Tags |
|
|
Add You - Secret of Strategy - Part 1
After a thirty (30) second glance lots of resumes get thrown into the wastebasket. One of the reasons this happens is because the resume writer has failed to use the appropriate resume format.Each individual has different work experiences and objectives. You may have gaps in your work history. You may be changing careers or have had jobs progressively in the same field.You need to choose a format that is to your advantage and shows you as the best candidate for the job.Here are the two (2) main resume formats used. Decide which is best for you.1. The Chronological Resume Format:ObjectiveSummaryExperienceEducationReferencesThe chronological resume format is the most popular format used by persons, especially those who write their own resume. However, it’s not for everyone.This resume format is for you if;you have constantly moved to better and better jobs;all your jobs have been in the same field (more or less);you have no significant periods of unemployment.From the information above, should your resume format be a chronological one? If your answer is yes then you’re good to go. If however your answer is no then the following format is for you.2. The Functional Resume Format:ObjectiveAccomplishmentsCapabilitiesEmployment HistoryEducationReferencesThe functional resume format is designed to emphasize your accomplishments and skills needed to do the job yo
Weak sector, strong competitive position
In this case, you dominate a weak market and have cash to exploit your position. You should:
- Add related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add un-related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add new products and services for new customer base
- Create joint ventures in unrelated markets
Weak sector, average competitive position.
You are in a mediocre position in a weak market. Depending on your exact circumstances, you can retreat, use what's left of your cash to buy your way out with new products, or try to enroll a strong partner. Choices include:
- Reduce costs however you can.
- Add related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add new products and services for new customer base
- Seek to dominate the smallest definition of your market using low-cost / no-cost strategies.
- Create strategic partnerships and joint ventures
Weak sector, weak competitive position
Sorry to say, you are in a bad place. In a word-retreat! You can do this by:
- Reduce costs however you can.
- Sell product line
- Sell company
If you don't want to liquidate, seek to expand your marketing using low-cost / no-cost marketing strategies - but this may be a losing proposition.
Also, as above, attempt to create strategic partnerships and joint ventures, but it may be difficult to attract partners to a market with poor fundamentals. At this point you might say, "…sell the customers? Sell the company? No way. I'm holding on." That just isn't a strategic point of view.
Strategy sa
The ability to make the right decision at the right time is the most desired quality in any business entrepreneur. And there are certain business decisions that can take your entrepreneurial ambitions further ahead than others. The decision to incorporate your business is one such decision that can affect the future of your business in a positive direction.Before explaining several benefits of incorporation, let us give you the definition of corporation from a legal point of view. A corporation is regarded as a separate legal entity, whose existence is independent of that of its owners. The process of incorporation is guided by the charter or certificate of incorporation of the respective states. To incorporate a business, you have to fill out the forms for this Charter and file all the papers along with the requisite fees to the proper state authority.If you are planning to incorporate, you are moving towards the right direction, because the process of incorporation comes with the following benefits:Incorporation protects you from the disadvantages of sole proprietorship. As such you no longer remain personally liable with regards to business debts. In case of a sole proprietorship or partnership, your personal properties can be seized by the creditors in case you default on the payment of your business debts. These personal properties include your home, savings and other assets. But incorporation of your business makes you one of the shareholders in your company and as such, if your business is down, as a shareholder you have nothing to lose other than the money you have invested in your company. Your other prop
I'll bet you think you already have a strategy.
And well you may, but strategy as a concept is just like love: much used and little understood. Many businesses (and that includes small entrepreneurs, large corporations, non-profits, community organizations, governments, NGOs…the works) neither know what strategy really is, nor how to get one.
And even if you do, in fact, have a strategy-is it the right one? The best one? This is so important-marketing guru Jay Abraham says-and I agree-a superior strategy badly executed will beat a bad strategy well executed, any day.
It's easy to say, "This is big company stuff. We know what we need-why should we do all the extra work." While a "strategy-less" group of marketing tactics may work well and produce good results, is it taking your business in the best direction? You may be making money, but are you making the most money possible? Could another suite of tactics implementing a superior strategy produce far better results?
