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Within ten years of the first gasoline powered automobile being placed, someone discovered how to steal a car. Because cars are naturally valuable and might be swiftly removed from the parking spot, they have remained a natural target for criminals ever since. Therefore, it’s equally natural for car owners to purchase ever-more innovative car alarms to make their autos trickier to purloin. The previous forty years have seen a kind of arms race between alarm manufacturers and burglars, with both sides attempting to be more resourceful than the other party. In this post, we are going to discuss how car alarms function, and then quickly evaluate a few types that you might want to consider purchasing. Another great product to consider is the Canon CanoScan 8800F Scanner.

In its most basic form, a car alarm uses one or more sensors wired to a siren. If, as an illustration, you were to put a sensor on a car’s driver’s door and the alarm was switched on, opening the aforementioned door is going to activate the sensor and engage the siren. Needless to say, a lot of alarms sold today are considerably more advanced than this. Modern car alarms often have an array of sensors as well as switches. Sirens can be tailored to make the distinctive sound of your choice, and the majority of systems involve a radio receiver designed to accept input from a remote controller. Obviously, all these components are coordinated by means of a small computer which watches everything. Another great alternative is the Canon CanoScan 8800F Scanner.

Like everything else in this electronic age, car alarms could be discovered in the greatest numbers and occasionally the lowest prices when consumers shop on the internet. ECarSecurity.com could be a great place to begin. This website provides simple alarms like the Astra 200 which is basically a handful of sensors, a siren and a wiring harness and is priced at $47. They also offer the Galaxy 2100RS which is engineered to tell you that your auto has been started and gives you the opportunity to disable it remotely. The Galaxy may be bought for $195.

Commando is an additional reliable alarm system company, and Commando maintains their own website, CommandoAlarms.com. This maker provides totally basic models, like the 520-S car alarm which accomodates keyless entry, offers two remotes in addition to a start disabler and can set you back $50. They additionally offer the FM 870 that can page you instantly if your car is touched or broken into, and allow you to control your car from as much as half a mile away, all for $169.

One last situation to take into consideration is alarm installation. The most advanced device on earth is ineffective if it is improperly installed, consequently unless you are extremely handy with electronics, it could be beneficial to finance this service. Most auto stores that carry car alarms can install them for a charge, which might be from $50 to $100, depending on the difficulty of the product.

If you admire your vehicle, odds are that another person may, also. A car alarm might make your life somewhat more protected and your insurance costs somewhat lower. Another nice option is the Canon CanoScan 8800F Scanner.

Modern science has provided new innovative facilities to all business fields. One of the many useful office machines common to businesses today is the Fax. What most of us are unaware of is that the Fax receiver is a simple and convenient method of receiving cheque payments from your client. There is no need to wait a long time for a paper cheque to arrive by snail mail when you can generate your cheque within seconds using your Fax machine. 

People are different and need different methods of dealing with their financial transactions. Some find solutions for taking Fax card payments, while others methods useful to them. The ability to receive cheques instantly is an appealing advantage of accepting payments by Fax. Customers who have credit lines but prefer to pay via their cheque account and clients without the ability to access credit accounts can purchase services and goods from you using this method. 

There are many solutions for taking Fax card payments, to start harness this handy business tool you will need to have a cheque producing software and a Fax machine. You should have other peripheral resources such as stock paper and an inkjet or laser printer, for printing the cheque, on hand. You can also use magnetic ink for the printing. These will ensure that you produce the cheque securely. The process of receiving cheques by Fax is as simple as the following steps:

· First, you need some information like- the name of the client, his address, account number, cheque number and the amount of the purchase. The patron provides this as a sent Fax.

· Once you have the relevant information, enter it into the software correctly and accurately. Tell the system to print the cheque by activating its local print command. Within seconds, a valid cheque made out to your business in the amount required is produced and your transaction is successfully complete. 

· You can present the cheque to your bank the very same day

Cheque and card payments by Fax are a way of receiving and accepting payments that is famously being used all around the world. Software for cheque receipt by Fax is widely available and a good investment for the smart businessperson who wants the freedom to accept payments under a wide variety of circumstances. You can be one of them! Clearly having your own internal solutions for taking Fax card payments pays its benefits, and it is easy to see why people prefer to shop with businesses that embrace this sort of flexibility in their arrangements. 

Marketing successfully requires not only insight into how a product or service can be successfully marketed but also flexibility into the marketing of a product or service.

This is one of the marketing principles that doesn’t seem to be taught successfully. Too many times, the “marketing gurus” will promote a type of marketing that has worked for them to the exclusion of all other types of marketing.

Now the type of marketing they promote may very well have worked well for them, but it is folly to believe that one marketing method and one marketing method only will work for every product or service everywhere. This just is not the reality as marketing methods can be as unique as the products and services that are marketed.

Innovation, creativity and flexibility are needed in any type of marketing efforts. Trying several types of marketing is usually the best method of eliminating marketing methods that fail, and determining which marketing methods are successful.

Online business or any type of business for that matter demands perseverance and determination. Perseverance and determination are also promoted heavily by the marketing gurus. However, perseverance and determination does NOT mean sticking with a marketing method that is incorrect for the product or service or NOT producing any results. It does not mean continuing self-defeating marketing methods over and over at a loss each and every month.

To prove a point about the misconceptions sometimes promoted by the marketing gurus and the misconceptions others may have about perseverance in general, I’ve used two actual case studies below:

A. Case Study #1 is a young male who started an online business many years ago promoting marketing resources and marketing strategies. He had many fine offerings that were of great value, as he spent much time and energy researching and developing resources. He read many manuals from marketing gurus, who stressed a lot on list building and e- mail marketing.

This young man, following the marketing guru’s advice, spent much time and energy for years, e-mailing others relentlessly, swapping ads for further exposure, writing articles in other newsletters and e-zines, and trying every “trick” of e-mail marketing to no avail. He also persisted in this strategy as he had taken to heart the principle of “never quitting” quite literally, which the gurus had promoted so heartily to him.

He lost quite a great deal of time and money until he noticed that his Web site had been ranking quite well in the Search Engines (after all, he had great content). Most of the few sales he had been making were coming directly from his Web site, despite the fact that he did not believe in (and dreaded) Search Engine marketing! He rethought the whole process and his approach, and began focussing on marketing his resources strictly from his Web site, applying his perseverance and determination to that, with incredible success ever since!

B. Case Study #2 is a middle aged female who approached the marketing somewhat differently, as she had read a manual from a different marketing guru. She was promoting a customized service, rather than a product, and the guru, whose advice she followed, firmly believed in Search Engine marketing, and Search Engine marketing alone. She spent literally tons of money, and tons of time, getting her Web site to the top of the Search Engines.

Like Case Study #1, she felt that if she only gave it enough time, and persevered, sales would be made. As time went on, she discovered that most of her sales were being made through her e-mail marketing. Her articles, ad swapping, and other e-mail marketing efforts (she published routinely her own newsletters and e-zines), were leading to more clients than those which were attained off her Web site. In her case, e-mail marketing was the “key” to success, but she also was following the mandates of the wrong marketing guru.

The above two studies highlight the folly of blindly following the mandates of any marketing guru. While many do have good solid advice to give, the business owner must possess enough flexibility to test many methods. Creativity and an open mind help immensely when determining marketing methods.

Perseverance and dedication are important, of course. But they must be applied correctly, along with flexibility and innovation, for success to occur in a business. All avenues should be pursued with perseverance and dedication and then choices of marketing methods made based upon the results. After all, results are what make a marketing method successful! Without results, any marketing method is a dismal failure.

Perry Belcher is known for it’s great product marketing, visit Perry Belcher site to know more about Perry Belcher

Set up multiple simultaneous marketing campaigns with database marketing automation email software that get results exploding your internet business marketing while growing multiple optin lists, prospects consistent follow, increasing Back End Sales, and bottom line profits.

When you don’t follow up your prospects or customers with additional information, you are allowing valuable customers and prospects to skip from your grasp, go to your competitors, and satisfied their needs, at the expense of what should have been you’re your profits.

Those are customers that may have been very interested in your products, but simply lost your information, or were too busy when your information was sent. Some customers will purposely wait to see if you find them important enough to follow-up their inquiries. When they don’t receive a follow up message, they take their business elsewhere.

I don’t know about you, but just about everyone doing business on the Net been in that position, because of failing to automate their follow up. Though it’s been found that customer follow up at preset times with pre-written messages, dramatically increases sales.

The exception, those who automated their marketing campaigns, their list and database management, and automated their follow up with personalized email marketing software; and, they dramatically increased their back end sales and bottom line profits.

But, just as important as the increase of sales and profits, is the time saving features of marketing automation, as is the case with email marketing, the single most important aspect of database marketing and back end sales.

