How to Develop a 4P Marketing Strategy - Who Will Your Customers Be?

By Leslie Line

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6026441

The 4P Marketing Strategy

If you've developed a new product or you've come across an exciting new product that you think you could sell successfully don't rush into things before you've decided who your customers will be. Use the 4P Marketing Strategy to help develop a comprehensive product launch plan, an important part of which will be identifying your best target customers.

This 4p Marketing Strategy tells us that before we start marketing and selling our products we must have investigated four areas:

1. Product, so that we know what product we are going to sell

2. Place, so that we know where we are going to find our customers

3. Promotion, so that we know what our market offering will be

4. Price, so that we sell at a price which is acceptable to our customers and profitable

The answers to these questions are not always as obvious as one would think which is why I decided to write a series of articles to help B2B companies use the 4P Marketing Strategy properly. I have used it to help me launch new products for many years now. It's simple to understand and use and works very well in practice.

In this article I intend to focus on the second "P" - "Where are you going to find your customers?", but we need to expand the scope of this question a little bit to put some more flesh on the bones of our strategy.

To do this I intend to cover:

- Where will you find your customers?

- Why will they want to buy your product?

- Who's going to sell your product?

Where Will You Find Your Customers?

Once you have decided on your product you must have a clear idea about who your customers are going to be. They might not be in the same group of people as your existing customers.

You need to carry out some basic research to answer this question, so take off your "sales hat" and put on your "consultant's hat". Start your research by drawing up a list of your most profitable current customers. Phone them up and tell them about the product you're thinking of selling, also tell them why you think they might want to consider buying it. You'll need to be a bit presumptive and direct here because you're not intending to sell your product at this stage (i.e. don't bombard them with lots of sales questions).

If you get positive responses to your questions and people start to ask about the price this is a good sign that you might be able to sell your new product to existing customers.

On the other hand you might be told "We don't have a need for products like that" or "We already buy products like that from someone else" or "We might be interested in the product but it's not my area of responsibility".

If you get a lot of answers like the first one it indicates that you will probably need to look for a new market sector in which to sell your product. The consequence of this is that the cost of taking the product to market will be higher. You'll need to take this into account when calculating likely product profitability.

Answers like the second one are not necessarily bad news. Get as much information as you can about who they are currently buying from. If it's a direct competitor of yours evaluate the products he/she is selling by doing a little more research. If your product is much better than the one your customers are currently buying this is good news, although you'll have to become adept at explaining why your product is better.

If you are told that you 'll have to talk to someone else in another area about your product ask for an introduction. Call the new contact on the 'phone and go through the same questions again. If you get positive answers this is good news, and you can start building your list of sales prospects. However, there are going to be some additional costs involved building up relationships with new buyers. These costs need to be taken into account.

Why Will They Want to Buy Your Product?

When you are carrying out your research to find out who might buy your product make sure you ask potential customers how they think your product might help their company.

You will probably already have ideas of your own about this, but the research work you carry out will provide you with much better information that you can use when you set about listing the features and benefits that will enable you to sell your product successfully.

Who's Going to Sell Your Product?

This may sound like an obvious question, especially if you have always sold your own products direct to customers before. But now could be a good time to consider the alternatives to direct selling.

These could be:

- Selling on-line

- Telephone Selling

- Partner sales

Selling On-line

Depending upon the type of product you're thinking of taking on, ask yourself whether it provides you with an opportunity to sell on-line through the internet rather than face to face.

You will need to assess a number of factors when you do this, and I can't cover all of them in this article. However, I do want to make one important observation. If you're going to launch a new product and you don't currently do much business on-line this could be an excellent opportunity to try out an on-line strategy. Selling on-line will enable you to communicate directly and immediately with more customers at a lower cost than is possible with direct selling. If this approach works well with your new product you could consider selling some or all of your other products on line as well.

Telephone Selling

If your research has shown that your new product will sell well to your existing customers why not try selling it using a dedicated in-house telesales person. This might not work for some products and for your bigger customers, but it's a good strategy to consider for your smaller and less profitable customers. It will enable your direct sales team to spend more time selling to your bigger customers.

Partner Sales

If your research indicates that your product is more likely to sell well in market sectors that you're not familiar with, it could make sense to find a business partner that knows these sectors (and perhaps has the right contacts) rather than taking on all the costs that will be incurred if you decide to market and sell in these sectors yourself.

Sadly, there are lots of tragic marketing stories about companies that have decided to take on new products and new market sectors at the same time. You don't want to become one of the casualties!

You Now Have Half a Strategy!

If you have now gone through all the information I have provided in my last two articles you should be able to complete half of your 4P Marketing Strategy. But don't rush ahead too quickly.

There are still some important questions you need to ask yourself about the last two P's - Promotion and Price. There are also probably some simple spreadsheets you need to build to support your strategy.

Please keep a look-out for my next article so that you can build a comprehensive and well-thought-out 4P Strategy that ensures you take your products to market successfully and profitably.

For further information on using the 4p Marketing Strategy and many other practical marketing and sales methods and ideas go to http://www.business-growth-hub.com/. The Business Growth Hub website provides lots of free and low-cost resources to help you with your B2B selling. You can also subscribe to Les Line's free Business Growth Hub weekly newsletter which provides advice, tips and ideas on a wide range of marketing and sales topics. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Leslie_Line

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6026441