Which brings me to the point of this two-part article: how to formulate strategy. In the next 1500 words, I'm going to present the first half of a basic system for identifying high-impact strategies in your business. (Just the first half? Yes. While I strive to make this as simple as possible, it still takes a bit of explaining, and editors and readers alike detest long articles!) So Part 2 will finish the outline, and in future articles, I will discuss each system component in finer detail.
Let's begin with a working definition of strategy.
Strategy is the guiding principle on which are based a series of interlinked decisions regarding the selection and deployment of resources and tactics, whose purpose is realizing a vision and achieving decisive objectives in a competitive and changing environment.
This definition tells us a few things:
- The purpose of all strategic decisions is achieving your vision and "decisive" or critical-to-purpose objectives.
- Strategy is about selecting specific resources and tactics to get the desired result.
- Strategy is not static; it is decisions in a series, and evolves continuously over time.
- Strategy is broad and all-encompassing. With that in mind, here are the 8 steps to formulating strategy:
- Set your vision
- Gather environmental and competitive intelligence
- Take stock of your organization's strengths and weaknesses
- Select your "grand strategy"
- Establish decisive objectives
- Rate and rank your "SWOTs"
- Match your internal and external factors to identify strategic alternatives
- Select specific strategies for implementation
Of course, there is one last step: turning your strategy into tactics and game plans, and execute. We won't get into that in this article.
Step 1. Establish your vision.
People complicate the idea of vision. A vision is simply a story describing how you want things to be in the future. Some people can tell these stories easily-they know exactly where they want to be and what it will "look" like.
Others need help. The best approach is to answer a series of questions regarding what your organization does, who are it's clients or beneficiaries, what its impact is, how big it is, where it is, how it operates, when all these things will occur, and so on. As a result of answering these questions, your vision will emerge.
Of course, you may already have a vision. If so, now is the time to insure that it is relevant and powerful.
The test of a good vision is if it inspires; not only you and your management team, but all of your stakeholders: your partners, employees, clients, investors, vendors, lenders, your community, your government-and perhaps the public at large. A great vision inspires, and it also provides direction. Every action you take should further your vision. If it doesn't, don't do it.
Step 2. Gather environmental and competitive intelligence.
To develop the best strategies you must understand the world outside your organization. Quantify and qualify, not just absolutes, but trends. And importantly-identify changes in the status quo. Key areas for focus include competitors, technology, market size and trends, your clients' industry health, macroeconomic trends, availability of key resources (people and materials) government regulations and other political considerations, and changes in demographics and psychographics-like customer taste.
Devise relevant measures for each of these key external areas. For instance, examine your competitors for revenue, profit and market share growth (or decline), product and service changes, shifts in marketing and sales strategy, changes in geographic distribution, strategic alliances, and major customer announcements.
Macroeconomic factors include the obvious such as interest and employment rates and trends, production and consumption statistics, along with finer grained-industry issues such as new home buying-which impacts a wide variety of businesses, or defense spending-which impacts a completely different set of sectors.
Step 3. Take stock of your organization's strengths and weaknesses
Now it is time to shine the light on your organization. Examine each functional area looking for strengths and weaknesses. Identify strengths that will help the company realize its vision, and weaknesses that will impede its goals.
The following is a starter list of focus areas:
- Ability to get new prospects (Marketing)
- Ability to get new clients (Sales)
- Products and services, both existing and those in R&D.
- Finance or Money, including cash flow, access to capital, revenues, profits, ROI
- Leadership, including values and vision alignment, decisive objectives
- People, including skills inventory, staffing levels, employee loyalty, compensation
Other areas to examine include:
- Client satisfaction
- Client services
- Logistics
- Competitive positioning
- Unique Client Proposition
- Management team
- Administration
Step 4: Select your Grand Strategies.
This "grand strategy" approach is based upon industry/product revenue growth rates. It is specific to a business unit with one major industry and/or product focus. If your business is more complex, you may repeat the process for each focus sector.