Other benefits of doing internet business with email marketing automation is the ability to follow up with prospects, while following through collecting leads, prospects, and customers email addresses and personal data, from a target market; growing an opt-in list of subscribers, managing multiple lists as a list server, and setting up multiple marketing campaigns with unlimited autoresponders.

Regardless of the spam problems of these days, email still remains most effective medium for:

o Keeping customers posted on new products and specials

o Ongoing personalized dialogue with website visitors

o Proactively getting customer satisfaction and testimonials

o Prospects follow up and requesting more information

o Keeping track of all contacts and email communication

o Introducing new products to your contact database

o Motivating and training your employees and associates

o Educating your customers and prospects

And the list could go on and on with no other limitation than the marketer’s creativity and imagination, or the email marketing automation software he’s using to automate his customers follow up.
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Automated prospect follow up is the solution to selling more on the Internet, and specifically, for more back end sales. There is a wide range of email marketing automation software on the market now a days, some more sophisticated, easier to use, and more expensive than others.

To make a good selection of the wide range of available choices, there’s a minimum of features you must consider.
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From the marketing stand point the minimum features would be: automated database management and list server for multiple list management; manage and track, import and export, contact data from-and-to its database; and multiple autoresponders for sequential follow-up.

As important, is the ability of data merge for personalized email to potential customers, prospects, newsletters subscribers, clients, colleagues, organization members, affiliate or associates, and network marketing downlines; and, automated add and remove contact data from its database.

Other than the above, the software should allow for the seamless input of prospects on the front end, and when they come out the other end, they have all the information they need to make an intelligent decision to buy, to join an affiliate program, or sign up to a Network Marketing downline.

From the technical point of view, the software should feature: the capacity to operate sending email through your regular ISP server, or through its own integrated mail server to by pass your ISP servers, and avoid using up its band width – this is a must feature if you have a list of more than 1000 contacts.

Other important technical features for the email marketing software of your choice would be, the capacity of sending email through multiple simultaneous threads (at least 10 threads), at a sending average rate of 15 emails per thread; and an email address verifier, to verify new contacts email addresses and keeping your list clean from those entering a fake email address only to download your bonus.

Finally, the email software must have the capacity to handle the entire user unknown, undeliverable, and bounce back messages. This feature is very important to keep a clean list, and avoid being filtered by the ISP’s servers as Spam, because of too many undeliverable taking up their band width.

With an email marketing and database management software with all the above features, a Marketer or internet business operator you can set up, operate, and manage multiple programs, multiple marketing campaigns; and, also running multiple special offers, simultaneously and effortlessly.

For Netprenuers with an affiliate program, or into network marketing, this kind of software can help training associates, affiliates, and downlines, via email, on subjects such as distributor handbooks, marketing materials, or instructions for a quick jump start.

Finally, if you’re an e-publisher, this software provide the capacity for multiple broadcasting of newsletter or ezines; as well as to automatically submit article to hundreds of ezines editors at once..

Automated email and database management automation could afford business owners and marketers the means to capitalize on the full power of the internet, by consistently following up on customers, prospects, affiliates, and downlines; and, launching multiple and simultaneous marketing campaigns, while dramatically increasing their back end sales and bottom line profits.

Email marketing automation generates interest, traffic, and sales for an online business; and, its just amazing the amount of work and time that it saves. I cannot imagine someone marketing or doing business on the internet without email marketing automation software like this.

Perry Belcher is known for it’s great product marketing, visit Perry Belcher site to know more about Perry Belcher

Small business marketers love the chase. Love the new fangled way to make the phone ring. They love to think of a marketing promotion as a single event. But it’s precisely this view of marketing that holds most small businesses back. They fall prey to the “marketing idea of the week” and never fully explore what it takes to create and build a completely functioning, consistently performing, marketing system.

In this article I am going to outline the basic steps that any business can follow on the way to creating their very own marketing system. But first let’s explore this word system in the context of marketing. Small business owners have no problem thinking systems when it comes to say, accounting or hiring. When it comes to marketing though, all bets are off. It’s as if they are waiting for magic fairy dust to fall upon them with the next great marketing innovation.

Look, effective marketing is little more than creating and operating an effective marketing system. Now, when I use the word system I mean several things. 1) The system is documented – You can’t have a system or a step in a system unless you write it down. 2) The system is built on sound marketing principals and 3) You constantly measure, innovate, and refine the system.

Okay, so on to the system building steps.

1) Narrow and define a target market – Small business owners love to say yes. “Sure we can do that.” The next thing you know the target market is roughly anyone they think will pay them. You must commit to a narrowly defined target market and you must focus all of your attention upon serving that market like no one ever dreamed of. A narrow marketing focus might be – Estate Attorneys – as opposed to Law Firms.

2) Discover and communicate a core message for that market – Until you can show how your firm is different and offers something unique, you will always compete on price. You must find a way to tell your newly defined narrow target market why you have something to offer that they value. Your core message might be – We show estate attorneys how gain all of the business they can handle – as opposed to: We help law firms.

3) Develop multiple forms of permission based lead generation – No one like to be sold to and more and more advertising is falling on numb ears and eyes. Your lead generation system must be built on several fronts, such as public relations, referral marketing, strategic partnerships, and targeted advertising. Your lead generation message must offer the target market a reason to want to know more. Forget about the sale, look for ways to build trust.

4) Construct a lead conversion and customer reselling process – No amount of leads in the world will help your business if you don’t efficiently turn those leads into clients. You must have a plan that maps out what you will do when phone rings, when you make the sales call and when it’s time to do more business with the clients you already have. Most small businesses completely ignore this aspect of their marketing, but this is where the real success in marketing lies.

5) Create educational based marketing and presentation materials – Forget about the glossy sales brochure, use your marketing materials to teach how your firm is different, how you solve real problems, how you work, why you work, what you believe and your marketing will be much more successful. Your web site must come from this point of view as well.

6) Define the most important marketing success indicators – Setting marketing goals for such things as leads, appointments, sales, phone calls, referrals, impressions, mentions and anything else you can think to measure is how you turn marketing into a game and how you keep score of the game. Everyone loves and game and the only way to improve something is to measure how well you are doing in the first place.

7) Build an annual marketing calendar and budget and stick to it – Once you have spent the time and energy to think through steps 1-6 you need to commit your plan to a marketing calendar and then allocate (or at least think about) the money it will take to implement your plan. Once you create a calendar it is much more likely that you will look at the tasks assigned to each month like a “to-do” list. So, instead of whining that you should do more marketing, you simply scratch each item off your list and plan for the next. It’s an amazingly simple but effective device.

Okay…now the last bit of advice.

Every system needs a champion. Either find someone in your organization who does little else but operate the system or hire a marketing professional and charge them with helping you develop, implement and run the system.

Properly fed and maintained, this little marketing system can become the engine that drives your firm’s climb to the top.

Perry Belcher is known for it’s great product marketing, visit Perry Belcher site to know more about Perry Belcher

As recession begins to bite hard, ‘spending’ is the watchword of the moment. While the government introduces financial initiatives designed to encourage higher spending, people and businesses are looking for ways to cut their budgets. Despite the recent reduction in VAT and government appeals to banks to increase lending, businesses can’t ignore the lower revenue figures as customers retreat in large numbers.

In times of financial uncertainty, a review of business operations will highlight those functions deemed non-essential or over-resourced. Historically marketing is usually among the first to be culled. It is not a well understood discipline and invariably its implementation is lacking. By and large, it is seen more as a cost centre than a revenue generator, working to bring new sales leads to the business. Properly conceived, planned and implemented marketing strategies can raise an organisation’s profile in the marketplace, in turn strengthening brand awareness and loyalty, all of which eventually leads to more customers and ultimately more revenue.

That said, here are a few words of warning. Cutting your marketing budget without thought to the business impact can be devastating. Experienced marketers know this but are under pressure to reduce spending nevertheless, and never more so than now. Conversely, there are those organisations that hold marketing up as one of the tenets of business success in all weather. These are the companies that believe if you throw enough money at marketing, eventually more customers will come and the coffers will start to fill. But without a plan behind the intent, this approach is simply a waste of money and potentially fatal to the business. There is another way.

It is accepted wisdom that marketing is essential to a prosperous business. But is it possible to maintain marketing effectiveness on an ever-decreasing budget? To answer this question, we first need to understand three things: what exactly is marketing these days, why is it so important anyway and how is it changing?

MARKETING’S EVER INCREASING IMPORTANCE
To the uninitiated, marketing is a synonym for a wide range of disciplines and activities that somehow fall into the same bucket: advertising, public relations, exhibitions, promotions. It’s true that marketing covers all of these and many others, but what actually is it?

