Marketing for Success - Mike Vilimek

The Anti-Salesman

I recently attended an industry conference as a representative of my company. The other attendees were all excellent sales prospects; however my goal was not sales oriented, but rather to learn as much about them as I could. I wanted to know how the current economic crisis was affecting them. I wanted to find out their major concerns, what kept them up at night, what were their bosses asking of them and what trends they saw that will affect their profession in the future. Essentially, I wanted to get inside their minds.

In order to do this, I couldn't come across as though I was trying to sell them something. Individuals take a very different approach to a conversation when they feel they are trying to be sold something. They are not nearly as open and often will not give candid feedback or insight into their world. So I became the anti-salesman. I never mention our products unless they did first. I never offered to have one of our sales reps contact them unless they specifically requested it. My only goal was learn as much about them as I could, nothing more.

The best thing a product marketer can do for sales is to ensure their company is producing products that customers can see value in and that those  products are positioned and messaged effectively. Leave the selling to the salesmen.

Pragmatic Marketing

I recently attended a seminar put on by a company called Pragmatic Marketing. The seminar was titled Practical Product Management; however they offer others such as Effective Product Marketing and New Rules of Marketing.

The seminar I attended was taught by Barbra Nelson and covered a number of topics ranging from strategic product direction to more tactical marketing activities. While there was a tremendous amount of useful content and take-home templates, there were 2 main points that stuck with me, and that I believe all marketers should live by:

1.       The answers to your questions are not in the building. Get out and talk to, or better yet, listen to your market.

2.       Ensure that your product strategies are aligned with your company’s core competency.

Obviously there’s no such thing as a golden rule(s), that if followed will undoubtedly lead to success. But the above 2 rules will certainly point you in the right direction.

If you can get a seat at one of their next seminars, I would highly recommend it.

Product Positioning

How do you know if you’ve accurately positioned your product within a market? How do you know if you are in the right market? How do you know if your market will see value in your product? These are all very basic but essential questions that all product marketers must ask themselves. Regardless of what your company produces, you should be constantly reviewing your product positioning strategy. A simple way to start is to ask yourself the following questions:

1.       WHO is my target audience?

2.       WHAT problem does my product solve?

3.       HOW does my product solve the problem?

4.       WHAT benefit does my product provide my market?

5.       HOW does my product differ from others?

Granted, the questions may seem simple, but the answers will often be much more complicated. These questions should be used as a basis for your positioning strategy, but definitely be examined in more detail. For example, you may be able to answer who your target audience is, but is that audience large enough to form a market?

If you want your product to be a market success, it is essential to position it correctly. If you cannot answer these 5 questions, your positioning strategy may need some attention.