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Customer Manufacturing Update |  |
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Dear Mitchell, Here is your April Customer Manufacturing Update. Stimulus packages are all the rage these days. Most businesses we know are not getting anything directly. So we thought about how we can help you create your own. In any market, you need to optimize your marketing investments. If you can do that you can create your own stimulus package.
If you have friends or colleagues who would
appreciate receiving this Update, feel free to
forward
a copy to them using the "Forward e-mail" link at the
bottom of the page.
If you want to "stimulate" your top line you need to make the best investments possible in those activities designed to drive the top line. Even in today's tough economy, people and companies are still buying. You need to get your unfair share. And you need to do it as effectively and efficiently as possible. In this month's white paper, our own Jeff Krawitz looks at how to select between the many options you have to invest in marketing activities designed to drive business. We also provide you a simple tool to help you in the decision process.
Our friend Julie Lenzer Kirk and her company, Path Forward, puts out a cool ezine Boot in the Butt. (Just what some of us need.) Anyway, in her February 2009 issue she talks about Shiny Penny Hell. Shiny pennies are all those ideas that we have percolating in our heads. They can include the great new product idea, the newest marketing idea, a diversification concept, new segments to chase, etc. Many of these ideas seem to be generated in the shower or just before falling asleep. Anyway, like shiny pennies, it is easy to get distracted by them. And with too many of them, we find it hard to choose from all the good ideas. A key to getting new things done is the ability to pick from among numerous opportunities the few that are most suitable for your company. In our innovation work, we find that many CEOs and senior marketing people have a great deal of difficulty sorting and picking. They are blinded by the shiny pennies, or as Julie puts it, they are in shiny penny hell. Don't let yourself get stuck there. Our research shows that, despite all the hype about the need to increase creativity, the real problem is not lack of ideas, it's too many ideas and an inability (or unwillingness) to sort.
As times are tough for most companies, lots of pressure is put on sales to make something happen. Last month we got an e-mail solicitation from a company selling sales training (they need a better list). The copy included a quote from Miller-Heiman (though it was not for Miller-Heiman training). The quote was this: "Over 65% of sales opportunities are lost due to the sales team's inability to develop and sell perceived value." We were subsequently advised that the complete quote includes "... in the minds of the customer." We agree that this is likely a true statement, but it is not a Sales problem. How do we know? Because if it were a Sales problem, then Sales training would have fixed it by now. Value definition is a Marketing responsibility. As Mitch outlines in his book, The Secret To Selling More, expecting Sales to define the core Value Proposition is incorrect thinking and dooms too many companies to insufficient sales. If this could be fixed with sales training, it would have been fixed a long time ago. Marketing MUST get the Value Proposition right and teach that Value Proposition to Sales and identify WHO the Sales people should focus on who are most likely to need it. If Marketing fails to do this, which we believe too many Marketing departments do, then Sales is forced to determine what they think the Value Proposition might be and hope they can relate it to something some customer might agree they need. Hope is not a successful strategy and to blame Sales for failing to make sales because Marketing has failed to identify a useful Value Proposition for an identifiable target customer is not helpful and more "sales training" does not fix this, because it is not and has never been a Sales problem.
We appreciate any feedback you can provide to help us make sure these Updates give you value each month. Feel free to respond to this e-mail with any comments or suggestions for future topics or ways we can make these Customer Manufacturing Updates more valuable to you.
Thank you for your interest, and if we can provide
any
additional assistance in sales, marketing, strategy, or
innovation to help you increase your sales,
let us know.
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