Lack of Early Planning Solidifies the Status Quo

What Prevents Your Company from Moving to the Next Level?

If you are you a business owner who knows where you want to take your company during the next five years, I’m confident that you spend your CEO time developing the competencies and resources required for getting to the next level - however you may define it.  You prevent early entrenchment of bad habits and attitudes, flawed processes and assigning the wrong people to key roles. You know that a well-designed strategy impacts customer experience, innovation, unique value proposition, target markets, products and services, process excellence, profitability, market share, customer relationships, hiring, training and partnerships.  So, if this is you and you’re ready for the next logical steps …

Andiamo!  Let’s Go!

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A Marketing Driven Company Makes Selling Easier

Do Marketing Cultures Outperform Sales Cultures?

I Believe That a Marketing-Driven Company Makes Selling Easier

From my experience most small and mid-sized companies are product-centric and sales-driven.  They fall short of practicing solid marketing principles.  Their promotion and sales campaigns fail to achieve ROI goals.  They typically reward only short-term quota related metrics.  Buyers are wary of their sales reps who ask to partner with them to solve a problem but don’t have the necessary business acumen for adding value, which results in customer relationships that last only as long as a given sales opportunity.

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By John Bernardi

What Role Does Business Development Play In Your Company?

BizD Is Much More Than Hunting for New Prospects

Most companies define business development as building relationships with lead sources and hunting for new prospects.  They hire and churn people to fill these narrow roles.  Effective BizD is a multifaceted process that is directly tied to the long- and short-term sustainability of your business.  It includes a variety of interesting roles that have dynamic priorities based on timing, category and company.

At the current rate, what will your business look like in a few years?

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John Bernardi

Marketing Masters Outperform Others

Marketing Masters Are Change Masters

Their Masterpiece is Marketing Excellence

If your company subscribes to the basic keys to success that apply to any marketing competency and have achieved novice, apprentice and practitioner competencies, you may aspire to join the guild whose masterpiece is marketing excellence.

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By John Bernardi

Marketing Practitioner Competency

Has Your Company Achieved Marketing Practitioner Competency?

Marketing practitioners don't consider "marketing" to be a department.  Instead, it is a concept and belief that is wholly embraced and executed throughout the organization.

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By John Bernardi

Apprentice Level Marketing Competency

Has Your Company Reached the Marketing Apprentice Level?

If you subscribe to the basic keys to success that apply to any marketing competency level and your company has achieved marketing novice competency, you are ready to design a marketing strategy that will support your long-term goals through tactics and objectives that evolve during the next 3 to 5 year time horizon.

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By John Bernardi

What Competency Level Is Required For Your Company To Implement Its Marketing Strategy?

Is Your Company A Marketing Novice?

The primary KPI for a marketing novice company is related to the number of leads generated by each marketing program, campaign and resource in which the company invests.

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By John Bernardi

Marketing Competency Must Fit Your Strategy

Marketing Competencies Must Match Your Strategy For Creating Value, Positioning Your Brand And Fostering the Right Selling Process

Which Marketing Competency Fits Your Strategy?

What Is Your Current Marketing Competency?

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By John Bernardi

Neighborhood Marketing

Neighborhood Marketing Benefits Residential Services Providers

Hallmarks of Successful Neighborhood Marketing Programs

1.    Great customer experiences get people talking about your company with their neighbors

2.    Win new business from the neighbors of completely satisfied customers

3.    Stay in touch with your neighborhood communities in a drip marketing fashion

4.    Partner with companies that offer complementary products and services

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Monster Goals

Monster Goals Are Imposing

Simplify each goal into sequential, measurable milestones.

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By John Bernardi

Separate Vs. Unified Marketing, Sales and Support Teams For Each Product Line

Benefits and Disadvantages of Consolidating Customer Facing Processes

I have been involved in situations where clients have separate marketing, sales and support teams representing different product lines that are often purchased by the same buyers.  What do you think are the advantages to this approach?  What are the benefits of consolidating customer facing processes?

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All Companies Offer Services

People Purchase Services Differently From Tangible Products

Inseparability of the service provider from the service itself challenges people to make objective buying decisions since experience can only be judged during and after service delivery.  Services buyers are influenced by past experiences [their own and others whose opinion they trust]. They pay attention when raving fans tell stories that help them to visualize how the benefits would apply to them. Indirect lead sources are key.

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Marketing Funnel Acumen Is Essential For High Marketing ROI

Apply Art and Science In Order to Generate Highly Qualified Leads For Your Sales Force

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By John Bernardi

Do You Need Immediate Marketing Gratification?

Generating marketing qualified leads is a patient process.

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Should You Raise Your Marketing Environment to Hallmark Status?

Excellent execution of an adequate plan will produce stronger results than adequate execution of an excellent plan.

