ARE YOUR CORE TEAM MEMBERS “IN” WHEN THEY SHOULD BE OUT THERE?
In Economics, the process of production is said to be incomplete until the product reaches the final consumer. Production begins with manufacturing; it then goes through wholesale, to retail and then to final consumer—not always in this order. The order is filled with other processes like distribution, shipping, warehousing, marketing, legal, stocking.
When a team sets to build or manufacture a product, and they successfully do, they can get sucked in, in the internal details that they forget to get out there and get a feel for the market.
In the end, if the product isn’t right (maybe in price, taste, necessity, luxury, or season) for the market, its sale and profit will dwindle over time.
It’s easy to produce and leave the marketing to external marketers who will be paid commissions for every unit sold; however, as easy as this may sound, external marketers rarely know products they sell more than the producers—this may be due to the fact that they market more than one product at the same time. You and your core team members know, not just about the product, but also about the spirit of the company; hence, you all are in the best position to connect the product with the consumers; you all are also in the best position to notice a market shift that will either be favorable or unfavorable to your product—or line of products.
Get out there! Ideas are born within but they must be tested with the available market, and testing is a continuous process; that is, that you got it right with a product and the product became a best-seller doesn’t mean that people will be as interested in the product in the next three months as they were when you first launched.
You and your core team members must be “out”, in order to understand market trends, gain marketing experience, get great advertisement ideas; yet, you must be “in” to make sure that the company structure is still properly in place for efficient productivity. It’s a yin-yang situation: one must not be completely ignored for the other.
Getting out means getting direct feedback from people who use your product; it means marketing—in all its forms; it means understanding competition; it means observing the market to pick market trends that will affect your product.
Throughout history, some companies have been adversely affected—some completely ruined, because the leaders perceived—too late, or never perceived, unfavorable market trends, while other companies have been birthed because their founders were entrepreneurs who perceived trends and built businesses around such trends. Examples of the latter is David H McConnell, a sales person who sold books to women, founded Avon based on a correct perception that women were the right fit to market perfumes since they naturally loved it and naturally networked with their fellow women (Retrieved from: https://about.avon.com/us-about/company/history); also, Charles Lazarus, founder of Toys ‘R’ Us, who rightly perceived the baby boom in 1948.
If you want to really see what it takes to create a core team with the right balance, come behind the scenes with me on a free, live masterclass where i’ll show you how to confidently build your million dollar team. Click here to grab your spot and I look forward to seeing you there!
