A
customer-focused marketing audit recognizes from the start that your
customers actually buy solutions to their important problems -- they
really do not buy your technology itself. That means that the right
marketing audit starting point is to look first at your customers
and their problems that you can solve ... not at yourself as a firm,
or as a set of products or services. With this in mind, here are the
elements that you need to audit and plan for:
Customers' high-value problems
Start with your current customers' situations. Just what are the
high-value problems that your technology already solves for them?
Again, the focus is on their problems, not your technology. One
key place to start this part of the audit is by examining recent
selling successes with customers. Find out just what key problem
or problems you solved for each of them. To do this, ask your sales
team -- and several customers directly if possible -- why they chose
your solution. Determine how your technology solution proved of
high value to them. At least you will confirm your problem-solving
value proposition (or, better yet, challenge it!), and you may discover
additional problems you solved for them that you can market and
sell to other customers.
Your market segments
Next look at your sales targets -- the market segments you sell
into. What vertical industries or cross-industry functions have
you been targeting recently? How are the problems that you solve
for each segment similar to, or different from, one another? Are
any of those target markets not delivering the revenue you expect,
especially in comparison with other segments you already sell to?
Can you figure out why? (Look especially at the problem-solving
value you deliver.) Now or in the future, can you see new sales
targets where you might deliver high value to customers? (To find
those new targets, look for vertical industries or cross-industry
functions that in some way are related to your current sales targets,
especially because they share a set of problems that you can solve.)
The competition
Audit your competitive situation. Who is the top vendor in your
market space? Is it your firm? If it's not you, what key customer
problems does the top vendor solve? Ask yourself how you are --
or can be -- a "better problem solver" for prospective
customers than your competition is. This may be based on your current
products or services, on unique geographic factors, on special support
you provide to customers, or on ways you can extend your current
technology to "out problem solve" your competition.
Your sales processes
Work with your sales management team to look at your sales process
-- where the "rubber meets the road" in your competition
for customers. What is your sales cycle? Why is it sometimes longer
or shorter? What can you learn by analyzing your more rapid sales
closes, and how can you apply that to every customer encounter?
What model do you have now for your sales force/sales channels?
Do your competitors use any alternate selling models that your sales
management should consider adopting in whole or in part? And now
that you better understand your selling processes, how can you strengthen
your marketing programs to better speed and increase sales results?
Your marketing and sales messages
With these elements of your customer-centered problem/solution
audit in place, you are ready to focus next on your marketing and
selling messages. Start by listing all the elements of your customers'
problems and your technology solutions, as discovered in the earlier
steps of the audit. Go through the hard work of focusing this list
down until you reach a very short "Core Marketing Message."
(Note: This process is the subject of another complete article;
please e-mail or call if you would like a copy of that article.)
With this in hand, you have the opportunity to reap the benefits
of your focusing process by disciplining your entire organization
to start always with the core message -- right at the beginning
of all of your marketing and sales materials.
Graphics and themes
Once that core message is clear, it's often productive to look
for a "family" of graphic images that will reinforce it.
This is a great time to get the input of a graphics expert, either
on your team or from the outside. Start by sharing with them what
you have learned so far in the audit. Similarly, it's useful to
find textual "themes" that fit with the message, such
as a metaphor from sports or competition that you can "weave
through" your marketing materials. This helps people better
relate to your core message from the starting point of a commonly
understood theme.
Beyond the audit
That's the end of the "foundation" work of a customer-focused
marketing audit. Now the "everyday work" of marketing
begins: Apply your understanding of customer problems, sales targets
and the competitive environment, the core message, a set of images
and themes, and your other important problem / solution selling
messages to create the graphics, product marketing tools, and marketing
communications materials you need to generate new sales. This includes
all the hard copy and soft file marketing and sales materials that
best fit your go-to-market strategy: your website, PowerPoint sales
presentations, brochures and other printed collateral, Case Studies,
sales seminar invitations and materials, e-mail promotions, etc.
In addition, these messages and themes, when presented as real cases
of actual customers' problems and solutions, will also provide interest-generating
points of focus for your outreach to the Press and Market Analysts
-- who can strongly influence enterprise systems buyers in your
favor.
The result
What's the bottom-line result -- even before you tackle the "everyday
work" of marketing -- of taking this kind of step-by-step,
customer-focused approach to the marketing audit process? You will
have a firm foundation set in the "concrete" of the customer
problems you solve -- a foundation that you can use to build a solid,
integrated marketing and sales action plan to help you better win
new customers and drive revenue growth.
Rob Elmore (Rob.T.Elmore@Gmail.com) works with high-tech executives
and entrepreneurs who are unsure how to open new markets or expand
markets to grow revenue -- and who want to avoid the trap of just
pitching their hot new technology. Rob has helped firms like Mercury
Interactive and HP drive results in market development, marketing,
and sales enablement by determining top market opportunities and
challenges, identifying key customer problems, clearly defining
solutions the vendor provides, communicating the value of the vendor's
solutions, and executing comprehensive marketing and sales programs.
|
