Sales and Marketing Quite often, and particularly when a new company starts business, the principals of the company assume their product will be good enough to market itself. This is a great dream, but is usually far from reality. Some simple questions are often ignored. For example, how will the potential clients learn of the product being sold? This question alone can keep an entrepreneur busy for hours or days. But, it is only one of the questions that need to be answered before an organization can compete successfully in the marketplace. For instance, what is the target market for the product or service? What is the competition? What is the competition doing to position itself in the marketplace? How should we position our company to defeat them? Will we position our product based on price, quality, service, or overall performance? These issues are not unduly complex, but are often not considered. A multi-year sales and marketing plan should be developed. It should examine a number of issues, including: classifying the products and services into distinct categories in the marketplace evaluating the target market, benefits, and competition for each category determining a positioning plan for each product category developing sales tactics and advertising plans developing pricing strategies and sales goals determining sales priorities Developing a sales and marketing plan considering the above items does not guarantee success, but not doing so may ensure failure. Selecting and training the marketing and sales staff is another important consideration. Quite often, an entrepreneur selects people like himself. The entrepreneur is comfortable with this type of person. Unfortunately, the best salesperson may be very dissimilar to the company owner. The owner may have a strong interest in technology and products; the salesperson will be interested in the potential customer and how he/she responds to the product or service. AIM has provided marketing support of all types to companies, from assisting in the development of marketing and sales plans to providing the marketing staff. We work to meet your needs. Business References Scott J. Wilson, Ph.D. President Media Magic, Inc. development@mm-atl.com Fred Niedermeyer President Educational Development Specialists frednied@aol.com | AIM Home | What's New at AIM | About AIM | Sales & Marketing | | Business Development | Market Integration | Contact AIM |