Winning Without Competition: How to Break Out of a Commodity ...

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• Non-customers who are buying complementary products of other technologies, but not your technology, i.e., they may be potential customers in the future • Manufacturers and providers of complementary products and services • Competitive technology suppliers • Your company’s suppliers who often have key insights into the building marketplace In addition to talking to a biased sample, Sales is always listening for information that will help secure an order. Sales people are focused on a much narrower set of issues than that which a marketing person would explore and learn about in the marketplace. Furthermore, the customer – knowing the role of the sales force – is oftentimes leery of offering information that might reduce his opportunity to push for price concessions. The customer may also be reluctant to share information he deems is not pertinent to someone in the sales function. For example, many organizations use their sales force to gain information about whey the company loses orders. Customers will always tell sales people that the company lost the order due to price, because they want to get the very best price possible in the future. They will rarely criticize sales performance to sales representatives, for example. Market research professionals, on the other hand, are able to gain a much better perspective on why the company loses customers, which is a key part of a strategic assessment. As a result of these sources of bias, sales people offer an important, but nonetheless biased, view of the marketplace. It is often said in marketing circles that if you ask the sales department to define the specifications for a new product, the product will be out of date before it is introduced to the marketplace. In light of these problems – it’s expensive, Sales does not get the job done, and biased information results – separate marketing resources are of great value in any organization. Strong tactical marketing creates: • More effective forecasting • More time the sales team can spend on selling • More focus throughout the company • More effective selling because the sales force is better focused, has stronger selling tools and aids, and there is prior awareness of the company • Better measures of how the organization is performing in its markets • More successful product introductions • Better feedback on the quality and cost position of the company so as to create quality and cost improvements • Activities to minimize sales losses should the market decline • More realized opportunities identified and pursued • Higher profits through stronger pricing approaches Strong strategic marketing creates: • A stronger, more effective market understanding process • More focus throughout the company Pamphlet #5 Page 202
• Conscious decisions of where and how to compete, which are key to differentiation and breaking out of a commodity market (see Pamphlet One) • Early warning of emerging risks and key opportunities • Stronger products and secure offerings • More focused and effective resource allocation • Higher pricing through better differentiation • Greater partnership opportunities • Stronger awareness and understanding of current and potential competitors While Sales and Marketing must work together effectively, it is important that Marketing not serve in the role of sales assistants. In particular, it is very important not to use Marketing to: • Evaluate specific sales representatives’ performance • Generate leads by calling on individual accounts • Create individual sales representative forecasts • Be the sales person for accounts with longer-term potential • Maintain all information in a customer database • Write proposals for a specific job • Serve as the engineer for new product development activities • Train Sales on selling skills (Marketing does train Sales on what to communicate in discussing why the company or its products are better than that of the competition) • Set prices in front of the customer (Marketing does set pricing policies and works with Sales in cases where policies are not effective) • Review contracts for accuracy or legality Finally, it’s important that Sales support Marketing in fulfilling the marketing role. Sales professionals help Marketing by: • Making customer contacts on behalf of Marketing • Providing feedback on product ideas and communications materials • Providing Marketing with an in-field understanding of how the products are working • Helping the Marketing people understand the sales process • Providing a record of won and lost orders and insights into market size and why orders are won and lost • Providing information on the competitor • Identifying who the key opinion leaders are • Defining tradeshow requirements If you are considering adding a marketing person to your staff, Appendix Six contains a job description that can help you get started. How Will We Achieve our Sales and Margin Goals? The Marketing Plan (This section draws heavily from Hiebing and Cooper) Pamphlet #5 Page 203
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Page 3 and 4: Introduction One of the greatest fa
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Page 13 and 14: The logic for process redesign work
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Page 23 and 24: profitability. From these sales obj
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Page 33 and 34: critical part of this plan. (See Pa
Page 35 and 36: Sidebar A: Systems Thinking A syste
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Page 39 and 40: Sidebar F: Most of us choose to ign
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Page 61 and 62: Is it working? Evaluation Execution
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Job Description Exercise (continued
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• Which items did I prioritize to
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What did I learn? FOLLOW UP LATER T
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Marketing Manager Job Description (
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Marketing Manager Job Description (
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