Marketing: What Some Small Businesses Neglect

by Victor J. McCoy

In the simplest definition, marketing is the process of adapting the characteristics of a product or service to fit the needs and wants of customers in a specific market segment. Once the segment has been identified we must determine the price level they are willing to pay, how will I distribute the product or services, what is the most effective and efficient way to do that. This information must be incorporated into the marketing plan. This information must be adjusted to fit the motives and methods of the segment.
Here are five primary things we must focus on in our plan.

1. Product or Service - What are you selling? As a small business you have to sell what you know they want. Expecially if it is already on the market. If you are a major corporation you may have the resoures to persuade people to want what they did'nt know they needed.
2. Identifying the Market Segment - Who will you be selling to? Know who wants your product or service helps to keep you from selling "dog food" to a "cat lover".
3. Determining Product/Service Cost - How much are they willing to pay for it? Can you sell the product of service and make a profit. If not you have a hobbie not a business. Profits are very important to a business. It is the life blood to greater profits in the future.
4. Determining Distibution or Sells Channel - How will they receive what I'am selling? Will you need a storefront, can you operate from home, from a van, or will you need to operate from an office space?
5. Determining Accounts Receiveble Policy - When will I receive the revenue from sales? Will you need credit accounts, cash-up-front, purchase orders or what?

In a great number of small businesses three (3) out of five are either totally absent from the day-to-day reality or the information is outdated. Those areas are Market Segment. Due to demographic, economic, technological, or political changes the segment may have shifted or decreased causing a decrease in sales revenue.

Product or service cost can shift driving up the price so most can no longer afford  it or driving the price so low that it invites others into the market and your market share decreases. There are many other variables that contribute to the neglect of this very important area.

Determining A/R can be one of the most neglected and unorganized area of the small business that effects your ability to market. If the money does not come in as planned you could have a cash shortage when you need it to pay for addtional sales campaigns that produce revenue. These components of your marketing plan are outside of your control. These demand variables are autonomous but should be monitored consistently.