Know-How Exchange : Strategy

The first thing you have to do is stay on track. Don't fall into the fear trap. It will automatically shut down your creative thinking and demoralize your employees. You already have better products, pricing and service... now you just need to let your current (and future) clients know that you do.
Take what you see as a disadvantage (being the little guy) and turn it around and use "a small company with a big advantage" mindset.
Build a campaign around this (sort of what Avis did a zillion years ago with "we try harder"). You can create a slogan, an edgy postcard campaign, and put buttons on your employees without breaking the bank. It may sound simplistic, but it works.

B2B will mean that relationships need to be strong. Position yourself as the flexible, faster, customisable partner- one who will go beyond sales into service and keep the relationship.

Just to counter the threat of the Market Leader- Start a initiative ACFC- At the Customer, For the Customer- which means build the relationship under this branding. Showcase innovation and measure the opportunity cost of pricing advantage, superior after sales and superior product through this ACFC initiative. That way it wont look like you are blowing your own trumpet but the advantages would be upfront to all.

MOP said just about everything. The most important thing is do not loose your self esteem by thinking big is better. It isn't and I would bet that many of your clients know this. Big often means more expensive, less customer focused and a b team to work on your project.

You have to out smart your competition since you can not out spend them. Use email marketing, lead nurturing, white paper marketing, blogs and other electronic media to get the message out. The message must show your benefits to the client.

I would also not fall into the trap of bad mouthing your competitors, while this might work for one or two people in the long run it marked prospects not trust you. Just keep building on your strength and strengthen your weaknesses.

Ahhh, the "David and Goliath" problem - right versus might, brawn versus brains! Well, you knew this competitor was in business - they are the leader! You combat this with your marketing efforts. In the marketing process, first you develop a strategy, then a marketing plan, and then execute.

MARKETING STRATEGY
The strategy consists of two steps - analysis and direction setting

analysis

• Customer and Market
  • who are your customers?
  • what are their needs?
  • what are the influencers in the part of the decision process - those words and images that affect the emotional part of the decision making process?
  • what media do they go to to find out about your products and services to satisfy the intellectual part of the decision process?
  • how would you divide these customers into segments so you can focus on the segment that best matches your capabilities to satisfy their needs?


• Competitors
  • what are their strengths and weaknesses?
  • how well do they satisfy the customers' needs and where do they miss?


• Your Company
  • what are your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats?
  • what are your core competencies - what do you do better than anyone else in the industry?
  • what are your unique selling points (USPs)>

direction setting

• Competitive Actions
  • how can you leverage your strengths to exploit your competitors' weaknesses?
  • how can you make your weaknesses into strengths?
  • how can you recast your competitors' strengths into weaknesses?


• SWOT Actions
  • look for actions where strengths align with opportunities - these are the "base strategies" and you should spend most of your time/resource executing these actions
  • where weaknesses align with threats, develop actions to overcome the weaknesses - these are "survival strategies" - spend much time and resources here.
  • where weaknesses align with opportunities, develop plans to overcome your weaknesses and these become "expansion strategies." Use your "leftover" resources here.
  • where strengths align with threats, develop plans here and monitor - these are "defensive strategies"
  
  
  • Product/Service Strategy
    Given your customers' needs, your core competencies, your unique selling points, and your competitors' strengths and weaknesses, develop a product/service strategy to take advantage of your strengths to satisfy customers' needs better than your competitors
  
  
• Position Statement - develop a statement for guiding your marketing activities:
  • Placement within a market segment – In which segments does the product/service play?
  • Placement of the product relative to other products/services categories and application – What are upstream and downstream in the supply chain with respect to the product/service? Is the product/service high value or low value with respect to other product/services used by the customers?
  • Placement versus competitors' products/services – How well does the product/service satisfy the customers’ needs versus the competition?
  • Placement of the product/services in terms of features and benefits - Is the product/service high performance or basic in features and benefits? What is the value proposition for the product/service versus the competitors?
  • Placement in the sales channel – How is the product sold by whom to whom?
  • Placement in the minds of decision makers and influencers – For those who make the “buy” decision, is the product/service critical or a commodity? Does it represent a major determiner for success and therefore involved in a major part of their daily activities for buyers and influencers?


• Brand Strategy - Develop brand rules (this will help you look professional to combat this Goliath):
  • Name (both company and product)
  • Logo
  • Product/service characteristics - colors, features, quality
  • Packaging and packaging characteristics (colors, font styling, logo and logo placement)
  • Tag lines

MARKETING PLAN

• Develop goals for your marketing efforts - usually revenue, profit, or market share goals


• Develop activities to support your goals and that are aligned with the ways that your customers find out about products/services like yours.
  • develop action plans with who/what/when
  develop metrics and measurement methods for each activity so that you can measure your progress to plan

EXECUTION

• weekly review your action plans formally


• Monthly review your marketing plan - goals versus actual - take actions to bring it into alignment.


• Quarterly, review your marketing strategy to take into account any market environment changes

So, with all this in place, you can develop a comprehensive, cohesive process to battle your Goliath. Without this, you react and a series of reactions will paint you in corners you don't want to be in!

I hope this helps.

Wayde

Dear C. Manley,

What are your Strengths :

1) Superior Product
2) Attractive (competitive) Pricing
3) Excellent After Sales Service

Because you are smaller in size You have the advantage of :

4) Lower overheads / costs.

In such businesses definitely the emphasis would be on customer relations as well.

Your Weaknesses :

1) Small in operation. (Customer look for long term reliability. When organisation is big they tend to believe that they are more reliable.)

2) Financial disadvantage - no or low advertisements and publicities.

In your type of businesses the merits of the product and after sales service are what counts the most on the customers' mind.

Because of your size you could be more flexible to customers needs and could be very focussed to their requirements.

By 1) building customer relations, 2) further improving on services with emphasis on customised approach you would carve out a niche for yourself. You need not and should not compromise on price if you are strong otherwise.

Further I would suggest you read the following article on niche marketing :

www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/marketingcolumnistkimtgordon/article49608.ht...

and visit :

www.nichemarketingexplained.com


Best Wishes,

kannan