Marketing is essentially project management in disguise and has already been functioning well through outsourcing for a significant period of time. The proliferation of marketing activity, widening supplier resources and the increasingly short term view of the role of the marketing director have all combined to create the right environment for outsourcing marketing from the strategic through the bottom line operational level.

As recently as ten years ago, certain businesses did not need to market themselves as we understand it today. Businesses such as estate agents, housing developers and banks simply opened their doors and customers would come to them, ready to buy. These businesses saw marketing as a way to rise above the competition, but there was still essentially plenty of business for all of them. However, as markets have fractured and changed, the competition has become ever more fierce and new business models are continuously being developed. On top of that, in the current economic climate it is these traditional pillars of the economy that are suffering the most.

In light of these circumstances, marketing has taken on a new importance. It has become paramount not just to business success but also to business survival. Brand presence in itself is no longer enough. It is continuous brand strengthening and communication through robust marketing strategies that forms the foundation.

Ultimately though, marketing is about understanding your customers and your market. What have you got to sell, who are you trying to sell it to, and what is the best way reach them? In addressing these issues, the successful marketing programme will cover market research, define the most appropriate channels to market and the most effective media to reach the right audience, and articulate why the market should buy from them. This last point is the cornerstone to success marketing, otherwise known as the ‘Unique Selling Proposition’

Having outlined what marketing is and why it’s so important, surely it would be simple enough to work out a plan and execute it. Unfortunately for marketers everywhere, this is easier said than done. Why? Because marketing is undergoing radical change.

THE CHANGING FACE OF MARKETING
Since the dawn of the Internet age, online marketing has unfolded at an alarming rate. At no time is this more true than today. With the advent of the so-called ‘Web 2.0′ over the last few years, social networking has seen a proliferation of new tools and online media have opened up new and diffuse channels to market. Marketing today is in many ways unrecognisable from the discipline it was, even ten short years ago.

This change has brought increasing complexity to strategic marketing and planning. Internal marketing departments are being spread more thinly, relying increasingly on a growing list of supporting agencies each dedicated to a particular marketing activity. It has also meant that marketing managers and executives have taken on more of project management role as they supervise and coordinate an abundance of outsourced activities. Similarly, the marketing director’s role has become fundamentally project-based. Marketing directors are often tasked with a series of strategic restructures as the business continually morphs to adapt to its market. This has imbued the role with a short-term outlook, such that today it is unusual for a marketing director to stay with an organisation for more than two years before moving on.

In finding a solution to the challenge of achieving effective marketing on a strict budget, it is worth noting that the prevalent marketing agency landscape developed out of necessity, not through careful planning. Outsourcing on a piecemeal basis is not a cost effective formula. It has been technology driven, not marketing driven. And there are a few fundamental issues with this approach. Firstly marketing executives do not ordinarily make good project managers. They lack the advanced skills required to integrate and synchronise a myriad online and offline activities into a single, mutually supportive workflow.

Outsourcing marketing functions is not a new concept. In fact it is a tried and tested way to quickly reduce costs by moving core functions outside of the organisation. It was first widely applied to customer service through call centres. However sales and marketing departments quickly discovered that if you outsource on a purely tactical basis, it can backfire on your business. It is important to build in strategic processes and controls to maintain service quality. The challenge for marketing is how to achieve quality control across such a diverse and disparate range of activities. One answer could be to combine outsource partners with a project management team. Another approach is to integrate these functions and elevate the outsourcing relationship to a more strategic level. To identify the best approach, we need to understand ‘marketing integration’ and how this can create cost efficiencies.

INTEGRATING OFFLINE AND ONLINE MARKETING
While today every business considers having an online presence as a necessity, tomorrow it will be blogs, giveaway content in the form of PDF reports and email newsletters, online communities and social networking that will become essential to every marketing strategy, programme and campaign and not just the domain of the forward-thinkers.

These new ways of communicating with the market are moving seemingly further and further away from the real world. Aside from keeping up with developments, marketers are faced with the challenge of integrating online and offline channels so that they support and reinforce, rather than contradict each other.

On top of this, technology has levelled the playing field. Now anyone can try their hand at marketing. Publishing a newspaper or magazine is possible with a software programme and a broadband connection. Achieving professional quality media is now accessible to the man on the street. Similarly online marketing is open to everyone. However, the ability to market does not guarantee marketing success. Despite ease of online communication, the availability of tools for fast analysis of market data and the speed of digital delivery, superior marketing implementation can only be ensured when it is backed by a consistent business strategy and coordinated marketing programme. More importantly, integrating traditional offline marketing with the many disparate forms of tactical online activities in a strategic way will be essential to success.

COST EFFECTIVENESS IS MARKETING GOLD
As marketing agencies continue to proliferate and shift towards more and more specialised niches, it begins to make sense to consolidate the mainstream functions within an integrated framework. Logically, however, this would suggest higher internalised costs. To avoid these costs, without compromising effectiveness, suggests moving the mainstream function outside the organisation.

However, this makes little sense if executed at the tactical level. What is needed is a restructuring of the traditional outsourcing model so that the lines of communication are at board level. Strategic public relations and public affairs consultancies have worked this way for many years. The timing and conditions are now right for marketing to adopt this approach: to move from a tactical project management style to a higher-level strategic partnership with their outsourcers.

Put simply, modern outsourced marketing takes the accepted concept of interim management and retained agencies to a higher level. In an outsourced arrangement, highly skilled marketing consultants and managers liaise with specialist agencies to an agreed strategy and budget, in a well-constructed operating process to deliver on planned objectives and targets. By taking an holistic view from a brand perspective, outsourced marketing has the potential to lift the bar on performance and programme integration in a way that traditional marketing management finds hard to achieve within modern cost structures. Key to achieving this is integration of the internal marketing function at the strategic level of the business.

Outsourcing marketing execution is the traditional view taken by organisations when attempting to strip out costs, but within today’s marketing landscape this can only come at the expense of marketing effectiveness. Modern outsourcing should aim for strategic consistency across internal marketing functions. This has the additional benefit of placing overall responsibility and planning at an organisational level rather than with ultimately one departmental representative, the marketing director.

As a contractual arrangement, strategic outsourcing establishes common operating practices and reportage, which work in accordance with KPI measurements and agreed ROI indices. From a marketing perspective the strategic outsource model has the organisational intelligence necessary to achieve a balance mix of online activity and offline in an integrated manner.

CHOOSING A STRATEGIC OUTSOURCED MARKETING PARTNER
As a means of replacing high cost, high turnover internal function with a strategy partnership that communicates at board level, the outsourced marketing model has much offer. It is equally suited to growing companies that have yet to develop a marketing department as those that are downsizing. For those marketers working under the conditions accompanying a merger or acquisition situation, or companies and brands stripped of resource through administration, outsourced marketing also presents an attractive option.

If you decide that outsourced marketing is for you, you’ll want to ensure that you engage an outsourcer that agrees to a planning process that involves clear ROI and KPI objectives. Ideally this will be presented in the form of a marketing dashboard to allow a continuous evaluation performance on the fly. You should also be careful to select an outsource partner that can offer a complementary mix of senior consultants with skills that span all media and marketing channels. Naturally it is also critical that this experience covers both online and offline environments. Finally, it is important to assess whether your outsourcing partner can offer flexibility in its fee structure. For example, can it package a tailored launch service for an all-on cost but also provide supplementary services on a ‘top-up’ basis as and when required?

Cost savings are readily achievable with a fully outsourced marketing function, provided consultation is observed at board level. Since services are rendered on a ‘time block’ basis, it is easy to adjust the marketing resources ‘tap’ to whatever level suits the budget. Provided the partnership is structured correctly, marketing results should not be adversely affected. In fact, the enhanced planning and creative development process that comes through an outsourced arrangement can lead to improved marketing effectiveness and sales performance that proves to be as valuable as lower marketing costs.

Marketing Outsources is the UK’s first specialist organisation, which offers both in company management with external creative and production services to provide full executive resources and a planned programme of activity. Implemented at a substantially lower cost yet with an improved performance, making the most of technology and better planning and faster working.

With Marketing Outsources you get a topflight director just when you need the strategy and creative direction with board level input to overall company growth, backed with experienced marketing managers.

Marketing Outsources can deliver and implement your marketing strategy through a group of expert and experienced suppliers, embracing the benefits of new technology, whilst balancing online and offline spending to optimum effect.
Tim Arnold is the principal partner of Marketing Outsources, the UK’s first specialist organisation, which offers both in company management with external creative and production services to provide full executive resources and a planned programme of activity, implemented at a substantially lower cost yet with an improved performance, making the most of technology and better planning and faster working.