First, consider your industry and product sector growth rate. Is it growing or declining?
Second, consider your competitive strength within that sector. For this analysis Competitive Strength has two components, the size and trend of your market share, and your organization's financial strength; specifically either cash flow from operations, or access to capital.
To simplify: strong market share + strong finances = strong competitive position. Either strong market share or strong finances = average competitive position. Neither strong market share nor strong finances = weak competitive position.
This defines a two-by-three matrix of strategic choices from which to select your grand strategy.
The exact choice you make will be dictated by the specifics of your situation: sector strength and competitive strength, along with your stated vision and purpose. Choose from the list which best describes your business:
Strong sector, strong competitive position.
This means that you are in a growing market, hold a commanding market position, and have cash with which to maneuver. Your strategic choices include:
- Market strategy to increase demand and sales for existing products and services, in existing and new markets
- Marketing strategy to increase market penetration for existing products and services and capture greater share.
- Enhance or extend existing products and services; add-ons, backends, strategic joint ventures.
- Gain control over distribution - bring external sales inside. Take sales from distributors.
- Gain control over suppliers Acquisition, merger, or joint-ventures with competitors
- Develop strategic partnerships to increase distribution, or gain new products.
- Develop related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
Strong sector, average competitive position
Here you are in a growing market, but have either a commanding position, but limited cash-or vice versa. The exact choice available to you depend on your situation. You can:
- Seek underserved niches: move into small, defined and profitable markets.
- Marketing strategy to increase market penetration for existing products and services and capture greater share.
- Enhance or extend existing products and services; add-ons, backends, strategic joint ventures
- Strategic partnerships - seek products/services for existing customers
- Exploit assets via joint ventures and host-beneficiary relationships
- Develop related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Increased marketing penetration via distributors and 3rd parties
- Get more money: raise capital via debt or equity
Strong sector, weak competitive position
You are in a strong sector, but have relatively small market share, and limited or no cash. Your choices include:
- Seek underserved niches: move into small, defined and profitable markets.
- Marketing strategy to increase market penetration for existing products and services and capture greater share.
- Strategic partnerships - seek products/services for existing customers
- Develop products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Sell your client base to a competitor or cooperator; or reposition your existing products to appeal to new customer types.
- Sell the product line and use cash to reposition remaining assets
- Sell the company
Weak sector, strong competitive position
In this case, you dominate a weak market and have cash to exploit your position. You should:
- Add related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add un-related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add new products and services for new customer base
- Create joint ventures in unrelated markets
Weak sector, average competitive position.
You are in a mediocre position in a weak market. Depending on your exact circumstances, you can retreat, use what's left of your cash to buy your way out with new products, or try to enroll a strong partner. Choices include:
- Reduce costs however you can.
- Add related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add new products and services for new customer base
- Seek to dominate the smallest definition of your market using low-cost / no-cost strategies.
- Create strategic partnerships and joint ventures
Weak sector, weak competitive position
Sorry to say, you are in a bad place. In a word-retreat! You can do this by:
- Reduce costs however you can.
- Sell product line
- Sell company
If you don't want to liquidate, seek to expand your marketing using low-cost / no-cost marketing strategies - but this may be a losing proposition.
Also, as above, attempt to create strategic partnerships and joint ventures, but it may be difficult to attract partners to a market with poor fundamentals. At this point you might say, "…sell the customers? Sell the company? No way. I'm holding on." That just isn't a strategic point of view.
