5 Questions to Help You Achieve Your Marketing Goals in the New Year

At the start of each year, people are always looking to make changes, better their businesses and get organized.  There is an area, however,  I think is very important to evaluate each and every year. This area is internal marketing. 

Internal marketing is marketing to your own book of business.  It involves reaching out to your current clients, not to the people who are not yet clients. There are five important questions to ask yourself as you work on internal marketing in 2018. 

Question #1: What percentage of your business comes from referrals?
Think about this. Don’t guess–because your guess probably won’t be correct. Referrals can come from friends, neighbors, coworkers and relatives. Write that down. Friends, neighbors, coworkers and relatives. That’s where your next business is coming from.  If you are guessing what percentage of your business comes from referrals, then you don’t know where your referrals are coming from.  So let’s keep in mind that what gets measured gets done. Implement a system within your office with your team members to make sure that every single time they are on a conversation whereby they are acquiring new business they ask, “Where did you hear about us?” It is important to track where your business is coming from and once you see how much of it is coming from referrals you know whether or not you are doing a good job asking your friends, neighbors, and relatives. 

Question #2: What percentage of each sale you make is set aside for advertising?
Each of you should have 10 to 20 percent for your advertising budget set aside for future advertising efforts. That’s 10 to 20 percent of your gross compensation right off the top from any sales that you make.  Advertising is an expense.  Sure it may generate business but overall it is an investment and expense that you need to budget for. The easiest way to budget is to set aside 10% of each sale that way when you need to advertise, you have the money available. 

Question #3: Are you specializing in low hanging fruit?
What is low hanging fruit? Close your eyes and think of it. If you were at an apple tree right now, you’re not going to immediately go look for a ladder, what you are going to try to do is grab low hanging fruit, the best apple without you ever having to even get on a ladder. Well, that’s what’s happening in your business. We’re spending so much time sometimes just picking low hanging fruit that we don’t get to better apples. Why?  Because it’s easier. Most of you stay in that market because you are not confident enough to branch out.   

Question #4: Is one of your goals for this year personal development training? 
You see we can’t get to higher fruit if we don’t commit to personal development training. Personal development training is not company training.  Company training is when you go sit in a meeting and you learn about features, advantages and benefits of a product and learn about new industry trends and guidelines. That’s just company training but it's not personal development training. You may know knowledge, company knowledge, policies and procedures, but without developing your soft skills, you will not be effective.  Personal development and human relation skills are what will make you more productive.  Memorize this gem: The soft stuff is the hard stuff. The soft stuff is human relation skill; it's developing the right attitude and learning how to deal successfully deal with people. 

Question #5: What are you doing to build quality relationships with every customer? 
Quality relationships are where referrals and repeat business comes from. They refer other business because they have a good perception of you and your team. The customer’s perception of good or bad service is the measure of your success or failure. In the end customer’s perception is all that matters.

If you take a close look at each of these questions as you head into 2018 you will be better equipped to be successful in your life and business! ​

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About Marvin

Marvin LeBlanc LUTCF, CNP, is a performance strategist and author of the number one Amazon Kindle best-selling book, Come Hell or High Water: Life Lessons from Hurricane Katrina. Marvin not only brings wisdom and insight gained from his three decades in the insurance and finance industries, but he also empowers others through his unique sharing of lessons and techniques from years of corporate and leadership training and motivational programs. A vibrant entrepreneur who makes the stage his own–and yours, Marvin’s humor-filled stories bring inspiration, heart-warming truths and tangible, strategic takeaways you can bring back to your organization.