selling a me too product

Overnight Success Is An Exception, Not A Rule

SELLING A ME-TOO PRODUCT

WHAT IS A ME-TOO PRODUCT

A product that is introduced by a company after it has

been successfully introduced by other companies, and already have a significant

market share.

WHY A ME-TOO PRODUCT

In fact, starting with a “Me-Too” product as first product is the preferable way to go.

I hate to break this to you, but your first “innovative” idea will most likely cost you more than you might gain from it (At Least in the beginning).

And it might most likely fail.


Innovation is glamorous. But don’t chase the “innovation”. Chase the customer needs instead.

With an “innovative” approach your idea will take the “idea-first” road instead of the “market-first” approach

Where a “me-too” concept becomes perfectly acceptable, as the market is proven to be right there.


With an idea that you find that somebody else is already doing it, is actually a good sign.

In fact, no competition is nothing but a sign of an empty niche.

WHY DO WE NEED COMPETITION?

ACTUALLY WE NEED COMPETITION BECAUSE..

THE BIG PROBLEM WITH AVOIDING COMPETITION IS THAT YOU ARE ALSO AVOIDING CUSTOMERS.

“Erik Sink”


Because creating a new product in a crowded niche you are familiar with, and you can make it even slightly better than the existing ones is easier than creating a brand new niche

It’s even easier to innovate in crowded niches, because you have reference points, weaknesses and strength right under your nose.


The conclusion is that: selling ( Me-Too product)

with innovative selling techniques, is better than

selling an innovative product with any type of

selling techniques.


And to make things completely clear, Being first to market also have its advantages

You will set the standard Establish brand name First to fulfill the customer demands Associate your product with this

market segment.You’ll have 100 % of the market share,

the loyalty of all satisfied customers.


But being second or even last has its advantages too.

You get to build on the mistakes made by the pioneer and enjoy a market that’s already been told the benefits of the product.

With the right planning, and guided by the leaders previous steps in the market a “Me-Too” product can quickly overtake this tired front runner and move from second or even last to be first.(Google -Windows Explorer)

HOW DO WE COMPETE?

Competition must be on quality in addition to offer a

significant improvement over competitors , so it will be possible not just to take

market share but to change the market pricing as well.

SETTING CONCEPTS

It is founded on the belief that

profitable sales and satisfactory returns on investment can only be achieved by identifying,

anticipating and satisfying customer needs and

desires.

MARKETING CONCEPTS

DefinitionA PHILOSOPHY THAT FIRMS SHOULD ANALYZE THE NEEDS AND WANTS OF THEIR CUSTOMERS AND THEN MAKE

DECISIONS TO SATISFY THOSE NEEDS AND WANTS, BETTER THAN THE

COMPETITION. WHICH MOST FIRMS HAVE ADOPTED THIS MARKETING

CONCEPT, TO INSURE THEIR SUCCESS

MARKETING CONCEPTS

There is Five orientations (philosophical concepts) to the marketplace have guided and continue to guide organizational activities:

1. The Production Concept2. The Product Concept3. The Selling Concept4. The Marketing Concept5. The Societal Marketing Concept

MARKETING CONCEPTS

The Production Concept: This concept is the oldest of all concepts in

business. It holds that: consumers will prefer

products that are widely available and inexpensive.

Production managers focusing on this concept, concentrate on achieving high production efficiency, low costs, and mass distribution, assuming that consumers are primarily interested in product availability and low prices.

MARKETING CONCEPTS

The Product Concept: This orientation holds that: consumers will

favor those products that offer the most quality, performance, or innovative features.

Managers on this concept concentrate on making superior products and improving them over time, assuming that buyers admire well-made products and can appraise quality and performance.

MARKETING CONCEPTS

The Selling Concept:This holds that: consumers and businesses,

if left alone, will ordinarily not buy enough of the selling company’s products.

The organization must therefore, undertake an aggressive selling and promotion effort, assuming that consumers typically shows a buying resistance and must be coaxed into buying ,while using a whole battery of effective selling and promotional tools to stimulate more buying

MARKETING CONCEPTS

The Marketing Concept: This business philosophy that Actually challenges

the above three business orientations, which central tenets crystallized in the 1950s.

It holds that: the key to achieving its organizational goals depend on being more effective than competitors in creating, delivering, and communicating with an impressive value to the targeted customers.

The marketing concept rests on four pillars: Target market, Customer needs, Integrated

marketing and Profitability.

MARKETING CONCEPTS

The Societal Marketing Concept:This concept holds that: The organization’s

task is to determine the needs, wants, and interests of target markets and to deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors (this is the original Marketing Concept).

