Build it and they will come!

Build it and they will come! 

 

 

These immortal words are from the movie Field of Dreams where novice farmer Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Cosner)  becomes convinced by a mysterious voice that he is supposed to construct a baseball diamond in his corn field. The film's underlying themes are the fulfillment of dreams, and how people can overcome any regrets they may have about the life choices they make.  A great movie!

If only life was Hollywood!

It amazes me that many businesses act just as if life were Hollywood.  New businesses open after making huge investments in building and equipment, but budget nothing for marketing.  Weeks after opening, managers struggle with the lack of business and try to find a few dollars for marketing.  The lack of an initial marketing budget can handicap a business for years.

 

Most businesses give little attention or funding to ongoing marketing efforts.  They attend a trade show here, they print a brochure there or they invest in a website that is tied to nothing else in the business.

 

Sales and marketing needs to be treated like any other other part of your business. It needs a fixed budget (percentage of sales) and it needs constant attention to be sure that the profile of your business is constantly being managed. 

 

Sales and marketing efforts take time to materialize and money and effort spent is not usually rewarded immediately.  

 

It takes time and it needs a plan. 

 

Without a plan it is unlikely that you will organize your efforts in a way that they can be leveraged against each other to gain the greatest results. 

 

A well thought out marketing plan takes a lot of time and work to prepare and should encompass all aspects of your business.  It should review and evaluate all potential sales and marketing strategies and should layout action plans for the best possible strategies. The plans needs to have a budget, forecasts and need to be measured and reviewed.

 

Without time, you may waste your money. Many business take the build it and they will come approach.  They put together their business and simply plan a grand opening event and wait for business to walk in the door. Even if your business is located in a high traffic shopping mall you will need to do more than this.

 

A sales and marketing plan should not be started when your business is ready to open. The planning should run concurrent with the planning for the rest of the business.  The first questions you should be asking is who will want what we will sell and how will we reach those prospects?  These questions and more need to be asked at the same time that you are that you are looking at building space, equipment and inventory.

 

Imagine deciding to get married.  You pick the girl, the church, the reception location, the honeymoon and book and pay for everything and then go ask the girl (who doesn't know you from Adam) to marry you? Of course you wouldn't do this.  You wouldn't because that would be absurd!  Right?

 

Then why do business people do exactly the same thing everyday?  They take the bride for granted - of course she will want me! Well, maybe the bride has different plans.  Maybe your prospects have different plans!

 

Have you ever walked into a new business in your neighbourhood and asked how long ago they opened only to be told 'ten years ago'?  Getting the attention of buyers takes time and it takes consistent effort. People do not pay attention to everything put in front of them and even if they notice you and are interested in doing business with you they may not be in a position to do business with you for months or even years. The sooner you start the process the better chance you have of succeeding.

 

We all tend to remember things that happened a few minutes ago but longer term memory is generally reserved for important matters. We need to be regularly and consistently in front of our prospects.

 

Marketing must start early and it must be consistent.  We need to be aware of buying cycles and realize that often our sales efforts will not pay off for three to six months later.  How many new businesses can wait that long?  We also need to be continually feeding the cycle. If you stop the sales and marketing activity for one month then you are likely to feel the pain with a very quiet month down the road.

 

Never take business for granted especially in the modern world with so many distractions and so many players chasing every available dollar.

 

More then one hundred years ago Kellogg's built a dynasty by outspending all of its competition to get the attention of the buyer.  It used innovative techniques and continued to spend aggressively, even now.

 

In the early part of the last century Kellogg's invented Corn Flakes but the market was quickly swamped by competitors. It survived and prospered by overwhelming its competitors with advertising and promotion. In 1912 the company spent one millions dollars on advertising and in some years spent as much as fifty-percent of its' revenue from sales on advertising and marketing.

 

Imagine what would happen to your business if you were to spend fifty percent of your revenue on marketing?

 

You don't need to spend a ton of money to get results but you do have to invest the time necessary to get noticed and stay remembered.  The process can never start too early!