This article considers "Positioning" and its relationship with the Sales and Marketing function in a business.
Positioning
Just as the Business Owner needs to understand their profile and tendencies, the Business also has to establish its own. Many people call this "Positioning", and it is a great way to reference your business.
Positioning is defined as "shaping how individuals perceive your organisation or service".
Whether deliberately managed or not, your SME will have an identity and be positioned in the mind of your target audience and stakeholders, relative to competitors.
Indeed, the position your organisation takes in the mind of your target audience may be the only means of differentiating your service offering from a competitor.
Without clarification of Positioning, it is impossible for the other building blocks of your business to exist in harmony.
Let's use an example of a well-known and successful business such as McDonalds. Most of us have been at one of their restaurants at some point, so picture yourself there right now.
You walk in on an ordinary day and order a burger, fries and coke and get change out of $15. You sit down at a table covered with a silk tablecloth with fresh flowers on top. Your meal is then delivered with table service and they are offering complimentary French Champagne to all customers.
Whilst you might be pleasantly surprised, there will be conflict running through your mind; it would not be the experience you are expecting the brand to deliver.
Okay, crazy example. In this case, the elements of Positioning are not clearly aligned, and this would not be a sustainable business model for McDonalds.
There are many relatable examples in SMEs that centre around the nature of the services offered and who they are offered to.
What if I am an established business but do not know my Positioning? Some starting points to consider:
- Go back to your 'Why' and define or refine your purpose;
- Ask, who is your target customer and define their characteristics;
- Consider your core values and see what makes you different from the rest of your market; and
- Audit your value proposition and your current brand message.
Sales and Marketing
Ah, the "Sales & Marketing" person/team. Did you know that there is a difference between the two? In fact, we should never put 'sales' and 'marketing' together within the same sentence.
I have seen so many businesses that are great at making some sales, but terrible at marketing. And of course, vice-versa.
So, let's define and distinguish between them and then piece them back together, adding them together with Customer Management.
Marketing
Marketing is the long term need to develop strategies to understand customer needs, influence customer perceptions and position the business accordingly.
Marketing techniques and strategies are based on what it takes to identify the right product mix, pricing, target customers and how that is communicated to the market.
A good marketing process should make sales easier. However, most SME's efforts in marketing are haphazard and disjointed. Every business needs to think about its broad strategy and methods to connect all the individual activities and efforts, so that they are relevant for the position of the business.
In the modern marketing era, experts are now talking about the customer experience or journey. Perhaps it sounds a little fancy, but the term essentially acknowledges that your customers do not always take a direct and simple route to your business. More and more, you cannot send customers down a path or towards a process that does not suit their needs or preferences.
So you need to be prepared to understand and respond to that.
There are lots of great resources on marketing, including some great innovation companies like HubSpot, that are making the process of marketing a little easier to understand. Most SMEs underspend on marketing. I have always believed, much like you need accountants, all FBPs should partner with a marketing agency too.
Don't know where to start? Go back to your Positioning and think about what message you want to provide to your customer. You will need some help with that, so be prepared to seek out advice.
The opportunity that most miss is one to connect to their marketing, sales and customer management activity with a good CRM which we elaborate on further below.
Sales
Sales is the short term need to complete what needs to be done to sell your product or service. Sales strategies and activities are typically based on what it takes to close a deal.
Obviously, this is crucial to any business of any size or industry. There is a sales function in every business even if it is sometimes not discernible or does not exist as a structured process.
Customer Relationship Management or "CRM"
A key plank of the Marketing, Sales and Customer Management function is a well-maintained CRM. I often hear experts refer to it as "the single source of trust". I never really understood what they meant by that, but seeing how many businesses struggle with coordinating data, I get it now.
CRMs are more than a collection of names and contact information. It should be at the centre of all your marketing efforts. Additionally, it should:
-
- Segment all your customers by key criteria, such as geography, size, industry etc.,
- Connect across your business so all information is centralised and up to date
- Customise messages to each of the segments you have created
- Measure the performance of your outbound messages and campaigns
- Help ensure compliance with all relevant Privacy laws etc.,
Positioning and Sales & Marketing are just two building blocks but they are foundational to the success of any small to medium businesses.
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