Strategy say
If you're thinking of becoming a medical biller for a medical billing company, there are some things that you might want to know about some common problems before you decide to take the job. This is a very stressful career choice and if you don't know what you're getting yourself into, you could end up regretting it for the rest of your life. What follows are just some of the common problems and there are a lot more.One of the biggest problems you're going to run into as a medical biller is patient complaints. You have to understand something. These people are usually very poor and need to have their medical bills paid by the carrier. When things don't go right and they're not reimbursed for their prescription or whatever right away, the first thing they are going to do is call you and complain. And this goes on all day in addition to your regular billing duties of trying to get the bills out.And what about those duties, when you actually get the chance to do them? The medical billing software that is absolutely perfect and problem free hasn't been invented yet. You are going to run into problems with corrupted data, programs that don't work, modems that stop functioning when trying to submit a claim electronically, down phone lines and a number of other technical problems. Your computer will become your worst enemy at the worst time.And what about dealing with the insurance carriers? This is probably the worst part of the whole job because unless you're dealing with private insurance, where they have to care about their customers or they lose them, you're dealing with government agencies who just don't
Of course, there is one last step: turning your strategy into tactics and game plans, and execute. We won't get into that in this article.
Step 1. Establish your vision.
People complicate the idea of vision. A vision is simply a story describing how you want things to be in the future. Some people can tell these stories easily-they know exactly where they want to be and what it will "look" like.
Others need help. The best approach is to answer a series of questions regarding what your organization does, who are it's clients or beneficiaries, what its impact is, how big it is, where it is, how it operates, when all these things will occur, and so on. As a result of answering these questions, your vision will emerge.
Of course, you may already have a vision. If so, now is the time to insure that it is relevant and powerful.
The test of a good vision is if it inspires; not only you and your management team, but all of your stakeholders: your partners, employees, clients, investors, vendors, lenders, your community, your government-and perhaps the public at large. A great vision inspires, and it also provides direction. Every action you take should further your vision. If it doesn't, don't do it.
Step 2. Gather environmental and competitive intelligence.
To develop the best strategies you must understand the world outside your organization. Quantify and qualify, not just absolutes, but trends. And importantly-identify changes in the status quo. Key areas for focus include competitors, technology, market size and trends, your clients' industry health, macroeconomic trends, availability of key resources (people and materials) government regulations and other political considerations, and changes in demographics and psychographics-like customer taste.
Devise relevant measures for each of these key external areas. For instance, examine your competitors for revenue, profit and market share growth (or decline), product and service changes, shifts in marketing and sales strategy, changes in geographic distribution, strategic alliances, and major customer announcements.
Macroeconomic factors include the obvious such as interest and employment rates and trends, production and consumption statistics, along with finer grained-industry issues such as new home buying-which impacts a wide variety of businesses, or defense spending-which impacts a completely different set of sectors.
Step 3. Take stock of your organization's strengths and weaknesses
Now it is time to shine the light on your organization. Examine each functional area looking for strengths and weaknesses. Identify strengths that will help the company realize its vision, and weaknesses that will impede its goals.
The following is a starter list of focus areas:
- Ability to get new prospects (Marketing)
- Ability to get new clients (Sales)
- Products and services, both existing and those in R&D.
- Finance or Money, including cash flow, access to capital, revenues, profits, ROI
- Leadership, including values and vision alignment, decisive objectives
- People, including skills inventory, staffing levels, employee loyalty, compensation
Other areas to examine include:
- Client satisfaction
- Client services
- Logistics
- Competitive positioning
- Unique Client Proposition
- Management team
- Administration
Step 4: Select your Grand Strategies.
This "grand strategy" approach is based upon industry/product revenue growth rates. It is specific to a business unit with one major industry and/or product focus. If your business is more complex, you may repeat the process for each focus sector.
First, consider your industry and product sector growth rate. Is it growing or declining?
Second, consider your competitive strength within that sector. For this analysis Competitive Strength has two components, the size and trend of your market share, and your organization's financial strength; specifically either cash flow from operations, or access to capital.
To simplify: strong market share + strong finances = strong competitive position. Either strong market share or strong finances = average competitive position. Neither strong market share nor strong finances = weak competitive position.
This defines a two-by-three matrix of strategic choices from which to select your grand strategy.
The exact choice you make will be dictated by the specifics of your situation: sector strength and competitive strength, along with your stated vision and purpose. Choose from the list which best describes your business:
Strong sector, strong competitive position.
This means that you are in a growing market, hold a commanding market position, and have cash with which to maneuver. Your strategic choices include:
- Market strategy to increase demand and sales for existing products and services, in existing and new markets
- Marketing strategy to increase market penetration for existing products and services and capture greater share.
