Marketing in a Difficult Economy: Going Back to the Basics
On November 24, Law Burks, VP Market Management for the Alternative Care & Hospital Segments of Cardinal Health, shared some key fundamentals for all of us to consider in today’s challenging economic climate.
Here are a few highlights and take-aways from the presentation:
- Consider how today’s headlines impact your customer’s business, use them to help inform your decisions, and look for opportunities to capitalize on recent events or trends
- Listen to experts and use their positions to help build your business case
- Three basics were presented – the alignment, the money and the process
- The alignment – know your role and develop relationships throughout the organization, even if not directly related to marketing
- The money – build a financial literacy foundation; understand the P&L of your business and of your customers’ business (and what percent of their business you represent); set clear goals that tie to financial performance, and make sure you have the right metrics in place for each customer segment (Are you selling to the right customer in this economic climate?)
- The process – develop your strategy, develop your offer, determine pricing (value based, not based on what it costs you to deliver your product or service), promotion, manage offers, engage sales and track success
- Use market insights as the foundation – know what you’re investing in and use secondary, qualitative and quantitative market research to support your case
- Three case studies were shown to illustrate how to apply some basics to specific customer segments. Evaluate your offerings and narrow focus to those of most value to target customers. Tailor your message to specific customer segments and consider third-party proof to increase credibility. Evaluate customer systems to find ways to help them be more efficient.
- Keys to success
- Get aligned
- Know your company and how marketing fits
- Know your market
- Know your customers
- Use a logical fact base to decide how to compete
- Know the ROI of your recommendations
- Price on value
- Focus, plan and execute
If you attended the program and had an “a ha” moment or if something resonated with you, please share it. Let’s keep the conversation going!
Doug Bierl volunteers for the Columbus AMA chapter as the leader for the Healthcare SIG and is the Founder and Lead Consultant for Stepping-Stone Marketing Consulting (www.ConsultSteppingStone.com). He can be reached at 740-540-7145 or via email at dbierl@ConsultSteppingStone.com.
