Marketing mistakes to avoid

APRIL 3, 2015 : IFE ADEDAPO 

To grow your customer base and increase revenue, IFE ADEDAPO writes on the things you must avoid

In the early days, e-mail marketing techniques were used to reach out to clients, but with its abuse and consequent disregard, marketing agencies are now adopting new developments through continuous learning programmes.

In recent times, its techniques and reach has widened with online and cross-promotional media options, and the focus by marketers is now on personalisation and content, which fits clients’ demand and can be served to businesses at the right time.

Experts say direct marketing is a discipline, a subset of marketing, which permits people to carry out certain marketing tasks more efficiently by gathering, analysing and using information about individual customers and prospects.

They add that the driving force behind marketing is the ability to gather information, noting that this can be achieved through market research, questionnaires, customer feedback etc.

According to them, an organisation can afford to split its customers and prospects into segments with similar needs and develop or devise different means of communications to each segment.

In as much as these improved techniques help sales managers to reach their clients easily, certain mistakes they make every day may prevent them from reaching their bottom line.

As a result they have highlighted some mistakes to avoid:

Social media abuse

Social media marketing is widely known to be an inexpensive, effective marketing tool and often endorsed as useful instrument for small businesses. However, experts say that having a Facebook page, a blog and sending a few tweets is not enough.

Experts point out that social media marketing is a complex marketing tool, and if used the wrong way can actually harm, rather than help small businesses.

To avoid misuse, he suggests designing a social media marketing plan which involves strategically identifying and targeting the clients with messages.

A marketing expert, Mr. Tunde Adedoja says, “Use a marketing research to understand where your customers are online and create a brand presence there. Only communicate relevant, helpful information to your followers; never spam or you’ll quickly lose friends.”

Wrong attitude

Attitude has a way of delaying your drive towards increased sales. This is because a wrong attitude will be revealed when you interact with your clients and will definitely rub off on your sales performance.

A marketing expert, Mr. Jide Osiyemi, says that the right attitude will impact tremendously on the sales success and ultimately to your career success.

According to him, most sales people with negative attitudes struggle and have difficulty closing sales. They often defend their negative attitude, saying they are being realistic.

He says, “Regular assessment of what others perceive about you can help. Have you recently asked your spouse, employee, supervisor, or friend to identify your negative attitudes and positives ones? Having a pessimistic attitude is bad for every sale execute. Even if you have a negative attitude, it can be corrected by associating with people who have similar goals and ambitions.”

Lack of focus

A common sign of lack of focus seen among sales executives is their ability to give excuses for everything that happens.

Osiyemi says regular complaints over personal needs, what they have make sales persons lose focus. He says the same attitude is exemplified by losers who focus on what is missing, where they are not, and what they can’t do.

However, he says winners are grateful for their blessings in life and focus on what they want, have, and they aspire to do more.

Selling by numbers

Experts often say that the ability to connect with a lot of people will determine the amount of sales success recorded by an individual.

However, Osiyemi says that the best approach when prospecting is to look for people who are qualified enough to be your client.

He says, “Supposing you call or mail 30 prospects in a week, and only one successfully contributed to your sales bottom line, then probably the others may not be the right kind of people to pitch your sales with.”

He warns that new prospects however, should not be abandoned but they should be able to discern the ones that would eventually yield the expected results.

The average salesperson should be able to handle rejection well, expert say.

To succeed at sales, he advises executives to connect with all prospects but they should spend extra time winning the hearts of qualified ones.

Abandoning past clients

Experts say some of the reasons sales people lose clients is when competitors woo them with discount and fringe benefits or the trust and reliability of services have been disrupted by failure to deliver.

They add that managerial change may have left a communication or information breach as regards the strengths of your services or products.

Osiyemi suggests treating past clients like new clients in order to refresh the relationship and win more.

He says, “Endeavour to learn the real reason why the customer left and improve on your tactics. Determine what went wrong. Was it an issue of price, service, quality, distribution, arrogance, ignorance, or interest in keeping the business, or was it some other major or minor mistake? It is necessary to stay in touch with previous customers.”

Dwelling on lost prospects

With the realisation that some prospects will not be won over no matter the methods used, Osiyemi says sales executives should not be discouraged by failure but they should be optimistic that more clients are round the bend.

SOURCE;PUNCH.