Marketing And Sales Measurements + Business Coach
Business Coach Continues To Explain the Sales and Marketing Guardrails
Sales and Marketing Guardrail #2: Create Uniform Marketing Materials
My friend, as you begin to build a duplicable business model, getting the details right the first time will save you precious time that you simply cannot afford to waste as the number of both successes and issues that you will experience on a daily basis increases exponentially. As a business coach, let me explain before your world gets super crazy with thousands and thousands of daily customers, you will want to standardize the following marketing items:
- Standardized Logo
- Standardized Brand Colors
- Standardized Brand Slogan
- Standardized Envelopes
- Standardized Uniforms (if applicable)
- Standardized Brochures
- Standardized One Sheets
- Standardized Trifolds
- Standardized Pricing
- Standardized E-Mail Signature
- Standardized Tradeshow Display
- Standardized Lead Sheets
- Standardized Sales Scripts
- Standardized Pre-Written Emails
- Standardized Sales Presentation
- Standardized Web Pages
- Standardized Valpak Ads
- Standardized Mass Mailers
- Standardized Point of Purchase Signage
- Standardized Digital Menu Boards
- Standardized Menus
- Standardized Targeting Ads
- Standardized Retargeting Ads
- Standardized Landing Pages
- Standardized Marketing Videos
- If it’s related to marketing, make it standardized
“Details matter, it’s worth waiting to get it right.” -Steve Jobs (Co-founder of Apple and the former CEO of Pixar)
Let me tell you as a business coach, people will judge the value of the products and services you sell based upon the appearance of your brand, so you must work to get it right. With that being said, don’t freak out if you have just come to the conclusion that every aspect of your branding is terrible. Just start today, standardizing everything and getting it right the first time you touch it. Don’t make something terrible now that you have to come back and fix later. Take it from a successful entrepreneur and business coach, get into the cultural discipline of “excellence or nothing” when it comes to your marketing materials.
“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?” -John Wooden (Arguably the most successful basketball coach in history and the man who led his UCLA men’s basketball team to an astounding 10 NCAA national championships during a 12-year period of time as a result of having a maniacal focus on the small details, even down to the way his players tied their shoes)
Sales and Marketing Guardrail #3: Create an Executable Marketing Tracking Wall
As a business coach I must offer some important advice. You must begin tracking your cost per lead like you never have before. You must know the following four marketing measurements for your business or your marketing efforts will sooner or later prove to be unmanageable.
Marketing Measurement #1 – What are you paying per lead? If you spent $2,500 for a chance to speak at an industry trade event and then you paid another $1,500 for hotel and travel expenses and another $1,000 on marketing materials to be used at the tradeshow, you just spent $5,000 on marketing. If expending all these resources resulted in five leads, then you just paid $1,000 per confirmed lead. That’s a very expensive lead, unless you are selling a product or service that produces a profit of more than $10,000 per year, per customer. When you know your numbers, you can make logical decisions and compare what is working versus what is not working.
Marketing Measurement #2 – What are you paying per confirmed deal? It is absolutely vital that you know this number because if you did spend $5,000 to generate a total of five leads and you only ended up closing one deal, you just spent $5,000 per deal, which again is super expensive unless you are selling a product or service that generates an annual profit of $10,000 per year, per customer. I keep using this scenario because I work with one business that literally has numbers that look like this and they are very successful. They send out their representatives to give talks at industry tradeshows and if they only book one deal, they believe the entire investment of both time and money was worth it. However, they have to book that one deal per event or their boss loses his mind every time. The level of intensity that these people put into their follow-up systems is amazing and that is why they are successful. They never come back from an event saying, “Well, at least we got our name out there.” The only companies that come back from tradeshows saying “Well, at least we got our name out there,” are companies that will be out of business soon. When you know how much money you are spending on actually closing a deal, you can quickly determine which marketing strategies you should blow up and which ones you should continue refining.
Marketing Measurement #3 – You must know what the overall “Return on Investment” is per marketing dollar that you actually spent. If you spent $5,000 to market at a tradeshow but you ended up bringing in $10,000 of income as a result of your team’s marketing efforts, then you have doubled your money. If you could double your money every day, you would be making more money (slightly more money than the folks who own the casino that is closest to you).
Business Coach Fun Fact:
“Looking at MGM Resorts, it operates 15 owned resorts in the U.S. The company offers more than 22,000 slots and 1,000 gaming tables in the region (excluding the slots and tables in JVs). Like other casino operators, MGM has also seen similar growth over the past few years with revenues increasing from $2.48 billion in 2010 to $2.60 billion in 2013.” –
Marketing Measurement #4 – You must keep and manage all of your leads within stable customer relationship management software often referred to as a CRM system. Don’t freak out as we get 2% nerdier than typically health. Don’t over think this. If your team gathers five qualified leads at the tradeshow, that is great and you will want to store this information somewhere. If your team closes one actual deal, that is great and you will want to store this information somewhere. If your team gathers 15 leads that are currently unqualified but could become qualified leads in six months, that is great and you will want to store their contact information somewhere. YOU MUST SAVE THE CONTACT INFORMATION FOR THE POTENTIAL LEADS, QUALIFIED LEADS AND ACTUAL IDEAL AND LIKELY BUYERS IF YOU ARE GOING TO GROW A SCALABLE AND VALUABLE COMPANY.