Strategic Planning

Marketing is a way of doing business not an activity undertaken by a Marketing Department. What's more marketing is not the 'woolly' subject that many people seem to think it is. Actually, focused action is required across a complete organisation if an effective strategic marketing plan is followed. A Strategic buyer is the one who is interested in your company in regards to its compatibility with their own long term business planning and requirements. It could either be somebody amongst your competitors or a similar company that is working towards the expansion of its business in your area. The later would fall in the category of a classic strategic buyer.

Caveat Pars, partners beware! Partnering, as with any activity, has its unexpected challenges and pitfalls. Actually, this is probably more so than in traditional adversary relationships. In adversary relationships you must always watch your back. In relationships based on trust or what is perceived as trust, one can be lulled into a false sense of security. While you need to protect yourself from these dangerous situations, you do not want to create them by exhibiting the wrong attitude. To keep your alliances healthy, conflict should be dealt with immediately. This is your best chance for moving forward in any relationship. But, improperly challenged, conflict can be the death sentence to an alliance.

Most sales people are paid to generate short-term sales, but are not paid to spend time developing new and strategic businesses that will bring profitable sales in turbulent times. As a result, many sales forces find themselves caught in severe price competition and shrinking sales orders, as they did not develop enough new businesses that will make up for the fall in demand. Given the current tough economic times, it is a great opportunity for management to re-look at current sales incentives, and device ways to motivate sales people to achieve strategic sales goals.

Are you getting your name, photo and the name of your business in the newspapers and professional publications? Or are you reading stories about your competition all the time? Do you have a dismal record of getting articles published? How healthy is your media visibility? It is critical to understand that the media is not in business to promote you or your business. The media’s role is to produce articles of interest to their readers. That means you need to provide interesting and relevant information to the journalists so they will want to publish your article. Here is a prescription from your PR Doctor on how to gain healthy media visibility.