- Enhance or extend existing products and services; add-ons, backends, strategic joint ventures.
- Gain control over distribution - bring external sales inside. Take sales from distributors.
- Gain control over suppliers Acquisition, merger, or joint-ventures with competitors
- Develop strategic partnerships to increase distribution, or gain new products.
- Develop related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
Strong sector, average competitive position
Here you are in a growing market, but have either a commanding position, but limited cash-or vice versa. The exact choice available to you depend on your situation. You can:
- Seek underserved niches: move into small, defined and profitable markets.
- Marketing strategy to increase market penetration for existing products and services and capture greater share.
- Enhance or extend existing products and services; add-ons, backends, strategic joint ventures
- Strategic partnerships - seek products/services for existing customers
- Exploit assets via joint ventures and host-beneficiary relationships
- Develop related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Increased marketing penetration via distributors and 3rd parties
- Get more money: raise capital via debt or equity
Strong sector, weak competitive position
You are in a strong sector, but have relatively small market share, and limited or no cash. Your choices include:
- Seek underserved niches: move into small, defined and profitable markets.
- Marketing strategy to increase market penetration for existing products and services and capture greater share.
- Strategic partnerships - seek products/services for existing customers
- Develop products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Sell your client base to a competitor or cooperator; or reposition your existing products to appeal to new customer types.
- Sell the product line and use cash to reposition remaining assets
- Sell the company
Weak sector, strong competitive position
In this case, you dominate a weak market and have cash to exploit your position. You should:
- Add related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add un-related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add new products and services for new customer base
- Create joint ventures in unrelated markets
Weak sector, average competitive position.
You are in a mediocre position in a weak market. Depending on your exact circumstances, you can retreat, use what's left of your cash to buy your way out with new products, or try to enroll a strong partner. Choices include:
- Reduce costs however you can.
- Add related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add new products and services for new customer base
- Seek to dominate the smallest definition of your market using low-cost / no-cost strategies.
- Create strategic partnerships and joint ventures
Weak sector, weak competitive position
Sorry to say, you are in a bad place. In a word-retreat! You can do this by:
- Reduce costs however you can.
- Sell product line
- Sell company
If you don't want to liquidate, seek to expand your marketing using low-cost / no-cost marketing strategies - but this may be a losing proposition.
Also, as above, attempt to create strategic partnerships and joint ventures, but it may be difficult to attract partners to a market with poor fundamentals. At this point you might say, "…sell the customers? Sell the company? No way. I'm holding on." That just isn't a strategic point of view.
Strategy sa
A good way to cash in on your artistic and creative skills can be to establish a craft business. It may be that you had never ever thought about commencing with creating innovative and attractive crafts for earning profits secured by their sale. The thought might also be coming to your mind at this point of time about whether at all such craft business plan can be executable in a gainful manner by you. However, with figures available indicating a high success rate among such craft business endeavors you can take heart. After all, this business will only be requiring nominal start up costs and the beautiful craft objects created can be kept as adornments for a long, long time even if no suitable customer turns up for purchasing them.Common craft products that help yield profitsA craft business can be done with any item chosen from among the variety of craft products like flower arrangements, jewelry, clay items, wood crafts, soft toys, handicraft goods, paper crafts, stained glass crafts, crafts made from scraps, hand painting, hand printing, craft involving electronics, leather craft and so on. It is voguish to make use of many of these craft products and hence their sales hold immense prospects of profit making.Initial start-up cost considerationsSince the initial start-up costs of the crafts business is nominal requiring only the buying of necessary equipment and accessories for making the crafts this is not hard to bear. The banks, financial institutions, money lenders and trade associations also seem pretty eager to finance such businesses. So, financing will not be a problem. However, owi
Macroeconomic factors include the obvious such as interest and employment rates and trends, production and consumption statistics, along with finer grained-industry issues such as new home buying-which impacts a wide variety of businesses, or defense spending-which impacts a completely different set of sectors.
