As we all know, business strategies rank as one of the most searched phrases of all time in any given search engine. This is due to the fact that most of us are desperate enough to try all kinds of business strategies.

After all, business strategies help us ensure that our business is running well, and that they are the best they can be. Business strategies help us maximize the profit, while helping us with the budgeting and give us tips on how to set up a business and as well as how to maintain it.

This article will focus on business strategies for small businesses, that’s because, they are pretty common.

• One of the more effective business strategies, for small and even big businesses, is be creative. Do not just stick with the common small business located in your area. Be creative. Think of a business that you can start with a small budget, but you can gradually upgrade and will be profitable. Typing jobs are okay. You can also set-up a printing shop.
• Be wary of your surroundings. Take note of the other small business located in your area. Write all of them down, and see which are the most common, which have the most customers and hence, most profit, and which are the least common. This list will help you on what kind of small business that you should set up.
• Be courteous, kind and friendly with your customers. If you have already setup your small business, doing all these three things I’ve mentioned will make sure that your customers will be coming back to you because of your pleasing personality. It also helps to always interact with your customers.
• Do more than what is expected. Give your all. Give it your 110%. This is because doing more than what is expected will make sure that your customers will be pleased with your works. This is important in printing shops, typing jobs and even small business related to food.

Taking note of these seemingly simple action points will serve you well as you look to take your business forward.

Businesses of all sizes are looking to make use of the very best marketing consultants given that we are living in tough economic times. It has been said numerous times for good reason that ‘the heart and soul of business is the sales and marketing function’.

The fact is that making the desired end user customers aware of the products and services that the organisation has to offer is key in the first step for a successful business, to do this appropriate markerting channels need to the made use of.

Assuming the targets decide to purchase – the necessary and most efficient sales channels will then need to be employed to enable the marketplace to be able to purchase as many of the organisation’s products and services as possible.

Above are some of the necessities of ensuring the success of organisations and why the best marketing consultants are always in demand. As companies spend their time executing previously devised plans – there is often not the time and urgency to focus on developing key go to market strategies that will at times take the company in different directions.

It is for the reason above that it will continue to make sense for companies to seek outside help that can bring a much needed perspective that will act as :-

• a catalyst for change
• business growth
• increeased revenues
• better customer understanding

The bullets points above are some of the benefits that skilled business marketing strategy consultants can bring to any company.

Depending where your business stands today in its development, it may be that you can do your business a huge favour by making use of the services of a marketing consultant, work with them for a few months which can results in many millions of benefit in the long run.

Of course, as this is my profession – you could say that I am biased, however – the facts are there to speak for themselves. Sometime – "we don’t know what we don’t know" that of course goes for any area in life but for the purpose of this discussion; the application to the development of business is the main point.

Any questions ? don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Best,

-Stephen C Campbell

When we look at the makeup of corporations, we can readily identify the different functions that makeup the organisation. Some of the more common functions are :-

• Research And Development
• Sales
• Marketing
• Human Resource Management
• Finance
• Manufacturing
• Logistics
• Facilties

.. and we could go on adding to the list. Now if we are to ask the question as to what most important functions are, we would most likely get different responses depending on who we posed the question to.

As the reason for the existence of any organisation is to provide its products and services to specific end user customers and; no matter how fantastic the research development engineers are, how streamlined the manufacturing department has become, how well the employees are looked after – if not enough attention is put into the Sales and Marketing functions; there will of course not be enough clients who are purchasing from the corporation.

I’d like to make the statement that Sales and Marketing is the Heart and Soul of every business and the failure to pay significant attention to this part of the business will ultimately end in the failure of the organisation.

To illustrate the point – let’s talk about my favourite company at this point in time when I am looking to illustrate excellence in the Sales and Marketing function – that company is Apple. To learn more about Apple’s latest and fantastic release I suggest you read apple ipad reviews by following the link. In recent years we have seen changes in Apple’s distribution strategies and walking into any Apple store will enable anyone to see what every company looks for – Raving Fanatics – who are passionate about the organisation’s products and services.

