Marketing for Smarties makes marketing accessible and
affordable for those who know little about it, have the least time
for it, and yet have the most need.
Using the fourteen steps of Marketing for Smarties Workbook,
the workshops empower small business owners to recognize marketing
as a separate function and organize and implement a business process
to support it. This lead-generating, relationship-building business
process puts owners’ business on a permanent, sustainable
growth path.
Participants read two or three steps (three-five pages each) of
the workbook in advance of each session, during which the steps
are reviewed. Between sessions, participants are tasked with completing
the worksheets from the workbook. Coaching is integrated with the
program.
Peer exchange — ideas, advice, and feedback, received and
given — is one of the most valued benefits of the program.
The following syllabus assumes a program consisting
of five workshops, each 90 minutes, with two weeks between
each workshop.
This step shows owners that they usually have more knowledge and experience
than they imagine and therein lays the beginnings of a formal marketing and
sales business process. All possible sources for discovering documents and
information from previous experience are reviewed. This material is used for
list building, lessons learned, and identification of benefits and features.
Competitive analysis is also covered.
All the resources that ultimately will be needed to organize and implement
the process are presented. Owners are helped to think through what they can
do themselves, where they may need help, which tasks should be tackled early
on and which should be left for later. A simple plan and timeline is used to
carry out the near term tasks.
Positioning is explained. Positioning issues are explored so that owners can
develop value propositions, propositions that evolve into the raw ideas, words,
and phrases that will be the basis of the content of marketing and sales materials.
Here participants prepare a copy platform, one statement that comprises the
basic themes and messages to be used in all communications. Examples of “brain
dumps” are given and owners are asked to do their own. They are then
shown how to edit and polish their statements into a platform.
A simple, brief test marketing campaign is conducted to validate the themes
and messages. Using their platforms, owners are asked to prepare the campaign’s
instruments (a letter, a telemarketing script, and a short list) and then make
cold calls to the list.
With the soundness of the approach proven, a basic brochure and upgrade to
the existing Web site (or a new site) are developed, based on the copy platform.
Participants are given ideas and guidelines for preparing these tools, with
the watchwords being “simple” and “affordable.”
Why purchase of the right lists are crucial to the process and how to shop
for them are the subjects of this step. Different kinds of lists and their
constituent parts are described.
The matrix is used to leverage the valuable marketing tools owners develop.
By using every possible medium available, maximum value of the materials is
gained, including setting the stage for communication with prospects through
their preferred media.
The importance of record keeping is stressed. Contact management systems central
to the process are presented and explained in ways that avoid falling into
the pitfalls of over involvement with technology.
The sales process is daunting for most newcomers. The sales pipeline ladder
breaks the process down into a series of small steps: A. Suspects, B. Interested
Prospects, C. Near Proposal, D. Proposal Submitted, and E. Closing. Each is
a kind of mini-sale that ultimately brings in the customers. The cumulative
effect is the building of a sales pipeline that steadies the business by providing
a continuous flow of leads.
Marketing and sales are about getting to know people — getting to know
them so well that they become loyal customers who are receptive to increasing
their purchases. That’s relationship building. The way to build relationships
is through communications and events. The company’s database is at the
core of the process, hence the phrase, “relationship building through
database marketing.”
Marketing and sales are labor intensive and can become quite complicated. To
make sure that programs run smoothly and efficiently, a few simple project
management tools help keep it all together.
First, make sure the existing customer base is satisfied and the maximum business
possible has been obtained through key account selling and other techniques.
Add new customers to base as you move along. And always remember: marketing
and sales are about enthusiasm.
Plans don’t run on automatic pilot. Responsiveness to market feedback
is essential. This entails nimble adaptation, giving due weight to experience
in preparing new plans.
Plans for the next six-month period, including the materials and activities,
are reviewed to gain readiness for launch.
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MFS
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