Episode C.006 Where Strategy and Sales Meet

INTRODUCTION
“Surround Your Market, Become Clients First Choice, Create A Cult of Service”

Author's Notes
The BDP (BizDevelopment PAK) is a bundle of four separate modules on Branding, Marketing, Sales, and Service. We assembled these to address the number one problem of small business – generating sales revenue by acquiring new customers and upselling to existing accounts.

Given our multiple decades in the business, we have enjoyed the quickening pace of technology and its impact on business operations. Technology is empowering small businesses to look and act like large enterprises with a smart mix of free and subscription based solutions. There is no reason to spend more than $300 to $500 a month to operate a world class marketing and sales operation.

Our series of modules represents best practices for building an Integrated and Automated Marketing>Service>Sales Process that creates Market Dominance.

Let's summarize what we mean by integrate, automate, and dominate.

Integrate
The web and social media has changed how we market and sell. Some of those changes improve the process – rent rather than buy technology, and some make this process more difficult – you need permission to market and sell. The companies taking advantage of this see little difference between marketing, selling, and post-sale servicing. In reality it is a single chain focused on selling a solution that impacts business (B2B) or a personal lifestyle (B2C) that exceeds expectations to build long-term loyalty. The most effective organizational structure is based on core processes, not separate functions. Make sure your marketing, sales, and service functions are all reporting to the same individual whenever possible.

Automate
The goal is to “surround them,” using the web and social media to target your sweet spot (the most profitable potential or existing customers) with information that provides value and shows expertise. The most current research on selling indicates it takes approximately 15 touches to gain the attention of prospective customers. Instead of publishing as time allows, or the mood strikes, the best companies publish across several platforms on a predetermined schedule. All of this can be automated with a comprehensive publishing schedule with just a 30 to 60 minute daily investment.

• Branding – what image, words, symbols do you want the customer to experience when thinking of you?
• Marketing – how do you make the offer Preferred with prospective customers and generate qualified sales leads?
• Sales – how do you turn qualified leads into revenue fast and with good margins?
• Service – how do you expand beyond the current sale to become Top of Mind and gain 100% of available budget?

Dominate
Market Leadership or Market Domination results from identifying the perfect customer and surrounding them messaging that influences buying decisions. The companies that excel at surrounding prospective customers with valuable messaging achieve Preferred mind-share. That means whenever potential customers are considering a buying decision, they are on the top of the list and it is their business to lose.

To become the Preferred Choice, you must understand their buying persona. What are they thinking and doing while making buying decisions? Our previous discussions on integration and automation focused on how to surround - the issue now is messaging content that will:

• Increase Awareness: make you known and move your company to preferred mind-share;
• Educate and not Sell: provide new or additional knowledge to help them make a better buying decision, and;
• Inoculate: provide information that makes it more difficult for competitors to sell their offer against yours.

Level 3 New Customer Sales - Embedded