During my business radion program when going through the Marketing Mix – I posed the questions :-

• Were there smart phones before the iPhone
• Was there downloadable music before iTunes
• Were there MP3 players before the iPod

and …

• Were there Tablet PCs before the iPad ?

… the answer to all are Yes and yet Apple, through excellence is Sales and Marketing Strategies dominate in each specific Marketing Category. Time will tell as the iPad starts to sell internationally. At the time of writing – the iPad is yet to be release here in the UK and I for one cannot wait to get mine !!

To summarise – never fall so much in love with the products and services of the organisation so that you lose focus in constantly engaging with the targetted end user clients – they at the end of the day are the ones who must be depended upon to make consistent purchases from the organisation in order to keep the company in business.

The constant ongoing refinement and development [and execution] of the Sales and Marketing Strategies of the company – from large corporate to Small and Medium Enterprise, right down to the Solo Preneur will ensure the success of the business endeavour.

Any thoughts / comments.

Let me know,

Stephen C Campbell

Recently the business week top 50 companies in terms of business innovation list was released which made interesting reading. As a Business Marketing Strategy Consultant I took a look at the list to see what the key learnings were for me to take and to incorporate into my day to day Consulting, Speaking and Training

 

 innovation in business management: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

activities. For businesses of all sizes, Small and Medium Enterprises as well as large Corporates – we can see that those companies that did not rest on their laurels are the ones that surge forward.

One of the key trends was that of the increase in Asia companies such as :

• China’s high speed bullet trains
• China’s wind turbines
• South Korea’s Hyundai
• South Korea’s LG Electronics

Having worked with Far Eastern companies for many years and having experienced the privilege of residing and managing in the region for a few years I have witnessed first hand the high levels of intelligence and dedication that is to be found in such countries. Rapidly learning from the best practices found in the west and adding where appropriate in order to develop and grown their own brand into global powerhouses.

Herein is the key learning from this post – keep reading, studying, learning and applying new ideas to your business. This applies to managers from large corporates to the small SME and the location in the world that one is operating in does not matter.

HTC were a contract manufacturer for many years for …

• Microsoft
• Google
• Verizon
• NTT Docomo
• T Mobile
• Sprint Nextel

… and learnt from their experiences where we now see the HTC brand standing alone as a quality, sought after brand with a specific message.

To end with this theme of innovation, the question I’d like you to consider is – what are you doing different in your business from what you were doing three months ago ?? Are you implementing specific key innovation strategies, making use of the new technologies and trying new things to reach your clients and to establish exactly what your message is in the crowded marketplace that we can see all around us.

We can all innovate starting by making a list of where we are today, where we want to get to and determining how we are going to get there. To close – I would like you to never underestimate the power of outside consulting expertise to help to get where you wish to get to in as fast as time as possible.

We will speak more about innovation in another posting – for now, don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any comments or would like to talk about business consulting in general.

Best,

-Stephen C Campbell

I am in the middle of preparing material to deliver corporate business strategy training and will be covering social media marketing strategies.

 

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The case in point is that when many corporations look to make use of the new technologies – there is very often confusion and overwhelment in terms of which direction to follow; which tools to use, how often etc. Shal they use :-

• Blogs
• Search Engines
• News Engines
• Other Websites
• Micro Blogging
• Peer Reviews
• Feeds

            …. and the list could go on and on. It is unfortunate that at times the key message and brand communication of the corporation is thrown out as companies dive into making use of social media for business.

The key lesson, learning or take away point is to put critical focus on the organisation’s message from this strategic approach you should be able to determine which of the hundreds of platforms are most suitable for you to both communicate your message and to [most importantly] listen to what current and prospective clients have to say.

As we roll out our strategic seminars that focus on combining the new technologies with ‘traditional existing business marketing strategies – do get in touch if you’d like us to deliver at your venue [no matter where you are in the world] or work remotely to help you shape your strategies.

Thanks for reading,

Stephen C Campbell