Developing a marketing plan is the best investment you can make in your business. To get started, you need to take a cold, hard look at your existing business.
- Do you have stale inventory you need to move off your books?
- Have new competitors come into town?
- Are online vendors taking market share?
- Is your website presenting a current, market leader image?
- Does your sales team have updated materials to support their sales efforts?
- Do you need to renegotiate any contracts to make your pricing more competitive?
- Do you have any loss leaders and/or are they the right ones, or are they just a source of loss?
And what about your customer base:
- Have there been any major shifts in your customer base, such as a business moving out of town or going out of business?
- Are you customers getting older and no longer needing your products/services?
- Are your customers out of work and no longer able to purchase your products?
- Are you soliciting and really LISTENING to your customers about what solutions they are looking for, and what might be holding them back from purchasing?
- Can you instantly speak to who your TOP 20 Customers are?
- How do you define your TOP 20 Customers?
To be continued....