In a Downturn, Provoke Your Customers - Provocation-based selling:

If you're looking for some useful inspiration in our downturn economy, perhaps it's time to get back to the 'art' of sales? You're all familiar hopefully, with the transition from product to solution selling, but in today's economy, you better be looking for new approaches!

Personally, I've often been accused of recognizing problems that my customers haven't yet perceived, or challenged to find solutions to problems others say are unsolvable. Yet just as my most loyal customers started as the most skeptical prospects... when you can 'provoke' recognition and solutions to significant problems (in a politically correct manner in that corporation) - the resulting impact can 'create' the budget.

If this article hadn't also been published in the Harvard Business Review, I might not have had the confidence to not only read it, but come to see it as a way to stimulate business even in downturn economies.

I've provided a link to an online copy of this report titled "In a Downturn, Provoke Your Customers" (a work by the managing directors of TCG Advisors, a strategy consulting firm in San Bruno, CA.) The value of this publication couldn't be expressed better than in following few paragraphs, extracted from the middle of the document....

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Solution selling is still the right approach when the customer understands the challenge to be faced and has the budget in place, but believes that point products or services are insufficient to solve the problem.

In contrast, provocation-based selling is most effective when the customer's problems is unacknowledged or poorly understood, the budget doesn't exist, and the customer's main question is "How can we change our approach to this problem, because we haven't yet managed to deal with it effectively?"

In a severe downturn, provocation-based selling may be the only way to move past the "buy nothing" mantra emanating from customer organizations. In sunnier economic times, it can lend power and urgency to products or services that are non disruptive or relatively undifferentiated in their markets.


(Don't miss reading the article referenced in the link above)

Know Your Market(s): Prospect Profiles, Purchase Objectives, Environmental Trends and Factors influencing purchase decision

One of the most important areas of analysis for Business plans is the market definition that includes:

• Environmental 'trends'
• Prospect characteristics (segments)
• Prospect Objectives (needs)
• Prospect purchase decisions (experience)

And while 'trends' as well as the purchase 'experience' are critical to the successful adoption of your products/services vs. competitive alternatives, the ability to define prospect segments and map a marketing mix to your prospect's needs/objectives is critical to the establishment of your Marketing Plan.

When we establish prospect profiling (segments), our analysis includes reviewing:

• Your product/service's price significance
• Market Geography
• Industry and application segments
• Number of prospects, growth rate, purchase frequency
• Usage rates
• Past purchase history
• Prospect Awareness
• Prospect Technical Orientation
• Position of substitutes
• Additional resources required to use your product/service
• Possible competitors

by contrast, when we assess prospect purchase objectives, we evaluate:

• Purchase for work/need or show
• Product/service Quality
• Nice to have or Essential
• Convenience of purchase
• Customization of product/service
• Dependability
• Durability
• Economy
• Efficiency
• Reliability
• Uniformity - Standardization
• Usage profiles by Segment
• New and old Alternative Solutions

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Once the fundamental market segments and needs analysis has been performed, it's time to look at environmental 'trends' as well as those factors in the purchase experience that also influence your product/service's acceptance and adoption.

An assessment of Environmental factors and trends includes:

• Industry Development as enhancements vs. very new features
• Limits to improvement of technology - Degree of change expected
• Your business and your competitor's reaction to change
• Government price controls and subsidies
• Government licensing, operational/safety regulations and material restrictions
• Fashion, Life-Style, Age, Educational, Geographic or Income changes/trends

And the factors that affect the prospect's decision to purchase include:

• Degree of Risk to purchase
• Number of decision makers required
• Prospect knowlege of costs and product/service demand
• Buying effort (minimal to extensive) required
• Shopping costs
• Complexity of purchase decision
• Labor resistance
• Effects of learning by reuse
• The cost of obsolescence
• Conservative vs. Radical attitude toward product/service industry
• Prospect view of degree of technological change required to use

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CONCLUSION: The analysis of your company's market definition as outlined by assessing those environmental trends, market segments, needs analysis and influences to the purchase decision provides coverage of the market analysis for ~95% of all businesses selling products, services or doing virtual business in the US. Furthermore, a well-founded marketing strategy requires that ALL applicable characteristics need to be evaluated, respective to the 'industry' to which your businesses is classified.

