Selling in a brutal economy: A huge opportunity and how to capitalize

For reference purposes, you should know that Pottle has several decades of experience in various sectors of the plastics business. Here are his tips for finding those elusive sales.

Remember:
• People are buying differently–for the savvy seller, it’s a plus
• Concentrate on best sellers
• Find new markets or applications
• Provide value-add
• Sell benefits, not features
• Educate customers how to save money buying from you
• Your competitors have got to love you if you are doing same old, same old … or less.

Before you do anything:
• Listen before you cut
• Does it add customer value?
• Increase your marketing rather than cut it; the investment need only be the amount of money you’d pay for an administrative assistant
• Do a lot of little things right
• Fix the leaks (excess inventory, lagging mailings, slow responses)
• Consider outsourcing
• Design messages and programs that speak to your customers and prospects – what they want to hear, not what you want to tell them
• Make everyone a marketer (solicit and welcome ideas)
• Improve your inquiry handling system—avoid messages not getting “in”
• Do things that sell products and services, not the image
• Take a new and close look at yourself—time for a change of message?
• Do more of what works
• Get out of the bunker

Marketing activities you’d better be doing now:
• Investing at least something in marketing, with a plan
• Communicating more than ever with customers
• Using customer testimonials to help you sell
• Differentiating yourself
• Looking for free opportunities to market, promote your company
• Helping salespeople sell—they need marketing, leads, reassurance, support
• Building a database—sales is a (serious) numbers game
• Using direct mail—it really works (e-mail is good, postal is best)
• Getting to broader audiences—the market doesn’t know you and you don’t know the market
• Doing homework before, not during, a show or conference, and due diligence after
• What? No elevator speech?
• Having someone responsible for marketing who is not in sales
• Looking at all the tools, far beyond advertising and shows
• Making your website really work for you
• Promptly answering all inquiries

Marketing activities you can do in the next 30 days:
• Make your company easy to find
• Your website—clean it up, get log-ons, where are you located?
• Write a plan of attack, establish budgets, and do it
• Start tracking activity on your website
• Write news releases and send them to the media
• Mine your databases—renew friendships with past/current customers and set up a program or system to keep in touch with them, regularly
• Offer free consultations on saving money with you
• Position/brand yourself—write a white paper (for Web, for publication)
• Start a newsletter—how to save money, work better with you, tips
• Give a speech, offering something to get something (e.g., website log-ons)
• Build lists—offer something for free
• Walk a trade show or conference, or give a speech there

Marketing activities you can initiate tomorrow and tomorrow night:
• Get out scissors—start clipping names
• Start a “reward employees for new biz” program
• Over lunch, at home, look at competitor websites
• Same time period, check out and save competitor ads and promotions
• Send thank-you notes and gifts to people who referred you; at the very least, bring them up to speed on the last referral
• Get out of the office and start networking
• Assign someone in your company to be marketing head or coordinator
• Distribute a company assessment form to key personnel for feedback
• Buy the paperback book, Guerilla Marketing

To get Pottle’s full presentation, e-mail him at [email protected].