Tim has over 35 year’s experience in marketing, advertising and sales promotion. He set up Marketing Outsources having worked as a Portfolio Marketing Director for 10 years. In this role he has been Marketing Director for Hagemeyer and Berkeley Homes and head of e-commerce for Farnell.

Previously, he was founder of Tim Arnold & Associates and chairman of the Arnold Worth Group, a leading UK independent marketing services group. Prior to that he was a Director of Wasey Campbell Ewald (Interpublic) and MD of their sales promotion company.

Tim started his career as a Unilever trainee before moving to become Brand Manager for Yardley of London. He is a fellow of the Institute of Sales Promotion and member of the Marketing Society and has recently published “The Marketing Director’s handbook” with Guy Tomlinson.

Perry Belcher is known for it’s great product marketing, visit Perry Belcher site to know more about Perry Belcher

Marketing is the key to success with any business, online or traditional. You can have a website or business location. You can have a great product. However, if no one has heard about your business or your product, you have NOTHING!

Marketing is everything you do to promote yourself and your business. Without an aggressive marketing effort, your website is just one of EIGHT BILLION listed on Google. Without an aggressive marketing effort, your store better have a location next to Walmart and hope for their overflow. How do you stand out from the crowd?

There are seven (let’s call them) commandments for your marketing efforts. Keep these in mind and you are well on your way to creating an effective marketing machine. Remember, there is only one way to score the effectiveness of your marketing efforts – SALES!

Commandment #1. Use a Rifle NOT a Shotgun

Rifles leave a neat, clean hole where you point them. Shotguns scatter shot in the general direction you point them. Most failed marketing efforts are born in a scattered marketing message aimed at the world.

Let’s say you were trying to sell a snowboard. To effectively sell a snowboard to a fifteen year old requires an entirely different conversation than selling the same item to his mother. Therefore, commandment #1 directs us to segment our possible customers into different groups who share common concerns. If your product could be sold to a fifteen year old or a 40 year old, you’d better decide who you are going to focus your marketing efforts upon for the greatest success.

Commandment #2. KNOW Thy Customer Like Thyself

Following commandment #1, we selected a targeted group of people for our marketing message. Now, we MUST understand that targeted market as well as we know ourselves. We must crawl within their mindset. We must understand what they think about our product, what they want from our product, and the alternatives they have to our product.

Customers buy for their reasons, not yours. If you want to sell them your product, you MUST sell to their concerns, not your own. Every piece of marketing copy must FOCUS upon them. If you don’t speak their language, you don’t get their money.

Commandment #3. Be PASSIONATE About Your Company & Your Product

Attitude is infectious. If we are around upset people, we begin to take on that attitude ourselves. If we are with positive people, the same phenomenon occurs. Most people like to associate with enthusiastic people. And, most of us like passionate people. If you aren’t passionate about your company and your product, why should anyone else be?
Commandment #3 means to show passion for your product by speaking and writing about it with enthusiasm. Talk about what your product can help people accomplish in their lives. If you can’t work up enthusiasm for your own product or business, find another business or product.

Commandment #4. Accept the fact that “NO” won’t kill you

In the process of running a business and selling a product, you will hear “no” more frequently than you hear “yes” (if you’re doing it right). What? By “doing it right”, we mean you are TRYING things. Some work. Some don’t.

Whenever you think of a new marketing approach, remember, the worst that can happen is they say “no”. So, try it! This is not a matter of life or death. This is a great experiment!

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin

Commandment #5. Wear a CLOWN SUIT! It’s hard to ignore!

The cheapest and easiest marketing in the world is free advertising. How do you get free advertising? Wear a clown suit! Do something OUTRAGEOUS! Become news worthy. How?

When Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream first tried to expand to a nation-wide operation, it had trouble finding distributors. They determined the problem was that Pillsbury put out the word to all distributors not to work with Ben & Jerry’s. Pillsbury’s edict effectively blocked Ben & Jerry’s from the services of the national distributors. What to do? Put on a clown suit!

Ben & Jerry’s set up a one-man picket line outside Pillsbury headquarters. The picket sign read “Who’s the Doughboy afraid of?” The result? National-wide FREE publicity on television and newspapers. Publicity they couldn’t afford to buy.

In order to differentiate yourself from the crowd of competitors, you MUST be DIFFERENT! Design your own clown suit and wear it proudly!

Commandment #6. NEVER Give Up!

Albert Einstein said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up”.

In marketing, everything you do moves you forward. If one campaign fails, you are that much closer to the one destined to succeed. Watch others. Learn from others. Learn from your own mistakes. BUT KEEP GOING!

Commandment #7. Always Be Closing

“Always be closing” is often referred to as the “ABCs of sales”. However, it also applies to marketing. The objective of marketing is to increase sales. Not to “inform”, “educate”, or “entertain”. I repeat: The objective of marketing is to increase sales.

Therefore, this last commandment directs us to write all marketing copy with the sale in mind. Only information that moves a potential customer toward a sale is allowed in our marketing copy. How do we know what should stay and what should go in our marketing materials? Read through it asking yourself one question – “So what?”

Another way of stating “so what?” is asking “why should the customer care?” You’ve been in business since 1972. So what? Your product folds flat. So what? You’re a family owned business. So what? The alternative?

“We have been in business since 1972 so you’ll always know where to find us. Since we are a family-owned business, you’re always talking to an owner who can answer your questions and solve your problems. Our product folds flat to save you valuable office space when not in use.” See the difference? Now you’re talking about the customer’s issues, not yours.

There you have my seven commandments of marketing based upon 33 years of business experience. “Commandment” is defined as “A formal pronouncement or rule”. Keep in mind and put into practice these seven commandments of marketing. When you do, your marketing efforts will result in the only true value of marketing – increased sales!

Perry Belcher is known for it’s great product marketing, visit Perry Belcher site to know more about Perry Belcher

The success of the financial sector is a key component for economic development

The financial markets sector is one important area of public concern in Africa. The need for adequate regulation and supervision of Financial Markets as an important mechanism for the promotion of economic development in African countries cannot be overemphasized. Financial markets regulation remains a very sensitive and complex activity when it comes to governmental policy development, with relation to defining strategic options pertaining to financial regulation. This article reviews the current status of financial farkets, the legal and regulatory frameworks in the Southern African region, with a special focus on selected countries.

The topic under investigation relates to the regulation of financial markets by governments within the Southern African countries both at national and international levels. It attempts to grasp its rationale, objectives, approaches and the practical ways of defining a regulatory framework for a modern African financial market and system. At a time many experts are calling for liberalization of financial services in Africa, it is important to analyze what are the rationale, advantages and implications of financial markets regulation for Southern African countries under the light of new international instruments and standards, such as the Basle II Framework and the WTO Agreement on Financial Services of 1994, whose operational modalities are is still under negotiations on various key aspects.

This paper attempts to examine the institutional and regulatory framework for the financial markets operations in order to understand the underlying principles of financial markets regulation development; to develop a concise outline of financial markets regulation framework within the South African countries; and provide as much as possible a clear understanding of policy development, key issues and challenges relating to the regulation of financial markets in the Southern African region.
The terminology used in the financial markets jargon is considered to be highly technical and can some times be confusing. While we attempt to keep a non technical language through out this paper, it is quite impossible to avoid the specific concepts used in the financial profession. For some key concepts, a concise glossary of most of the technical words is provided at request by the author.

The Southern African region: geographic coverage and scope

The broad Southern African Region considered under the present study is defined with reference to the SADC membership, currently comprising 14 countries, i.e. Angola, Botswana, Congo (the Democratic Republic of), Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. However, our scope is limited by the criteria of readily available data, and the level of financial markets development in the countries under investigation. Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo are emerging from long wars and are still rebuilding their economies and financial systems. Both have no formal financial market. Accurate and reliable data is very limited on their systems. The study covers a period of 10 years (1994-2004).

Background overview on Financial Markets

The regulation of Financial Markets, taken as a broad concept, is the process that encompasses regulation, (i.e. the establishment of specific rules of behaviour), the monitoring (i.e. observing whether the rules are respected) , the supervision (a more general observation of the behaviour of financial institutions and operators), and the enforcement (ensuring that the rules are complied with) of the established laws.

The ultimate economic function of financial markets is to mobilize and allocate resources through financial intermediation in order to accelerate the process of economic growth. This function is performed through two distinct but interrelated components of the financial markets, i.e. the money market and the capital market. It provides channels for transferring the excess funds of surplus units to deficits ones. They constitute the mechanism that link surplus and deficit units, attracting funds from savers in the surplus sector and channeling these to borrowers for the purposes of profitable investment.

For the purpose of providing a clear understanding of this topic, it is profitable to present a wide overview of a typical financial system and the place of the financial markets holds within this framework. As a practical illustration, we provide in a table of Annex I, the Conceptual Framework of a typical financial market system (the Case of South Africa).

