Growing Your Business: The Seven P’s of Marketing
The oxygen of any business is leads. As discussed in previous blogs, leads can come from multiple places and ideally you are measuring the source of these and how they are being converted (or not) into paying customers.
However, ideally in business you are not just waiting for the phone to ring and for leads to appear. Rather, you are out mining for them and finding the people that want, need, or love what you are selling.
The Seven P’s
There are seven P’s to consider when building your marketing strategy and plan:
Product
I hope you are extremely clear on your product, or what you sell. Sure, maybe you are in healthcare and sell, say, “physiotherapy.” But do you also sell “wellness?” Or “hope?” What’s important is that people don’t decide to buy from you because you are a “physiotherapist” or a “lawyer,” but they buy based on what your product will do for them. “I feel better…I can climb the stairs…I am getting help or advice that reduces my risks…”
There are two considerations for product:
It meets a perceived need.
It meets that need better, easier, or more economically than other people also selling it.
Think about:
“What pain does my product remove?”
“What problem does my product solve?”
Always define your product in terms of the BENEFITS it offers, not WHAT it is.
Price
Having an established pricing schedule will help you sell your products and services. Setting pricing can be stressful for newer owners because they will need to consider many factors, including the market price and how their services may differ from what others are selling.
Owners can also make the mistake in thinking that once pricing is set, it is stable. Maybe that is true, but buyer behavior may show some indications about pricing – what is selling, what is not, how much of certain things are being purchased over others, etc.
When thinking about pricing, its important to also think about payment and how this is structured. Buyers will need to know the expected payment schedules and payment options. These should be determined and set-up for ease of buyer conversations.
Always remember that the market determines your pricing. Stay informed of what others are doing so you can adjust and remain competitive.
People
There are multiple people involved in your buying and selling process. It’s important to consider all of them.
Customer. Create a customer avatar that includes everything you know about your likely customer, or your current customers. Think about WHO they are, WHERE they are, WHAT their buying behavior is like, HOW they are likely to find out about you and your services. Next, evolve that into your ideal customer. Do you have a group of people in mind who are perfect for what you are selling? Think about how your actual customers and your ideal customers differ.
Sales People. This might be you, or it might be someone else that you have employed for the purposes of selling for you. The important thing is knowing that your sales team can develop rapport and meet the needs of the customer you have identified. Do you understand the communication and behavior style of those selling for you? Do you know your own? This is where a DISC profile can be very helpful.
Customer Support Staff. Those that answer the phone or greet people at the door are the first line of contact for your customers. Will they emulate the values and service standards of your company, your product, your services? Make sure your customers will have a buying experience that matches what you are selling.
Promotion
Now that you have considered your product/service, pricing, and the people involved, you can turn your attention to how you will promote your business goods.
There are many ways to get your messaging out there. Some will be more effective than others, and in many cases you won’t know what will work until you have experimented with various options.
The most important consideration here is consistency. Sending, doing, posting one thing once won’t get you there. From my experience in business, there is no one, active, instant sales funnel that showers you with leads that work or money that appears. So, yes, it will be harder than that.
The biggest mistakes I see with people trying to promote themselves or what they do are as follows:
No plan. They do lots of things once, or something that isn’t working over and over.
No consideration of their audience. Some people (in healthcare specifically) send out one thing that is for customers (referral sources) but it reads like it is for clients (we will help you feel better…). The audience and the message are incongruent.
No metrics. They might go to events, post things online, spend thousands putting their face on a bench with no knowledge of the return.
They don’t understand sunk costs. Just because your face is on a bench, or you always sponsored that event, doesn’t mean you can’t make a different choice when it isn’t working. The previous costs have been spent, but you don’t need to keep spending them.
This is also a good place to introduce the idea of leading with value. Nowadays, people can and expect some things for free. Go shopping for a car? Free coffee and cookies. Go to a seminar? Free pointers and swag. Golf tournament? Prizes or giveaways. Interested in a service? Free call to discuss it.
Packaging
How you package your product while you are promoting it matters. Until people experience your brand, all they have is their perception.
The entire existence of your brand from social media to your website to your office or appearance will matter. And it doesn’t have to be perfect. It just needs to be you. It represents all you are selling and building.
Think about Apple here. Even though they sold “smart phones,” they provided them in packaging that was almost as fun to open as the product itself. Apple changed the digital era, but they also changed manufacturing and packaging of goods. It resonated and other businesses and companies followed.
You can’t be an upscale brand, or servicing professionals, or be a successful business coach if you package yourself and your messages inconsistently with who you are and what you represent.
Positioning
This is where your competitors are important. How can your message, product, put you in the advantageous position of both being noticed, but also being desired? Is there a hot button that you can trigger in people? Here you need to understand why people buy from you considering the other options.
For example, if quality is the main reason people buy, is that communicated in your sales efforts?
Maybe Walmart is a good example. They position themselves as being an inexpensive, low cost provider. People can save money by shopping there. Many people want that, right? But some people want locally sourced and responsibly farmed food and will pay extra for that. Or don’t want to shop for lettuce and underwear in the same place. That’s okay too. So, if you offer products or goods differently than Walmart, find that hot button that helps people decide to pick you and sell to that.
Placement
So, where do you put your magically packaged messages? Or, the location of your business in general? This will depend on where your ideal customers are likely to see it. And where your competitors place their goods.
Apple is a great example again. After selling their goods through other retailers, they opened their own shops. Now? Stores are crowded with people and they offer appointments for service and support – at the same place where you can also browse, shop, and interact with their goods.
When doing my MBA we had to do a project for a major sports manufacturer. We went to a sports store where they sold their goods and it was clear that their main competitor (who owned 70% of the market) had already branded themselves all over the place. Banners, walls, at the check out. But you know where the competitor’s messages were not? The floor. People look at the floor when they are walking. They need to see where they are going. So, we proposed a solution that they branded the floor to guide people to their product.
Not everyone needs store front, or must be located on major roads. However, some businesses do. Alternatively, some can simply do e-commerce well, even exceptionally well if you can get your product today or tomorrow.
Summary
Using the 7 P’s to sell your services or products relies on you taking the time to really have an intentional thought-out plan. Through considering and fully understanding your PRODUCT (SERVICE) (what it does for people), the PRICE (and how that is derived), the PEOPLE (those that buy, sell, and service it), PROMOTION (how you will get the message out there), PACKAGING (how it will look and be interacted with), POSITIONING (in comparison to others selling the same thing), and PLACEMENT (where people will find it), you will be far more likely to have successful sales outcomes.
Reach out if you want to work through this together.
Adapted from “Growth 3.4 The 7 P’s of Marketing Part 1” and “Growth 3.5 The 7 P’s of Marketing Part 2,” by FocalPoint Coaching and Training Excellence, Copyright 2018, by Brian Tracy and Campbell Fraser. Reprinted with permission.
