Do you have complete command and knowledge of your companies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (a/k/a SWOT analysis) in the marketplace? Have these been used to develop your marketing and sales tactics and strategies into messages which truly resonate with people whom you are trying to build business? Strategies and messages which cause potential customers to stop and actually consider or ask questions about what your company says or does?

If not, then you might consider getting a small team together to contribute and work through their thoughts on your company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (a/k/a SWOT analysis).

In this episode of Ask The Interviewer, we start to take apart the SWOT analysis and provide you with a roadmap or a process for conducting a simplified SWOT analysis to help uncover new marketing ideas and approaches, see strengths you haven’t seen before, and drive internal initiatives which lead to external improvements and increased market share among your potential prospects.

We’re glad you are a part of the Market.Sell.Win mission!

When was the last time you actively sat down with some colleagues to outline your companies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT for short) and what does that have to do with marketing anyway?

If you are like most business people, you aren’t really familiar with the SWOT concept and the suggestion of it seems like a lot of time for not a lot of return on your investment. The concept also seems only lightly related to marketing.

But in fact, a SWOT might be just the concept you need to inject some new marketing ideas and approaches, see strengths you haven’t seen before, and drive internal initiatives which lead to external improvements and increased market share among your potential prospects.

So, in this episode, we preview the SWOT concept as an introduction to what it means, why you would use it, and how it relates to marketing.

We’re glad you are a part of the Market.Sell.Win mission!

A lot of business leaders (i.e. entrepreneurs, existing small business owners, and licensed professionals) procrastinate and downright resist putting together a marketing plan. Why? Here are some typical reasons:

• It's time consuming - time that could be spent on improving operations, doing general marketing, or making a sale
• It's complicated - lots of concepts and terms to figure out before you even begin
• It doesn't have an immediate payoff
• It will probably change, so why even start
• It's inflexible - if we want to change direction, we can't because of this document

But marketers know the benefits of the marketing plan far outweighs these objections and believe it can be closely linked to corporate strategy. In response to these reasons, consider:

• Yes, it takes time, but in not doing a marketing plan you will waste more time on fruitless and unfocused efforts
• No, a marketing plan doesn't have to be complicated if you establish a couple of key concepts and work toward completing them
• No, a marketing plan doesn't have an immediate payoff, but it does have a long term one - in channeling your efforts and expenses to accomplish goals
• Yes, the marketing plan can and will change as you go along but that should be built into it

In this episode, we empathize with business leaders about the marketing plan, address objections, and provide some insights into preparing one including connecting it to the corporate strategy.

We’re glad you are a part of the Market.Sell.Win mission!