Business is all about solving other people’s problems. In the process, we have to solve a bunch of our own. Any entrepreneur will attest that challenges abound. We wrestle with legal, employment, environmental, finance, organizational, computer, equipment, energy, communications, production, delivery and all manner of other obstacles. At a given moment, any one of these can seem to be the biggest problem in business.

After a dozen years and a couple hundred consultations with business owners a year, however, I’m convinced that, overall, the biggest problem to solve in business is,

“How do we attract and retain enough of the right customers?”

The biggest business problem is the challenge of business development. This might sound like a Blinding Flash of the Obvious (BFO), but, think about it. Isn’t attracting and retaining enough of the right customers the most pervasive challenge, yesterday, today, and all the tomorrows to come in business life?

Yet my observation is that the vast majority of companies in the $1,000,000 to $50,000,000 revenue range are either:

woefully under-marketed, or

the marketing they do is…..well, never mind. Let’s just say there is often room to improve its efficiency and results.

Weak and inefficient marketing hinders revenue growth, profitability, cash flow and enterprise value. Give any decent business owner sufficient cash flow and net worth and the other problems of business get much more manageable, don’t they? If marketing is the driver for these positive things, why is there such a shortage of marketing, let alone powerful marketing, at the small company level?

One reason is because most business owners are primarily oriented toward taking care of existing customers and organizing the delivery of products and services, rather than the development of new business. In addition, the daily demands of taking care of existing orders and dealing with operational problems easily distract from the important, but rarely urgent issue of marketing.

There is also a limited understanding of how to do marketing and a lack of confidence that marketing efforts will get results. Bad marketing is expensive. It doesn’t take many major marketing and advertising flameouts to make a business owner extremely leery.

With that mindset, most business owners do not confidently establish a meaningful annual marketing budget according to a well considered plan. It is interesting to note that those same business owners who are unwilling to invest in the marketing systems to drive the future of their business will frequently invest hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in equipment, hoping that enough business will somehow appear to pay for it. Although buying tangible property may seem safe, actually, the “build it (or buy it) and they will come” approach to business development is much more risky than the marketing approach, which could be restated as: “get them to come, and we’ll figure out how to take care of them when they show up.”

Smart marketing systems can work extremely well for small companies and can drive profitable growth in a managed, predictable way to generate returns of 3-10 times your marketing investment, or more. Let’s examine some highlights of how that can be.

The Point of Marketing.

What is marketing supposed to do for your business? Marketing, plain and simple, is:

A system for getting prospects’ attention, separating yourself and your message from the clutter, facilitating the prospects’ decision making process and helping them come to the conclusion that they want to do business with you, that they’d have to be crazy to take a chance on doing business with someone else and that they are ready to act.  

Does your marketing program achieve this?

How Much is Enough?

If the biggest business problem is attracting and retaining enough of the right customers, how many customers are enough? “Enough” is different for every business, but in general enough means more of the right kind; an ever increasing amount of high margin customers, but attracted at a pace that your business can absorb and serve well. This means:

Excellent marketing systems are controllable and predictable.

They can be turned on and off, like a “profit faucet.”

Who are the Right Customers?

If you are going to attract customers, they might as well be the right kind. So, what do those look like? The right customers:

Are honorable.

Are enjoyable to work for.

Are respectful. In a good customer relationship, there is mutual respect. It’s kind of like a partnership. It’s true that some customers just don’t “get it.” However, we as vendors have to be deserving of respect. We also have a responsibility to set up transactions in a dignified way that builds the partnership. [Hint: Good marketing can make a huge difference with this.]

Are willing to acknowledge and pay a reasonable price for value received.

Expect our best.

Bring challenging, interesting and worthwhile problems for us to solve.

Are well managed and ambitious.

The Foundation of Successful Marketing.

A successful marketing program is grounded on two fundamental elements, attitude and internal reality.

Attitude. Without the proper attitude, marketing is a waste of everyone’s time and money. There are four essential considerations.

• Desire. You have to want to grow. If you are “comfortable” staying where you are, there is no point in reading the rest of this article. On the other hand, the problem with “holding steady” is that in the world of business, you have to be trying to grow, just to keep from slipping or dying. Trying to stay comfortable almost always leads eventually to severe discomfort.

