Evaluate Your Marketing

I'm often asked to analyze a company's marketing program to offer suggestions for change or additions through our marketing consulting program. The advice I give most frequently, often surprises the clients I work with. When I critique marketing, I not only take into account the external advertising and public relations, I also take into consideration how the company communicates with existing customers. One of the most basic premises of marketing is that it's cheaper to sell to a current customer, than to get a new one. Most companies I analyze have not been taking full advantage of the opportunities in this area.

We look at not only how the sales force communicates, but also what they are communicating. How often? If your sales cycle is seasonal, and you only send messages every quarter, you're probably missing alot of opportunities to increase your share of business. Are you sure your customers know about all of the products and/or services you have to offer?

The reason for my client's surprise is, that being a marketing firm, they tend to expect me to tell them to increase expenditures on advertising. In most instances, that is not the case, because we focus on improving internal communication and put programs in place that increase awareness to current customers, and help the sales force.

So where do you fit in? Are your clients 100% aware of what your company has to offer? Are you sure?! When measuring your success, track sales to customers in every area you have to offer. If you aren't doing alot of cross selling, there's opportunity to increase sales simply by improving communication!