TELLING IT OVER AND OVER AND OVER

Build a “Know, Like, Trust” Marketing Plan.

Marketing may be defined as telling your target market what you do, over and over. There are literally hundreds of ways to communicate your message. The secret is to have a plan so that you know what you have to do every day and what communications medium you are going to use.

A marketing plan is a plan only if it is in writing with specific action items to be completed each day and then put into your marketing calendar.

One of the basic rules in developing your marketing plan is to remember that people do business with people they know, like and trust. If a potential client gets to know you, learns to like you, and believes that he or she can trust you, you probably have a sale. Without having at least one of these factors in place, getting the sale will be a very difficult task.

This is not an easy process; telling it over and over and over means that you have to tell your story to a prospect many times, in a proper sequence to develop the “know, like and trust” necessary to close a sale. A first contact with a prospect should be personal, not a sales presentation; and the follow-up contacts should slowly build the” know, like and trust” component.

That’s the key to success, keep delivering the message!

A marketing plan has to be developed into a systematized process in which the right amounts of contacts are made with a prospect and each contact builds upon the previous one. That requires a data base management system in which a prospect is listed and all subsequent contacts and the material presented are planned in advance.

The system has to take into account the price of your product/service. A sale of $25 requires a different contact approach than one of $5,000, but the “know, like and trust” component has to be present in both.

For most small businesses building a profitable customer base that not only buys from you but also provides a constant stream of referrals is not an instantaneous process. You build your foundation one customer at a time.

It is never too late or too early to implement a systematized marketing plan. I emphasize the importance of building the right kind of data base and developing the “know, like and trust” contact system as an ongoing part of your customer acquisition and retention.

“I am a great believer in LUCK, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”Thomas Jefferson

Tips & Advice by Nick Petra – CFP, Mentor, and founder of BizQuack and Strategic Duck