Marketing Consulting Blog

The group I have been partnering with has been working with a local (Louisville, KY) franchisor to help with their marketing efforts. We've met with the franchisor four or five times, and we seem to struggle with getting our arms around everything his franchise needs from a marketing aspect. They need a lot at this stage, but our approach has been to offer certain things while pointing him in the right direction on others. (Most franchisors have similar needs so this project isn't vastly different from the ones we may face with others as we move forward.)

It dawned on me during a bike ride last week that our approach is flawed--he doesn't want us to point him in the right direction for this or that; he wants us to take over solving marketing problems for him. He wants the "easy button" where he can push it and we make his life easier. Isn't that what we all want when we seek out a solution to a problem? Don't we want someone to magically fix it? I believe we're going to be much better off if we take the "easy button" approach with him and his franchisees than we will by offering some of the services and providing guidance on the rest. What do you think?

During my solo afternoon bike ride before the rain hit, I was doing some thinking about the core competencies of my firm and what I could boil it down to in the simplest of terms. After some internal back and forth, I came up with "lead generation" is what everything falls back to. Search optimization is beneficial only when it generates more qualified leads. Same with advertising and marketing efforts--quality lead generation is the ultimate goal when a company engages in those activities. So that got me to thinking about some of the services we currently offer that don't relate to that core of lead generation.

Technology consulting doesn't really fit into the "new" mission of the business. Neither does strategic planning although there are strategic elements involved when trying to generate leads through marketing or advertising so it's more of a complimentary aspect than part of the core. Same goes for business planning--it's not critical to the core of lead generation although marketing planning is so I foresee a shift in approach coming there. Web design/redesign, however, is a precursor to lead generation because the web is a critical tool to utilize when trying to attract potential customers and generate leads so that is something to be more focal for us moving forward.

What all is really involved in lead generation?
Website Design/Re-Design
Copywriting (falls under website design & SEO if you break it down)
SEO
Marketing (SEO falls under marketing if you really break it down)
Advertising
Sales Training/Development

I'm sure I'm leaving some things out, but that's a pretty good core list of services which doesn't look all that related to the initial core list of services I envisioned when starting the firm two years ago. For some strange reason, I feel a sense of clarity after mulling through that during my ride today. I feel like the sense of purpose has now been defined and all future activities will have a greater meaning. Straying will be much more difficult, and it will be easier to make decisions about whether to take on a certain client, form a joint venture, partner, or offer another service.

In watching the first couple of DVDs of Mike Filsaime's The 7 Figure Code, it talks about the "hedgehog concept" that is broached in Jim Collins' bestselling Good to Great classic. I've read Good to Great, but I hadn't revisited it in, well, two years so I was happy to have that topic come up again. My first "to do" after watching the first couple of DVDs was to figure out what I think this firm can become truly great at doing, and lead generation consulting is what I kept coming back to. Every business transaction starts with some sort of lead, and leads will never go out of "style" so this newly redefined mission could fuel the company for decades.

Moving forward, look for a shift in focus and offerings from our firm along with content that directly relates to the newly found focus.

What do you think of this approach? Good, bad, or indifferent--let me hear from you. I value all of the feedback I receive.


PS--So far, The 7 Figure Code has already stoked my internal coals to rethink everything from a more simplified place so it has proven invaluable after just 2 DVDs (16 total). If the next 14 provide as much thought provoking material, unbelievably great things are going to happen! I'll post a more complete review of the package once I dig deeper into it--it just arrived yesterday (Thursday, 7/26/07).