Additionally, it holds that this all must be done in a way that preserves or enhances the consumer’s and the society’s well-being.

The Sales Concept

focuses on the needs of the seller

preoccupied with the seller’s need to convert his/her product into cash

focuses on the needs of the buyer

preoccupied with the idea of satisfying the needs of the customer by means of the product as a solution to the customer’s problem (needs).

MARKETING CONCEPTSThe Selling

ConceptThe Marketing

Concept

MARKETING CONCEPT

IN A SHORTER SPEECHThe product in the right place, at the

right time, with the right price (profitable) to the targeted customer.Marketing is a non stop process that starts

before the product even exists on the shelves, and continuously go on after the

product is sold to the end user.And it lasts for several year until there is a

solid base of regular customers at that time it is considered a Brand (Even if it starts as a Me-Too)

MARKETING CONCEPT

MRKETING IS.. THE WAYS THAT MIGHT MAKE THE PRODUCT LOOKS DIFFERENT THAN THE OTHERS IN THE CUSTOMER'S EYES

The evidence is all around us, Me-too products are spending tens or even hundreds of millions on marketing.

Because the only real difference between these products is the marketing activity itself.

MARKETING CONCEPTAnd shortly to differentiate between

Marketing and BrandingIf you decide to buy a specific Toyota

Car (Camry for example) The marketing is what makes you choose

to buy CamryBut the branding is what makes you

choose Toyota in the first placeAnd it takes a lot of effort, money and

time to make a brand.

MARKETING CONCEPT

Marketing is the methods and ways that keeps bringing customers to your business as well as making others aware of your business, product, and brand.

Sales is what make these customers buy this product

Marketing is what makes them interested Sales is what moves their well form

interested to buying.

MARKETING CONCEPTTherefore all of these money ,effort and time

that is spend on marketing could be totally lost if the sale process was not successfully completed

So all the activity done during the sales process involving the use of a whole set of principles, techniques and substantial personal skills, and covering a wide range of different types of selling tasks is the way to achieve that, which of course laid on the salesman shoulder to get this part successfully done eventually.

MARKETING CONCEPT

This is because the sales process through a salesman is the first direct and interpersonal communication with the customer

This front line role of the salesperson means that for the customers the salesperson is the company

That’s why the best designed and planned marketing efforts may fail because the sales force is ineffective

MODERN SALES CHARACTERISTICS

Today, a sales force must have a wide range of skills to compete successfully.

Gone are these days when salespeople required simple presentational and closing skills to be successful, especially when we are talking about products that’s already presented by other companies.

Today selling requires a wide array of skills to successfully be able to maintain a profitable business.


That’s why we always need to search and implement a new sales techniques, to help our sales team to find their way among the competitors.

Fine new mechanisms to successfully approach and penetrate competitors markets while selling the same product/s.


The Characteristics Of Modern Selling is the new era of selling

skills for any sales team and those who do not understand these

characteristics will be ill-equipped to tackle their jobs.


1. Customer retention and deletion:The old rule says that 80 %of the sales comes from 20 % of the

customers.

This means that it is vital to devote considerable resources to retaining existing high volume, high potential and highly profitable customers.

2. Database and knowledge management: the modern sales force needs to be trained in the

use and creation of customer databases, and how to use the internet to aid the sales task (e.g. finding customer and competitor information).

In the past salespeople recorded customer information on cards and sent in orders through the post to head office.

Today’s technology provides them with much easier way to do that


3. Customer relationship management: customer relationship management requires that

the sales force focuses on the long term and not simply on closing the next sale

The emphasis should be on creating a win–win situations with customers so that both parties gains, and would want to continue in this profitable relationship.

Major customers relationship management involves personal and professional sales attitudes to be able to properly and efficiently serve and maintain all aspects for those accounts business relationship.


4. Marketing the product:the modern salesperson is involved in a much range of

activities than simply planning and making a sales presentation.

Although, face-to-face presentations can now sometimes be replaced by information presented on web pages and by email attachments that give the customer up-to-date information on many topics more quickly and comprehensively, and in a more time-convenient manner than many face-to-face interactions.


5. Problem solving and system selling:

much of modern selling, particularly in business to business situations, is based upon the salesperson acting as a consultant working with the customer to identify problems, determine needs and propose and implement effective solutions.

This approach is fundamentally different from the traditional salesperson which looked like a smooth, fast-talking and eager's to see a customer then trying to persuade this customer to buy, and walks away with an order.


The role of the salesperson is expanding to.. participation in marketing activities such as product

development, market development and the segmentation of markets

As well as other tasks that support or complement marketing activities such as database management, provision and analysis of information, and assessing market segments.