• Positive Ambition. The greatest business people (and the best marketers) I have ever met have a stewardship orientation. They see their business as a vehicle for making a difference. They believe they are the best at what they do. They operate with the conviction that their customers are truly better off doing business with them than with anyone else and that no one can or will take better care of them. With that perspective, growth is good, because it creates an opportunity for more people to benefit. But you can’t hide your lamp under a basket. That’s where marketing comes in.

• Confidence.  Good marketers have confidence borne out of taking a systematic approach based on research and testing. Their confidence is built with each small win, the experience of increasing levels of success and the evidence of return on investment. 

• Willingness to Act. Ultimately, it’s not what we know, but what we do with what we know. Good marketers understand the market is ever- changing and that marketing is a process. They are willing to act, to try, to test, to modify, to refine their approach and hone their skill, knowing that the greatest risk is to do nothing. 

Internal Reality.  Good marketing depends on a company being able to keep its promises, deliver quality and satisfy customers. To put a powerful marketing program in place, a business owner must be committed to making the internal improvements and changes necessary to handle increased demand successfully and profitably. Effective marketing can turbo-charge a company, but if the operational aspects of the business are not sound, the marketing effort can create havoc. The good news is that most of the companies I see have a good to excellent internal reality.

The marketing challenge is that the external market  perception of your business may not necessarily correlate with your internal reality.

The External Perception of Your Business.

External perception is what the world thinks of your company…to the extent it actually does think of you. As a business operator, it’s easy to get so focused on the internal reality of our company that we forget that it’s imperative to also shape how the world sees our business. We tend to presume our existing customers think about us more frequently than they do and that they know more about us than is actually the case.

To test that premise, think about your role as a customer of many businesses. How much time do you spend reflecting on the internal reality of the companies you buy from? How much do you know about them other than what came from your limited experience and what they tell you about themselves (i.e. their marketing)? I’ll bet the answer is, “Not much.”   

Marketing is concerned with educating your prospects and shaping the external perception of your company, so that customers are drawn to want to do business with you and decide to act.

Strategic vs. Tactical Marketing.

Simply stated, the strategic aspect of marketing is figuring out:

What to say.

How to say it.

Who to say it to.

Strategic marketing is simple in concept, but worthy and demanding of our highest level of thinking to achieve.

Tactical marketing, on the other hand, is the execution of the strategic marketing plan. When most business owners think of marketing, they think of running ads, sending letters, placing radio spots, etc. These are tactical marketing moves, and in most cases are fairly straightforward and mechanical to execute. Any given form of tactical marketing technique may be appropriate in a certain circumstance, but without the proper strategic thinking, implementing tactical marketing techniques alone will never get optimum results, and can be very risky.

As an example of tactical marketing at its riskiest, consider the common small business approach, which is often pretty similar to:

“We need some more business! We oughta do some marketing! Let’s buy a bunch of those personalized calendars, ’cause everyone needs a calendar. We’ll mail a few thousand of those and see if  getting our name out there will help.”

After spending thousands of dollars on that gambit with no return, is it any wonder a business owner might lack confidence in “marketing?”

Characteristics of a Winning Marketing Program.

Marketing should not be a wild gamble. Good marketing, successful marketing has been done and is being done, with little risk and high returns. Marketing does not have to be a risky proposition if you follow a proven formula. A good marketing program has the following characteristics:

It is based on research and testing.

It is customer focused, and addresses, in a clear and compelling way, what prospects care about. This may not be what you think they care about, and it may not be what you are currently offering to sell.

It is clutter-busting, specific, distinct and sets you apart in a positive manner from your direct and indirect competition.

It is targeted and directed to legitimate prospects.

It is systematic and conducted according to a plan.

Its results are measurable.

It is consistent and ongoing, because only a small percentage of prospects are ready to buy at any given time.

It is controllable, so you can turn it on, off, up or down as appropriate.

It ties in to a systematized sales process.

It is optimized through leveraging relationships with others for mutual benefit.

We Can Help.

If you would like to explore how we can help you design and implement a marketing program with the characteristics described in this article that can increase your revenue and profit by 25% - 150% within the next 12 months, you can:

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