Step 3. Take stock of your organization's strengths and weaknesses
Now it is time to shine the light on your organization. Examine each functional area looking for strengths and weaknesses. Identify strengths that will help the company realize its vision, and weaknesses that will impede its goals.
The following is a starter list of focus areas:
- Ability to get new prospects (Marketing)
- Ability to get new clients (Sales)
- Products and services, both existing and those in R&D.
- Finance or Money, including cash flow, access to capital, revenues, profits, ROI
- Leadership, including values and vision alignment, decisive objectives
- People, including skills inventory, staffing levels, employee loyalty, compensation
Other areas to examine include:
- Client satisfaction
- Client services
- Logistics
- Competitive positioning
- Unique Client Proposition
- Management team
- Administration
Step 4: Select your Grand Strategies.
This "grand strategy" approach is based upon industry/product revenue growth rates. It is specific to a business unit with one major industry and/or product focus. If your business is more complex, you may repeat the process for each focus sector.
First, consider your industry and product sector growth rate. Is it growing or declining?
Second, consider your competitive strength within that sector. For this analysis Competitive Strength has two components, the size and trend of your market share, and your organization's financial strength; specifically either cash flow from operations, or access to capital.
To simplify: strong market share + strong finances = strong competitive position. Either strong market share or strong finances = average competitive position. Neither strong market share nor strong finances = weak competitive position.
This defines a two-by-three matrix of strategic choices from which to select your grand strategy.
The exact choice you make will be dictated by the specifics of your situation: sector strength and competitive strength, along with your stated vision and purpose. Choose from the list which best describes your business:
Strong sector, strong competitive position.
This means that you are in a growing market, hold a commanding market position, and have cash with which to maneuver. Your strategic choices include:
- Market strategy to increase demand and sales for existing products and services, in existing and new markets
- Marketing strategy to increase market penetration for existing products and services and capture greater share.
- Enhance or extend existing products and services; add-ons, backends, strategic joint ventures.
- Gain control over distribution - bring external sales inside. Take sales from distributors.
- Gain control over suppliers Acquisition, merger, or joint-ventures with competitors
- Develop strategic partnerships to increase distribution, or gain new products.
- Develop related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
Strong sector, average competitive position
Here you are in a growing market, but have either a commanding position, but limited cash-or vice versa. The exact choice available to you depend on your situation. You can:
- Seek underserved niches: move into small, defined and profitable markets.
- Marketing strategy to increase market penetration for existing products and services and capture greater share.
- Enhance or extend existing products and services; add-ons, backends, strategic joint ventures
- Strategic partnerships - seek products/services for existing customers
- Exploit assets via joint ventures and host-beneficiary relationships
- Develop related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Increased marketing penetration via distributors and 3rd parties
- Get more money: raise capital via debt or equity
Strong sector, weak competitive position
You are in a strong sector, but have relatively small market share, and limited or no cash. Your choices include:
- Seek underserved niches: move into small, defined and profitable markets.
- Marketing strategy to increase market penetration for existing products and services and capture greater share.
- Strategic partnerships - seek products/services for existing customers
- Develop products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Sell your client base to a competitor or cooperator; or reposition your existing products to appeal to new customer types.
- Sell the product line and use cash to reposition remaining assets
- Sell the company
Weak sector, strong competitive position
In this case, you dominate a weak market and have cash to exploit your position. You should:
- Add related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add un-related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add new products and services for new customer base
- Create joint ventures in unrelated markets
Weak sector, average competitive position.
You are in a mediocre position in a weak market. Depending on your exact circumstances, you can retreat, use what's left of your cash to buy your way out with new products, or try to enroll a strong partner. Choices include:
- Reduce costs however you can.
- Add related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add new products and services for new customer base
- Seek to dominate the smallest definition of your market using low-cost / no-cost strategies.
- Create strategic partnerships and joint ventures
Weak sector, weak competitive position
Sorry to say, you are in a bad place. In a word-retreat! You can do this by:
- Reduce costs however you can.
