In preparing for our upcoming Escalator Profits Path to Freedom Program, I’ve been doing a lot of writing. First, at home sitting on our deck and then most recently with this gorgeous shot of the White Mountains as part of my view (talk about inspiring!).
Some of the things I’ve been writing include:
- the new Baseline Business Assessment
- exercises for our Escalate! Virtual Day (available separate from the full Program)
- and much more
Also in preparation, I was reading some marketing studies and realized they had it all wrong (well, in my opinion). . .
You see, they declared that successful marketing was dependent on 4 things:
- Product
- Promotion
- Price
- Place
This was known as the “Marketing Mix” and was taught for years in business school.
They left out an important piece: “People”, a.k.a. “the Customer”.
How can any marketing campaign be successful without first thinking from our customer’s point of view?
- What do they want?
- What do they need?
- What do we have that will serve either of the above?
- What solutions do our customers see us as having?
- How do they want to be communicated with?
- What are they willing to invest in?
You get the idea. To think that we could create a product, plan it’s promotion and put it “out there” without considering our clients is ludicrous.
Yet, sadly, that’s what many small business owners do. They spend so much time focusing on the:
- “What am I going to offer?”
- “How am I going to get it created?”
- “How am I going to fill/sell it?”
- “What should the price point be?”
that very little energy is left for the customer and what they’re actually interested in.
What if we were to start with the customer and work our way backwards, to the programs, products and services, and then to the customer/client communications plan and our marketing campaign?
How differently might things look? Just as importantly, how might revenue increase as clients experience better results?