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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