Sales & Marketing
Sales “or the activity of selling, forms an integral part of commercial
activity. It could be argued that it is the cornerstone of business as it is
the meeting of buyers and sellers and all other areas of business has the goal
of making that meeting successful. Mastering sales is considered by many as
some sort of persuading "art". On the contrary, the methodological approach of
selling refers to it as a systematic process of repetitive and measurable
milestones, by which a salesperson relates his offering enabling the buyer to
visualize how to achieve his goal in an economic way”. Wikipedia, 2006
Marketing "Marketing is the ongoing process of moving people closer to
making a decision to purchase, use, follow, refer, upload, download, obey,
reject, conform, become complacent to someone else's products, services or
values. Simply, if it doesn't facilitate a "sale" then it's not
marketing". Wikipedia, 2006
Getting your sales and marketing right is crucial to the success of your
business. No matter how good your business idea, it will only succeed if
you have sales and marketing supporting it.
Services
Gateway for Business can work with your company to construct action plans for
both sales and marketing strategies. These plans will be tailored to your
business and will provide you with real actions for you to implement to improve
your level of sales and current marketing.
Gateway for Business also works in partnership with other business support
providers such as Business link and London MAS to give your company access to
the best resources in market research.
Gateway for business works with several specialist consultancies to provide
workshops and events to help companies ‘brush-up’ on their marketing
skills. See our ‘News/Events’ section for upcoming events or contact us
on the below form.
Information
Marketing & Sales
Product
Prices
Promotion
Placement
Marketing & Sales
When developing your marketing strategy, it is important to consider the ‘4
Marketing P’s’: Price, Product, Promotion and Placement. Thinking about
these four elements in relation to your products and services is a useful
framework to begin forming an overall marketing strategy.
Once you have completed your marketing strategy, you must continually revisit
the initial framework to make sure you're on track and achieving the maximum
results possible for you in today's marketplace.
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1. Product
Product refers to the details of your products and services and how they meet a
particular customers needs. Ask critical questions such as, "Does your
current product address a particular market need and is there a demand to have
that need met?", “How big is the potential market” and “Why should a customer
buy your products instead of buying the products of your competitor?”
Answering these questions should help you establish the ‘Unique Selling Points
(USP)’ of your product. The USP will then form an integral part of your
communications to attract customers to your products.
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2. Prices
Setting the right price for your product can be important in achieving a desired
level of sales. It is important for businesses to continually examine the
prices of the products and services you sell to make sure they're still
appropriate to the realities of the current market.
Sometimes you need to lower your prices. At other times, it may be appropriate
to raise your prices. Many companies have found that the profitability of
certain products or services doesn't justify the amount of effort and resources
that go into producing them. By raising their prices, they may lose a
percentage of their customers, but the remaining percentage generates a profit
on every sale. Could this be appropriate for you? Is there a way of
‘cheaply’ adding value to your product in order to justify a raise in price
that could increase your overall profit?
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3. Promotion
Promotion refers to the methods you will use to communicate the
details of your product, brand or company. Traditional methods include:
advertising, sales promotion, publicity and personal selling.
Some questions to ask when you are considering how to promote your business are:
“How can you reach your target audiences cost-effectively?”, “What type of
communication is best suited to your customers?”, and “What are your
communication objectives - to raise awareness and establish credibility, to
sell directly, to recruit staff?”
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4. Placement
The fourth P in the marketing mix is the place where your product or service is
actually sold. In terms of strategy it is important to review the exact
location where the customer meets the salesperson. Sometimes a change in place
can lead to a rapid increase in sales.
You can sell your product in many different places. Some companies use direct
selling, sending their salespeople out to personally meet and talk with the
prospect. Some sell by telemarketing. Some sell through catalogs or mail order.
Some sell at trade shows or in retail establishments. Some sell in joint
ventures with other similar products or services. Some companies use
manufacturers' representatives or distributors. Many companies use a
combination of one or more of these methods.
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