If you’re in business then you are in the business of sales and marketing. If you have a well articulated vision or marketing process you have a distinct advantage in the marketplace.
Let’s say for example that you operate a career college. The way you make money is to offer classes that prepare people for immediate employment upon graduation. You need to produce students that have skills that are valued in the marketplace. You need to develop relationships with employers. You need to convince your prospective customers (students) that the considerable amount of time and money they will spend with you is going to be put to good use.
You’ll need to place your vision into the heads of your prospective students in a manner that is credible so that they will believe you. Your map of future events will need to be easy to understand so people will not get confused. Confusion is the enemy of sales. In order to convey clarity you need to have a clear vision in your own mind. This is where detailed planning comes in to play. Dwight Eisenhower said: “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”.
Planning gives us a map in our minds of what to do and how to do it. You need to map out the entire process of where people are when they first come to you, the changes that they will make during their contact with you, and helping them land their first job. In order to talk effectively with your prospective customers you need to create a profile of who they are, where they reside, what their challenges are, what they’re options are and what your competition offers. You need to find out who these people are.
You also need to find out who these people aren’t. When you find somebody that doesn’t match your profile you need to recommend that they look elsewhere for solutions. Over time you will likely find that it’s more efficient to “go for the no”. If you can quickly find out who doesn’t fit your program you’ll waste less time with them and have more time to spend with the people you can truly help.