Financial Systems and Financial Markets development

The financial system in the Southern African region consists of providers and users of financial services. The typical financial system consists of a variety of institutions, instruments and markets that facilitate the flow of financial resources between borrowers and lenders. The financial institutions include moneylenders, banks, insurance companies, leasing companies, venture capital funds, mutual funds and pension funds, brokerage houses, investment trusts and stock exchanges.

Financial instruments involved range from currency notes and coins, cheques, mortgages, corporate bills, bonds and stocks to futures, swaps and other complex derivatives. The markets for these instruments may be organized or may be informal. The users of the markets may be households, businesses and the government. Compared to those of developed countries (Europe, Asia and America), the typical financial markets in the Southern African region are characterized by the absence or a limited number and quality of the financial services providers, the absence of many of the instruments and the lack of depth in the markets.

Financial Markets typology and structure

The financial markets play a very important part in the economy of a country and the well-being of every person. They interact with other markets and have an influence on issues such as wealth, inflation and economic stability in a country. The financial markets have their own characteristics and to be able to regulate them or operate in them, it is important to comprehend these characteristics.

Classification of Financial Markets

Financial Markets can be classified into different categories depending on the characteristic of the market or instrument used to create categories. There exist two ultimate distinctions of financial markets. The primary market, i.e. for the sale of new markets, and the secondary market for already existing securities. The capital market, which is the market for the issue and trade of long-term securities, on one hand and the money market, i.e. the one of short-term securities, on the other hand,
In general terms, the money market is the market where liquid and short-term borrowing and lending take place. The lending of funds in this market constitutes short-term investments. In a certain sense all bank notes, current accounts, cheque accounts, etc. belong to the money market.
In financial market terms, the money market exists for the purpose of issuing and trading of short-term instruments, that is, instruments where the term remaining from the date when trading takes place to the date of redemption of the loan represented by die instrument (commonly referred to as the “term to maturity”), is of a short-term nature. In theory, this term for classification as a money market instrument is given as one year. In practice, however (especially in South Africa), instruments with a term to maturity of three years or less are normally classified as money market instruments although this is not a hard and fast rule.
For the purpose of regulation, the classical typology of Financial Markets recognizes the following major distinctions :

the inter-bank and credit markets
the Money Market ;
the Equity Market ;
the Foreign Exchange Market ;
the Bond Market (for Government bonds, Corporate bonds, Eurobond market, structured bonds, etc.) ;
the Derivatives Market: ( for Futures, Swaps and Options)

Apart from the above mentioned categories, an other important distinction is established between the domestic financial markets and the international financial markets.

The institutional framework for the regulation of Financial Markets.

A financial system cannot be effective without an adequate regulatory framework. For a financial system to be effective and promote healthy economic development, it is important to put in place a sound legal and institutional framework. Various strategies and approaches are generally considered by experts for the development of financial systems. Two major strategies commonly considered are the “evolutionary” and the “proactive” approaches. Other experts have made a distinction between the “go slow” versus the “big bang” approach.
The pro-active strategy provides legal, regulatory and prudential framework which accelerates financial market development through mechanisms, institutions and financial instruments set up for this purpose. This strategy is considered as the appropriate approach for African and other developing countries for three main reasons:

Inadequate neutral incentive environment and market forces that are insufficiently strong for financial markets to develop by themselves.
Lack of institution-building capacity to determine the pace and strength of financial markets development.
Need for flexibility to allow for the use of the most efficient institutional set-up, required training infrastructure and choice of technology that is most suited to the local conditions and level of development.

The Rationale, Principles and Objectives of Financial Markets Regulation

1. The necessity for a Financial Market Regulation

Why regulate Financial markets? This question is central to the subject under investigation in this paper and before we attempt to grasp the rationale and objectives of financial markets regulation, it is important to understand why such regulation should exist in the first place. The necessity for a financial market regulation finds its basis in the same principles applied to the financial sector in general. Borrowing and lending of money create certain risks, namely :
That the borrower will not be able to repay the money ;
That the lender is receiving a fixed rate on his investment while market rates fluctuate in such a way that the yield on his initial investment is now below current market related rates ;
That the value of the capital invested could decrease due to movements in the market. In order to clearly define the rights and obligations of investors, borrowers, operators and intermediaries involved in a financial system and who operate under contractual relationship, it is of the highest importance to develop a cohesive and comprehensive legal and regulatory framework.

The stakes involved in the running of a country’s financial markets are very high and it would be deeply irresponsible to apply the rule of “laisser-faire” in this very sensitive sector. In case some thing would go wrong or the financial system could undergo a serious crisis, it would result into a total collapse of the entire economy.

Such a framework should encourage discipline and timely enforcement of contracts, fostering responsibilities and prudent behaviour on both sides of the financial transaction. For a country’s market to develop and operate efficiently, the legislative and regulatory framework should incorporate rules on trading, intermediation, information disclosure as well as strict sanctions against defaulters and cheaters.

2. The Rationale of Financial Markets Regulation

The rationale underlying the financial market regulation is the general philosophy and ideological background pertaining to a specific country’s economic orientation, and the type of economic system adopted by the country’s leadership. At present, most of the countries covered by the study are characterized by a “market oriented ” economy. However, some of these countries have been under a centrally planned economy until the 1990s when they dramatically changed their economic orientation. It is the case of Tanzania, Mozambique and Angola. The changes were particularly due to persistent deficits in public budget and their inability to support the considerable burden of state owned companies unable to achieve the target economic performance. This new orientation facilitated the development of more diversified and active financial systems, leading to the creation of Financial markets in Tanzania and Mozambique. Financial Markets have their own unique characteristics and financial operators differ from one country to an other. The financial market framework should facilitate rather than impede the efficient operation of the financial system.

The Principles of Regulation

In theory, there is a distinction between general and specific principles. The following general principles are widely recognized for the formulation of an effective regulatory process:

Every regulatory arrangement should be related explicitly to one or more objectives identified;
All regulatory arrangements should be justified with respect to their cost-efficiency;
The cost of regulatory arrangements should be distributed equitably ;
All regulatory arrangements should be sufficiently flexible, in the sense of being amenable to changes in markets, competition and the evolution of the financial system ;
Regulatory arrangements should be practitioners- based.

Specific principles are identified as follows:

a. Principles related to the regulatory structure:
What is the adequate structure for financial markets regulation. One major issue in Financial markets regulation relates to the number of regulatory and supervisory agencies involved. The issue of the choice between a single regulatory authority or multiple specialized agencies is generally resolved according to the following principles:
there is a need to adopt a “functional” as well as an “institutional” approach ;
the coordination of regulation by different authorities and agencies will help to achieve consistency ;
there should be a presumption in favour of a limited number of regulatory agencies /authorities.

In practice, the institutional and functional approaches need to be employed in parallel because regulatory authorities are concerned with the soundness of institutions, as well as the way in which services are provided.

b. Principles related to the market efficiency :

These are principles designed to contribute to the promotion of a high level of efficiency in the provision of financial services. They are :
(a) the promotion of a maximum level of competition among market participants in the financial system, and (b) the securing of competitive neutrality between actual or potential suppliers of financial services. Competitiveness is likely to enhance market efficiency, which in turn causes the removal of restrictive practices that could impair trading in financial assets and the rationalization of market activity.

c. Principles related to market stability :

These principles are expected to contribute to the promotion of a high measure of stability in the financial system and an appropriate degree of safety and soundness in the financial institutions. There should be incentives for proper assessment and management of risk. It is necessary to impose acceptable minimum prudential standards to be observed in respect of risk management by all financial market participants.

d. Principles related to conflict conciliation :

Conflict conciliatory principles are designed to resolve potential conflicts arising between regulatory principles themselves. They would involve an integrated approach, aiming at the simultaneous achievement of regulatory objectives, and a target-instrument procedure for the selection of key regulatory instruments in order to facilitate the implementation of an integrated approach.

The Objectives of Financial Markets Regulation

For a Financial Markets system to perform to its highest capacity and level, regulation need to be both effective (i.e. to achieve its objectives) and efficient (i.e. to be cost effective in the use of its resources).

The economic dimension of a financial markets system requires that regulation should not impose unwarranted costs on the economy and consumers, nor impair the efficiency of financial markets. It is therefore necessary to consider a cost-benefits analysis exercise to assess the regulatory requirements.

The more complex a financial market is and more business operators increase, the regulatory process becomes more demanding and requires more specific objectives. Efficient financial regulation requires a multi-dimensional approach and a more optimizing process.

1. The overall objective of financial markets regulation:

The ultimate objective of financial markets regulation is to achieve the highest degree of economic efficiency and the best consumer protection in the economy.

