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By Philip Chichoni
One of the commonest pitfalls for entrepreneurs, particularly those with a technical background, is mistaking the ability to make a product for the ability to satisfy a market need.
I spoke recently with Mike, a manufacturer of household cleaning products, and he told me about how he mistakenly assumed that once he launched his products, customers would flock to buy them. Since commencing business a year ago, he is struggling to increase sales.
What Mike is facing is a common challenge that many entrepreneurs face, which is understanding what makes a product just right enough to satisfy the needs of a large enough group of customers to justify the business’ existence. The mistake is in making products just because you can, without first researching the market. The key questions to answer when starting a business are:
• Who, if anyone, has a real need for the product or service that I propose to sell, and how many of the potential customers are there?
• How much, if anything, are they spending to address that need today?
• Does my product or service meet that need in a manner that either saves or makes them substantial amounts of money?
Research will provide valuable information about your customers which will help you fine tune your ideas and be better able to satisfy them.
Successful marketing strategies start with a mindset
In small companies, the owner is usually also the marketing person, at least at start up. This does not need to change as the business grows; everyone should be marketing. A business that is not a total marketing company will struggle to make it in this world of intense competition.
Many entrepreneurs I have spoken with admit that they are not too passionate about marketing and selling. The main reason for disliking marketing has to do with fear- fear of rejection. No one enjoys rejection. But success in business comes after many rejections. Entrepreneurs need to change their mindset and start thinking of marketing not as trying to get something but as giving something. A positive mindset will permeate the whole organization, making it a customer centric marketing company.
Winning strategies need with a written plan
It doesn’t matter how good a company’s product or service is, if people do not know it exists how can
they be expected to purchase it? A marketing plan is not just a look at where and how to advertise and
what to spend on advertising. A good marketing plan will examine target markets, size up the
competition, highlight strengths and weaknesses, and perhaps most importantly define what exactly it is
that the company produces or provides, and what it wants to get from marketing.
Without a written marketing plan, a company and its team will be lacking guidance in nearly every
aspect of running the business, from managing cash flow to research and development and to
production.
While some entrepreneurs boast that they have achieved success without a marketing plan, such
businesses are more likely to waste marketing dollars and not have a true sense of where their
promotional budgets are yielding the best results. Just as a winning football team always goes onto the
field with a solid game plan, your business needs to have an outline of how to reach out to prospective
customers in order to succeed.
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Off the cuff marketing does not work, especially in these difficult economic times. As entrepreneurs, we generate lots of ideas in our minds, mostly in reaction to problems that would have
already occurred.
The problem with ideas is that they are fickle and elusive. An idea is in your mind one moment, and the next moment it’s gone. To be of any use, ideas must be written down into a proper marketing plan. This will be a coordinated, thoughtfully designed set of activities that help you achieve your marketing objectives. Your marketing objectives are strategic goals that you want your business to achieve as part
of your overall and long-term business plan, stated in financial terms, sales volumes, market share or
some other term you may wish to use for measuring your success.
In order to build strong customer relationships and maximize your sales, you need to put every possible marketing tool to work for you. Marketing is a broad field, encompassing elements as diverse as
advertising, brand and logo design, sales calls, Web sites, brochures, packaging, shows, conferences and
other events, and so on. The more tools, the better. But the variety and complexity of choices makes
getting organized and focused difficult. A written marketing plan will define the marketing tools you will
use, and how you will use them. This will make the task of implementing the marketing program easier
and the results measurable.
A Marketing Plan template and other entrepreneurial resources are now available to help you with the planning process. Please feel free to download on my blog http://chichonip.wordpress.com.
Phillip Chichoni is a business planning consultant who works with SMEs and entrepreneurs. He may be contacted by email:
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