- Sell product line
- Sell company
If you don't want to liquidate, seek to expand your marketing using low-cost / no-cost marketing strategies - but this may be a losing proposition.
Also, as above, attempt to create strategic partnerships and joint ventures, but it may be difficult to attract partners to a market with poor fundamentals. At this point you might say, "…sell the customers? Sell the company? No way. I'm holding on." That just isn't a strategic point of view.
Strategy sa
I get a ton of emails asking me about newspaper advertising. First and foremost, most people ask me if the growth and popularity of the Internet and other forms of “new” media have made newspapers obsolete as an effective advertising medium. To that I say, no way! Newspapers are alive and well, and as powerful as ever! If they weren’t, advertisers (of all shapes and sizes) wouldn’t continue to throw billions of dollars at them! Newspapers – local and national – will always be there. They’re not going anywhere, no matter how big the Internet gets or how many forms of “new media” are introduced. They’ve stood the test of time – through radio, TV and the Internet -- and they’ll always be a great place to advertise, provided your target market is within the newspaper’s demographic. Next, people are always asking me for advice on newspaper advertising. They want to know the best newspapers to advertise in, the best times to advertise, the best size ads to use, what colors work best, what to say, how to say it, etc. For those people, I’ve put together this list of my 14 best newspaper advertising “secrets.” Of course, these aren’t really “secrets” – this advice has been around for years. Unlike the Internet and other forms of “new media” which seem to change every day (creating a constant need for bigger and better marketing strategies), newspaper advertising hasn’t changed much in the past 25 years, meaning the tips and techniques that follow have proven themselves to work over and over again. Time-tested and proven – the best kind of advice!
The exact choice you make will be dictated by the specifics of your situation: sector strength and competitive strength, along with your stated vision and purpose. Choose from the list which best describes your business:
Strong sector, strong competitive position.
This means that you are in a growing market, hold a commanding market position, and have cash with which to maneuver. Your strategic choices include:
- Market strategy to increase demand and sales for existing products and services, in existing and new markets
- Marketing strategy to increase market penetration for existing products and services and capture greater share.
- Enhance or extend existing products and services; add-ons, backends, strategic joint ventures.
- Gain control over distribution - bring external sales inside. Take sales from distributors.
- Gain control over suppliers Acquisition, merger, or joint-ventures with competitors
- Develop strategic partnerships to increase distribution, or gain new products.
- Develop related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
Strong sector, average competitive position
Here you are in a growing market, but have either a commanding position, but limited cash-or vice versa. The exact choice available to you depend on your situation. You can:
- Seek underserved niches: move into small, defined and profitable markets.
- Marketing strategy to increase market penetration for existing products and services and capture greater share.
- Enhance or extend existing products and services; add-ons, backends, strategic joint ventures
- Strategic partnerships - seek products/services for existing customers
- Exploit assets via joint ventures and host-beneficiary relationships
- Develop related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Increased marketing penetration via distributors and 3rd parties
- Get more money: raise capital via debt or equity
Strong sector, weak competitive position
You are in a strong sector, but have relatively small market share, and limited or no cash. Your choices include:
- Seek underserved niches: move into small, defined and profitable markets.
- Marketing strategy to increase market penetration for existing products and services and capture greater share.
- Strategic partnerships - seek products/services for existing customers
- Develop products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Sell your client base to a competitor or cooperator; or reposition your existing products to appeal to new customer types.
- Sell the product line and use cash to reposition remaining assets
- Sell the company
Weak sector, strong competitive position
In this case, you dominate a weak market and have cash to exploit your position. You should:
- Add related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add un-related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add new products and services for new customer base
- Create joint ventures in unrelated markets
Weak sector, average competitive position.
You are in a mediocre position in a weak market. Depending on your exact circumstances, you can retreat, use what's left of your cash to buy your way out with new products, or try to enroll a strong partner. Choices include:
- Reduce costs however you can.
- Add related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add new products and services for new customer base
- Seek to dominate the smallest definition of your market using low-cost / no-cost strategies.