2. Specific objectives:
The following Specific objectives can also be highlighted:
to secure the stability of the financial system.
It is important for a country’s economy to run smoothly and the financial sector must be protected against internal or external shocks which might be caused for instance by ineffective or inefficient trading clearing and settlement systems or a major lack of market liquidity ;

to ensure institutional safety and soundness.
The regulatory framework should be extremely cautious and avoid to impose obstacles or barriers that would impair the safety and soundness of financial institutions, which need to be profitable and have sufficient capital to cover their risk exposure and face global competition ;

to promote consumers’ protection:

It is crucial for a financial market to impose integrity, transparency and disclosure practices in the supply of financial services.

Concluding Remarks

In all Southern African countries, as it is in all countries of the world, the financial system is more regulated than any other industry. On the consumer protection grounds and others highlighted in this study, it is universally accepted that this should be so. Existing empirical evidence suggests that regulatory arrangements have a powerful impact on the size, structure and efficiency of financial systems, the business operations of financial institutions and markets, and on competitive conditions in the systems.

The success of a financial markets regulation depends basically on the capacity of the regulators to define the objectives of the regulation and also on the way the regulatory arrangements are related to their objectives.

Some of the countries in the Southern African Region which were able to promote a dynamic and effective regulatory framework, such as Botswana, Namibia, Mauritius, Zambia, Zimbabwe and in particular South Africa, are benefiting from the positive development of financial markets, with an unprecedented flow of capital from foreign investors.

However the financial systems in the region are still limited, in terms of the number of operators, quantity and quality of instruments and the depth of the systems. And there is still need to develop regulatory institutions, structures and mechanisms that can maximize the explicit objectives of regulation while minimizing the costs of services.
The author, is an International Consultant on Trade and Investment, Director of InterConsult Mozambique and is the Representative of Emerging Market Focus (Pty) in Mozambique. This insight paper is aimed at advising investors and business people involved in international trade by providing them with accurate legal data on the institutional and legal framework of Mozambique and the Southern African region.

Perry Belcher is known for it’s great product marketing, visit Perry Belcher site to know more about Perry Belcher

“Dig your well before you’re thirsty” is the title of a wonderful book by Harvey Mackay.

It is smart advice for investing your money, “Save your money before you need it”, or growing your business, “Market today for tomorrow”.

When times are tough some businesses stop marketing. They reason, ‘No one is buying so why should I advertise?’ The other time some businesses stop marketing is when they are selling like crazy. Again they figure – ‘I can’t handle any more business right now so why promote?’

Two key points here. Advertising is only one narrow form of marketing. Marketing is about sending messages. You send messages in a plethora of avenues; advertising, customer service, by association, quality, public relations, sponsorship, awards, etc… And the second point; marketing is a long-term investment.

Selling is immediate. When times are slow you need to crank-up the selling efforts. How do you escape from a sales crisis? Improve selling skills, search out new markets, offer more value and most importantly be systematic. When there is a fire, put out the fire.

That’s sales.

Preventing the fires of tomorrow is marketing. That is why marketing is so difficult to justify or measure. The good marketing you do today will pay off in a few weeks, months or even years. Is it worth it? Only if you want to be in business in a few years.

Invest wisely in your marketing. Many of the principles of investing money apply to marketing. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Your message must reach your prospect along several avenues. That conveys more credibility. For example; you might advertise in a magazine, sponsor a community event, send out news releases and offer extras on your website. Your investment portfolio should be diversified, so should your marketing. Warren Buffet’s long-term strategy to ‘make smart investments and hold’ can apply to your marketing. Make a long term marketing commitment to yourself. Stick to it. Be consistent and persistent. That is smart investing and smart marketing.

Consider the different forms of currency in your business. Cash is the most obvious. A signed order is another. Receivables are currency – you can even use them for collateral – or sell them. But some forms of currency look better than others. If cash is best then you might be tempted never to give credit to customers. But you might lose sales because of that. So you may decide to give credit to approved customers – knowing that you can likely convert the receivable to cash. Even signed orders are currency – you can factor them to obtain financing.

Marketing is another form of currency in your business. Good marketing creates customer awareness, goodwill, education, credibility, even desire. All of that can be converted into signed orders, receivables and hence cash.

All forms of currency are convertible. But the conversion rate is not 1 to 1 nor is it totally predictable. Some receivables become bad debt. Some signed orders get cancelled. Some marketing efforts just spin off into the universe like a lost asteroid. For that reason do not expect that every dollar spent on marketing pays off the same. For example if you do a mass mailing some of those envelopes go undelivered, some never get opened, a few get read – and even fewer acted upon. But you need to mail to the whole list to reach the ones that read it.

You might believe that cash is a better currency than marketing. Marketing can be better than cash because a creative marketing campaign can pay back many times over. If you realize that when you market you are creating currency – you can view your marketing in a more productive light. The more creative you are in your marketing – the greater leverage you get.

Marketing like currency is synergistic. When you have money the banks will loan you more – but when you have none and want some, what do they say? ‘You got none so we can’t give you any.’

Marketing works the same way. When you generate lots of exposure – you get more. When you are hot everyone wants you. When you are cold – you get the freezer. Keep sending your marketing messages regularly. Some businesses get busy with business and forget to market. And then the feast runs out and they start marketing again.

Because marketing is currency there are times when instead of cash you might accept payment in marketing currency. This might be a straight barter deal. I give you $1,000 of my product for $1,000 of your product. This is one way to get ‘free’ advertising. Trade your product for ad space or media time. This only works if the media company needs your product and don’t have budget, (cash), to buy.

My financial planner gave me some good advice when I left the corporate world to start my business. I showed him the corporate package I received and asked how I should invest this money – stocks, funds, or pay down my mortgage? He asked a few questions about my business. He then advised me to invest my money in the business because that is where I would obtain the best return over the next few years – then gradually as business growth levels or slows to invest in other long-term investments. It was smart advice because growing my business was another form of investment. I continue to make both short term and long investments in my business. You might examine your business in the same light.
Perry Belcher is known for it’s great product marketing, visit Perry Belcher site to know more about Perry Belcher

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Waste #1: Failure to define marketing correctly and not identifying Marketing assets already in the business.

Waste #2: Failure to execute marketing inside before going outside!

Waste #3: Failure to build a marketing plan around the THREE WAYS TO GROW!

Waste #4: Failure to have a USP – Unique Selling Proposition

Waste #5: Failure to communicate and integrate the USP – on-going sales training

Waste #6: Failure to understand the Lifetime Value of a Customer

Waste #7: Failure to make advertising Direct Response

Waste #8: Failure to leverage relationships: Inside and outside the business

Waste #9 Failure to implement Direct Marketing

Waste #10: Failure to start marketing on the Web

CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION:

Lean Marketing Follows the Lean Manufacturing Example

For many years, manufacturing companies have been working to get their employees trained in “lean” manufacturing techniques. These techniques primarily target areas of waste in a manufacturer’s operations, processes, equipment and labor. The objective is to eliminate waste and make the operations, processes, equipment and labor more efficient. By doing so, cash flow can improve because a company will be much better at delivering products to the customer when the customer wants it. No sooner, no later. There is less inventory on hand because the company has learned how to produce the right number of products and do so in a more efficient manner. Many times the cost of production, equipment and labor can be reduced to increase the bottom line for a company. Equipment is more efficient so a company’s return on equipment investment increases. The company wins and customers win with lean manufacturing.

This success in lean manufacturing is now moving into the area of “lean” office and “lean” healthcare. Other industries are adopting many of these “lean” techniques to lower costs and be more competitive in today’s world.

These same “lean” concepts can be applied to marketing. We are unique in introducing these “lean” techniques into the “top” line operations, processes, marketing resources (marketing equipment) and staff of a company. Our system seeks to eliminate waste and inefficiencies in all the marketing and sales or “top” line processes. Instead of “bottom” line cost savings, there are “top” line revenue increases which results in more profit or increased “bottom” line.

In other words – lean marketing and sales.

Business Owner Frustrations

The traditional definition of marketing has been the introduction of your company’s products and services to prospective customers. By reason of this definition, business owners have pursued the “traditional” avenues of marketing. These include: Advertising, hiring more salespeople, prospecting, direct mail, referral programs, web marketing and many more.

All of these traditional marketing methods can work – but many times they don’t (Don’t create a paying customer) and this leaves business owners frustrated. Sometimes they have invested thousands of dollars in these traditional methods only to find out they didn’t work or that in order to really work, they need to invest thousands more.

The business owners then go back to the providers of these traditional marketing methods and ask for accountability. The reply is usually something like this:

“Did the (marketing method) bring in more prospects?” “Yes, but they didn’t buy anything.” says the business owner. “Well, if they don’t become paying customers, we can’t control that – that is your responsibility” is the reply.

