A sales and marketing plan must also have tactical initiatives that need to be executed on a regular basis to ensure sustainable growth of your company. During the plan construction phase, we gather information from management, customers, prospects and sometimes your suppliers or sales channel providers, We incorporate that knowledge into a highly leveraged and multi-pronged sales and marketing plan by utilizing some of the services below.
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Articles and Newsletter Creation |
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Writing articles and housing them on your website and publishing them where your customer obtain information is a good way to let your prospects know what you do or articulate reasons why they should consider your product or service. It also helps to build relationships by sending the articles to a prospect just to let them know you were thinking about them. The problem for article writing is the amount of time it takes. Newsletters - good informative (not selling) newsletters also keep you top of mind with your customers and prospects. Newsletters should be also posted with various article warehouses such as ezine.com, sent to local newspapers, trade publications and business journal for possible editorials. |
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Network and Social Event Management |
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No matter what you are selling – it’s a relationship sale. This does not mean that they will buy from you because they like you; but because you have things in common; they see you in action and like what they see! Therefore it’s important to be where your customers are. Networking and social functions may be an important part of you plan. They should be incorporated into your marketing plan as a calendar of events. An event plan should be determine for each event describing what you objective is for the event. For example, your objective may be to get on the membership committee, or seek out 2-3 good leads to follow up on within the week. Whatever it is – plan the work and work the plan! |
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Formal or informal, a sales channel is a company or person that has the ability to bring you qualifies leads. The close ratios on leads coming from a sales channel are much higher than any other lead. Treat these leads and the resource of the leads like your best employee! Look for as many non-competition sales channels as possible. Be sure to keep score...all take and no give will reduce the volume of leads. |
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Public Speaking Opportunities |
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If you are a master of public speaking, nothing sells more engagements than public speaking. Your targets view you as an authority. Do not try to sell anything during a public speaking engagement. You lose your selling edge by trying to sell to everyone – can’t be done correctly because everyone has different pain points. Set up appointments after the engagement. |
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Trade shows are more expensive that you might think. First you have the investment of a booth display, then the booth rental, travel expenses and lost opportunity by having your sales attend the trade show. Therefore it’s critical to be able to properly measure the results of the tradeshow. - Tradeshows are also a great way to get in front of your target market in a short period of time. Just like all the campaigns discussed – make it memorable! Do something different! Here are some things to
- Invest in a $250 Card Scanner – You could scan cards during your downtime at the tradeshow.
- Follow up - Be sure to follow up with an email, letter or card to everyone that stopped by the booth. On the ones with the most potential for sale – hand write a thank you card to them for stopping by.
- Be different – Do something that will attract attention to your site. Periodic demos, free massage, nifty gadgets that your target market would actually want (spend more money and give out to fewer prospects).
- Have Fun – Standing behind a booth with your brochures on the table is not very inviting! Get out and be a carnival caller for a day. Have fun – everyone else will too and you will be remembered.
- Measure – Track the new target as a lead from a trade show. When that target buys an item, the credit can go to the lead source ROI as well. You could also provide promotions good for just that event.
- What are some tradeshow that we attend or should attend?
What could we offer that is different than the competition? |
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It's advertising and it doesn't cost anything... so why not use it! Every company has a story to tell at various times during the year. Capitalize on these events with a Press Release. Events like new products, new hires, promotions and employee promotions should have a press release written. Public relations can help leverage the other market campaigns to get more coverage for the dollar. |
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Autoresponders and "Drip" Campaigns |
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Again, the primary purpose behind marketing is to create leads. If a potential customer goes to your website and does not have a number of ways to submit their contact information (email address or phone number)...you have failed to get a lead! One of the best ways to collect names and contact information is to offer them something of great enough value that they will be willing to take the Spam-A-Lot challenge! Autoresponders are a series of emails that are design to keep the prospect interested and informed about the value your service or product can bring. The first autoresponder which is sent right away is a thank you for your inquiry email. The rest are sequentially sent in the future to make sure that you do not lose touch with a potential customer. An autoresponder can also be used to create a "drip" campaign, which is a sequential email campaign which presents your message in small messages across a period of time. |
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Campaigns
