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We add value throughout the whole marketing management cycle. There are three processes we have to manage constantly. These processes are: researching markets, developing marketing strategies, and executing marketing programs that have been defined in the previous two stages. Below you will find an outline of the various work processes and the tasks they typically include. In our assignments we usually take responsibility for one or more of these tasks for a certain time period. Market ResearchThe essence of proper market research is to identify and analyze market opportunities. It addresses issues like estimating market size, identifying targeted customers, analyzing competitors, measuring demand for a product. Like a tree that grows from the roots to the trunk to the leaves, marketing management starts with market research, builds upon a strategy and ends with executing specific programs. If you develop a strategy that is based on the wrong information, you will get catastrophic results. Because managers usually shortcut this stage, they often times encounter difficulties and setbacks when they move to develop the business: wrong distributors are approached, they don't know exactly how to best find their prospective customers, leads are generated in the wrong segment, whole financial forecasts are based on questionable data and assumptions. Have you ever traveled to another country in your holidays? We bet you have. Except if you deliberately wanted to depart on an adventure, you have most likely planned the flight, you have checked which hotels are most attractive to you, you have planned which cities to visit, and you have perhaps learned a couple of words in the local language. The same is true for market research: if you want to depart on a business adventure, you don't need to research anything. But business shouldn't be an adventure because you don't want to lose your own or your investors' money. The key benefits of a properly conducted market research are: you save time and efforts in generating leads, you make profitable deals with more suitable distributors, you reduce your time to market, you don't waste cash on ineffective campaigns. Here is what we would actually do at this stage:
Strategy DevelopmentThe essence of strategy development is to properly position the product and develop programs that can be executed. It addresses issues like setting a price for a product, determining the structure of a distribution network, defining product specifications, forecasting sales. Before you do the things right – when executing marketing programs for instance – you have to think about doing the right things. At this stage you think about doing the right things. Only if you know exactly the path that leads you to the treasure, you can start hiking through the forest, the valleys and the hills. At this stage we draw our map to the treasure, we put our strategy on paper, on a business plan. The key benefits of a properly developed strategy are: you reduce sales cycles because products are properly positioned, you know where to find your key accounts for large and repeating sales, your price is largely accepted by customers, you don't waste money by entering countries where there is not enough demand, you spend your R&D budgets in the most efficient way since you only develop products that meet a real demand. Here is what we would actually do at this stage:
Program ExecutionThe essence of program execution is to manage marketing programs and to deliver the planned results. It addresses issues like finding resellers, making and negotiating distribution agreements, generating leads for you and for your distributors, getting publicity, defining sales work flow according to stages and sales automation, controlling distributors and measuring results, exhibiting professionally at trade shows. A common conception is that all it takes to make sales is to find a couple of resellers, to sit back and to wait for them to flood us with orders. This is not going to happen. First, building a profitable distribution network is more difficult than to just make a deal with a reseller. Second, having a distribution network in place is only the first step. Additional steps need to make sure that enough leads are generated. The absolute majority of any type of reseller is just interested in selling your products to their existing customers. They rarely will go the extra mile and take the risk of developing new markets, or of finding new customers for your products. The only person responsible for generating demand and leads is you, as a marketing executive. You can't expect to throw this responsibility upon your reseller because if you do, you may wonder why sales are stuck or even declining. On one hand there is a large list of tasks to be done but on the other hand there is not enough marketing staff to help you get things done in a timely manner and to meet deadlines as expected. Worse, as a CEO or VP you have to focus on day-to-day activities and do not always have time to take care of entering new markets. This leads to taking shortcuts and to giving priority to urgent work but not necessarily to important work. The key benefits of proper program execution are: you work with resellers that produce sales, your sales grow quicker because you give attention to all required tasks in an organized manner and don't have to always just “extinguish fires”, you avoid conflicts because you have someone to communicate effectively with your key customers and distributors, you have a transparent and efficient sales application in place that allows you to always know what happened when with specific accounts, you have collateral in native language, you attract more customers because the value of your product is easy to understand, you have a sales funnel that constantly receives new leads as a way to grow your sales quicker. Here is what we would actually do at this stage:
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