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By J.D. Solomon
When it comes to marketing, most entrepreneurs start as gatherers. They
network with friends and contacts and gather up any business that comes their way. But at
some point, in order to really grow, businesses must begin using other tactics to expand.
They have to send sales reps out to hunt for new deals, they have to patiently fish for
new customers, and they must spend time cultivating their existing customers for repeat
sales.
Marketing-by-hunting
Hunting strategies include such tactics as direct mail, telemarketing and one-to-one
marketing or personal selling, and involve the following steps:
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Identify desirable quarry by creating a profile of your best or ideal customers. This
creates a "suspect list."
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Find your suspects through independent research and acquisition of mailing lists. This
creates a "prospect list."
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Stalk your prospects with mailings, telemarketing and personal referrals, and then
unleash your sales reps for the kill, er, close.
Hunting strategies are very targeted, and can therefore help you close deals with
highly desirable customers in a geographic market that you are set up to serve. However,
they require tremendous discipline to avoid expending precious energy on small prey just
because they are easy to kill.
Hunting tips — Segment your market into concentric circles, probably by
geography but maybe also by business type. Start by attacking the smallest circle, and
then move outward incrementally as revenues and results warrant.
Marketing-by-fishing
Fishing strategies include such tactics as public relations, advertising and trade
shows, and involves the following steps:
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Find promising locations by identifying the publications and trade shows that typically
attract the people to whom you’d like to sell.
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Bait your hook by developing effective advertisements, generating favorable press
coverage and building an attractive exhibit booth.
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Wait for the fish to bite and then reel 'em in.
Fishing strategies can be quite expensive and require tremendous patience; also, they
often result in small-fry catches that must be thrown back. Nevertheless, they help you
cover a wider territory than you could with hunting strategies alone. Fishing strategies
enable customers who need your services or products to find you, and they thus can yield a
surprise catch that will justify the entire expedition.
Fishing tips — When advertising, more is better; if you can't afford to
make a big splash, don't bother making a small one. When it comes to trade shows,
without pre-show mailings and quick post-show follow-up, you're wasting your money.
With PR, the worst thing you can do is hound a reporter with questions like
"When
will you print my article?"
Marketing-by-farming
Farming strategies involve cultivating your existing customer base for repeat
purchases and referrals of new prospects, and require the following steps:
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Fertilize your fields by communicating frequently with customers and providing them with
exemplary customer service.
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Grow "champions" who will attest to the benefits of your product by giving
selected customers opportunities to speak at trade shows and otherwise demonstrate their
expertise and enthusiasm.
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Establish cooperatives by collaborating or partnering with companies that can help you.
Farming strategies yield sales by engendering good will. In addition, they are
relatively inexpensive but highly cost-effective because it is almost always easier to get
a repeat or referral sale from an existing happy customer than to get a first sale from a
new customer.
Farming tips — When it comes to customer communication, short, simple and
frequent is far better than big, glitzy and infrequent. Provide exemplary customer
service. Call or visit your customers to see how they’re doing. Profile them in your
communications and sales materials.
Next page:
Strategies that work |