Marketing vs. Sales... Strategies vs. Tactics: Business Plan(s)

Marketing (Strategy) vs. Sales (Tactics):
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Of the six key management roles outlined in a sba-compliant Business Plan, marketing (vs. sales) is always represented, and sales is directly or indirectly influenced by marketing. Together, these six (6) senior roles include your:

• CEO
• CFO
• Development (Business or Tech. Development) Mgr.
• Marketing Mgr.
• Production or Service Delivery Mgr.
• Customer Support/Service

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Under the evaluation of the area labeled "Marketing and Sales", there are two distinct processes, one for marketing and one for sale, though the primary job of marketing is to target the right audience, and then bridge the target audience needs to a marketing mix (packaging, price, promotion, place (distribution) and people)... in the face of changing markets (perceptions and alternative applications), competitive challenges, distribution, supply, alternative materials, available inventory and limits to strategies based on subsequent management operating philosophies approvals.

In other words, the main role of listening, responding and outwardly promoting within prospect circles falls to the Marketing Manager. His/her role is to know the market needs that define the prospect profiles and segments, and accordingly supply advertising promotion and education in sources influential to the segments, that drives awareness, interest and relevant desire to acquire your product or service.

This includes helping sales create lead generation programs to insure their personnel ALWAYS have another lead to follow - i.e. they are never idle as their costs (the sales personnel) are often the most expensive component of a sale. Lastly, they are responsible for prioritizing the opportunity value of segments as well as developing contingencies for any changes to any major strategy (changing markets, competitors, distribution channel, production advantages or changes in the available suppliers).

Sales and the turn-around environment in this model is thus a part of marketing (people as salespeople vs. customers reporting customer satisfaction) but differs offering news and/or education, as well as providing distribution, logistics, delivery, warehousing and customer support - all supporting the sale to B2B or B2C clients.

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NOTE: In evaluating startup companies, we often find new businesses incorrectly place too much emphasis on recruiting sales or sales management vs. marketing management. Marketing listens to the 'market' and develops the strategic roadmaps that sales follows/executes.

The problem with this is that without the strategic direction, customized to your market definitions and specific offerings, sales and sales management will continue to focus on the same prospects and approach/tactics that they have former experience with, and be positioned in the most competitive environments. Put another way, their approach more reactive to the industry and competition, vs. being proactive to address existing and new customer needs.

The Three (3) Subplans of a Business Plan

The standardized format for a Business plan, integrates elements reflecting historical and current operational profiles, along with marketing stategies and projections into the prime financial identity (income, balance sheet, and cashflow). The key content elements include:

• Enterprise (mgmt, admin, objectives, key business services)
• The product or service 'offering' (independent of production)
• The market segment profile(s) - common and niche needs fulfilled
• Marketing and Sales - driving attention => purchase
• Distribution/Channels/Resale
• Competition and alternative products/services substitutes
• Product Production or Service Delivery
• Materials and Inventory
• Suppliers
• Financials
  

The problem is that mapping facts, research and strategies, into a Business Plan, WITHOUT being specific enough, is often confusing and/or misleading, as a generic 'fact' could fit into multiple categories.

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It is often easier and more practical to consider scoping Business Plan facts (and/or reasonable assumptions backed by data) into the three (3) major components of ANY Business plan.

• The Operational Plan
• The Marketing Plan
• The Financial Plan

We find this approach helps most companies see the natural tendency of standardized processes to focus on the operational and financial perspectives of analysis vs. the marketing that is most critical to your company's success.

....unless you believe in the better mouse trap.... or

... the economy is doing so well that demand greatly exceeds supply...

133 Active Social Media Marketing Websites !

133 Active Social Media Sites: Strategic Rating Inc's. (StrategicRating.com) professional services for developing Business Plans are based on leveraging both contemporary as well as social media promotion. We classify these formats under 1 of 6 styles: User Generated Content: (incl. Blogs, YouTube, Podcasts, User Articles/News) Social People Networks: (Incl. Friends, Messaging, Social causes, Fanclubs, Business Networks) Collaboration-Open Source: (Incl. Wikis, Calendar/Event, Music, Gaming) Ratings, Reviews, Recommendations: (Public and Commercial Venues) Tags - Sharing: (Bookmarks - multiple media types) organized into categories RSS, Widgets: Aggregations and Dynamic Web and Desktop objects Here is a link to the latest current listing we maintain on active social media programs. For each listing, we provide: The Name of the Social Media The Type of Social Media it is classified under The public URL (for registration or direct access), The site's primary Submission URL, The site's SEARCH URL, and Notes to give a good idea of not only what the site is about, but also how to best leverage it's use NOTE: The search URL is a good way to lookup whether people are talking about your product/service/industry. Reviewing the conversations and links herein will reveal your best participation strategy: Listening, Talking or Responding in the Social Media of Today!

