I have written few articles on Internet Marketing as it had always been a subject of interest for me. Basically am not into marketing profession but I like to read a lot of stuff about it. My dream or passion is to become a tech savvy and be a better manager when it comes to managing process and projects. Apart from this, am also a part of management team for an IT firm (start up) and I have taken up the responsibility of bringing in clients. This is really a daunting task and it is really difficult to face the clients especially when they ask you too many questions on which you are not comfortable to answer. From my own experiences, I have learnt some of the commonly followed principles by the customers and the ways and methods in which these marketing managers can react in order to grab their attention. The views that are presented here are my own and quite a few have been my own personal experiences. So feel free to comment upon the points discussed here. Marketing definition I would like to go with the definition of “Marketing” from Wikipedia as it seems to be appropriate. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.Let us deal with the first part of the definition. “Sales” is an important process for any kind of industry and company. Companies make huge profits through the sales process for which effective business communication should happen. The first and foremost thing to be done is to follow an effective lead generation process for which a separate team should be available. Once the lead is generated, clients will probably send us their requirements and the process will get carried on from here. The follow up process has to be qualitative and result oriented in order to convert a lead into a potential client. The marketing manager should look into these aspects and he should act as the mediator until the projects move on to the next level. Job of the Marketing Manager An important job of the marketing manager is to develop a good rapport with the customer. When it comes to any service industry, especially IT industry, most of the clients will not be sure of their requirements. These people will act as the lame user without knowing any technical details about the implementation part. Even a marketing manager will not know any technical details. However, he/she should be familiar with the business terms and the domain knowledge. The marketing manager should be able to convince the client regarding their expertise in the domain. It is very important to understand the domain related terminologies rather than speaking about the technical terms. It is because any company can offer the technical services but only few can understand the original business requirements on why the user is demanding such things. Understanding these terms will help the company to interact in a better way with the clients. Even the clients will develop a confidence level with the company assuming that they will always get the best from the technical side. From the company’s perspective, it is always good to understand the domain as they will be able to do a deeper analysis and suggest few more things to the clients which will help them to shape up their business in a better way. Value Added Services Will Keep The Clients Happy The clients are always expecting something more from the service companies. Let it be a product level service or any kind of things. If the business vendors can give something extra for the billing they do, clients will be more than happy to come back with another requirement. This often gives a soothing effect in the business relationship which will lead to a long term relationship. It gives them the courage to include your team to be a part of their business. The marketing managers are expected to perform better during the initial stages in order to develop a valuable relationship. Marketing managers are expected to understand the pulse and requirements of the market in the current scenario. There are several factors to be looked in while approaching the client. The modern day trends and the behavior pattern of the competitors have to be looked in during the phases. A marketing manager’s role does not stop by just bringing in the clients and handing over their requirements to the technical and production team. A complete market research should be done regarding the business deals, value of the deals, practices and approaches adopted by other companies. Meetings Over Dinner Most of the clients would like to be in touch with these guys as they were the ones who identified their business needs and directed to their technical team. In fact, these managers can still in be touch with the clients throughout the project phase on a friendly basis. This will help the managers to develop their contact list. Networking is an important aspect when it comes to business development. Most of the business deals will happen over a simple coffee break. Make sure you do not miss out any golden opportunity to bring back some business with the existing clients in this manner. The above described details are few of the facts that I have closely observed over a period of time. I tend to learn more from professionals belonging to this category. Hopefully, I would like to contribute more if I get a chance further down the lane. If you feel like you have got valuable points to be added to this list, please do not hesitate to leave your feedback.
well always remember to watch for the team of a market manager because he can't do all the job alone; generally he needs a strong and professional bunch of people to offer the best rating towards your projects
If you manage people under you, it is also important to train and mentor them. I always really admired managers that fought back executive management on my behalf.
Hi All, Marketing is the really good and enjoyable work if we take like that and works occordingly then only we can grow soon and earn more from that industry.
Some time ago i remember that for a project i have discussed with a person who said to me it can be done by one person. Proven to him wrong after a while when the time limitation for only one person were so obvious.
yhea i totally agree and as i said in a previous post it all comes to what rank you really want to reach with your project even if it is not from he website department. this idea can generally extend to any piece of business
well sadly all things go like this: pay big money get many people, pay little money get only a person that does the work 5 should do.
