Being Relentless – a Marketing discipline

Affirmative action, Marketing, persistence, Sales

Relentless is an adjective.

Synonyms – Persistent, Non-Stop, Continuous…

An adjective qualifies the noun – grade 5 English grammar course. In this case, the noun is going to be a person. A relentless person a persistent person is how this will be used.

So what is the significance of this English grammar lesson for today’s post.

The other day in one of the posts I mentioned about the I love marketing podcast episode with Chris Voss and I explained why I admired him because of his usage of of words.

With a background in hostage negotiation you have to be careful with your words and the words should have the the exact Nuance of what is being thought by the speaker. That is one of the reasons why his vocabulary is so good.

During the podcast, one of the questions asked to him was on the launch of his book, in 2017 I think, and how he went about promoting it.

One word that he mentioned which immediately stuck in my head was the fact that he was RELENTLESS in ensuring that he was on two interviews a week at the minimum, to promote his book which he is doing to this day.

While the book – Never Split the Difference – is very good, but if people don’t come to know about the book they will not go and buy it. It’s a terrific lesson in marketing from a hostage negotiator. If you keep yourself aware you can get marketing lessons even from the small kiosk on the kerb.

We may have a terrific product or a terrific service but if people do not come to know about it then people will not buy it.

In one word Chris had put out such a big strategy for marketing

Everyone knows about Coke. But they relentlessly advertise about their product so that when you visit the shop or restaurant and you are thirsty the first word which comes out of your mouth is a Coke.

Everyday in marketing and I include sales as part of marketing, if you are not somehow reaching more and more customers everyday , by some mechanism , you will not be able to build a sustainable pipeline and a predictable business.

You need not be brilliant, you need not be teriffic , but if you want to succeed you have to be relentless, persistent et al.

Till next time

Carpe Diem!!!

Marketing Stamina & the Single Target Market – 3

B2B, budget, Marketing, Marketing Stamina, single target market

While consumer marketing is very tough, once you reach the right person, the decision making is generally quicker / simpler because there are fewer people involved. The other point is that within the consumer segment, there are few internal personal dynamics / hidden agendas in play.

In case of the B2B segment, even after you have reached the right people , you are unsure when the priorities change or a new person comes into a role and she scuttles the whole deal. A typical situation which has happened to me multiple times is that we are working with the department which will use our services. Multiple people from that department are involved – from gatekeepers to decision makers. Over the years, we have realised the fact that procurement and finance, do need to get involved, so we check with the users when those departments will take part in the discussion.

A lot of times even the legal gets involved, so we push our prospect to even get these folks checked out. So we have put a check mark on most of these points. By being focussed on the Single Target Market we understand most of the issues and processes and have fine-tuned our approach accordingly.

Now comes the surprise – while we have checked out all the departments and we have crossed all the “t’s” and dotted all the “I’s” with everyone, we suddenly find a new face who has recently joined the company in a new role and he is asked to attend the meeting in which we are discussing the final aspects.

Suddenly this person opens her mouth on some aspect and now, everyone is in doubt.

Now you have to ensure that all the doubts that have been raised get sorted. Until then the deal does not come your way.

If you don’t account for these kind of delays, which happen all the time, your budgets can go haywire. This is where having enough marketing stamina, helps keep you afloat and hunt for new customers while deals close.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Marketing Stamina & the Single Target Market – 2

B2B, Marketing, Marketing Stamina, single target market

To continue where we left out in yesterday’s post – you look for the highest yield within a niche and then focus on that for the long term till you get to dominate that market.

We looked at the examples of how even till today P&G’s Tide detergent powder is about keeping the Clothes whiter than white – even though they have been doing this for my guess is at least 40 years. And they have huge departments whose only focus in life, is to ensure people’s clothes stay white.

So they have segmented the market for washing clothes (usage) – between the ones preferring detergent powders to another who prefer liquid detergents. Then within detergent powders they go to the single target market of washing just white clothes

In case of B2B we look at the different possibilities of usage – so lets take an example of productivity applications. So you have applications via the web in a SAAS model on a monthly small license fee or with on-prem one time perpetual license. You could have within the productivity applications market, sales person productivity also…..so you have CRM companies bundling word processors and spreadsheets into their CRM so that the sales person doesn’t need to move out of the CRM at all.

So these companies are only targeting the sales person – anyone who’s not a sales person and not utilising “their” CRM is not a focus. This way they are ensuring that they are focussing on a very small segment of the market and working to utilise all their energies and funds in trying to dominate that market.

By focussing this way you will be able to play a longer game.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Marketing Stamina and the Single Target Market

B2B, budget, Marketing, Marketing Stamina, Product Management, segmentation, single target market

Marketing stamina is all about being able to last out in a market, while you take time to get in and dominate.

The single target market is a starting point within a market niche which you aim to pick up and dominate till you aim for the next one.

P&G or Unilever both have products which wash clothes. But they have an independent brand Tide / Rin ( P&G / Unilever ) which washes clothes white and Ariel / Surf ( P&G / Unilever) which removes stains from your coloured clothes.

Such large companies with massive marketing muscle, still go after one market at a time and generally create different brands to ensure a clear differentiation.

But the clearer objective is to concentrate all their energies to target one segment / one niche / single target market. By concentrating all your energies to focus on just that one market, you don’t divert your energies in trying to be everything to everyone. What that ends up doing is giving you more freedom rather than constraint to think creatively about various ways to meet the customer.

Since you only have to focus on one set of prospective clients, you then find the most convenient and cost effective ways to reach out to them and find the best messages which resonate with them, resulting in quicker market penetration. This means your funds which you budget as part of your market stamina can last longer and you have a much higher chance of success.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!