Brand

1. Does your brand clearly communicate what you are about and convey the highest
value you deliver?

Good image- Chiller and freezer segment, not in dry box(has to work out our own
box)

2. Does your brand effectively differentiate you from every other supplier in your
marketplace?

Quality and service, approach- Has to work more on quality

3. Is your brand promise well understood and consistently executed at all levels of
your organization?

This does not happen. Purchase, inventory and delivery(for eg. hawasung)

4. Is your brand identity being properly used in all media?

Not at all given. A media plan is needed.

Market

5. Do you know your most profitable customers and are you targeting prospects that
look just like your best customers?

Yes-Rawabi, Qatar flour mill, Rawabi diary are some exceptions

6. Do you understand the factors buyers consider when selecting your product or
service and are you focusing your marketing campaigns on those factors?

Nope

7. Have your customers changed the way they find, buy, or use your product or
service and have you adjusted your marketing plan accordingly?

Quoting for cold rooms and projects

8. Are you actively upselling and cross-selling products and services to your current
customers?

Should do it as a cold chain partner. Should sell salajah guard and after sale
service

Messages

9. Do you have three to five key marketing messages that you’re consistently delivering
in all media?

10. Do your marketing messages resonate with your target audience? Are you talking
about the things your customers and prospects care about?

11. Do these messages match the experience customers have when they interact with
your staff?

12. Are you tailoring messages to specific market segments when you have the
opportunity to do so?

Marketing Channels
13. Are traditional marketing channels – such as advertising, direct marketing, and
public relations – still delivering enough value to warrant the investment they require?

14. Is it time to shift some – or more – of your marketing to new channels such as social
media and mobile marketing?

15. Are you maximizing the value of the proprietary channels you control, such as
newsletters, invoices, product packaging and inserts, vehicles, and buildings?

Marketing Tactics

16. Do you know which marketing tactics are generating the best results – leads,
conversions, or sales – at the lowest cost?

17. Can you cut the cost of any of your tactics by changing formats?

18. Are you integrating social media into traditional marketing tactics like direct mail
and advertising?

19. Can you create a mobile app to promote your product or connect with your
audience?

Creative Approaches

20. Is your creative attention-getting? Does it stand out in a crowded marketplace?

21. Does your creative engage the prospect immediately in your sales message and
enhance the delivery of the message?

22. Is the call to action loud and clear? Does the prospect know exactly what to do next
after reviewing your marketing materials?

23. What will people remember most after seeing your marketing: your clever creative
approach or your product?

Offers

24. Is your offer resonating with prospects? Are more and more people saying yes?

25. Does your offer showcase your product?

26. Does your offer deliver real value to the prospect?

27. Are you tailoring offers to specific market segments or types of buyers?

Collateral and Sales Tools

28. Are your sales brochures, displays, and sales demonstration tools accurate,
complete, and up to date?

29. Are your sales tools integrated with your brand and your marketing campaigns?

30. Do you need new tools to educate prospects about your industry or product?

Data

31. Are you capturing customer and prospect data to build a robust marketing
database?

32. Are you compiling email addresses for an ongoing sales dialogue?
33. Are you tracking and recording response and transactional data to create full profiles
of your customers and their behavior so you can target future promotions?

34. Is your customer and prospect addressing data accurate and complete and ready for
the new USPS standards for mail deliverability?

MASTER DATA FILE????

Website

35. Is your website built around the needs and interests of your visitors?

36. Is your site easy to navigate, with most information available in three clicks or less?

37. Are you delivering high-value content that establishes your credibility?

38. Are you inviting visitors to engage with you via blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds, and
social media?

