The function of marketing is to identify, anticipate, and satisfy customer needs and wants through the creation and exchange of products and services that deliver value.
Primary Implication
A business is either proactive in attracting and retaining customers or relying on the “hope method” that people will come to them to buy what they have to sell. This method works if you aren’t concerned about sales growth.
If you rely on people finding you, you aren’t marketing your business to potential paying customers. Suppose you have allowed your overhead costs to consume a more significant amount of your sales. You either have to reduce your overhead costs or learn how to market because all you will do in this scenario is work harder for less money.
Overview
Marketing is everything you do to ATTRACT and RETAIN MORE PROFITABLE CUSTOMERS. It starts by being clear about the specific problem you solve for your target customer. People pay others to solve their problems. The more problems you solve, the more customers buy from you.
The goal of marketing is to convert potential consumers into paying a customer. It is not about your potential users because they don’t pay. It’s about satisfying the needs and wants of a customer because you can’t have a business without customers. Marketing in four words is:
Perform = product
Value = price
Accessible = place
Known = promotion
Your product is how you “do” the first one, with the following three coming through the “be” shaped by your marketing efforts. Be of value, be accessible, and be known.
The business challenge marketing solves is to get quality customers to show up and buy. Much of marketing is about positioning the sales process to convert people who show up into satisfied customers.
You accomplish this through one of two growth strategies. Either you get …
- more money from existing customers or
- more new customers.
The first option is less expensive, while the second option requires you to either get potential customers to come to you or you to them.
Sales growth is the core metric for everything marketing does. Growth in Net Sales means more than selling more today than yesterday. It tells you how your business is doing relative to your reason for existence. The more people buy from you, the more they connect with your Noble Purpose, also called your Customer Value Proposition (CVP) and your Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