- Create strategic partnerships and joint ventures
Weak sector, weak competitive position
Sorry to say, you are in a bad place. In a word-retreat! You can do this by:
- Reduce costs however you can.
- Sell product line
- Sell company
If you don't want to liquidate, seek to expand your marketing using low-cost / no-cost marketing strategies - but this may be a losing proposition.
Also, as above, attempt to create strategic partnerships and joint ventures, but it may be difficult to attract partners to a market with poor fundamentals. At this point you might say, "…sell the customers? Sell the company? No way. I'm holding on." That just isn't a strategic point of view.
Strategy sa
We were all born salespeople. Over the years we have been brainwashed by our family members, our friends and other uninformed people on how NOT to sell, or at least not to sell naturally.Some of the best salespeople don't think of themselves as salespeople. They think of themselves as people that "enjoy" other people.Do you know how to ask questions? Do you know how to listen? Do you know how to carry on a conversation?These are all natural sales skills that we all possess. These are also skills that can be improved dramatically with proper sales training.What Makes A Good Salesperson?Sales is a hot career these days, with many big organisations eager to hire top salespeople.Partly due to the Internet,salespeople need different skills now than they did in the past. So much information is easily available to people that they can get detailed product descriptions,compare products and services online. Selling now is not about "hawking" a product, describing its features, etc. Instead of communicating value, customers want you to create value.For example, you might want to arrange with your IT department to design a way for the customer to order your product more easily.At times, you can also identify a way to build more unique customisation into your product or service so that it suits your customer's exact need.These days,people are looking to salespeople who are honest, have integrity, are truthful, and most importantly, care about the needs of their clients and possess a genuine desire to serve them.Be Astonished by What the Experts Have that You Don't
Weak sector, strong competitive position
In this case, you dominate a weak market and have cash to exploit your position. You should:
- Add related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add un-related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add new products and services for new customer base
- Create joint ventures in unrelated markets
Weak sector, average competitive position.
You are in a mediocre position in a weak market. Depending on your exact circumstances, you can retreat, use what's left of your cash to buy your way out with new products, or try to enroll a strong partner. Choices include:
- Reduce costs however you can.
- Add related products and services for existing customer base - backend strategies.
- Add new products and services for new customer base
- Seek to dominate the smallest definition of your market using low-cost / no-cost strategies.
- Create strategic partnerships and joint ventures
Weak sector, weak competitive position
Sorry to say, you are in a bad place. In a word-retreat! You can do this by:
- Reduce costs however you can.
- Sell product line
- Sell company
If you don't want to liquidate, seek to expand your marketing using low-cost / no-cost marketing strategies - but this may be a losing proposition.
Also, as above, attempt to create strategic partnerships and joint ventures, but it may be difficult to attract partners to a market with poor fundamentals. At this point you might say, "…sell the customers? Sell the company? No way. I'm holding on." That just isn't a strategic point of view.
Strategy says you can make more money doing something else-so you best start thinking about it.
In general, these choices are listed from most attractive to least. Your organization's best choices will be based on your particular circumstances.
By now you have formulated a vision, gathered analyzed your external environment and organization, identified relevant strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and begun to zero in on a grand strategy. That should keep you busy for a while.
In The Secrets of Strategy, Part II, we'll complete the process.
Remember-you don't need a strategy. But having one increases your chances of generating the greatest profits from your resources. After all, that is the whole point of strategy. ---
© Copyright 2004 Quantum Growth Coaching. All Rights Reserved
Special Requirements for Reprint: we ask only that you include Paul's name and resource box, and keep all hyperlinks as live links.
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.addyou.info/article/30042/addyou-Secret-of-Strategy--Part-1.html">Secret of Strategy - Part 1</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.addyou.info/article/30042/addyou-Secret-of-Strategy--Part-1.html]Secret of Strategy - Part 1[/url]
Related Articles:
Guerilla Marketing Lesson 2: Why Do People Call Me?
The Top 10 The Top Ten Signs That Your Marketing Message Needs a Facelift
Bookmark it:
|