Who will identify which changes are necessary to raise an important aspect of your business to the next level?

Who will implement your changes?

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Market Research is Essential Prior to Capacity Investment Decisions

What To Do When Your Company Reaches Capacity Limits? [People, Facilities and Equipment]

Status Quo Strategy

You selectively determine what sales opportunities to pursue in order to optimize available capacity.

This short-term strategy will lead to trouble mode and storm clouds will eventually appear on your horizon.

If market research proves a total available market that is growing or significantly higher than your available capacity, then status quo is a high-risk strategy.  When your market share declines you will become a higher cost producer in your category.  This opens the door to growth mode competitors who will become more attractive to your customers and employees.

Growth Strategy

You aggressively pursue all sales opportunities that match your ideal customer profile.

If market research proves a total available market that is growing or significantly higher than your available capacity, then lower your risk by implementing a growth strategy to maintain or increase your market share.  You will improve your position as a low-cost producer in your category.  This will spell trouble for your competitors as you become more attractive to their customers and employees.

If you opt to invest in more capacity in order to elevate a key aspect(s) of your business, you will also need to invest in skill development, process enhancement and productivity tools in order to capitalize on your growth opportunities.

Market Research Competency Is Essential

Without the appropriate market research competency [in-house or external], you won’t be able to make objectively correct capacity investment decisions.

By John Bernardi

Expand Your Comfort Zone To Leapfrog The Incumbent

Meeting The Chairman Of The Board Is Outside The Comfort Zone Of Most Sales Reps

Following A Well Planned Account Development Strategy Will Earn This Right

Search for self-confident business leaders and influencers whose personal response mode is either growth or trouble.  Avoid even keel or euphoric buyers and people who want to place you in a box where your value and ideas will be squashed.

Recruit a coach within the customer organization who will help you to tailor your value proposition to address the business, application and political obstacles you’ll be facing.

Introduce yourself early in their new application buying cycles as a valuable educator and problem solver.

Display a willingness to share account position with the incumbent.  When you confidently believe that you have consistently exceeded customer expectations, you have earned the right to adjust your account plan from a divisional strategy to an indirect strategy that changes the ground rules from which customer value decisions are made.  This will set you on a new course to becoming the incumbent.

My example: As a national account manager, I was responsible for a growth mode F500 customer where we shared a niche position with two other vendors.  I recognized how far we had to go in order to be considered a true competitor to their primary vendor who owned the account relationship and $120 million in annual sales.  After eliminating the secondary competitors and owning the $1 million niche, my next goal was to penetrate the core business.

My solid reputation for facilitating an excellent customer experience [and for business acumen and product and industry knowledge] that I had developed in the niche area established strong horizontal and vertical relationships throughout their company.  My internal customer coach guided me in the right direction. I believed that I had earned the right to meet their chairman of the board.  I approached him directly to let him know about the value we were providing to his company.  I knew that he loved to play golf.  He accepted my invitation to play on a nearby world class golf course in an event that I organized where he’d play with my company president and senior executives from my company were paired with his company’s senior managers who were amazed that I was able to make this happen.

This set me apart from all other vendors who would never think to go outside their comfort zones to this degree.  VP level decision makers felt more comfortable allowing my company to share business with their long-time incumbent since their chairman opened the door to a reduced risk decision.  This set the stage for my company being awarded a $15 million contract that in the past would have been a natural add-on for the competition.  From that point forward, the incumbent considered my company as a legitimate foe to be dealt with in this account. [They even tried to hire me.]

By John Bernardi

Expand Your Comfort Zone To Develop Existing Accounts And Land New Ones

Speak at Events Attended by Target Market Decision Makers and Influencers

Most people have stage fright so they’re glad it’s you on stage and not them.

My example: As a 29-year-old sales rep and working for a F500 tech company, I was invited by an industry association to meet with its members.  Rather than discussing features and benefits of my product line, I chose to present a strong business acumen that spoke to how CEOs in the audience could improve the typical KPIs for their industry by implementing solutions that leverage my category of products and services.  Within a week of my presentation the president of a company, [whose VP level executives had never responded to my approaches in the past,] invited me to discuss how I could specifically help his business. He signed a long-term contract and we delivered on our promise.

By John Bernardi

One Brand UVP for Each Persona

If your goal is to earn a price above your category's median price, you will need a Unique Value Proposition for each of your targeted personas. If you try to get by with one UVP, it will be average at best because you will be trying to shoehorn each persona into the same UVP that's convenient for you. Persona based Brand UVPs will create buyer interest in speaking with you. Each proposal's executive summary will require its own Proposal UVP in order to win profitable sales opportunities.

You Need a Unique Value Proposition

A unique value proposition will maximize your brand's value without price concessions. Create a brand UVP for each important buyer persona you serve. Strong brand UVPs can be the core of your content marketing strategy.