Who...What...Where

Written By Ted Fangos, Victory Business Coaching

SlowEconomyStrategies.com

As a business coach, It’s my job to be a positive influence on my clients… but I guess even I have to admit this economy is getting to be... lets just say, a bit challenging.

One of the biggest mistakes I see business owners make during a downturn is pulling back on marketing & advertising. Are you kidding me? I understand your cash flow may be down (we’ll address that in a minute) but this economic situation can be great time for your company in the long run if we apply a little strategy. (Luis Mago would be so proud of me for saying that!) The companies who figure out how to grow (and last) now, will have much less competition when this is over.

Marketing Awareness

Do you remember when Robert Di Niro asked the mirror in Taxi Driver… “Are you talkin’ to me”? Well, unfortunately I see a lot of marketing and advertising that has potential customers thinking the same thing… And that’s not good. Any vagueness in your marketing is equal to driving down Dixie Highway throwing $20 bills out the window. Remember the cash flow thing? You can reduce your marketing budget and grow your business at the same time by applying…

Strategy #1… Who, What, When, Where, Why, & How?

Who? Who is your target market? I don’t mean male or female between the ages of blank. I mean take some time and write a paragraph describing in detail what your customer looks like.

Ex: Small business owner with 2 to 10 employees, in business for 2 or more years, 50 years old or older, with 2.5 kids in or getting ready for college, a nice big fat mortgage, nice cars, perhaps a boat, a spouse who loves to shop and take nice vacations and is looking forward to a fun retirement. You think I’m kidding? Tell me that person doesn’t have a burn to build a business that will prosper him/her for lifetime. The point is, do you see how a vivid description like that will help me direct my marketing like a laser to the correct people?

What? What (exactly) do they buy from you? If you are a realtor, do the buy a house from you? No, they buy it from the owner, right? What they pay you for is to be their consultant, their expert, their advocate to make sure they don’t make any big mistakes etc. Does your marketing convey that??? Write a paragraph applying this to your product or service and watch what happens to your sales!

When? When do they look for you? What has to be happening in their lives at the moment when they start thinking they need you! Pending retirement, new baby, marriage, children’s college, broken lawn mower, dirty pool… get it. If you think hard about this one, you can invest in your marketing when it makes the most sense and pull back a little at times to conserve capital without losing too much. Where I come from, hardware stores don’t buy newspaper ads for snow shovels in July… do you?

Where, Why, & How are really cool…
to be continued…
Victory Business Coaching helps small business owners grow their companies with world class strategies for Marketing, Sales, Employee Motivation, Time Management, Financial Analysis and more… delivered in a format that is designed to be affordable for a small business budget. www.VictoryBusinessCoaching.com