Stock Market Explorer

Posted on 16 Oct 2008

1. Have a clear picture of what you do best. In times like these when expenses have to be moderated, it's very important to comprehend where those precious dollars that will be spent will have the most return.

It starts with a clear understanding of why the company is in business and why customers purchase the products and services that they do. When was the last time you actually asked your customers why they do business with you? The answers may surprise you. A good exercise is to forget about the products and services your offer, and ask yourself if you were in the customer's shoes, why would you buy from your company?

Answering the why questions will clarify what your real value is, and allows you to set the vision for how to change the product or service mix and the marketing
strategies moving forward.

2. Turn your best customers into your partners. The reality is that your best customers need you. If you no longer are able to provide the benefits they gain by doing business with you, they lose too, because there is always a cost to switching to another vendor. When times get tough then, it often opens opportunities to bridge the traditional vendor-customer relationship and become partners with your customer.

Prioritize your best customers and center your product and service offerings on adding extra value by meeting more of your customer's specific needs. This creates the opportunity to ask for more from your customers. If they believe they'll realize the added value and you're important, they usually will step up. Here are some suggested actions to improve your odds:

a. Make sure your product or service messaging clearly communicates your added value proposition. When presenting partnership opportunities, often times you get one chance to establish the added value. it's needed then that the messaging, usually in the form of presentation slides, clearly and succinctly communicates what it's you want, why you need what you're asking from them, and what the added benefits are that the customer would gain from engaging. These are NOT your typically features-advantage-benefits style slides normally produced for general product or service presentations. Take the time and spend the money to get this right because it's the most critical step in the success process.

b. Make sure you fully comprehend your competition. The potential partner is now engaged. Their natural reaction will be to ask many questions. they'll be assessing your added value with how what you're proposing is accomplished now. These are competitive questions. Fully understanding the offerings of other companies that sell like product or services, or how products or services internally developed by your customer would be effected if the customer engaged, allows you to rapidly and confidently answer all of the questions.

c. As you move through the discussions, stay focused on the basics, why customers do business with you, how they value partnering, and what they can gain from engaging.

Businesses that maximize their core opportunities to the fullest typically are very profitable whether times are good or bad. Business levels may change, but the health of the company remains strong. By focusing on what the company does best, innovating how to service customers, and executing to meet their specific needs, businesses can grow in a down economy.

Advance Tech Marketing (ATM). is a marketing consulting firm specializing in individual skills training for marketing professionals. For more information, see http://www.advancetechmarketing.com