Marketing Firms Highland Park IL

Many custom electronics companies today have more business than they can handle. Others can't get enough work and don't know how to break out of the pattern. Is it by accident or by design? Are you doing the business that optimizes your strengths and resources or simply responding to current market conditions? What happens if the situation changes? How do we deal with threats from all of the various competitors?

While some residential systems integrators may conclude that marketing is unnecessary, experts contend that it is an essential element of any business plan. The fact is that every business in our industry-designer/installer, manufacturer, rep firm or consultant-needs a marketing plan.

Marketing is not just advertising and promotion. In fact, it can be broken down into seven key elements, which this article will refer to as the "Seven Links in the Marketing Chain." Even if you already have a marketing plan, this article also will suggest ways for you to update your plan.

First, it's important to make a distinction between marketing and sales. Even the dictionary has a hard time differentiating between the two. They are cross-referenced to the extent that a casual reader could conclude that they mean essentially the same thing. They are, however, as different as art and science, yet willing partners in the custom installation business.

Here is a composite dictionary definition of marketing: The act of developing products or services and exposing them for sale to a specified customer base. Now, compare that definition with the one for sales: The act of causing and expediting a purchase at a specified price (or within a price range). The key word is "specified." It implies that the activities are deliberate as opposed to accidental or random. In less formal language, here are several ways to say the same thing:

1. Marketing opens the door; sales closes it.

2. Marketing prepares a customer environment; sales operates within that environment.

3. Marketing defines the product (goods and services) and prepares targeted customers to buy; sales finishes the job by completing the transfer of goods.

4. Marketing is the art of communicating with potential customers; sales is the science of converting potential customers into real paying customers.

5. Marketing hooks them; sales reels them in.

Marketing also tends to deal with long-range strategic issues, while sales is about making the numbers happen now. A key point is that they are both important, and you can't have sustained business success without strength in both areas.

A marketing plan is a written document that describes how you and your company go about developing your products and offering them for sale to your target customers. Your marketing plan has seven elements or "links in the marketing chain."

Link 1: Product Strategy. Products can be goods or services.

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