April 1, 2001

5 Min Read
Eight Secrets to Marketing Success

Eight Secrets to Marketing Success

By Bill Dueease

You have the right and obligation to determine which potential customersyou will serve. You should screen out undesirable customers early so you canfocus more attention on customers you want.

The profits of a business arelargely dependent on marketing. But what is marketing anyway? It is doing whatit takes to convince enough customers to pay the necessary price for yourproducts and/or services and produce the desired profits for your business.Let's discuss the eight secrets business owners can use to greatly improve theirmarketing success.

Secret #1

Give marketing top priority. The primary reason any customer chooses to buyyour products or services is because of effective marketing, comprised of thefour important P's. It begins with product development, ensuring theproduct or service fills a need for potential customers so they will want to buyit. The next step is pricing, ensuring the business will achieve profitsfrom sales. Effective positioning allows customers easy interaction withthe business to evaluate the product or service. The final step is promotion,where the business communicates with potential customers about the existence andbenefits of the products or services, enticing them to contact the business andlearn more.

Marketing culminates in sales--when the customer's perceived value of yourproducts and services exceeds the price. You generate successful sales onlybecause you complete the four steps of product development, pricing, positioningand promotion. You want to focus on marketing at all times to succeed.

Secret #2

Do not confuse advertising with marketing. Advertising is only a part of thelast marketing step, promotion, and it occurs late in the game. Many often thinkadvertising is all there is to marketing, so they overlook the other three veryimportant marketing steps. Consequently, they lose the opportunity to controland develop more than 75 percent of all marketing, which must be done first andwell to allow advertising to succeed.

Secret #3

Do not base your marketing solely on your own opinions and desires. Someowners make the mistake of believing their power and freedom of choice as"the boss" means they don't have to accept or deal with the opinionsof others. But that is only partly true. You are in virtual control of eithersucceeding or failing to convince the customer to buy your products or services.You want to avoid imposing your opinion on potential customers. Focus onfulfilling their perceived wants and needs--from their perspective--and you willgreatly increase the number of customers who decide to purchase with you.

Secret #4

Learn all you can about your potential customers. You want to conductin-depth research of your potential customer base. You will want to learneverything possible about who they are, what they think they wantto buy, and why, how, and when they think they buy.

Secret #5

Learn how to screen out undesirable customers. You have the right andobligation to determine which potential customers you will serve. You shouldscreen out undesirable customers early so you can focus more attention oncustomers you want. Sadly, you often may not know how to identify the desirablesfrom the pool of potential customers you encounter. As a result, you often spendtoo much time, money and energy trying to deal with a handful of hard-to-pleasecustomers, who frequently demand lower prices, at the expense of bettercustomers, who go elsewhere because they were ignored. You should know the keycriteria to help you decide which potential customers are the right ones.

Secret #6

Know and appreciate the value of your existing customers. You may oftenbecome so focused on getting new customers that you ignore your existing ones.But the truth is, your business will probably not survive without repeatbusiness. Repeat customers present a wealth of opportunities to you. Theyfrequently provide you excellent feedback; they provide an excellent referenceand referral service (read, free advertising); and they are the least expensiveand most likely source of additional revenue. Their unnecessary departure causesyour business substantial damage. Upset customers will complain to at least fiveto nine potential customers, so stay loyal to your existing customers andlearn as much as you can from them.

Secret #7

Create a positive identity distinct from your competitors. Most customerscompare. They need a good reason to choose your product or service over others.You complete more sales when you understand your competitors extremely well andposition your products or services for positive customer comparison.

Secret #8

Consider the overwhelming power emotion has on the process of deciding tobuy. The buying process is largely governed by emotional forces. Some say morethan 80 percent of the entire process is emotion; yet you probably focus yourenergies on price and avoid the real emotional reasons customers will buy. Youshould know and feel the emotional connection your potential customers will makewith your business, products and/or services. You should know how they interactwith your business. You will want your entire marketing program to address thoseemotional issues to attract and keep the right customers.

Making a decision to buy almost always starts with an emotional need acustomer is seeking to meet. Therefore, the search and evaluation of possibleproducts and services is also frequently emotional. The issue of price comes intoward the end of the sales process and, in reality, the customer mostly wantsto know price to justify the emotional decision he has already made. In fact,the request for price from a customer is a very strong buying signal (does thecost allow me to buy what I want and is it fair for what I will get?). Businessowners succeed when they know how to deal with this emotional process and permitthe customer to complete this process through final payment.

What a wonderful opportunity! Marketing allows you to take charge oflearning, succeed in your goals and have fun along the way.

This article was provided as an educational service by Bill Dueease ofAspen Business Group. Mr. Dueease is a coach for U.S. and Canadian businessowners, teaching them to increase profits, reduce stress, and gain control overtheir businesses to reach life goals. His article, "10 Insider Secrets MostBusiness Owners Never Learn," is available for free by e-mailing [email protected]or calling 800.489.6818.

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