dangletech

I suppose I should say we suck at Marketing as I am in the soup too.
I was just reviewing some of the material from the recent CVCA Conference and heard again repeated remarks like “We have great technology but we need to have better relationships with customers and partners.” – code for we suck at Marketing.
I have often written that this is a blind spot for Canadian business in general and the biggest failing is in the area of Product Management. Something tells me it has something to do with an inferiority complex and a reluctance for self-promotion – I see it everywhere I go.
As generally agreed, we often have great solutions. I have worked with a couple of companies lately where there is no question they have a crowd pleasing solution to a real need but they almost always fall down in the following areas:
1. They do not see the reach the solution could have – who needs this even more than the people we are talking to today.
2. They frequently undervalue the solution. By positioning a solution with the wrong (read lower) price, they position themselves with the wrong competition and set customer expectations in the wrong place.
3. You have to spend money to make money. You have to get smart fast on the best way to promote your solution to the right target audience and then not nickel and dime it to failure.
So please, Canadian business, take a step back. Get to know your competitors south of the border and elsewhere. You have solutions that are often BETTER than theirs. You can beat them at the Marketing part of the job too if you educate yourself and spend a large portion of your time focusing on this critical part of the business. Some ideas to consider:
1. If your solution is better, position it properly, charge more – buyers are often looking for value.
2. If your competitor has a better position in the market,  go get his biggest and most influential customers and do whatever it takes to get them.
3. Don’t be afraid to boast about your offering. If you love it others will too.
4. Figure out in great detail who your target customer is and use a rifle to hit him on his buying spot.
5. Hire enthusiastic Marketing people who seem to know what they are doing and have a plan and then hold them in high regard in the firm. (I would say look for a track record but I am still looking for this elusive animal).
6. Build Marketing programs that must win and make them win. Never ‘show up’ at a trade show, go there to WIN the day and be sure you do.
And on Product Management; make sure you understand in great detail the positioning of your offering versus the competition and its position in the market and its position in its life cycle and squeeze ever once of profit out of it. Make sure it is the top priority of someone in your organization to milk that offering until it is retired.