Need a Great Business Plan? - Here's what we find most companies need !!

- We find that most companies need a better definition of: Their market/users/audience: Their application characteristics of your user segments, respective to their information access patterns - Knowing this can define their needs both fulfilled by current solutions, and many, as yet, unfilled possibilities... (The successful method is modifying your offering to fit the existing and new markets, vs. attempting to fit the average offering into a market. Create an business identity that promotes your listening, providing advice/news or entertainment and/or support...for your greater marketplace) Their marketing: Getting information and visibility to your best prospects... Internet and electronic integration is undeniably mainstream marketing. For B2C, Americans access is available to over 75%, with 2/3 of that being high-speed access today. For B2B and B2C Social Media Marketing, over half of Americans regularly use social media applications (external or internal) as a primary reference (Essentially, a set filtered by the common wisdom/relations/ links of the groups/ communities an individual is associated with). +++++++++++++ Some consider the significant transition to social media over conventional advertsing, a backlash to contemporary advertising, whose content today is often half ads. Others find honesty or entertainment in well developed user generated content; while others ind the "real" insight in the "comments" to the "comments" that TRULY would appear to reflect the powerful inherant "WISDOM OF THE CROWD" (ex: 4 out of 5); Boomers often find comfort in 'Expert' reviews, while for GenX'ers and GenY'ers, the majority of which are part of one of many social networks, the influence of social media has been a way of life. ++++++++++++++++++ Frankly, the BIGGEST reason social media is so POWERFUL, is that it repreents the ONLINE 'PERSONAL voice' (as close it gets on the NET and to each person individually, in their association with media or people) In US Online shoppers. one is six (1 in 6) is a blogger. How strong is the influence? More influential than any manufacter's ads or claims. In fact, it is only surpassed by a personal referral, or expert review/endorsement. +++++++++++ Conventional advertising is important if it is visible, but it is still a one-way message. Social media marketing by contrast is participatory, measurable in every way, and mandatory (You cannot stop people talking about your company or industry, and by not participating, you ARE OPENLY acknowledging everything being said is all right with your business) In any case, if you can define your market, there are ways to approach, with measurable and predictable responses, your prospects and customers ... using both conventional marketing and social media marketing By Contrast, we find that the 'rest' of a 'Business Plan' is all about what people know, vs. the 'art' of putting the right set of information together, organized into 'business organizational vs. functional or operational units. Enterprise: Who, Big Picture, Top Strategies, Long Term Liabilities Offering (Product or Service) - The 'What': Design, Features, Attributes, Pricing Product or Service Delivery - The How: From sales/development to production/service delivery to support/maintenance Distribution Channels: Markups, Shipping Competition: Threats, Responses Materials and Inventory: Suppliers: (procurement) Financials: Income. Balance, Cash Flow

Sequential Auto-Publication ! - Timed Future Campaigns !

Sequential Auto-Publication ! Creating Customized Timed Contiguous Campaigns from Sequential Auto Responders!! Hightlighting "Infinite Responder" - an Open Source Sequential Auto Responder Sequential Auto Responders are typically made/organized as: Campaign or "responders" that contain 1 or more email message, each "timed" to get issued, by individual request (an emailing per prospect/subscriber) or bulk (ex: newsletter) Subscribers/Prospects are maintained respective to EACH campaign (Edit/Delete) Subscribers/Prospects are added/edited as: Individual entry of name/email along with selection of new campaign/responder series Bulk entry of new subscribers/prospects all assigned to a common campaign/responder series Direct submission from a web FORM with Single or Doiuble Opt-in authentication Direct submission related to an inbound email address (Similar to an email-in blog submission) By submitting individual or bulk entries to a sequential auto responder, associated with one or more campaigns, allows you to establish a outbound (or response to an inbound request) campaign comprised of a series of emails (each that can reference the earlier communication's origin, date of last email, subscriber or campaign owner's name) This is 'Drip Marketing' - one of the most effective means of keeping an extended sales cycle proactive.... and custom .... especially if you put in longer term 3 and 6 month triggers in the end your campaigns.