39. Is your site fully optimized for search engines?

40. Are you regularly adding new content and inbound links to increase your SEO
rankings?

CHECKLIST-2
MARKETING
Image
 Get a group of outsiders to take an overall look at your “visual presence.” This
includes your logo, colors, fonts, marketing materials, website and everything else.
Is your look fresh and current or old and outdated? If it’s been more than 10 years
(maybe even 5!) since you last refreshed your image… it’s time to take a look at it.
Note: no logos are timeless.
 Now, line up all your marketing materials together – ads, biz cards, collateral,
proposals, website, trade show booth, etc. Do they look like they came from the
same company? Or is there a certain ‘randomness’ to them that does not support
your brand? What you’re looking for here is that they are all current and consistent.
Website
 And while you’ve got the outsiders gathered, ask them to surf your website and
give you their feedback. Is it easy to navigate and find what they need? Is your
contact information on every page? Does it look ‘homemade’… or did you invest a
little in making a good appearance? Nothing will harm the perception of your firm
more than a lousy website.
 Speaking of harming the perception of your firm – get rid of your Gmail or
Comcast email address… NOW! Spend 50 bucks and get a real email address. The
generic ones make you look cheap and unprofessional!
Advertisements
 Is there just one idea per ad? Is the headline a ‘benefit’ and not the name of your
company or a product? Is there a call to action? Do you list contact information?
 Use fewer words… ‘nuf said.
 Take a look at your competitors’ ads? Do your ads look like all the rest – or do you
stand out?
Email Marketing
 Are you consistent with your email? Is the content promotional and focused
internally (not good) or filled with usable information and problem-solving ideas? Are
you measuring and testing? Is there an easy way to opt out?
Social Media
  Are you using social to just promote your firm or are you trying to engage clients
and prospects with good information and ideas? Do your social sites connect to your
website – and vice versa?
 Look at the date of your latest blog post or tweet… are you consistent and
frequent? If you’re going to do it – do it right. Create an editorial calendar and stick
to it!
Content
 Is ‘content marketing’ part of your plan? If so (and it should be), are you providing
beneficial content for your clients and prospective clients as a way to build
credibility and differentiate your firm? Are you mixing up the delivery vehicles –
articles, blog posts, white papers, case studies, eBooks, webinars, etc.?
 If your content is at all “salesy” – erase it and start over.
Lead management
 Lead generation: are your marketing tactics generating new leads (online, via
email or over the phone)? Are you immediately capturing the lead information and
putting it into a CRM system (yes, you need one!)?
 Lead nurturing: once in your CRM, what are you doing to stay in touch with these
leads on a regular basis? To qualify them and start to build relationships?
 Database: In addition to your new leads, what are you doing to re-ignite the old,
cold leads that have been sitting in your database for (gulp!) years? Much of that old
data will be no good – when you find bad data, get it out of the system.
SALES
The Sales Team
 Does each rep have a reasonable number of clients – not too few that they’re
bored and not too many that they can’t cover them all?
 Are your reps “hunters” (targeting new clients) or “farmers” (maintaining/growing
repeat clients)? Or both? And both are important.
FARMERS
 Do your reps have assigned ‘territories’… as defined by geography, size of clients
or vertical markets served? Having clearly defined parameters eliminates any
conflicts and ensures the appropriate focus.
Capabilities Presentation
 Look at your current presentation and cut out 50% of the words. Then take out
another 50%. Your goal is to create a visually compelling presentation… not a bunch
of words that you read to the audience. “Sell the sizzle, not the steak.”
 Talk about how you help clients, not just what you sell.
 Have a longer version (for in-person) and a shorter one (for virtual presentations).
 Practice… practice… practice…
 To make sure your sales rep is representing your firm that way that you want,
have him/her present to you like their job depended on it – because it should!
Sales Rep Preparation
 Training: about the industry, your company, your competitors and your products
 On-going development: selling skills, industry updates, etc.
 Tools: CRM system, laptop, smart phone, virtual presentation software (like
WebEx, GoToMeeting, etc.)
GIFTING, Top 50 customers meeting
Meetings-Assignment
 Subscriptions: make sure to fund industry magazine subscriptions… you want
your reps to become ‘students of the industry.’
Sales Compensation
 Know this… there are no perfect comp plans, but work on one that serves both
the company’s and the rep’s needs.
 Not feeling well in case of incentives
 Sales reps like instant gratification… so pay out monthly if you can.
 A good comp plan will drive behavior – so make sure the plan is aligned with your
goals.
 Make sure you create a plan that you can actually implement… that you can
easily get the data you need from accounting, etc.
Other sales reps
 Make sure your PMs/PDs are trained to up-sell and cross-sell.
 When appropriate, have the outside reps take a senior executive along on sales
calls – there is strength in numbers and in that level of seniority.
 Have the sales rep take along other team members – PDs, marketers, analysts,
moderators… not only does it help those team members to better understand what
sales does, but also to better understand clients’ needs.
Elevator pitch
 There are four distinct parts to a pitch:
1. Who you are (name and company)
2. What you do (e.g. full-service research firm)
3. Who do you do it for (your target market(s))
4. What’s different about it / Why they should care / How they will benefit
 Write it from their perspective; e.g. don’t talk about the methodologies you use…
talk about the kind of business problems (their business problems) you solve
BOTH
Planning
 Do you have a marketing & sales plan in place? Is it based on strategy? At the
very least, do you have a calendar of events that you can stick to?

 Can you articulate HOW you are different than your competitors (“We do good
work. / We have great people. / We really take care of our clients.” does not count –
everybody says that!)? Once you can articulate a difference, it should become the
center piece of your marketing message.
Measurement
 Are you measuring your marketing and sales? If not, how do you know if it’s
working?!
 For marketing:
o When all else fails, ask everyone, “How’d you hear about us?” then track
the results.
o Are you doing simple A/B testing of emails, ads, etc? It’s an easy way to
get better at marketing every day.
o If it’s not in place yet, set your business up on Google Analytics today to
measure activities related to your website!
 For sales:
o Revenue (of course): vs. goals, vs. last year, overall and by client.
o Activity: # calls, # presentations, # new prospects, etc.; if Revenue is off
and you’re not tracking Activity, you won’t know what to fix.
o Pipeline progress: Suspects / Prospects / 1st-time Clients / Repeat Clients
(or however you define it)… is the total number of firms in the pipeline growing
and are they moving closer to the smaller end?
Execution
 Develop a simple, daily marketing & sales calendar
 Develop a simply dashboard for measuring your marketing & sales
 Develop a basic budget tracking sheet to make sure you’re staying on plan
 Most importantly, block off a little time each day to focus on marketing & sales
 New customers
 Own products
 New categories
 Market visit
 A system for commission

SMEs in HVAC

Manpower issue

AMC problems