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Available Now!
Secrets of Marketing
Experts Exposed!
Read an extract from
the Book
What is the
biggest marketing mistake you’ve ever made and what did you learn from
it?
After I
left the corporate world I started business advising. My first client
asked me to help his business because he had bought the experience of
what I had done at Harvey Norman. At Harvey Norman my role was
predominately a sales and marketing function, so I thought that to build
a successful business all that was required was great marketing. Boy,
was I wrong! Don’t get me wrong, we increased sales, but one day the
owner came to me and said, ‘Tony, you’re killing me. I’m running out of
money and we need to slow down because we just cannot cope’.
Lesson
learnt: before you expand your business you need to stop the leaks
and systemise the business.
Stop the leaks
– you need to ensure that your business has enough cash to be
able to afford sustained marketing campaigns. All business owners need
to have sound financial understanding. You can grow your sales, but that
may kill your business – the cost of goods, wages and other variable
expenses that are required to cope with the demand could eat away at
your profits
Systemise the business
– before you can accelerate your marketing activity you need to be able
to support the capacity. Many businesses grow rapidly then come to an
instant halt. This is because they lack the systems and structure
required to support the growth. Ensure that you have human resources,
finance, operation (or production), and sales and marketing systems that
are so robust that they can support any rapid growth.
What are your top
tips for becoming a great marketer?
Understand who
your customer is
– defining your target customer reduces the risk of wasting
money on poorly targeted marketing campaigns and ensures that your
business provides a system that serves the customer.
Just have a go
– you do not know what is going to work until you have a go. Business
owners’ fear of failure is what holds them back from achieving their
potential.
Set a sales target
– a trained marksperson plans the shot, takes all factors into
consideration and then aims at the target. A smart business owner sets a
sales target, takes all factors into consideration (i.e. past history,
trends, major events) and then aims at the business goal.
Set a marketing budget
– this budget ensures that you set aside money for marketing activities
so that you can continually work on growing the business without going
broke.
Know the principle of multiple touches
– how many ways can you encourage an individual to enquire about your
goods or services? This principle states that while there isn’t just one
way that will work on each individual, one particular form of
communication will eventually create action.
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