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marketing
More
Marketing Secrets on a Shoestring Budget
With
a bit of work, sales can increase exponentially while costing less
than you'd think.
by John A. Palumbo
|
Switching
mentalities from that of a seller to that of a marketer can hold the
key to your ultimate success. To achieve this feat, you need to get
out of the selling business and into the service business. You must
uncover a need that your customer’s have and get busy filling
it.
Knowing your competitor’s and your strengths and weaknesses will
significantly aid in this process. Oftentimes, something as simple
as staying open an hour later than the competitors, not closing for
lunch, or having a number for customers to call at any time of the
day can take your business to new levels. To change your strategy
and implement a budget-conscious marketing plan, you must know your
competitors as well or better than you know yourself.
Following are marketing secrets for the budget-conscious marketer.
Marketing on a shoestring budget requires less money, but more might.
You will have to work harder to successfully market on a shoestring
budget; however, anyone reading this article is capable of doing so.
Following are some powerful tips that any company desiring enormous
profits will take the time and effort to learn.
KNOW HOW MUCH A CUSTOMER COSTS
Most sales executives do not know how much it costs for each customer
that walks through their door. Do you know how much a customer costs?
If you do, you are one step ahead of most others in your profession.
If you do know, have you shared the information with your sales staff?
Determining the cost of a customer is as easy as simply dividing the
amount your company spends each month on advertising by the number
of prospects for the same month. Not only is it an easy formula to
work, but it is imperative for your staff to know these numbers. Simply
knowing the effect that their actions (selling or not) have on the
bottom line will inherently increase sales.
Just looking at this ratio for the month is not enough, though. A
savvy marketer will evaluate the data via a trend analysis to determine
if there truly is a relationship between the agents being made aware
of the cost of a customer and the number of sales actually made.
If your sales staff knows how much each customer costs, they will
value their prospects more and work harder to sell them. They must
know that every customer generated costs money and knowing this, they
will not let money slip through the door.
TRAIN THE PEOPLE WHO ANSWER YOUR PHONE
Whoever answers your phone should be considered a mini-marketing representative
and be performing some, if not all, of the following with each phone
call that comes into your business:
• Verifying and updating addresses and phone information in your
database and asking for subscriptions to your company newsletter.
• Recommending products based on past purchases.
• Recommending upgrades.
• Making a connection with the prospect fast!
• Asking marketing questions (“While you wait, may I ask
you a few questions?”)
• Completing short surveys (product satisfaction, etc).
• Informing about the product of the week or asking a question
of the week.
• Employing permission marketing strategies.
PRACTICE EFFECTIVE FOLLOW-UP
One of the least expensive means of marketing is practicing effective
follow-up and by doing so your rapport with your client will soar.
The five means of effective follow-up are:
1. Placing a phone call—can aid in winning the trust of your
prospect, and this trust is what will take your business to another
level.
Building your client’s trust is the most important step in your
marketing process because with trust, not only will they return to
you to make future purchases, but they will likely refer their friends
to you, and referrals are the most important contributor to future
sales.
2. Writing a letter—is still a major player in the follow-up
field. Often we forget that there is nothing as powerful or convincing
as the written word.
3. Follow-up fax—is another means of immediate communication.
Faxing is quicker and less expensive than Federal Express. Even though
e-mail has replaced the need for faxing as many items daily, there
are still things that must be faxed.
Learning the difference between what should be faxed and what should
be e-mailed will be a distinct marketing edge for your business.
4. E-mail—is an expected and appreciated means of communication
today. The key to creating top-of-mind awareness and making effective
use of your e-mail efforts is to effectively implement permission
marketing strategies; simply asking if you could e-mail product updates
and allowing them to discontinue at anytime is very potent.
5. Follow-up visit—stopping by a prospect’s place
of business is a very persuasive means of following-up and increases
your chances of making a sale significantly.
Strategically planning personal follow-up visits with your customers
will convince them of your willingness to go the extra mile.
BUILD CREDIBILITY BY SHARING YOUR EXPERTISE
Yet another way to market on a shoestring budget and gain maximum
results is by sharing your expertise and, in turn, building your credibility
as an expert in your field.
• Offer to provide training.
• Become a coach or mentor.
• Write articles for trade publications.
• Submit press releases about you, your company, your products,
etc.
• Participate in charity events.
• Offer free phone consultations.
• Provide radio interviews or speeches.
• Become the implied leader (volunteer to be a trainer of all
new sales associates).
BETTER TO USE INCENTIVES OR GOOD OLD-FASHIONED VALUE?
The marketing strategies and efforts of two branches of the United
Stated armed forces bring this concept to life. The Army spends approximately
$3,900 marketing for every new recruit that joins. By joining, you
are guaranteed a four-year, all-expense-paid college education. Clearly
the Army is marketing adventure and relying heavily on incentives.
The Marines only spend half the amount the Army does on marketing
efforts to bring in new recruits. The Marines do not use the lure
of a college education to reel people in; instead, the Marine Corp
offers pride of ownership.
