Waste #1 - Failure to Define Marketing Correctly

Waste #1: Failure to Define Marketing Correctly and Not Identifying Marketing Assets Already in the Business.

The frustration grows partly because the definition of marketing is short-sided and inadequate. It is time for a new one. A new one for the 21st Century!

21st Marketing Systems, Inc has redefined marketing to be:

The introduction and selling of your company's products and services to past, present and prospective customers by first optimizing and leveraging all of your company's marketing assets.

With this new definition, marketing becomes concerned with what happens after a new prospect is contacted or inquires. If a business owner does not track and understand what is happening to a prospect immediately upon contact or inquiring, waste enters in.

There may be waste in that the right qualifying questions are not being asked, so salespeople spend time with the wrong prospects. Waste. It may be that whoever is answering the phone or greeting the prospect is not saying the right things. Waste. It may be that the prospect isn't ready to buy right now but might be later. The company is not tracking this relationship and the prospect goes away. Waste.

Then, if a prospect does become a customer and is ignored or not included in the company marketing efforts in an on-going basis, then the customer will not buy as much as they could. Waste. And, if there is not good customer service and the customer leaves the company there is more waste. It is ten times as costly to get a new customer than to keep one.

To eliminate this waste, it requires an acceptance of a new marketing definition.

Too many companies separate sales and marketing. Many times the two departments don't even talk to each other. Waste. Selling is and always should be under the umbrella of marketing. Don't separate the two. That creates waste.

Identifying Marketing Assets

Because of the inadequate definition of marketing that has prevailed, business owners think of marketing assets as only their advertising or the accumulation of new prospects and new customers. This is a very short-sided view of marketing assets - a waste.

The 21st-centurymarketing.com website outlines a list of marketing assets. These include: past customers, current customers, salespeople, the company's advertising, referral programs, current sales and marketing processes, location, reputation, time in business, relationships with other businesses, etc. It is very important for business owners to see all of these as marketing assets and not just those that create new prospects.

If a business owner begins to look at marketing in a different way, by accepting the new definition, then they will begin to eliminate the wastes that occur under the traditional definition and find new sales and profits waiting for them.

For a free copy of the "10 Biggest Marketing Wastes" report and to learn more how you can find new cash and new sales by eliminating these areas of waste in your marketing, please visit http://www.21st-centurymarketing.com

Richard Johnson, founder and CEO of 21st Century Marketing Systems, Inc. is the creator and developer of the company's 7 STEPS TO A LOT MORE SALES course. Since 1990 Richard has been implementing the 7 STEPS TO A LOT MORE SALES system with businesses in all industries - retail, wholesale, manufacturing, service and professional practices. Since 1994, he has trained and certified over 200 consultants to provide the 7 STEPS TO A LOT MORE SALES system to businesses in their areas. Richard is a regularly invited speaker at Chamber of Commerce functions and Manufacturing Extension Partnership conferences. His book, "Twenty-Five Ways to increase sales without spending an extra dime on advertising" was published in 1999 by CRISP business publications. With his extensive background in both implementing and teaching the system to thousands of small business owners and his Masters in Business degree, Richard is uniquely qualified to lead 21st Century Marketing Systems, Inc. towards reaching its mission.