Comments on: 10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started In Marketing

By: Mike Thimmesch

Mike Thimmesch — Wed, 19 May 2010 22:38:16 +0000

Hello Lorraine,

You are most welcome about the webinar. I just emailed the lead card template to you. Let me know if you don’t get it.

By: Lorraine Abrutyn

Lorraine Abrutyn — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:53:16 +0000

Hi!
Thank you for your webinar today.
Would you email us your template for lead cards?
Thank you for taking your time to help us!

By: Andrew-Kent Snyder

Andrew-Kent Snyder — Wed, 19 May 2010 15:39:53 +0000

#11. Accept failure graciously, & quickly learn from the opportunity the mistake created.

When the recession hit hard, one of my startup websites I was marketing started to loose sales. I had only lost 20% of my gross, but I wanted to bring that up. While working with other online marketing leaders we all came to the conclusion that I should offer FREE SHIPPING, while increasing my prices by the amount of the shipping.

This resulted in dropping to one sale every 2 weeks almost overnight. After 3 months I knew it wasn’t a fluke. While other industries thrived with this offer, my niche had tanked. This goes to Mike’s #1, I didn’t know my customer base well enough.

There were a couple of others in my think tank that had the same problem, their sales almost halted. Though I decided to learn from the experience & try a new marketing approach. Sales were slow to pick up again, but the stop allowed me to redesign my site & create content that will benefit my visitors much more than my competitors.

Learn from your mistakes graciously & tackle the problem from another angle.

By: Insight on Business - Michael Libbie | Des Moines Local Live!

Insight on Business - Michael Libbie | Des Moines Local Live! — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:17:59 +0000

[...] 10 Things I Wish I Knew BEFORE I Started in Marketing – An “insightful” piece by Mike Thimmesch that we used last fall. [...]

By: John Blicha

John Blicha — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:49:20 +0000

Brilliant! These are excellent points that every marketing professional that wants to excel should know and execute on. I’ll be passing this on.

Well done!

By: John Stifter

John Stifter — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:33:13 +0000

#11

Embrace technology to bridge the gap between Marketing and Sales. New tools exist to help qualify leads easily via the internet. Quality leads can be provided to the sales force in real time and the sales force can respond to the lead now when the need exists.

The traditional model allows for leaking of the sales funnel. Marketing gets frustrated that they provide all these leads that are not converted to sales. Sales people are frustrated that they don’t receive good quality leads. Far too many companies lose track of leads in the process.

Modern marketing systems streamline this process and perhaps even automatically send out either physical or electronic sales collateral customized to the individual’s interests. Today’s systems can calculate ROI on the fly and report instantaneous results in real time. Customization of the marketing program can be made more frequently to increase ROI more frequently than the past.

The result is more unified Sales and Marketing functionality within organizations.

By: 9 for '09: Top 9 Trade Show Tips of 2009

9 for '09: Top 9 Trade Show Tips of 2009 — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:41:16 +0000

[...] 10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started In Marketing I was asked to speak to a college marketing club about marketing careers. So I shared these 10 things I wish I had known over 20 years ago before I began my marketing career. Useful insights for trade show marketers and more. Click here to read article > > [...]

By: Andrew Weir

Andrew Weir — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:31:54 +0000

Thanks for the suggestion. You are absolutely right. I’ll get straight onto Amazon.

By: Peter LoCascio

Peter LoCascio — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:52:03 +0000

The best of marketing strategies and tactics are those based on results gained by actively selling products or services. Sales should be the creator of marketing support programs after products are offered to prospects and customers and feedback gained from either a sale of failed sale.
Marketing’s goal should be to facilitate the successful sale of product and working closely with the sales team to reach that objective.
It takes a strong management team to successfully integrate the diverse personalities of the sales and marketing functions because they are different. Marketing people tend to be strategic and planners, sales people tend to be tactical with a high level of urgency.
While marketing functions are often judged on long time basis for their programs to roll out, sales people are judged on their sales results daily which adds to the tension between them.
Sales should drive the business because sales is the one point at which customers and prospects communicate honestly with a company after they are asked to write a check to buy something which separates marketing strategies from the realities of getting a sale.

By: Mike Thimmesch

Mike Thimmesch — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:42:11 +0000

Thank you, Lori. I’m lucky to have learned something along the way, and not forgotten what it’s like to see things from our client’s perspective. That’s one of the great things about staffing a trade show booth, is that as a marketer, you get so much face to face time with dozens if not hundreds of customers. If you’re the least bit empathetic you will come away from a show with a better understanding of what really matters to your clients. Some of my biggest “Aha!” moments came staffing our booth.