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The Marketing Imprint
April 2007

In This Issue

The Ripe Time to Close

Product Life Cycle Guides the Right Sales Strategy

Product Lifecycle Impacts Marketing, Sales and Account Management Decisions

Create a Continuous Loop System that Refreshes Itself with New Introduction and Growth Stages

Words of Wisdom


 

The Ripe Time to Close

The trick is to know when ripeness occurs, just like a fine Merlot grape.

Ripeness happens when both parties are ready to partner and agree on the process.

By pushing before these prerequisites are ready, the sales person will disappoint the audience, lose credibility and heighten tensions.

Don?t allow treatment induced relationship illness to become your obstacle to closing.





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  • Product Life Cycle Guides the Right Sales Strategy
  • A concise article in the Jan/Feb 2007 issue of 1to1 Magazine presents the product life cycle as the impetus for adjusting sales force structure and processes.

    It suggests the need for behavioral shifts by sales reps and their managers at each stage of the lifecycle stages.

    Continuously scan the horizon to detect shifts in your lifecycle so that you can maintain a high impact sales team with the right skills, processes, tools and talent.

    During introduction balance staff size with an appropriate mix of channel partners to create awareness and generate rapid acceptance. Hire now and maintain a larger sales force in order to fully exploit the upcoming growth stage compared to companies that add staff only as revenues increase.

    In the growth stage sales are effective business development managers when equipped with the right expertise for recruiting new accounts.

    During maturity optimize resources. Hire general-purpose sales reps to focus on high profit customers and allow inside sales people to retain existing customers.

    In the decline stage a smaller sales staff protects critical relationships and focuses on key accounts by nurturing repeat business and renewals through ongoing support and finds new applications through horizontal and vertical positioning. Partners are responsible for STCs (second tier customers).

    Register and read the "1to1 Magazine" article
  • Product Lifecycle Impacts Marketing, Sales and Account Management Decisions
  • What can you do to delay or prevent the decline stage?

    • Product managers add new features and introduce new products
    • Sales managers modify the sales force structure
    • Account managers expand horizontally and vertically within accounts

    • Avoid complacency during the maturity stage or you will see storm clouds on the horizon due to the inevitable decline of the account in its present form
    • Refresh account plans with introduction stage tactics

    Sidetrack accounts away from the decline stage:

    • Develop accounts horizontally and vertically
    • Search for new applications
    • Introduce new products

  • Create a Continuous Loop System that Refreshes Itself with New Introduction and Growth Stages
  • Look for ways to continually reinvent your marketing program rather than following the curvilinear lifecycle into its natural decline stage.

  • Words of Wisdom
  • The Slight Edge by Ara Parseghian

    No one is truly doing his or her best. You can do better. The racehorse, Nashua, earned more than a million dollars for less than one hour in a lifetime of racing. People would pay 100 times more for a horse like Nashua than the average horse. All he had to do was win a good share of the time, by a nose. This narrow margin can be the difference between fame and fortune, or never being heard of again.

    The difference between a person of achievement and one of mediocrity is the 2% difference in study, application, interest, attention and effort. Strive for excellence, set your goals high, live within the rules.

    Next year, with the application of just 2% of the fundamentals, you may be going to a major bowl game.

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