The fundamentals of business matter.  As Jim Rohm has stated, “Success is neither magical nor mysterious.  Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”  In this series, we hope to discuss the fundamentals of different disciplines within a business.  The series is intended to be a basic introduction to these disciplines and by no means comprehensive but rather a start of a pattern of thinking.

The fundamentals in our estimation all begin with the premise of “If you can’t measure it, don’t do it” which Sam Walton preached.  Measuring and tracking give a business the ability to analyze their business and make decisions based on the data AND experience.  In many cases, I have witnessed decisions being made on “gut feel” instead of solid numbers, statistics, percentages, etc.  The best case scenario is to have both aspects to arrive at the best path forward and determine where to put your time, treasure, and talent.

With this in mind, let’s consider marketing.  Place, Product, Promotion, and Price.  Depending on your type of business, this may be a challenge to really measure your impact.  However, this does not give us an excuse not to do it.  Below are some ideas to consider measuring:

Place: Do you distribute your product/service regionally, nationally, internationally?  When is the last time you mapped your distribution/customers?  I mean literally put on a map, can you quantify where you are doing business?  In the areas that you are showing strong numbers, how many other customers are available? In your three year strategic plan, what are your target areas?  Can you quantify the potential of these areas with numbers of potential customers?  You may need to invest in demographic information to validate that your target areas have the potential you are hoping for.

In areas that you have lower numbers, what can you do to improve these numbers?  Brainstorm ideas to see if you cannot cut shipping costs, per diem, travel costs, or other variables that make you less competitive.  Meet with your logistics team and vendors to see if there are any potential savings if you reach a certain level.  Call prospects in these areas that you would like to expand into and ask questions to understand what they value/need and create a spreadsheet that tracks the responses.  Try to understand why they are currently choosing another supplier and what you might be able to do to earn their business.  Prioritize the area based on the findings.

Lastly, are their new customers that you are targeting with new products/services? Are they found in the same areas you are already serving or new areas? Apply the thinking listed above to where you put your effort on converting these new opportunities into customers.

This is an overview and we understand that this is not a complete listing of ideas as it relates to Place.  However, we trust that it will stimulate your thinking and possibly get business owners thinking in a slightly different way to value data gathering as a positive and lead to better business decisions.  Please comment if you have other thoughts and start a lively discussion on strategies you have used that helped you get solid data and information to help decision making as it relates to where you offer your products/services.  The next post will discuss aspects of promotion to consider.

In Fundamentals We Trust,

Larry