Helping you start and run your business

Starting your own business in 4 steps

 

Step 3 of 4 – Sales & Marketing

 

By Simon Misiewicz of www.optimise-gb.com 26th October 2011

 

 

Without marketing, your potential customers will not know what or why they should buy from you. You may argue that you have enough customers and there is no need for marketing. If that is the case then this article will not add value to you. However, if you are looking to significantly grow your customer numbers who are more profitable then please read on.

 

 

There are many tools that you can choose from to help you decide the best marketing methods for your business. Ultimately you will need to understand who your customer is, what they are motivated by, what are they passionate about and where they go to buy their products and services? Knowing your customer in great detail is the best tool you have to ensuring that you deliver the right product / service top meet their needs.

 

 

Your product should be evaluated through the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) model so that improvements can be identified, for the benefit of the customer. Do not forget any strengths that you have should be marketed to your customers. No one else will sing your praises better than yourself.

 

 

It is very important to understand how you will price your product. If you are selling a product / service that has the best quality such as a three star Michelin restaurant then do not put a price tag of a fast food restaurant chain on your products. You simply will go out of business because you do not make any profit.
Marketing is a form of promoting your business. Ensure that your marketing is also positioned well so that your customers can easily see your advert and interpret it easily.

 

 

There are a variety of sales tools that you can use from networking with people, telesales, leaflet drops, newspaper ads, websites, email shots and direct mail.  All of these may work but it depends on what your customers prefer and how you well you execute marketing activities. The best way to evaluate your marketing activity is to ensure that each advert has a code that helps you measure what sales have been created from each marketing activity.

 

 

Now that you have read this article you should now have many ideas running through your mind. Before you forget them write them down on pieces of paper and evaluate them in accordance to big impact and small impact on your sales performance. Next categorise the marketing ideas into easy or hard to implement. Now go and focus on the ideas that fit into the big impact and easy to implement. Remember, establish a tracking mechanism so that you can monitor the performance of the sales and marketing activity.

 

 

.

If you have any additional questions or would like additional support then please contact us

 

 

Good luck

 

Simon