Don’t Skimp on Marketing

Some of you may not realize that in addition to operational, HR and financial audits, SWOT reports and gap assessments, CH Consulting Group  can do the same for your front-end sales and marketing strategy, processes, resources and deployment. In fact, we have a GREAT case study on a BPO company where we came in and did a thorough assessment. The end result?  We helped design a strategy and replacement resources that ended then on INC. 500’s Fasted growing 15 months later (see case study here ).

Repeatedly we seem to run into the same issues with small to mid-tier businesses struggling to generate new business.

NO STRATEGY.

NO BUDGET.

I am sorry, but unless you are in some very minimal and unique markets (of which I cannot even name of the top of my head), you have to assume you have competitors … you need to have a competitive advantage to stand out and you have to spend money to make money.

Sorry to be the barer of bad news. People are not just going to instinctively find you or select you without any effort in your part. In addition, to think you can bypass that effort with no effort, free referrals that do not benefit the client and referral partner or messaging that is not accurate, effective or targeted is marketing foolishness!

Please let us help!

I offer you the following basic 101 marketing, brand management and marketing tips to get you thinking … please assess if and where you need help!

• Get honest about where you are at – what is working, what is not and the truth of your internal resources strengths and gaps. Have an outside, independent third party assessment help you get real here for real effectiveness and change that results in revenue improvement.
• You need a brand.  Not just a name and logo. You need a tag line, mission statement and a market brand for delivering what you say you deliver.
• You need to spend money to make money – same cliché again, sorry, but it is true. We recommend 7-15% of gross revenue to re-invest in all things business development.
• Know your market—your target audience and your competitors. Know who the prospects are, what they want and what they need. Know your competitive advantages over your competitors and sell accordingly and accurately. Research—do not skip this step!
• Sell your product/service accurately. Do not try to be all things to all people … see BRAND. Nothing kills your brand faster than unhappy customers and competitors smelling weakness in your pitch or offering.
• Understand the truth of your sales cycle based on industry and plan and manage accordingly.
• Know your weaknesses. Not just in your market from a competitive perspective but in your business development strategy—bring in professionals, consultants and support where needed so you can actually meet all of these basic needs for a successful business development strategy.
• Make lead generation, sales funnel management and sales process monitoring an objective process based on ROI (return on investment) at every step so you can constantly evaluate and objectively improve the strategy, plan, resources and deployment of your entire business development.

A final thought. You cannot expect outside resources to do your job on growth and sales management for you for free.  The old adage ‘you get what you pay for’ has merit here. Professionals get paid because they are your experts. Use them wisely and you’ll see the results in your bottom line. Skip these basics and you’ll likely be spending money where you don’t to – to fix a problem.

Christa Heibel is a serial entrepreneur involved in dozens of startups, product launches and turn arounds where the ability to GROW and generate new revenue was critical to success. She is available for honest, tough assessment, strategy and support if you want REAL success!