I hope that you have stayed well, as you navigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on personal lives and commerce. In your journey of business development following the disruption that’s arisen during the lockdown period, it is now the time for you to harvest your new ideas and prepare to take them to your marketplace to sell them.
This week’s image shows the produce from a metaphorical vegetable patch gathered, but not ready for customers yet. Perhaps the carrots need washing? Certainly, the produce requires sorting. Similarly, any new projects which you’ve nurtured during lockdown will need careful preparation, prior to making any sales. This is the point at which you must focus on the 4 P’s of Marketing:
- Product – be clear about what you intend to sell. Is the market gardener hoping to sell carrots, or onions, or a medley of mixed vegetables? The proposition would not be clear if he/she took the basket.
- Price – any potential customer will need to see clear information about how much you charge for the solution which you’ve developed to solve their current problems.
- Place – where do you expect to make your products available for your potential customers? Using the analogy of the market-gardener’s vegetable basket, it is clear that this produce is destined for a local market, not to be wrapped in plastic for sale in a supermarket. Bearing in mind where you anticipate making sales, you must prepare all the supporting information to fit your customers’ needs.
- Promotion – this is the P which should take you the most time to consider and plan. It will incorporate all types of communication which you use to sell, spoken and digital. Before you rush excitedly to make new sales, I encourage you to establish the following core communication tools for any business-owner with products or services to sell:
- Your 30-second/1-minute pitch for use when networking or anytime you encounter any prospects or investors
- An entry on your website to which you can direct online prospects
- My thrifty approach to marketing discourages you from spending time and money on updating any printed materials at this early stage
- Keep in mind the necessity for consistent, integrated messaging throughout all your communications, with a clear shared objective
This week’s actions to help you to ANTICIPATE your sales.
A short list of suggested tasks:
- Write down your proposition
- Why not email it to me, for some free feedback? I’ll share mine with you in return.
Good luck with preparing your new proposition for sale. Next week I will swap tales from the marketplace and help solve any problems which you’ve faced, so please send me an email if you encounter any problems or difficulties.