Any company can have the best product or service in the World, but if it doesn’t know how to sell it, it will be worthless. As harsh as that seems, it is the reality that many companies face daily. They know they are good at what they do, but they see how competitors with theoretically worse products or services gain market share daily. What good is it to have the best if nobody knows it? Unfortunately, quality alone is not enough. The market must know who we are and what we do. In order for that to happen, the Old Marketing rules no longer work. There are new focuses.

How to sell more and better? This is the million-dollar question. The answer won’t fall from the sky. It will come from a rigorous analysis of the Marketing and Sales management methods that each company applies, and from adopting changes based not on what university textbooks teach, but rather on the demands of a constantly changing market made up of customers who are increasingly demanding, well-informed, and promiscuous in their relationships with providers.

Some clues for optimizing the effectiveness of Sales and Marketing Strategies, without large investments:

• Listen to the customer in order to launch new products and services: the customer constantly speaks to us, leaving clues about what he or she likes or doesn’t like. They inform us about their satisfied or unsatisfied needs. We must learn to know how the customer speaks to us and where they leave the tracks that open our path towards them. An example: Do you know how Kellogg’s launched the famous cereal bars onto the market? Simply by observing how many people “snacked” on cereal directly from the boxes between meals. From the observation of this new habit came an idea as simple as it was revolutionary.
• Look for new ways of communicating: we live in a world saturated by advertising. The majority of marketing formulas and direct Marketing in use are in question. We must be imaginative and innovative. For example, product placement is being revealed as an excellent means of communication with the customer. Films, videogames, TV series, and even books use it. Do you remember the impact James Bond’s BMW had one of his films? Weren’t you affected by the jewelry and cosmetics firm Bulgari’s great idea to sponsor a novel based on the brand, “The Bulgari Affair”?
• Distinguish yourself: companies must ask themselves “What do I do well” and clearly distinguish themselves by a select group of elements. Let’s look at the case of Ikea. The Swedish multinational opted for an old market –furniture- where everything seemed to have been invented. It decided to differentiate itself by design and price, and its formula cleans up wherever it goes.
• Transform a product or a service into an experience: the term “added value” is outdated. Everyone claims to have it. Customer linking must be based more on the opportunity to offer them different “experiences” that they always associate with a company. Richard Branson, founder of Virgin, is the greatest symbol of this trend. He doesn’t just sell airplane tickets, compact discs, or trips to the moon. He offers his customers “Virgin experiences”.

Selling more and better doesn’t always require large investments, but rather radical changes in focus. Discover, in the following articles, some of the guidelines for successfully managing those changes.