In other words traditional marketing method providers are not paid and do not concern themselves with what happens after a prospect is generated. Indeed there may be plenty of new prospects generated, but if they don’t become customers, it hasn’t helped the business owner! And, the frustration only grows.

Waste #1: Failure to define marketing correctly and not identifying Marketing assets already in the business.

The frustration grows partly because the definition of marketing is short-sided and inadequate. It is time for a new one. A new one for the 21st Century!

We have redefined marketing to be:

The introduction AND SELLING of your company’s products and services to PAST, PRESENT AND PROSPECTIVE customers by first optimizing and leveraging ALL of your company’s marketing assets.

With this new definition, marketing becomes concerned with what happens after a new prospect is contacted or inquires. If a business owner does not track and understand what is happening to a prospect immediately upon contact or inquiring, waste enters in.

There may be waste in that the right qualifying questions are not being asked, so salespeople spend time with the wrong prospects. Waste. It may be that whoever is answering the phone or greeting the prospect is not saying the right things. Waste. It may be that the prospect isn’t ready to buy right now but might be later. The company is not tracking this relationship and the prospect goes away. Waste.

Then, if a prospect does become a customer and is ignored or not included in the company marketing efforts in an on-going basis, then the customer will not buy as much as they could. Waste. And, if there is not good customer service and the customer leaves the company there is more waste. It is ten times as costly to get a new customer than to keep one.

To eliminate this waste required an acceptance of a new marketing definition.

Too many companies separate sales and marketing. Many times the two departments don’t even talk to each other. Waste. Selling is and always should be under the umbrella of marketing. Don’t separate the two. That creates waste.

IDENTIFYING MARKETING ASSETS

Because of the inadequate definition of marketing that has prevailed, business owners think of marketing assets as only their advertising or the accumulation of new prospects and new customers. This is a very short-sided view of marketing assets – a waste.

You can find a list of marketing assets on our website, blog, and in other articles we have written. These include past customers, current customers, salespeople, the company’s advertising, referral programs, current sales and marketing processes, location, reputation, time in business, relationships with other businesses, etc. It is very important for business owners to “see” all of these as marketing assets. Not just those that create new prospects.

If a business owner will begin “look” at marketing in a different way – accepting the new definition, then they will begin to eliminate the wastes that occur under the traditional definition and find new sales and profits waiting for them.

Waste #2: Failure to execute marketing inside before going outside!

The traditional definition of marketing as discussed has forced business owners to always be looking OUTSIDE their business for growth.

What I mean by “outside” is working with traditional marketing resources for the generation of new prospective customers. This means going outside to find new prospects with advertising, tradeshows, web marketing, direct mail, salespeople prospecting, etc.

Because of this tendency to focus on MORE PROSPECTS with marketing, waste begins to creep “inside” the company.

The minute a prospect is introduced or inquires about a company’s products or services, they become “inside” the company. Now the real marketing should take over. This is where “hidden” new sources of cash, sales and profits can be found.

These prospects are having conversations, sales pitches, etc. directed at them by people, staff inside the company. The prospects have entered the sales process inside the company.

Every business in the world has the same sales process:

Prospect created ——-qualified——-presented——-closed.

There could be tremendous sources of “waste” along this process. It could be that the wrong prospects are being created in the first place. Waste. It could be that the prospect is not being qualified. Waste. It could be that the presentation made (either on-line or off-line, in person, on the phone, in an ad, etc. is not being done well.) Waste. It may mean the prospects are not being closed as well as they could be. Waste. It could mean that after they are closed, there is no on-going process of marketing. Waste.

It is everything that happens to a prospect AFTER being introduced that contains the hidden sources of new sales. It is what’s happening “inside” the company that is as or more important than what is going on “outside” to generate more customers.

This approach to marketing is more “non-traditional.” Most of our clients started out thinking the answers for more sales were in the creation of more prospects. But, soon, the system helped them uncover serious areas of waste and it was discovered that more sales and profits WITHOUT SPENDING MORE MONEY TO CREATE NEW PROSPECTS could be had FIRST by fixing and eliminating areas of waste. (Core Four Steps) Then, more resources could be devoted to generating more prospects because systems were in place to make certain there was no waste in the managing of the new prospect’s experience. So, all resources devoted to the creation of new prospects (Big Four) were maximized, leveraged to their fullest, creating maximum profit opportunities.

Doesn’t that make more sense?

Waste #3: Failure to build a marketing plan around the THREE WAYS TO GROW!

Every time I ask a business owner for a description or written copy of a marketing plan, the plan ALWAYS focuses on getting more prospective customers. This is to be done by advertising, web marketing, tradeshows, direct mail, telemarketing, salespeople, etc.

In other words, all plans are made under the traditional definition of marketing i.e. the introduction of a company’s products and services to prospective customers.

As indicated already, this definition is limited and incorrect.

There are three ways to grow sales and profits for any company. They are:

1. Increase the number of prospective customers contacted or inquiring
2. Increase the conversion rate of prospective customers to buying customers
3. Increase the value of worth of each customer

The marketing plans found at most companies deal only with number one – more prospects.

All marketing plans in the 21st century should revolve around ALL THREE!

If not, there is potential for tremendous waste. And, that is exactly what we find.

All business owners should hold their “marketing”departments and Vice-Presidents to the metrics or measuring of all three ways to grow. This way, assets become optimized. Waste is eliminated. The three ways to grow makes certain that all possible sources of cash and new sales are being considered.
Business owners should receive a weekly report from marketing that gives an accounting of marketing’s performance in all three areas. The conversion rate doesn’t only apply to salespeople closing sales. It applies to web click through and conversion rate, direct mail response rates, telemarketing response rates, etc. In other words, there might be several “conversion” rates in a company’s marketing process.

The “value” or “worth” of each customer is increased by doing more upselling on the front-end and more “back-end” selling after a prospect becomes a customer. Step number three in our system specifically focuses on increasing customer value.

The three numbers of prospect contact rate, conversion rate and value level are the three numbers a business owner should have a daily accounting for and should insist that the marketing department plan around all three ways to grow.

Waste #4: Failure to have a USP – Unique Selling Proposition

Unless any business owner or salesperson can tell a prospect in 90 words or less why they should do business with a company and not the competition, there is waste.

The USP is a selling proposition. Not a mission statement. Prospects and customers don’t care what your mission is. They only care what you can do for them better than anyone else. That is a USP.

Dominos Pizza created a stir with a 30 minute delivery or FREE USP. It took the company to the top of the industry. Now, all Pizza places can get you a pizza in 30 minutes. It is no longer unique. Dominos must now create a new USP if they want to get back to the top.

What is your USP?

A USP is not “good quality” or “good service” It must be more specific and if possible quantitative. If possible, it should be as overt and significant as possible. Not found in the fine print of a warranty statement.

If you’re unclear what your USP might be, listen to the top salesman in the company. They are often selling what it is customers really want.

Most companies think that “branding” is all they need to do. Again, branding is not a USP. It might be a description of your company or a position in the market your company wants to take. Again, these are not USP’s. They can support and help introduce a USP, but they are not selling propositions. A USP must be able to be sold.

If a business owner is not clear what the USP is, certainly prospects and customers won’t be clear. Look closely at the marketing assets of owner expertise, time in business, company credibility, to see if USP can be uncovered.

Talk to customers and ask them why they do business with you. Research and examine the competition to see what they might be selling as a USP.

However, the most important of all these is the competition. A USP is not necessarily what the owner thinks it is and even what customers might say it is. If the competition is doing it, it is not a USP. And, it must matter to the customers. You might have the most unique product available, but if customers don’t want it or don’t care about it, it is not a USP. Step one of our system focuses on helping a company develop a USP.

The USP is the first and most important part of any marketing plan. It must be determined first because it will then often determine which target markets should be pursued. It is the market research that should be done to understand the strengths and opportunities for the company. The USP becomes the “core” or foundation of all marketing and sales efforts.

Waste #5: Failure to communicate and integrate the USP – on-going sales training

Most of the time, a company can uncover and define a USP but then they fail to integrate the USP successfully.

Almost all USP’s fall short because the salespeople aren’t on board. They are not incorporating the USP into their sales presentations. A good USP integrated into a sales presentation can increase conversion rates significantly.

But, usually, salespeople go back to what they are comfortable doing.

A business owner must require the marketing department to see that the USP becomes integrated into all marketing and sales processes. This is from placing ads, business cards, brochures, displays, scripting for those answering the phone, etc. It needs to be incorporated into the sales presentations and any on-going marketing communication with customers.

The USP should be on the home page and incorporated into every other page of the company’s website.

