Marketing “Outside of Marketing “Outside of the Boxthe Box

Marketing “Outside of Marketing “Outside of the Boxthe Box

Your Presenter:Your Presenter:Beth BushBeth Bush

Agenda/Objectives

• Back to the Basics• Challenges• Your Competition• Sacred Cows• Good to Great• Marketing Strategies

Back to the Basics

• Practice effective account management– Know who your customers are– Prioritize and customers

1. Maintain existing business.2. Win back lapsed customers.3. Prospect for new clients that need our

products and services.

What challenges are you having in your

business?

Know Your Competition

• Who is the competition in your community?

Know Your Competition• The real competition is with a

family’s disposable income.

Sacred Cows• What is a sacred cow?

Sacred Cow – Definition

a. An outdated belief, assumption, practice, policy, system, or strategy – generally invisible – that inhibits change and prevents responsiveness to new opportunities.

People are the gatekeepers of change. They have the power to breathe life into a new program –

or kill it.

Sacred CowsChange happens every day.

• Compare now versus just three years ago– How many corporate restructures?– How many different staff in your chapter?– How many new programs and/or products?

Coming up with ideas is the easy part. Getting things doneis the tough part. The place where reform

dies is in the trenches.Mike Hammer

Sacred CowsWhat does this have to do with

marketing?– If we always do what we have always

done, we may miss opportunities– If we assume that a market segment

is not going to do business with us, we will not get their business.

Sacred Cows – 5 Steps• Round up the sacred cows – challenge your

staff’s well worn beliefs, assumptions, and practices, identifying those that have lost their usefulness.

• Develop a change-ready environment – create an environment where your staff is receptive to innovation and new ideas.

• Turn resistance into readiness – coach yourself and your staff to overcome resistance to change.

• Motivate people to change - get people excited about change and motivated to act.

• Develop personal change ready traits – cultivate the personal characteristics needed to thrive in a changing environment.

Sacred Cows• The Paper Cow

– Red Time/Green Time

• The Meeting Cow– Halve your meeting time and double your

productivity time

• The Speed Trap• The Expert Cow

– Haloid, IBM, and Xerox: the copier saga– The beginner’s mind

Sacred Cows• The Cash Cow

– Break it before it’s broke - don’t rest on your laurels

– Niches turn into ruts– Sears and their catalog; PepsiCo and Doritos

• The Competitive Cow– Don’t play by the conventional rules,

change them.– If all of your competitors are doing it the

same way, do it the opposite way – break the rules.

– If you play on a level playing field, you will always get outplayed.

Tilt the playing field in your direction.

Sacred Cows• Hallmark – no longer just in the

greeting card business• Grocery Stores – transition to

megamarkets• Zoos are offering corporate

retreats, cocktail parties, banquets

Sacred Cows - Myths• Successful programs must be chapter

sponsored.• All relationships must come from training.• We must charge AP’s a program support fee.• We should not lose money to get a client.• Once the class is over, we have made our

money.• We cannot do business with a competitor.• AP’s are just instructors.• Workplace seminars are only for chapters.

Sacred Cows - Scenarios

• Long time corporate client has an employee that needs a replacement card

• Sales call to the fire chief

Good to Great

If the department is doing a good job, and if the department is satisfied with doing a good job, it will never be great.

Brand Image• Marketing books and resources

say – make yourself a brand, build your brand, etc.

• We simply need to utilize our brand and tell our story.

Define Yourself• Redefine what you do.

– If you sell lampshades, think of yourself as being in the lighting business.

– If you make pencils, you are in communications.

– Do not describe yourself based on the product/service you sell. Define yourself by the customers’ perception of what they are buying.

Change-Ready Thinking

• Don’t follow customers - lead them.

• Don’t satisfy customers - surprise them.

• Don’t be market driven – be a market driver.

Enable Your Team• Vision does not have to be

“corporate,” it can appeal to everyone’s hopes and aspirations.

• Even employees in the mail room have dreams. Dreams inspire and engage.

• Goals are not the same as dreams.– Rational, specific, and short-term

• Dreams are goals with wings.

ChangeWhat can you do in your business,

utilizing the resources that you currently have, to accomplish the things you want to accomplish?

Get Out of the Box• Good companies respond quickly to

change. Great companies create change.

• Twenty people in a room do not make a team.

• Nothing is sacred, look for the cows everywhere.

• Cut your meetings and leave the donuts at the store.

• Fire ‘em up and get ‘em moving.