Tuesday Marketing Notes (Number 62—December 12th, 2006)

A B2B Marketing Newsletter for BMA Members
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Do You Have the Execution Mindset? Eight Ways to Get Your Marketing Program Back on Track and Boost Your Sales, Right Now

by Eric Gagnon

For many years, I have distributed the following eight copy points in a poster we use as a mailing piece to get new clients. These “eight ways” have been a wonderful client self-selector, in that a potential client who looks at this piece and says “Yeah!” instantly identifies him or herself as a great prospect we can often help, and those who turned their nose up to it were better off with someone else—and we better off without them as a client.

These “eight ways”  resulted from a conversation I had many years ago with my good friend Mike Walsh, an entrepreneur and financial type who voiced frustration one bad morning at his new venture’s clueless inability to get its marketing projects out the door to respond to new selling opportunities. This anxiety was heightened by Mike’s acute sensitivity to how much of his investors’ money was being spent covering the company’s overhead each week, while his venture’s marketing team and outside agency were dead in the water, being very busy at not getting much done. What started as a therapy session for a troubled entrepreneur became a set of eight ways that cut to the heart of marketing in every new venture, and a realization to me of the importance of execution to every marketing program.

In many ways, every new marketing opportunity is like a start-up venture, so these points apply to just about any marketing project for any size company. Make these a part of the way you approach every new selling opportunity and marketing project, and you’ll save yourself from the major problems that cause many marketing programs to run off their rails before they even start.

In roughly their order of importance, here they are . . .

• If You Can’t Sell Your 10 Best Prospects Over The Phone, You Don’t Have a Business

Forget about “branding,”  focus groups and fancy logos: Take your best available mailing list of prospects and call the 10 best of these. If your best persuasive abilities can’t convince them to buy your company’s product, something’s wrong. Advertising will never save a product nobody wants.

• Do You Suffer From “Brochure Paralysis?”

If you can’t get a brochure produced in two weeks, you’ve got a problem. Beyond two weeks, you’re losing business and your entire marketing effort has ground to a halt—it happens every time. Set a deadline. Go from color to black and white; xerox if you have to—but get your brochure out on the street! If you can’t sell your best 10 prospects with a rough draft of your brochure, you won’t sell them with the fancy one you’re waiting on, either.

• Where’s Your Phone Number?

Tack your company’s brochure to a wall and start walking backwards. If you can’t read your company’s phone number on it from 10 feet, your prospect won’t see it at arms’length. Put your company’s phone number, URL, address, and how-to-buy info on every ad, mailing, brochure, and sales letter you send out. And don’t hold back—give your prospect all the benefits and information he needs to buy your product. No ad copy is ever too long if it tells your product’s story and sells your product.

• If You Can’t Send Your Brochure Out The Same Day, You’ll Never Fill The Order

Sales information must be sent out in response to an inquiry the very same day as received—period. If it’s not happening for you now, see that it does. Meanwhile, e-mail a one-page .PDF sales sheet to the prospect within two hours of their call—you’ll get their attention. And if you can’t tell your story on a one-page sheet, you don’t have a business, either.

• Your Best Market May Not Be The One You’re In Now

Most huge companies that once were startups aren’t now in the same businesses or markets in which they originally began. Most transformed themselves overnight when faced with imminent failure. Mix it up: Run a lead-generating ad in a targeted publication. Try a direct mail test. Push private-label deals with big companies. Market your product “in the box” with someone else’s. Like any other investment, sales and marketing expenses work best when they are diversified.

• Why Didn’t the Mailing Go Out?

It’s a fact: Delays kill marketing execution, and poor execution kills sales. Take no prisoners when it comes to delays in marketing execution. Don’t allow petty excuses to bleed your company. Set firm deadlines for mailings, from idea to lettershop, magazine, or sales force: Seven days for critical items and 14 days for everything else.

• Too Many Eyes Can Kill Your Company

Don’t run marketing copy and ideas past 27 different people. There are just three people who should review all marketing copy and materials in your company: You, your sales manager, and your best current customer.

• “Creative” People Will Hose You Every Time

Beware the man in the $75 haircut who says he has the magic bullet for your advertising campaign. Advertising isn’t rocket science. If you have a good product and a willing prospect, the rest is smart execution, follow-through, and common sense.

Copyright 2006, GAA

Special Thanks:

Last week, we had the pleasure of attending final presentations concluding a two-month beta test of the Business Marketing Institute’s new MSA/B/C training system, conducted by students from Penn State University’s Smeal School of Business, led by Professor Carolyn Todd. I’d like to thank Carolyn for making this project a part of her Marketing 426 class this Fall, and extend a special thanks to her students, who provided us with much useful feedback and many actionable ideas. This was a very memorable and enjoyable experience, and we hope it was as rewarding for the students as it was for us!

Questions? Comments? Send them to me at eric@realmarkets.net

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Attention Marketing Managers:
Get a Second Opinion  on Your Marketing Program. . . FREE

Think you should be spending less and getting more from your current marketing program? Tired of hearing empty “branding” promises from your ad agency that never seem to translate to actual, measurable sales results?

Or, have you been losing out on important new selling opportunities due to poor execution in your marketing projects?

Let us give you a second opinion on your current B2B marketing program and deliverables, at no cost or further obligation.

For more information, contact us at: ericgagnon@verizon.net or click on this link below:

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Eric Gagnon (eric@realmarkets.net), is president of GAA (www.realmarkets.net), a sales and business development consulting firm, and is the author of The Marketing Manager’s Handbook, the master study guide for the Business Marketing Association’s Marketing Skills Assessment, Skill Builder, and Certification (MSA/B/C) programs.

For more information on The Marketing Manager’s Handbook, available to BMA members at a special discount, link to:

http://www.businessmarketinginstitute.com/book.html

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Test, Train, and Build Your B2B Marketing Skills for Better Sales Success: BMA Announces New Assessment, Training, and Certification for B2B Marketing Managers

For more information on the new BMA Marketing Skills Assessment, Skill Building and Certification (MSA/B/C) training and professional development program, visit http://www.businessmarketinginstitute.com