Larry Kilbourne's Website

By Larry Kilbourne

The New Year is a great time for making resolutions - as evidenced by our perennial attempts, successful or less so.

For 2009, I offer the following 5 resolutions related to organizations' marketing efforts:

1. Escape the comfort zone of your website (and endless do-overs of its graphics and content) and resolve to go out and prospect actively.  The world is out there - the trick is to engage it, not trap it a la Jeremiah Johnson.  (In other words, Google is not the answer.)
2. Webinars - learn how to do them well.  In today's fiscally challenged business environment, web-based communications are a cost-effective way to reach out to potential customers while shortening the typical sales cycle significantly.  (For more on this, see my previous blog, Web Leads.)  In January I'll begin a three-part series on webinars and how to avoid common missteps.
3. Reach out to your customers; do not wait to hear from them.  The latter usually just brings bad news that could have been avoided had the former route been taken instead.  Think biology: the vendor-customer relationship is symbiotic.  Ask them what they want - then share with them what they've told you.  It can be that simple.
4. Embrace story telling.  I don't care how much technology has changed our world.  The fact remains, people are enchanted by and embrace well-told stories that connect with them deeply.  When was the last time a well-designed product sheet accomplished this?
5. Take your sales counterpart to lunch.  The never-ending battle between the sales and marketing functions within an organization only works to the detriment of both.  These are two sides of a coin, and when either refuses to recognize it, all you end up with is a wooden nickel!

Copyright © 2008 by Larry Kilbourne, Ph.D. Dr. Kilbourne is an independent marketing consultant. He may be reached at lkphd@yahoo.com