MODERN BUSINESS
Apple knows within months their
competition will be copying their
product innovations, so they
innovate fast and have the Apple
iPhone 5, 6, and 7 well underway
by the time they have launched the
Apple 4 iPhone. If Apple knows this
and they are a multi-billion dollar
company then there a reason for it
and you should too.
6
Are you a selling or
relationship building
organisation?
Consumers hate being sold to.
They have seen it all and have
inbuilt radar to run away from
anyone who tries any of those old
worn out sales and advertising
techniques. People hate to be sold
to yet love to buy. The only thing
they love to do more than buy is
buying from someone they like and
trust. So develop all your marketing
strategies around creating
the preconditions for building
systems that make it so consumer
gravitates toward you and your
business naturally through not only
employing the above strategies
but also not making selling your
prime goal. Relationship building
must be your priority and so build
systems to automate this. Sales
can then happen effortlessly. The
best companies in the world do
this without you, the consumer,
even being aware of it. There are
a thousand ways to do this, but
the best way is to look for your
customer and nurture them way
before you intend to sell them
anything at all.
7
Are you a one-night
stand business?
Never build your business
around a single transaction or
single product. If you do this
then business long-term success
becomes impossible. Think about
natural consumer behaviour.
Normally one purchase leads to
another. Are you ready to help your
customer with the next natural
purchase? How many times have
you been into a business when you
say to yourself, these people should
also offer xx or yy? Its obvious
but many businesses miss this
completely and lose multiple profit
opportunities.
8
Is your business your
laboratory?
Often I get asked will this
product or advert campaign work.
Answer = no one knows for sure
and sometimes common sense dos
not prevail. Many great products
or services were turned down or
rejected by common sense yet
turned out to be a blockbuster in
the real market. A small relatively
inexpensive test will do amazing
things. It allows you with complete
freedom to try some new things
take some risks and succeed or fail
fast and learn from it. Its through
failure we find success. This is
as true in marketing as it is in
science. It’s a legitimate scientific
approach to finding breakthroughs.
Whatever marketing decision you are
contemplating, test them and those
that fail discard, those that work
expand rapidly and then innovate and
tests again.
9
Are your business
projections realistic?
Sounds obvious again I know
but I have seen so many business
plans and models that just are
doomed before the start. Business
owners/managers make unrealistic
projections and assumptions, based
on what they think is possible, not
what I is actually possible. This is
like setting out to sea without a
proper map and rations to sustain
life. Why this happens is due to
not enough research and testing of
assumptions prior to using these
assumptions to move forward
with a project. This is fatal. If you
see a failed business it’s almost
guaranteed the assumptions made in
the first place were over estimated.
10
Is your
organisational
marketing skill
cutting edge?
I don’t care what business you are in,
unless you contain or acquire first rate
marketing skills with the organisation,
you will underperform or simply fail
to keep up with your competition.
The world is an ever rapidly changing
place and knowing how to adjust and
move with these changes will keep
you alive and strong as business
organism but it requires a very st