Sales and marketing strategies are crucial to the establishment and growth of any business because, together, they encompass finding and reaching customers and then using methods to sell products to those customers. Sometimes, companies—especially new companies—need help in these areas because they are not quite in tune with the ebb and flow of the business world at startup.
These businesses would be well-served by professional sales and marketing consulting to help guide them through the difficulties of creating solid strategies. Sometimes, long-established companies can benefit from sales and marketing consulting to fine-tune or revamp existing strategy. Here are some of the ways a well-qualified consultant can help your company.
Marketing strategy
Define exactly what your market is and who your customers are:
Discuss ways to enter this market for a new company or for a more established company, methods of getting deeper into the market
Identify ways to help the company grow and increase its business in the intended market. Growth may come via acquiring another company and inheriting their business or expanding product lines to broaden appeal.
Create and use diverse distribution channels to increase the number of ways that your products reach the consumer public.
Suggest the best ways to reach targeted customers, such as advertising through various media outlets, including social media. More traditional methods of communication, such as catalogs, mailings, flyers, brochures, and an internal sales force, may also be appropriate.
There is never a one-size-fits-all marketing strategy, so the real value-added contribution of a sales and marketing consultant is in recognizing what might work best for your specific company and making recommendations that are tailored to it.
Sales strategy
A big part of your company’s sales strategy should be generating sales leads and identifying prospects. Some common ways to go about this are through contact forms on the company website, trade shows where many leads can be generated, and purchasing them from companies specializing in lead generation for your business.
Once a suitable data bank of leads has been created, they should be categorized according to the most likely prospects to call so that time is not wasted on unlikely candidates. The best leads can often be determined by specific information filled out on the contact form on the company website because precise questioning can gauge interest level. With this information in hand, a strategy for the frequency and number of calls to be made in any given period remains to be developed.
If your company intends to use and maintain one, many questions need to be answered about establishing an internal sales force. The group size is important because you need enough salespeople to help generate the sales volume targeted in the company’s goals and objectives. Having decided how many salespeople are necessary, you’ll need to figure out where they will come from and how you will get them on board as motivated representatives for your company. For instance, should salary be the primary attraction, or should a commission schedule be placed to reward extra effort and results?
Most businesses are aware of the fine points of overall strategies. Still, sometimes, sales and marketing consulting is the best way to connect those strategies with the objectives of a new or changing business. The fresh perspective brought to bear by a really good consultant can make all the difference between growth and stagnation.
