The Discipline of Market Leaders

Marketing, Planning

No company can simultaneously excel at delivering market leading performance in all three value disciplines. This is because each disciplines requires completely different operating processes, different ways of thinking and behaving. When a company choses one ‘lead’ discipline to excel in they are placed to become market leaders.

Conversely, when a company attempts to excel in all three disciplines they become, at best, mediocre at all and will oscillate in the market. Which market discipline is the right one for your company?

Still Using A Spreadsheet to Track Leads?

Marketing, Sales

While spreadsheets are relatively easy to use and widely known, it’s definitely not the most efficient or effective way to collect, analyze, and manage business data, especially if you’re a company that’s hoping to grow in the near future.

There are clear distinctions between the features of a CRM versus a spreadsheet. If you have to manage multiple leads coming in and have a multi-step sales process, using a CRM system may be a step worth taking, and need not cost much.

How to make your emails look professional

Marketing

People these days expect your business to have a domain name and a website. An email address like jsmith@yourcompany.co.nz tells people you’re serious about your business. 

Free email services, such as Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo, are great for personal use, but when you use a free email account for business purposes, people will start to doubt your professionalism and credibility.  If you want your prospective clients to take you seriously and you don’t have your own domain name email address, I recommend you….

How to stop wasting money on advertising

Marketing

There was a classic statement from a company executive I read once (can’t remember who) that said, “I know we waste 50% of the money we spend on advertising, I just don’t know which 50%”.

That might be okay, but not ideal, if you are a big company with a big marketing budget. Most of my clients don’t fall into that category, so I am insistent that money spent of direct advertising is as effective as possible and is intended to generate an action or response by a prospect.

Catch More Sales Leads

Marketing

When you are out fishing and only have one line over the side, you limit the number of fish you can catch in the time available.  The same applies when marketing your business.  Use only one marketing channel and you still may catch a customer, but if your channel goes unnoticed, you can come up empty handed.

The answer, just like when you are fishing, is to use several baited hooks in your marketing.  Also, make sure the bait is enticing and kept fresh.

How successful companies think

Marketing, Owner

No company can be successful today if it attempts to be all things to all consumers. Rather, the most successful companies — the Market Leaders — select a unique value that they alone deliver to their chosen market better than anyone else.
The big question is, “where will you focus your business’s Vision and Value Discipline for the future?” Pick one corner of the Value Discipline triangle and make it your anchor point, then develop your business processes to deliver on it. Read on to find out more about the different value Disciplines.

Marketing 101: Horse before Cart

Marketing

I often see small companies approach their marketing on a random, suck-it-and-see approach, therefore waste a lot of money and time going nowhere.  They will try one channel, after being approached by a slick salesperson with a “deal”, put a quick campaign in place and more often than not, be disappointed by the results.  Thinking…

Why Reputation Matters and How To Build It

Marketing, Sales

A recent study for the construction industry by Hinge, a US based branding and marketing firm, found that buyers listed good reputation as the most important criteria for purchasing, and the good news is that most sellers already recognize this fact. www.hingemarketing.com  They also asked buyers about the best way to market to them (Figure 1).…

Time to fire some customers?

Marketing

The customer is always right. Correct? Wrong! The RIGHT customer is always right for your business. Unfortunately most of us don’t know who the right customers are for our business. So we take on board anyone who has a heart beat, without ever identifying the right customer profile for our business. But who is the…