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This begins a series on marketing.\u00a0 <\/span>I\u2019ll dispense with the quotes I usually use because I couldn\u2019t find any that I thought were appropriate for this discussion.\u00a0 <\/span>If you consider yourself to be a pretty savvy marketer, this may be too elementary for you, but for everyone else, please read on.<\/p>\n Many small business people are unsure what marketing really is.\u00a0 <\/span>Everybody engages in marketing or they couldn\u2019t be in business.\u00a0 <\/span>But often, marketing activities are not done in a systematic, coordinated, strategic<\/span><\/em> way.\u00a0 <\/span>So let\u2019s begin by talking about what marketing is . . . and what it is not.<\/p>\n Small business people sometimes use the terms \u201cmarketing\u201d and \u201csales\u201d interchangeably as though they are two different names for the same thing.\u00a0 <\/span>They are not. \u00a0<\/span>Sales and marketing are entirely different activities.\u00a0 <\/span>A friend of mine says it this way:\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cThe job of marketing is to deliver prospects for the sales force to sell.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s a pretty good definition, I think.<\/p>\n Remember the safari movies we\u2019ve all seen? \u00a0<\/span>The ones where the \u201cbeaters\u201d are making a lot of noise to flush the quarry from hiding and driving it toward the hunters?\u00a0 <\/span>Well, think of the beaters as marketers and the hunters as sales people.\u00a0 <\/span>If the beaters don\u2019t do their job well, the hunters will be going home empty-handed.<\/p>\n In order to deliver prospects that our sales force can sell, marketing must answer a number of fundamental but critically important questions.<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>What product or service do we want the sales force to sell?<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>What problem will our offering solve, what need will it fill, or what want will it satisfy?<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>Who is our prime prospect (the ideal customer who has the problem, need, or want we\u2019ve identified)?<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>How will we communicate with our prime prospect(s)?\u00a0 <\/span>Through print advertising?\u00a0 <\/span>Radio? \u00a0<\/span>Television?\u00a0 <\/span>Email blasts?\u00a0 <\/span>Direct mail?\u00a0 <\/span>Social media?<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>How do we intend to deliver our product or service?\u00a0 <\/span>Through retail channels?\u00a0 <\/span>Via the internet?\u00a0 <\/span>Through distributors and wholesalers?<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>Where should we set our price?\u00a0 <\/span>That is, what is our prime prospect willing to pay for our product or service?<\/p>\n –\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>Who else is already in the marketplace selling a similar product or service, and how will we differentiate ourselves from them?<\/p>\n The list goes on, but you get the idea.\u00a0 <\/span>Marketing is the highest strategic activity in any company because if we get marketing wrong, it doesn\u2019t matter how strong we are financially, how efficient we are operationally, or what a great sales force we have.\u00a0 <\/span>If marketing is wrong, we can\u2019t survive as a company.\u00a0 <\/span>If we offer a product or service that doesn\u2019t address the problem or need or want it was intended to, we won\u2019t be able to sell it.\u00a0 <\/span>If we offer it at too high a price, we won\u2019t be able to sell it.\u00a0 <\/span>In short, marketing will have failed in its mission to deliver prospective customers to the sales force.<\/p>\n OK, so now we know what marketing is and what it\u2019s supposed to do.\u00a0 <\/span>In the next few postings, we\u2019ll explore in more detail some of the questions above that marketing needs to answer correctly.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This begins a series on marketing.\u00a0 I\u2019ll dispense with the quotes I usually use because I couldn\u2019t find any that I thought were appropriate for this discussion.\u00a0 If you consider yourself to be a pretty savvy marketer, this may be too elementary for you, but for everyone else, please read on. Many small business people<\/p>\n