One of the most important changes in selling that has emerged during the past two decades is..

KEY ACCOUNT MANAGMENT


KEY ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

This is a radically different organizational process used by business-to-business suppliers to manage their relationships with strategically-important customers, and it produces measurable business benefits.

KAM is a major change, but the chances of success can be dramatically increased by following the seven steps described here:


1. Recognize that KAM is an organizational change, not a sales technique.

KAM implementations take years, not months. The companies which have implemented KAM most successfully have been those who thought of it as a change in the way they did business

KAM is a commitment to work differently with certain priority customers and, to fulfill this promise, other supplier divisions have to understand and support KAM.


2. HIGH-LEVEL SPONSORSHIP. An organizational change of this

magnitude requires high-level sponsorship, preferably C-suite.

Members of the main board of Siemens, including the CEO, each sponsor a number of key accounts and visit them regularly.


3.APPOINT A KAM PATRONIZE.

Once the organization has accepted that it is embarking on a major change, and senior managers understand what KAM is, so it is time to find someone who is going to patronize the KAM program and drive the implementation, Your KAM patronize should be passionate about KAM and needs to have good influencing skills and great energy levels

Usually, this will be someone high up the organization, and it helps if they report directly to the top management, at least for the duration of the project.

That way, KAM gets onto the top team agenda and the patronize gets the support they need to make changes.


4.IDENTIFY YOUR KEY ACCOUNTS — CAREFULLY.

To get the KAM program started, you need to identify some key accounts, We need to develop a precise mechanism is by selecting those customers, generally the number of key accounts should be small (somewhere between 5 and 25 key accounts)based on the size of the business.

EX..major corporations like Xerox keep the number of true key accounts below 100.


Be clear about what defines a key account and stick to that. Don’t give in to pressure to add certain customers to your key account program just because they have been customers a long while, or they are life buddies with the CEO.

It is easier to add customers to your KAM program than it is to ‘demote’ customers once you have told them they are key accounts


5.APPOINT AND TRAIN YOUR KEY ACCOUNT MANAGERS.

Many organizations simply moves their best sales people into key account manager roles.

That’s a mistake, because KAM is about changing the way people work — it is not just a sales technique.

Converting your best sales people into KAMs might means that you’ve just lost them even as sales people .

In fact, you need to think that the role requires a broad range of skills including (financial, consultative, planning, interpersonal and influencing skills) and then pick the right person for the role.


6. SET THE RIGHT METRICS. Traditional sales metrics are irrelevant to KAM. Many key

account managers spend much of their time inside the supplier company, managing things on behalf of the customer.

The right metric for a key account manager is the lifetime value of their customer (the customer bottom line), not top-line revenues. This is an important point: Key account managers typically work on bigger deals for bigger clients. Some of these deals can be big enough that there would be real damage to the supplier company if they went sour. So, the key account manager needs to understand the cost to serve and not just the top line.


7. BENCHMARK AND BUILD.

Your key account program should not be static over time.

Instead, you should keep it refreshed either by moving new key accounts into the program (and occasionally moving former key accounts out if they no longer match up) or by actively seeking best practice, both within and outside your company.

AND REMEMBER

WHAT GET S M EASURED GETS M ANAGE D


Modern selling techniques could involves multiple calls, team-selling approaches and considerable analytical skills.

They must have the ability to identify and satisfy customer needs, although some of these customers do not recognize that they have a need , so It is the salesperson’s job in such situations to stimulate need recognition to make customers aware of the problem in order to convince them that they have a need to modernize their process.

In so doing, the salesperson will have added value to the customer’s business by reducing costs and created a win–win situation for their company and the customer.


Further, customers are increasingly looking for a system solutions rather than the buying of an individual product.

This means, for example, instead of selling a single product you will provide him a set of products that will cover his or his customers needs and have some innovative ideas that gives a solution to any problems that may arise

This will give your customer the feeling that you considers his problems yours, which will make him loyal to you, and eventually give you more business.

PREPARED AND PRESENTED BY

الرحيم الرحمن الله بسم

لWيYْب\ل]َوYِنWي ب̂ي Yَر Wِل َفYْض\ ِمWن َذYا Yَه YرYَك Yَش َوYِمYن ر] َأYْك\ُف] َأYْم\ َك]ر] YَأYَش\ َأ

Wه Wس لWَنYُف\ َك]ر] َيYْش\ ا YمqِنWِإ Yَف sيWَنYَغ ب̂ي Yَر qَّنWِإ Yَف Yر YُفYْك َوYِمYن

vَيمWرYْك العظيم الله صدق

HATEM MAHMOUD