
Implement Your Plan
The Devil is in the details they say. Certainly, the best marketing plan in the world will not be effective if it isn't put to the test. Make a plan and implement it.
Measure Results
Know what works and what doesn't. Keep doing the things that work and stop doing the things that don't.
Here you have, what I call the Reader's Digest version of a marketing plan. If you do nothing else but this you will be successful!
