Marketing 101

Today I called a business which was fairly young in its operations and received responses to 3 of my questions which left me amused.....

After  putting on my thinking hat, I wrote the following  points as a starter to a cost efficient method of gathering information on your business and providing feedback to the wider community which may apply to any business:

A business may need to:

1. Develop a list of persons who have made enquiries via telephone or email, noting the date, time, name of the person, the name of the company as applicable,  the nature of the enquiry, a telephone number and an email address. This information can be entered into database for further analysis. 
2. Consider business development. This may occur when a person with experience can cast their eye on the list which has been created based on the information which has been listed in point 1; discern ways forward, develop strategies to deal with the information which was received or receive and retain data on the activities of the business for future use.  The implementation of the strategies may await the formal analysis of the information, which may support the proposed changes or which may feed into the identification of other needs such as:  ~ Periods when additional staff are required during normal periods of operation.
3. Consider using the  analysis of the information to feed into:
• A formal, purpose - specific market survey
• A marketing plan for the short and medium term. If you are dealing with crops, the short term period may take six to nine months within a financial year or  may straddle two financial years. Alternatively the short term  for an investor  may be a three year period, as an investor may wish to consider a three to five year term for crops.
4. Develop a preprinted tracking sheet with lots of space to capture the information noted in point 1 daily. This noting of the query/information in its raw form may allow for a more detailed response by another person or a follow up call to touch base or to provide an update on changes in the business or in the area which may be ongoing. After all, you never know when a hurricane or storm may approach the island and having at hand persons who are skilled in handling produce or who may have knowledge of the terrain can always be tracked separately and used when needed.
5. The use of the information on the tracking sheet may be used to:
• Identify persons who wish to be employed in the company or industry.
• Provide suggestions and feedback for the national budgeting process and training plan for the country, when used with additional information.
• Develop the skills of all and any of the persons within the company via training or the development of new practices.

Some of the above information which has been noted above was obtained from Marketing classes   in the Edinburgh Business School - Master in Business Administration and some  of the knowledge and skills were  developed through trial and error while managing the front office in a geographical area outside of my home area. Realising that I learnt in a way which was different to others and needing to track requests from walk in persons and telephone calls, I started tracking  these items... P.S. The large spaces and the noting of the raw information above is intended to allow for conversations where  the concept of follow up and marketing is being undertaken rather than assessment of the employee.

copyright Jennifer N Bailey email: jennifernbailey24d@gmail.com.

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