The same with marketing. When you are marketing you are fishing for paying clients. So lets take a look at the basic process of how a fisherman goes about catching his fill.

1. What type of fish do you want to catch. We call this is a “public” in marketing. You need to know their demographics, where they swim and what they will bite on. you need marketing research.

2. What is the local hatch. In other words, what is the localized interest that will cause interest and bites.

3. What techniques does a fisherman use to make the catch? We call this marketing acumen and skill.

4. Does the fisherman catch and release, or does he keep the catch? We call this business development and closing.

To increase your ability to market and make good money, or catch the big fish, you need to market to your target market and do so successfully. Fish where the fish you want are.

Best, Edwin Dearborn

In speaking with many people on how to not only survive, but as well thrive in this economy, I am always taken aback on how many business owners and entrepreneurs are not advancing themselves with more knowledge.

Knowledge has seem to take a back seat in importance. I think our recent economical debacle was built on the misguided idea that there was some quick, magical way to riches. “Make my money quick, and get out of here” seemed to become a common ethnic which has contributed greatly to our dwindling fortunes and our eventual demise.

And what got killed on the highway of greed, first and foremost, was knowledge.

You know there are man smart people out there who write with the simple purpose to educate and elevate others. Sure, they like the idea of becoming a celebrity of sorts, or maybe even satisfy some personal craving to owning the moniker of Author. So what. Take advantage of this.

I know of sales people who struggle in sales, who do not burn the midnight oil and read books on sales. I know business owners who do not educate themselves on the basics of organization, people skills or marketing. The result is always the same: Struggle coupled with apathy and no sense of responsibility for making one’s future a better one.

Hint: Read a half hour a day from those who have had success. Got to seminars, meet people who are successful and study what they are doing. Figure out how to implement, even if in small increments, what these successful people are doing. Emulating success is successful.

Best, Edwin Dearborn

Business owners and investors struggle on where to put their money. While real estate can be purchased dirt cheap today, it could take years to make back some significant profits. While gold is at an all time high, is it time to buy or hold?

If you own a business or a private practice, your best investment will be effective marketing. Why do I say that and is there a precedent? A study was done by McGraw-Hill and they found that businesses who promote heavily during a recession, not after, average a growth of 256% after the recession is over. Very, very few are making that kind of a return on Wall Street or at their bank.

In other words, significant growth and market share is gained while most other businesses are reeling from the economy, hunkering down and weathering the storm. Lance Armstrong always made his greatest time advance in the hills, not on the flat lands. It was during the toughest course of the Tour de France that Lance made his greatest advance. In warfare, you can advance best when the other guy is retreating.

Yes it is will take hard work, innovation, offering discounts and maybe even giving a few things away for free to get them in the door, calling for an appointment or even ordering on-line. But once you get them in the door back up that promotional effort with extraordinary service, pleasantly and rapidly rendered, and you will find a whole new set of clientele. And a larger market share in the future.

Here is what we at Executive Dynamics have discovered as several blunders during this recession:

1. The false idea that this is the wrong time to market. In fact, this is the best time to make significant advances in market share.

2. That a marketing plan is not doing what you did three years ago when credit and good feelings where running unchecked. New methods, tied into one cohesive look and feel, can augment each other, complimenting the success of all elements and thus building a juggernaut.

3. All your employees are part of the marketing process. Involve them, get them excited and offer incentives for goals achieved, as an individual and as a team. Word-of-mouth must start internally and only then does the enthusiasm roll out into your market.

4. The business owner has to be the driving force of it all. Without that drive from the top, the parts themselves never congeal into a synergistic power. Powerful marketing requires more persistence than it does brilliance. Follow through and over coming barriers is the dynamic and powerful agent in expanding your revenue.

Best,

Edwin Dearborn

Co-founder of Executive Dynamics