2013 was one eventful year, indeed, and what with markets and businesses going on a 350-degree change of face, it has been noted that there will be still more changes coming up your sleeve. The world of business just might not be the same. It is essential that we stick to the basics though. The root from where the whole story of a business begins ultimately never changes.
Every business keeps an eye on year-end sales and figures. It analyzes the patterns and styles in which more profit can be earned, the type of customers who are purchasing and the people who are still more expectant with the business. It is a “vigilant eye” time.
It is essential that you get to the crux of planning the next step and follow these simple rules of lead generation.
Apply the 80:20 Rule
The 80:20 rule is more commonly known as the Pareto Rule, or “the law of the vital few.” It mostly works on the thought that 80 percent of your results comes from 20 percent of the steps that led to your sales. In terms of sales and marketing, that translates to 80 percent of sales coming from 20 percent of your customers.
Weed out what isn’t working. Instead of trying to make everyone happy with your strategies and with multiple products and services, it’s more sensible to gauge your marketing results to determine which products provide the most profits and repeat business. You will be able to get more out of your business and you will be able to better optimize your work standards.
Make CRM the Workhorse
Originally, when we talked about customer relationship management, it was a contacts database system. It maintained prospects’ details and kept customers updated with marketing campaigns. However, the latest enhancements from big names like Microsoft Dynamics, Zoho.com and Maximizer Software have only reinvented the technology making it easier to use. Any size of business these days can implement it to bridge their sales and marketing. Business owners find it an effective method to reach latent or dormant customers, and they can use it to connect and engage with prospects and customers through their social media profiles. Many systems now also have an enhanced feature of a mobile CRM app which helps business owners who are working remotely.
As a result, staff members are able to work virtually or use their devices in the field to access real-time data, analytics and software, track customers to live campaigns and tweak the marketing agenda. CRM has also moved to the cloud, so there’s no longer a need for fixed IT infrastructure for smooth operation. CRM has become an efficient backbone for business managers and their ambition in 2014 multi marketing strategy.
Don’t Get Sidetracked
We all look at external industry developments or competitors who can come out with the similar products. These can cause a dent in your sales and services. Businesses that get into irrelevant services, short-term gimmicks or expensive alliances and partnerships that don’t support the company’s overall marketing strategy will experience waste. The service proposition gets weakened, market share might deplete and staff may even lose sight of the actual goal and may get easily off the track.
The understanding here is to be agile and adapt to the circumstances that are presented in hand. A business has to ensure that it has the right blend of sales and marketing skills in place, a reputation in its name and provides an excellent level of customer service.
2014 is going to be a good year of development on business frontier and it needs careful and understandable planning of all that you want to achieve. Since markets are going to be unpredictable what we can do is stick to our basics and execute seamlessly and effortlessly.
Gregg Schwartz has been a business consultant for the past seven years and is an active search engine specialist too. He specializes in appointment setting, marketing strategies and lead generation.
