MARKETING STRATEGIES }}}} BY BILL NEAL
Edge }}}}
Bill Neal
COMPETITIVE
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DEFINE YOUR MARKET POSITION
What you are looking for is your “unique selling position”— those products or services that you offer but your competitors don’t. Maybe you offer special services or have a great deal of expertise in an area such as implants or cosmetic veneers. Your market position or image is defined by who you are now, how your customers perceive you, and how you fit in with your competition. You need to decide where you are now and whether you are comfortable being there. Ultimately, whatever you decide will influence the image you want to convey and the message you want to send.
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REVIEW YOUR MARKETING RESOURCES
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Marketing Plan
First, make sure you have the finances to cover what you want to accomplish. If you have to abort your marketing plan midstream, then what you have invested will be lost. Next, consider who will follow up on the sales leads, make the phone calls, set up appointments, and close the potential customer. Finally, who is responsible for the management of the marketing plan? Who will be the driving force? Who will make sure that all of what you are going to do in marketing, advertising, and sales actually happens?
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SURVEY YOUR COMPETITION
It is important that you get a sense of what is selling in the marketplace, what products or services are catching the attention of dentists in the area. The goal is to come up with some ideas as to which types of products and services you will want to consider promoting.
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DEFINE YOUR TARGET MARKETS
Will you market only locally, or will you want to market to out-of-state dentists? Marketing out of state will require a different type of strategy because your company may not have an established presence or image with the dentists outside of your immediate area.
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DEVELOP STRATEGIC MARKETING OBJECTIVES
Start by reviewing your successes and failures. What succeeded in bringing you new business and what didn’t? If something really worked, why not try it again? If it failed, don’t use it again unless you know why it was unsuccessful and how to modify it for better results this time. Once you know what you are going to market and where, you will need to decide on the media you will be using. Direct mail, journal advertising, and direct sales require not only different budgets, but different types of support material for follow-up.
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HOLD A “CREATIVE PLANNING PROCESS” MEETING
There are 12 areas to consider when putting together your marketing approach. If you work with an advertising or marketing agency in developing materials, they should be integral to the creative planning process because they will help you implement a cohesive plan. This will be covered in detail in an upcoming “Marketing Strategies” article.
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CREATE SUPPORT MATERIAL
Define the collateral materials that you will use to promote your company’s products and services. Some of the material will be used to generate leads and some will be used during the follow-up process. The different types of collateral materials that can be used include direct mail letters, postcards, statement stuffers, product brochures, direct-mail brochures, and manufacturer-supplied literature imprinted with your lab information. A corporate image/capability brochure can be used as a positioning piece rather than one that elicits a direct response about a particular product or service.
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IMPLEMENT THE PLAN
To stay on schedule, you will need to prepare a complete promotional calendar where you’ll want to list seminars, mailing dates, ad issues, deadlines, and everything you will be doing to promote your company.
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FOLLOW UP ON LEADS
You should respond to all leads within 24 hours. Respond to requests for information only on the product or service in which they are interested, not every piece of literature that you have. Follow up on the telephone, make an appointment, and visit the dentist to determine the area of interest. Remember to listen, as the dentist will tell you what they want to hear. If you listen and respond appropriately, you just may earn a new customer.
www.dentalproducts.net
MAY 2006 dentallabproducts
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