Bad marketing and poor management top the list of reasons for business failure

Did you know that bad marketing and poor management are 2 of the top reasons why businesses fail? It’s easy to understand why, when most entrepreneurs start a new venture they don’t always take the time to adequately prepare their business for success. Most have the background or the training to perform the service or manufacture the product that their business will be selling, but few have received any form of education in the areas of marketing, sales, and business administration.

Many businesses were started from the notion that “I can do a better job (producing a product or providing a service) than that other business. I know I can provide better service than they can.” While other businesses have been launched under the premise that “I have a great idea and I know people will buy it”, without ever conducting any actual market research to determine whether or not “people will actually buy it”.

Tough times ahead

If you follow the latest news stories you’ve heard about the tough times ahead for our economy. Between the foreclosure fallout and the instability of the stock market in addition to the credit crunch, it’s easy to see why the so-called “economic experts” are predicting that spending and purchases will be on the decline for awhile.

Some businesses will actually make more money during the next few years

Over the next few years many businesses will see a substantial decrease in their revenues in the coming months and possibly years. Some will only see a small decrease in their income while others will actually benefit from an increase in business. In fact, many successful businesses have actually been started during tough economic times and are still thriving today; Allstate insurance in one such example. If a business is successful during the slow times, imagine how it might perform during the boom times.

How can your business survive or even thrive in the current economy?

The key to survival for any business is to remain profitable. There are two primary ways to achieve this; lower expenses and increase income. While these concepts seem intuitively obvious, what isn’t obvious is how do you accomplish this, exactly? Those who solve this dilemma are poised to succeed over the next few years.

There are many ways to improve your company’s profit. First, are there any ways to streamline the operation of your business and reduce your expenses? Second, could you redesign your marketing materials to attract more customers? And, finally, did you know there are ways to increase your profit on each and every sale your company currently makes? We can show you how.

Helping businesses thrive

We specialize in working with businesses to help make them more profitable. Some businesses may just need a few ideas on how they can operate more efficiently while others could use some assistance with their marketing or advice on how to be more effective during the sales process. We provide various levels of service depending on the needs of each individual business; whether you just need a few ideas or someone to help you implement them.

When it comes to advertising, there are many agencies out there. Sometimes it seems like they’re more interested in selling advertising space than actually helping their client attract more customers. Have you ever watched a television commercial and couldn’t figure out what it was that they were selling? Every week you probably receive a pile of advertisements in the mail, how many of these flyers do you throw away without even looking at them?

Sometimes, the location where an ad is placed doesn’t make sense. For example, I remember seeing a TV commercial on daytime television for a company that builds steel commercial buildings. How many people watching soap operas do you suppose have a need for one of these buildings? I saw a billboard in a baseball stadium for a company I’ve never heard of. This business spends thousands of dollars every year to have this billboard on display and it doesn’t even state what the company does. I came to find out this particular business has only two actual customers and was not actively seeking any more. Seems like a waste of money to me.

If you want to attract more customers to your business you need effective marketing. Effective marketing is achieved when you have the right message delivered to the most appropriate audience at the right time. Our job is to help you accomplish as many of these three objectives as possible. And we start by helping you get to know your customer better and understand how they think. This is the basis for what we call “Perception Marketing”.

Here are just some of the results we’ve had using Perception Marketing:

• 15% response rate for a direct mail piece (when the national average is 1%)

• 33% response from distribution of a marketing video (That’s 1 out of 3 recipients who wanted to buy.)

• Over $150,000 in revenue from a $150 investment in internet advertising each year. (That’s 1,000 times the return on the investment!)

• A brick and mortar-type business that receives over 95% of their customers from internet marketing. Who needs the yellow pages?

• A website that attracts customers who are ready to buy without any need for selling.

Anyone can write an advertisement, but not every ad succeeds at generating the intended results. It has to be created from the customer’s point-of-view and this is where we excel.

When it comes to working with businesses there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach. Each business specializes in its own industry, has its own budget constraints, has its own unique goals and focuses on a specific type of customer. Therefore, we offer 3 levels of assistance depending on your specific needs.

All of our programs are designed to offer advice on the best use of your advertising dollars and the most effective and efficient use of your existing resources.

To learn more about how we can help your business and determine if our services are right for you, give us a call to schedule your FREE, no-obligation consultation. There’s absolutely nothing to lose.