Marketing Mindset

Theory of constraints teaches there are three facets to any business: Sales, Operations, and Finance.  We have to “get work,” “do work,” and “get paid.”

There’s a reason Sales comes first in the process, whether or not the business thinks of itself as a Sales organization.  No matter what you call it, or how you achieve it, the lifeblood of your business is cash, and the way to get cash is to generate Sales.

The 4 P’s of Marketing apply to every business.  They are Product (or service), Price, Placement (in the market), and Promotion. Your Product must be something your customers want. The Price must be competitive in the marketplace and attractive to your customers, while still covering your costs and providing an acceptible profit margin.  The Placement of your product in the marketplace must be such that customers know about your offerings and can find you.  Finally, the Promotion of your product must reach its target audience to attract new customers.

Marketing is critical to the success of every business. Unfortunately, many businesses discount the effect it can have, or they forgo marketing because they believe they cannot afford it or simply do not have the time or energy to create a plan.

To appropriately analyze a firm’s 4 P’s and create a customer segmentation platform takes work. To then take that data and build a marketing campaign around it takes commitment. Commitment in the form of time and resources, but also commitment in the form of patience. Unless the plan calls for cold-calling or some other direct interaction with potential customers, the results will not be immediate.

The Marketing Blueprint

Often, clients feel that a Marketing Plan is too large or too expensive an undertaking to embark upon. They fear that starting such an undertaking would take away from their core business. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not planning to bring in more money will destroy their business.

A Marketing Plan need not be an insurmountable task. It need not be a “Plan” at all. Marketing needs to be a mindset, permeating the entire organization. Meaning even the lowest level employee needs to understand the impact of the all important “next sale.”  The “next sale” is the reason you are in business in the first place.

A Marketing Blueprint is helpful in getting something down on paper, and in beginning to think of the process as a mindset – something that is a mode of operation, and not just a task to perform. The Marketing Blueprint is a simple set of questions that get the business owner to think about their customers and their business in a different light.

The Marketing Blueprint is a set of seven questions, answered in one sentence responses, which become a guidepost for how the business will operate with the necessary mindset to attract new sales.

1. What is the Purpose of the Marketing Blueprint? The PURPOSE must be stated in terms of the bottom-line results that your Marketing Blueprint will hold you and your employees accountable to produce. [To illustrate: XYZ Manufacturing will build the highest quality auto parts in the world.]
2. How – focusing on the Benefits – will the company achieve its Purpose? [To Illustrate: XYZ Manufacturing will achieve its Purpose by establishing purchasing contracts with suppliers throughout the world who can offer XYZ the highest quality supplies at the lowest possible prices.]
3. Who are your Target Customers? Who buys your products and services? Be thoughtful, taking into consideration past clients and any changes they have faced over the years that changed how and what products/services they purchase from you.
4. What Strategies and Tactics will be used to reach the target customers. This sentence will list every method you plan to employ in your Marketing Blueprint. [To illustrate: ABC Company will rely on a direct and a distributor sales force, the Internet, display advertising, direct mail, collateral pieces, trade shows, and outdoor advertising to reach Target Customers.]
5. What is the Target Market of the company? The following four criteria establish or define a product’s Market position:
   • The prospective customer must readily perceive the benefits of the product or service.
   • The customer must be able to rate the importance or value of those benefits.
   • The customer must be able to identify how those features and benefits will separate his business from others in the industry.
   • The customer must be aware of the uniqueness of our product, and particularly how difficult it will be to replicate or to replace our product or service.
6. What is our company Identity? What are we? How do we want our business to be perceived or remembered? A Company’s Identity must be based on Truth. Any Marketing effort designed to create an Identity that a company does not in fact stand behind 100%, is doomed for failure.
7. What percentage of projected gross revenue will be dedicated to the Marketing Budget? You must always remember that the primary purpose of your Marketing Blueprint is to obtain the maximum profits.

In the end, what you wind up with is a seven-sentence statement that informs your organization of the way you will acquire new customers. An example of proper wording would be as follows.

(1) The PURPOSE of ABC Publisher’s marketing is to sell the maximum number of books at the lowest possible selling cost per book. (“Introduction to Entrepreneurship Environment – University of Colorado …”)

(2) This will be ACCOMPLISHED BY positioning the books as being so valuable to free-lancers that they are guaranteed to be worth more to the reader than their selling price. (“Introduction to Entrepreneurship Environment – University of Colorado …”)

(3) The TARGET CUSTOMERS will be people who can or do earn income from engaging in free-lance writing activities.

(4) MARKETING TOOLS to be utilized will be a combination of classified advertising in magazines and newspapers, direct mail, sales at seminars, publicity in newspapers and on radio and television, direct sales calls to bookstores, and mail-order display ads in magazines.

(5) The TARGET MARKET will be beginning free-lance writers who are without the benefit of industry contacts or associations.

(6) ABC Publishers will be IDENTIFIED as a company that provides expertise quickly to customers.

(7) Thirty percent of sales will be allocated to marketing.