Flying Under the
Radar?
…only if you want to hide
from prospective customers
NoSpin Debunker
#50: Sept 16, 2002
Debunkers
are back!
First a brief review of the
latest Debunker Poll results: “If you had an extra $150K to apply to your
business to make it grow,” three choices tied for first place (and accounted for
approximately ¾ of the votes): “Hire another sales person,” “Hire a CMO,” and
“Develop a new product or service.” The balance of voters chose: “Develop a
sophisticated e-commerce web site” or “Run a direct mail (and/or) email
campaign”—and no one voted for “Run print ads.”
Please take 5 seconds to respond to the
new NoSpin Poll for Sept 16th: Competitor
Intelligence.
This week, we’ve got a guest Debunkerer, Michael Corley, a
seasoned marketing veteran and most recently VP of Marketing with Passport
Health Communications. Here’s Michael debunking away—
I would like to thank Tom for giving me an
opportunity to realize an 18-month dream – writing a debunker for
NoSpinMarketing.com. (Okay, so
maybe my dreams aren’t normal, but after seeing Tom dressed as Liberace on his
web site, I have been changed.)
Have you ever sat in
meetings and thought, “I can’t believe he just said that?” Well, I still remember hearing a senior
sales manager with whom I worked say, “I prefer flying under the radar and
keeping a low profile. I don’t want
the competition to know what we are doing.” This was his standard answer when asked
about promoting the company and the company’s products. I could hardly believe
that in this day and age someone truly believed that a company should (and
could) operate “under the radar.”
A brief note from the editor here: More than
a couple times I’ve heard the same thing from so-called senior sales types, and
have also been aghast!
Pssst! Let me tell you a dirty little secret
that has nothing to do with Tom and Liberace. Your competitors probably (and if you are in healthcare then they
definitely) know where you are, where
you’ve been and where you are going. There is a good chance they also know
your product strategy and pricing.
Any competitor worth their salt should be able to get this
information. It’s easy. I/we always knew about our competitors,
so I can only assume they knew about us.
And guess what? Just because
we knew what our competitors were doing didn’t mean we were able or wanted to do
anything differently. I bet our
(and your) competitors were (are) in the same boat.
Prospects
are more important than Competitors
Let’s be naïve for a
second and assume that your competitors don’t know much about your organization
or products. Then I bet your
prospective customers don’t know much either! Think about it; a good competitor will
seek information about your company/products in order to be educated in a
competitive selling situation. This
information likely originates from sales reps in other geographic regions. On the other hand, a prospect will seek
out information only when having a certain need at a certain time. Thus, a prospect will be less educated
than your competitor about your company and your products.
The strategic question for
your company then becomes, “Is it more important to us that prospects in our
target market ARe familiar
with our company and products or is it more important that our competitors
aren’t familiar with our
company and products?” It is a
simple ‘offense versus defense’, ‘proactive versus no-active’
question. And because these
alternatives are inherently incompatible, your company can’t have it both
ways. You must choose one
strategy. If you choose to keep
flying under the radar of your competitors, then you are choosing to fly under
the radar of your prospective customers as well.
To
find more prospects and customers FLY ABOVE THE RADAR
So what is a company to
do? Make a concerted effort to fly
ABOVE the radar. Be visible…on your
terms. Position your company and
products. Create and manage your
image. In other words, control your
blip on the radar or it will be controlled for you!
Thanks to
Michael Corley and please let me know if you you’d like to be a Guest
Debunkerer. If your Debunker is printed, you get a free copy of my The Best Web
Site Planner (which you can purchase from my homepage). If your web
site needs a late year scrubbing to get ready for 2003, The Best Web Site Planner costs a
fraction of one consulting hour and is a great investment in your ongoing
marketing efforts.
Also
please let me know what YOU think about this debunker! And
please add these unconventional business professionals to the Debunker mailing
list.
If you would prefer to be
removed from this email list, let
me know.
Tom Ranseen
NoSpin Marketing
615.383.7157