Marketing your product should be everyone's job

"Sell more for more with less" is based on the concept that if your business is structured properly you should be able to increase your profit margin by building stronger relationships with your clients and utilizing your resources more effectively.

As marketing strategists we have found many businesses are aware that their most important assets are their employees.

Employees offer your business the greatest leverage to increase profits and minimize expenses.

The simple way to do this is to ensure all employees are part of the marketing function of your organization.

If they are motivated to sell your company regardless of their job, everyone wins.

The concept is simple: All people know other people who can buy your company's product or service.

They should be motivated to make the sale.

Now the caveat to this: Your employees must feel that they are part of the organization and their performance is directly related to the company's success.

Here are some questions you can ask to assess your company's performance is this area:

* Are your employees empowered to efficiently take care of their clients?

* Do they know the difference between customers and clients?

* What rewards are in place to ensure outstanding performance?

* What disciplinary procedures are in place for employees who are poor performers?

* What is management doing to ensure teamwork and how does management motivate the team?

* How effective are your organization's motivational policies? Before we discuss this subject further, I would like to discuss marketing.

More accurately what marketing is not.

Marketing is not sales.

Marketing is not advertising.

Marketing is not public relations.

It's true that marketing includes all of these skills and more, but when you say "marketing" you are referring to a big-picture activity.

Marketing is a sense-andrespond occupation.

When you sell, advertise, or communicate with the public, you are sharing your viewpoint.

For marketing to be effective your viewpoint is really the perspective of your target (most desirable) clients.We sense the need of our clients and respond by offering a desirable product or service.

To sell more for more with less, you need a marketing plan.

Do you market to customers, or do you build relationships with clients? One definition of customer is a person who purchases a commodity or service.

One definition of a client is a person who is under the protection of another.

"Under the protection of another..." means that you and I have a responsibility to properly listen to what our clients want and deliver a product or service for a price that they are willing to pay.

It also means everything we communicate to our clients must be in alignment with the actual product or service that they receive.

That's why we cannot say we are the cheapest if we're not, or we are the best if we are not, or that we try harder if we do not.

Let's expand the client philosophy to include the concept of firing clients.

Today it seems everybody is talking about firing clients.

It is even becoming popular to fire clients.

This concept of firing clients is both ridiculous and irrational.

Who picked the client in the first place? Many times in commerce, we choose to do business with clients and then decide to change the way we conduct our business.

Whose fault is this the client? That is why I believe that firing clients is an unfortunate symptom of bad marketing.

Good marketing is about having the right products, the right distribution, the right pricing, and the right promotions for the right clients your target market.

By the way what is great marketing? Great marketing is when your clients love your product or service so much that they tell everyone they know about your company.

The end result of sound marketing strategies is selling more for more with less.

If these clients are under your protection, but you cannot properly serve them, than you would most likely refer them elsewhere, not fire them.

After all, these clients are currently under your protection.

How can you apply this to your business? The answer is identification.

Recognize what activity you are participating in.

If you have a warehouse full of widgets and your goal is to make a profit, the act of selling these widgets is a sales process.

If warehouse is not full of widgets, and your goal is to make a profit, your objective is to discover the market and meet (hopefully exceed) the needs of that market.

This activity is marketing.

When your client tells her friends and family, this is great marketing.

Your company is selling more for more with less!

Kevin Brunson is president/marketing consultant at ClientFlex Corp.

in Reno.He can be reached at (775) 829-2545 or (775) 829-2998 (fax).