BUSINESS MARKETING: Success without process? You’re lucky

2012-10-28T00:00:00Z BUSINESS MARKETING: Success without process? You’re luckyLarry Galler Times Business Columnist nwitimes.com
October 28, 2012 12:00 am  • 

Every so often I come across a business enjoying huge sales success without a process to sustain it.

They are, as the cliche says, “in the right place at the right time.” They are lucky. They have something their prospects want and will buy today. What about tomorrow?.

Unfortunately, as that great master spy and gambler James Bond of 007 fame has said many times, “the cards have no memory.” Luck is “here today, gone tomorrow.” So I hope those lucky businesses enjoy their success while they can, because that fad or trend or bolt of lightening that can be likened to the whim of the cards will abandon them one day just as quickly and mysteriously as it arrived.

We all know of companies that are like a brilliant shooting star that hurtles across the sky, then quickly burns up and is extinguished. And when luck leaves, what do they do next? Can they wait long enough to be hit by that lucky lightening again?

It is better to be smart and develop a process to drive sales success. Unfortunately, it takes a bit of work, trial-and-error persistence and gumption to go through all the steps of prospecting, presentation, delivery and follow-up to attract a steady stream of tire-kickers, then first-time buyers, then returning customers, then occasionals, then frequents and then long-term or lifetime customers.

None of these steps can be left to luck. Each step along the way needs to be reinforced by the process to continually promote properly and persistently to customers as they continue to return.

Oh, those lucky companies might get a few prospects to go through this maze to lifetime customership on their own, but imagine how much more sustainable and profitable a company is when they have a process in place to attract prospects with regularity, convert some to customers and then continue to communicate with them regularly to induce them to return again and again.

It isn’t luck. It’s a process and even knowing about the process is lucky so make your own luck and develop your process.

Opinions are solely the writer's. Larry Galler, of Larry Galler & Associates, is a marketing and management consultant for small and mid-size companies. Take Galler’s free vision assessment to see whether your company’s vision might need to be updated. Send an email to larry@larrygaller.com and put “Vision” in the subject line.

Copyright 2013 nwitimes.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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