Marketing Mix – 7 Ps

There are Seven pillars to successful marketing. Whenever you have a problem in sales, it\’s because one of these Seven P\’s is wrong somehow. Often, one change in one P can dramatically improve your sales and profitability.

The first P stands for the product. What product or service are you offering, and is it appropriate and desirable for the current market? If people are not buying it, is it insufficient quantity? Find out if what you are offering is what they\’re interested in buying.

The second P stands for price. How much are you asking for your product or service? And is this a fair price? Is it competitive in today\’s market? Is it enough to justify bringing the product or service to the market in the first place? Can you make a profit at that price, or should you lower your price or charge differently for what you sell?

The third P stands for place. Where you sell your product or service. Sometimes one location or geographical area can be vastly better than another in enabling you to sell large quantities of what you offer. Some companies have transformed their industries by moving from direct sales forces to selling the home or office to distributor sales forces who sell through retail channels. Could there be a better place for you to offer your product or service?

The fourth P stands for promotion. How do you advertise and market your product? Is your advertising effective? Are you reaching a sufficient number of prospective customers cost-effectively? Sometimes a small change in how you promote your product or service can lead to an enormous change in your sales results and the final P.

The fifth P stands for positioning. This is often the most important part of sales and marketing. Your position is how your customers think and feel about your product or service.

• What kind of a reputation do you have?
• How do people think about and talk about your product, services, and company?
• What unique selling propositions (USP) of your product and service stand out in your customer’s minds due to your sales and marketing efforts.
• What impression does your product or service make in the minds of the people you want to sell it to now and in the future?

The sixth P stands for people. Excellent customer service not only converts to sales but can increase your customer base by referrals. Acquiring these referrals by people who love your brand can also be a great example of how your marketing efforts can support your sales process. It’s important that everyone who represents your brand or deals with customers – including the non-human chatbot variety! – are fully trained sales professionals with an intimate knowledge of your product and how it will improve the lives or solve your customers\’ problems.

The seventh P stands for the physical environment. Physical evidence incorporates aspects that prove your brand exists and that a purchase took place. Examples of proof that your brand exists can include a physical store or office for your business, a website if your business operates solely online, and printed business cards that you exchange when meeting people. Examples of proof of purchases can include physical or digital receipts, invoices, or follow-up email newsletters that you send to customers as a retention exercise.

Your marketing mix must also consider all the things your customer sees, hear – sometimes even smells – in relation to your product or service.

This, of course, includes packaging and branding but should also bring in the ways products are displayed in stores, where they are placed, and the

You must be absolutely crystal clear about where you are with all Seven P\’s: product, price, place, promotion, positioning, people, and physical environment. If your sales are not high enough, go back and review these factors and make whatever changes are necessary. This is essential to building a successful, profitable business, focusing single-mindedly on sales, and starting and building your business. Sales are more important than anything else. Sales are the primary source of cash flow, which is critical for the enterprise’s survival. Every successful business has high and predictable levels of sales. Every unsuccessful business has problems in sales. Most successful businesses are started by a person who is very good at selling the product or service. And the key to selling the product or service is to develop a professional sales presentation, both written and in-person, and then make this presentation to as many people as possible every day. Play the numbers. The law of probabilities predicts sales success. This law says that the more people you tell about your product or service, the more of your product or service you will sell. If you want to increase your sales, you must increase your frequency of customer contact. You must continually prospect, present, and follow up every single day. You must use every possible means of contacting more and more prospective customers. You must use every form of advertising, including telemarketing. You must get out face to face with customers. Tell them why they will be better off using your product or service and ask them to make a buying decision. Every successful company today has one or more excellent salespeople who are selling the product or service all day long. Every company in trouble has problems in the sales department.

As the entrepreneur and company owner, you must focus single-mindedly on sales and delegate every other activity to someone else. Make a decision today to become an absolute expert in professional selling. Read every book, listen to every audio program and attend every course until you have far too many sales for your company to handle until your company is overwhelmed by sales; your entire focus should be on the sales function. Advertise your product or service. Continually doing business without advertising is like winking at a woman in the dark. Only you know what you are doing. You have to advertise and promote all the time. Nonetheless, you must do it prudently. When you start, the very best sales promotion is one on one with perhaps letters, faxes, or emails in advance, followed by telephone calls and personal face-to-face visits with prospective customers. It\’s amazing how many small business people try to replace the personal act of selling with the impersonal act of general advertising. Don\’t make this mistake. There are three keys to successful advertising. They are test, test, test. Be prepared to try several different advertisements in several different media. Until you find something that really works, here\’s the rule:

Creative advertising Sells.

Creative advertising sells. If your advertising is good, it will sell immediately. You\’ll get immediate responses if you do not get immediate sales. Stop doing that particular type of advertising immediately. You are wasting your money and actually hurting your business. Your advertising should offer one specific benefit that the customer will enjoy by calling you by coming into your place of business or using your product or service. A seven-year-old child should be able to look at your advertisement and explain to another seven-year-old exactly what you are offering and why it is attractive to a prospective customer. If your advertising does not pass the seven-year-old test, revise it and rewrite it until it does set aside a specific percentage of your sales revenue for advertising and continue to experiment for the rest of your business life. Some advertising works well. Some advertising does not work at all. Some offers work well, and some offers have no effect. Fully 50 percent of advertising dollars are wasted, but no one knows which ones they are.