What the Marines have effectively done that the Army has not been
able to accomplish is a term called branding. The brand of armed forces
that is “The Chosen” is the Marines Corp. They have effectively
attached value and quality to their product and have not had to rely
on incentives. Incentives are short-term and continually expensive.
Maybe we should work harder on offering quality rather than incentives.
REDUCE TO THE RIDICULOUS
Another strategy used by prolific marketers is the ability to reduce
to the ridiculous. Reducing to the ridiculous is taking the price
of your product, and instead of offering a product for $10,000, reducing
that price into a yearly cost of $1,000, then to a monthly cost of
only $88, $22 a week, or even down to only $3 a day. Taking your cost
and dividing it down to a daily cost makes it much easier for a prospect
to decide to buy.
Even such prominent products as The Wall Street Journal utilize this
technique. Have you ever seen their commercials convincing viewers,
not that you can subscribe to their paper for $190 a year, or even
for $16 dollars a month, not even for $4 a week, but that you can
receive their paper, delivered to your doorstep for only pennies a
day. They are successfully employing the strategy of reducing to the
ridiculous.
NEWSLETTERS VIA E-MAIL/SNAIL MAIL
The most important thing to remember about newsletters is that if
you do not have something to say, do not waste your or the prospect’s
time. A newsletter should focus on:
• Product improvements and innovations.
• Pricing and product promotions.
• Providing information or an expert opinion.
Newsletters should be permission based and should always have an option
to discontinue receipt of the document. If you are sending your newsletter
via snail mail, provide a phone number for them to call to be removed
from the mailing list. If your newsletters are being sent via e-mail,
provide a means of communicating their desire to discontinue their
subscription.
Keep your mailing list current and with each customer contact, ask
either permission to send or permission to continue sending. A newsletter
is about what is of interest to your customers, not what is of interest
to you and your company and all should employ a call to action.
LETTER WRITING
This deserves honorable mention because we so often forget that our
sales staff is good at selling—at communicating verbally. They
excel at face-to-face interaction with people and most are much less
proficient with writing skills. Nothing can damage your marketing
efforts more than a poorly written letter going out of your office.
If a letter rolls out of your place of business and is poorly written
with grammatical or spelling errors, whom do you think it reflects
poorly on? The entire company is seen in a bad light because of one
trivial letter. On the other side of that same coin, if a letter goes
out and is professionally written, grammatically correct, with a clear
call to action and purpose, the salesperson glows and so too does
the company.
HOW TO HIRE THE BEST
Hiring the best employees to represent your company is becoming more
difficult every day. Potential employees are increasing their skills
in résumé writing and interviewing skills and most have
it down to a science. There are coaches and seminars and information
on effective résumé writing and interviewing tips galore
that are easily accessible to anyone and are obviously being utilized
by the majority of candidates in the pool.
Because of the increased complexity in making the best hiring decision,
the use of behavioral profiles is no longer an option, but is now
a necessity. We don’t want to know what their coach spoon-fed
them to say during an interview, we want to know what’s really
in their heads. We need to know upfront whether we have a winning
horse or not.
I often caution clients that they can learn anything about an employee
that is revealed from the behavioral profiles after having them on
the job for six months or so, but wouldn’t we rather save on
reduced turnover by hiring the best to begin with? Behavioral profiles
are by far the most valuable insurance policy that you can invest
in for your company. (To obtain additional information on behavioral
profiles, send an e-mail to Palumbo@aol.com with the subject line:
Behavioral Profiles Information.)
CREATING TOP-OF-MIND-DOMINANCE
Doing this through constant contact with your customers, also known
as saturation selling, should always be your primary goal. By saturating
your customer with your name and your business’s name, you can
ensure that when the customer is ready to buy, you will come to mind.
Most sales people will make only one contact and will drop the prospect
after that. Research has proven, however, that to gain top-of-mind-dominance,
10 to 12 contacts are necessary. This repetition of contacts ensures
immediate recall of you or your company. If you fail to maintain constant
contact with your prospects, all of your marketing dollars will be
wasted.
We continually struggle to find the time and money for marketing efforts.
It is essential that we remember that it’s not possible to reduce
our budgets and reduce our efforts and expect success. The above secrets
are designed to reduce expenses and ensure that with a little extra
effort, one can effectively market on a shoestring budget.
These tips and secrets for marketing efforts will have a nominal effect
on your budget, but will increase your bottom line profits exponentially.
So roll up your sleeves and get started!
John A. Palumbo, MIRM, is an author, sales expert, marketing advisor,
keynote speaker, and CEO of The Sterling Group, an idea studio for
sales and marketing management. He is the recipient of The Sales Manager
of the Year Award and the Million Dollar Circle Lifetime award for
the National Sales and Marketing Council. He travels year-round judging
award programs and serves regularly as master of ceremonies. He is
a prominent member of and instructor for the Institute of Residential
Marketing. He can be contacted at (904) 641-2043, or via e-mail at
PalumboJ@aol.com. To obtain
Part One of “Marketing Secrets on a Shoestring Budget,”
send him an e-mail to with subject line: Part 1 Marketing Secrets
on a Shoestring Budget. |
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