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Doing More With Less

By LaVonn Schlegel, JSMI Consulting

The mantra of senior management across all industries, across all disciplines has become "do more with less."  Budgets and personnel continue to be cut while the need for increased revenue and margin continues to grow.

You can continue to successfully perform in the market using this mantra if you are thoughtful in how you approach your marketing resources and your management’s expectations.  Here are "10 Ways To Do More With Less."

1. Plan. Plan. Plan.

Solid performance in general comes from a good plan that serves as a guidepost for what you are doing in market.  When times get tough, you must revisit your plan and decide if your strategies are still appropriate or if they need adjusting.  This will provide your team with a beacon they can use to make decisions, set direction and apply resources.

2. Re-Evaluate Where You Are Spending

It is time to go through the list of marketing line items and carefully evaluate each one on

its merit and contribution to your objectives.  Is that sponsorship targeting the right set of prospects?  Do you really need all of the promotional items you have in stock?  Can you communicate the same information in 12 pages instead of 24?  Can you get more bang for your TV budget by using more niche buys on cable versus broadcast?  Where possible use real data to make the decisions to help your team keep an objective perspective and realize that pet projects may not support the goals in these leaner times.

3. Figure Out Who Is Buying And Target, Target, Target!

During lean times, a mass-directed message cannot deliver as efficiently as a targeted one.  Do your homework and find out who is buying your product or service?  Is it seniors?  Young affluents? Soccer moms? Working moms?  Twenty-something singles? Once you know -- go talk to them.  Let your marketing message reach them directly.  Your media, your sponsorships, your local events -- what ever your tactic make sure they are hitting your target in the bulls-eye!

4. Guerrilla Marketing Works

Get as close to 1-on-1 as possible.  Using guerrilla tactics will get your message through more clearly and more quickly. How can you sample your product?  How can you encourage trial?  Do you have a referral program that will also benefit your customer? Where can you intercept your prospect to increase their consideration?   The most important thing to remember is the guerrillas do best when they are "out" in the wild not captured "in" an office.

5. Evaluate Your Current (And Future) Channels

Take a look at where your product is being sold and how efficient and cost-effective the channel is.  How can you improve the productivity of your current channels? Should you be selling in all of these channels?  Are there new channels that should be investigated such as affinity programs or web-based "stores?"  

Channel evaluations should occur regularly to make sure your market and your target haven’t shifted their channel preferences.  Regular adjustments to your channel strategies should keep your selling and communication efforts productive.

6. Evaluate Your Current Offers

Are you doing any type of promotional offers?  Are they value or price based?  Are they designed to drive current purchase decisions or future ones? Are they meaningful to your target or designed to have a more mass appeal?  Are they communicated effectively? Can you bundle your product with another (yours or a partners) to increase short-term interest/consideration?

It is tempting to want to cut your price to drive more sales.  Before you do this, make sure that the long-term effect isn’t eroded margins and devalued pricing.  Structure your price offer in a way that doesn’t cause you greater problems in the long run.

7. Sometimes You Have To Change Your Objectives

During extreme times, you may have to completely change your goals and objectives.

It may no longer be possible to attack a new market or launch a new product.  It is important for you to raise these decisions early on to prevent in-market failures that you can’t recover.  It might be better to shore up your existing business line now and wait for better times to attack the bigger objectives.  The old adage "You only get one first impression" is the same for people and products.

8. Keep And Grow Your Customers

Your customers are already sold on your product, your service and you.  Can you upsell them to a newer version or model?  Are there ancillary products that they haven’t tried yet?  Can you cross-sell them on a new product they don’t currently use?  Are there other groups within your client’s organization that are good targets for you?  The key here is to not take advantage of your good working relationship just to increase sales.  Make sure any selling you do to your clients (or your prospects for that matter) are a win for you both.

And, don’t slash customer service efforts to save money.  It costs significantly more in money and time to acquire a new customer than to keep your existing ones. 

9. Don’t Lose Momentum

One of the most common mistakes companies make in lean times is to cut the marketing budget unilaterally.  This disruption in your relationship with the prospect will impact their purchase decision.  On the other hand, by keeping your marketing efforts constant (in the right places) during the lean times, you will, at the very least, keep your business steady and, more than likely see an upswing in your performance.  And, remember, if your competitor slows their spending down, you have an opportunity to take advantage of their "silence."

10. Reward Creativity!

Your team has a lot of bright ideas.  Listen to them.  Get your team together regularly to mull over the issues and challenges.  Encourage them to share that wild idea that they have been thinking about for a while.  They know your product, your prospects and customers, and your marketplace intimately.  Make sure you reward all the ideas -- even the crazy ones.  You never know when a crazy notion is just a cover for a breakthrough idea!

LaVonn Schlegel founded J. Schlegel Marketing, Inc. in 1997 with the goal of creating a marketer’s marketing agency where results are the starting point and strategic insight is the rule.  With more than 20 years of marketing experience, LaVonn is known for her results-oriented approach to marketing.  She has held management positions with Ameritech New Media, Sprint, and Hallmark Cards.  LaVonn’s activities have included: the national marketing committee for the Cable Television Association for Marketing, the board of directors for the Chicago Chapter of Women in Tele-communications, and member of the National Association of Women Business Owners.  She received her Bachelor of Art degree and Master of Business Administration degree from Indiana University.

Copyright 2006 JSMI Consulting - www.jsmiconsulting.com