This goal of complete company integration starts with the salespeople. That is why sales-training needs to be an on-going concern with any company. New salespeople need to be trained what it is they really sell! The USP. They need to always be trained in how to qualify, present and close more effectively. The more training done in these areas, the higher the closing rate will be. The margin between the company’s current closing rate and 100% is an area of marketing waste.

This is why sales trainers are paid a lot of money! They increase the closing rate for a company which translates into higher sales and profits! Less waste. When marketing is able to get sales integrating the USP, then implementation of the system is more successful. Salespeople are on the front line. They know what customers are saying and what they like or dislike. This can mean adjustments to the USP can occur regularly and quickly.

A company might have more than one USP depending on different revenue sources. USP’s change. They should be reworked and looked at on at least an annual basis. The key factor in change is what the competition is doing.

Waste #6: Failure to understand the Lifetime Value of a Customer

A big area of waste in a company is when marketing decisions are made on the one-time purchase of a customer, not the life-time value of a customer.

For example. A retail clothing company might do a direct mail piece or have a catalog as a way to attract new customers. Let’s say the mail piece generates 10 new customers that bought an average of $100 in retail clothing. That’s $1000 in sales. In this case, the cost of the mailing, postage, printing, etc cost $1,500.

The company concludes that the mailing didn’t work.

That is a waste. A big mistake. What is being wasted is the future opportunity for more customers! Why?

Let’s say this retail clothing company has a great product, good customers service and on average those 10 customers come back twice a year and spend $100 each time and keep coming back for an average of 10 years! That’s 20 return visits at $100 a piece or $2000. This times 10 customers is a total value of $20,000 generated all from a $1,500 mailing! $20,000 is the lifetime value of these 10 customers. Not to mention the referrals or family members they might motivate to come and start buying.

The waste is $20,000 in new sales opportunity because the company stops doing the mailing! They concluded that they lost money on the mailing because they calculated only from the first, one time purchase, not the lifetime value.

The industry that understands this concept very well is the music and DVD clubs. For $1.00 you can get 5 FREE DVD’s. We all know it cost the company more than $1.00 to ship 5 FREE DVD’s. What we don’t understand but the company does, is the lifetime value of a new customer. They have calculated that over time, or a lifetime of the average customer, there will be additional orders on average that more than make up for a slight loss in the original mailing.

This is how a marketing budget should be determined. As long as the cash flow can handle it, more and more testing should be done and evaluations made on the lifetime value concept. Even if a company needed to borrow money to do marketing, they may find out that marketing brings a better return than any other investment the company could make. This is often the case.

This lifetime value is the same information used by manufacturers in determining to purchase a piece of equipment. Up front, they may not cover costs but over the lifetime of the equipment, the return justifies the investment. Such should be the same thinking about marketing.

Waste #7: Failure to make advertising Direct Response

In the 21st Century, the investment required for successful media advertising can be very significant. Many business owners try to do a little bit of advertising in the paper or radio or billboard, etc. but find out they don’t get back any return. They become frustrated and upset.

There are two reasons for this frustration. First, there probably isn’t enough advertising going on in a synergistic way that creates results. If the company is advertising on radio, they might need to do newspaper and billboard as well. If they start marketing and advertising on the web, they probably need to do off-line marketing to support it. These costs and investments can become very difficult to maintain. A huge waste of money.

The second reason the advertising falls short is most are doing what is called “institutional advertising” rather than Direct Response advertising. They are sold by the advertising agency that “branding” and “positioning” is important. They are told that if they don’t advertise, their competition will and beat them to the customer. These are both possible true statements. But, not necessarily true.

Our recommendation to small business is to make all advertising direct response.

That is, make it create a response of some kind i.e. a lead, purchase or request for more information. That way, the advertising can be measured. It can be held accountable.

Direct Response is covered in step five and seven of our system. Briefly, there are several important elements that should go into every advertisement that makes the ad direct response. These elements include: Headlines, sub-headlines, good copy, offer, urgency, reply mechanisms, bonus, P.S., etc.

If a company will follow these rules, the advertising can be tracked and different testing accomplished. Institutional advertising simply tells people that the company is in business and has great service. There is no USP, offer, urgency, bonus, reply mechanisms, etc. Therefore, the company cannot measure results. A big waste.

By implementing direct response marketing into all advertising, different testing can be used to make the same dollar invested return more in leads, sales or even an opt-in E-mail database. Waste (in the form of non-producing ads) are eliminated.

Even with direct response, there is branding and positioning that can be accomplished. At the same time, if there is room in the marketing budget, branding and institutional advertising in and of themselves can be effective.

It’s simply the case that most small to medium sized companies can’t afford both types of advertising.

Waste #8: Failure to leverage relationships: Inside and outside the business

Whether a business is just getting started or has been in business many years, one of the biggest wastes that occurs is the failure of the business to examine how relationships with other businesses and customers can create a lot more sales.

These are referred to as endorsements and alliances. They are covered in step four of the system.

The most significant marketing asset of any business is the customer base. A business owner should know which customers can lead the business to more customers. An endorsement is secured and an endorsed mailing is sent to the clients and or customers of the company’s customer. This can open the doors to thousands of prospects – WITHOUT SPENDING MORE MONEY ON ADVERTISING.

So, the rule should be to examine the 20% of customers that are generating 80% of the business. Approach them for an endorsement (of the company’s USP) and work out a regular endorsed mailing. This failure to use customers in this way is a big marketing waste.

In looking at the 20% first approach those customers who are already giving the company referrals. This endorsement simply becomes a more formal consistent way to generate more referrals.

Then, look outside the company database. Look to complementary businesses that have customers or clients your company could serve.

Approach these businesses with the same endorsed mailing opportunity. Maybe you can endorse them to your customer base in return!

Don’t let these relationships go underutilized – such a waste.

Waste #9 Failure to implement Direct Marketing

Throughout my consulting experience, I have come close to creating the CORE five. This would include Direct Marketing step #7.

This is because the most underutilized marketing asset in any company is the phone. It is so inexpensive yet can yield so many new profit opportunities. Any use of phone could be classified as direct marketing. It can be used to generate leads, repeat business, upselling, close sales, follow-up on prospects, etc. Yet, many companies don’t use it as they should.

Much of the same could be said now for E-mails. They can do much the same as a phone – contacting prospects, following up on presentations, upselling, creating newsletters, etc.

Direct marketing includes: direct sales by salespeople, E-mail marketing, Web marketing, teleprospecting and telemarketing, direct mail, etc. These are all marketing methods that can be tested on a small scale, without risking a lot of dollars to find out which can work and which won’t work.

One of the biggest marketing wastes is that companies roll out marketing in big numbers before testing on a small scale first. One Artist’s marketing director invested $20,000 to print and mail 20,000 catalogs to museums. Not one sale. He should have tested with 2000 first to see if anyone was interested. This would have cost $2,000 instead of $20,000. He wasted $18,000.

There are probably staff members in every company that could test offers, etc. on the phone. Contact top customers to upsell or invite them in for a special offer. Salespeople can be calling during downtime.

Clearly, one of the biggest wastes today is that companies are not testing direct marketing on the world wide web. Waste #10.

Waste #10: Failure to start marketing on the Web

The technology of the web has evened the playing field between large companies and single owner companies. What a great opportunity for small businesses. Yet, most still don’t even have a web site. What a waste.

Internet penetration is now at 69% for North America. The number of high-speed internet users almost doubles every year.

The first objective of course is to get the company a USP. From there, you can determine if this USP can be sold over the web either by providing more information for prospects to learn about your company or actually creating a sale – E-commerce.

Yet, the purpose of this section in the report is to encourage all companies that have static information websites to begin thinking about how they can make sales from their site. You can test a pay per click campaign for less money that you can do a direct mail campaign to learn the same things.

The international usage of the web is also expanding. Asia has 418 million users, Europe 322 million, North America 233 million and Latin America 110 million. With those numbers growing year by year, there could be an opportunity for any company to sell something to them over the web.

Internet marketing – is your website making enough sales is addressed in the bonus step of our system. It is important to make an evaluation of your website and have the help of others in determining how best to use the web. This is why this bonus step is also considered part of the Big Four. You’ll need the help of designers, programmers, marketers, SEO experts, etc. to succeed, whether you do these tasks yourself or outsource them to others.

As long as you stay away from the web, there is waste. Even if you have a local store that sells only locally, the web resources can be a big help in creating more sales and profits. Learn how to use this technology to your benefit and eliminate that area of waste in your marketing.

CONCLUSION

I hope this free report has been of help to you. Even if you don’t become our customer, you can find new cash and new sales by eliminating these areas of waste in your marketing. And, if you do become a customer, I’m confident you’ll be able to systematically eliminate all of these wastes by implementing our system into your business.

Perry Belcher is known for it’s great product marketing, visit Perry Belcher site to know more about Perry Belcher