Marketing is “the whole idea of your business”. What your service is, at what price, when it's available, the people it's aimed at, how those people should actually buy from it, what colours it uses, the name, the pricing, its location and coverage, and so on.

This article deals with the marketing of your courier business.

You need to match the features, advantages and benefits (“FAB”) of your courier service with the wants and needs of your customers. Once you've worked out the details of your marketing, you need to communicate it to the people you're aiming at.

Marketing should not be confused with selling. Selling is part of marketing. Marketing helps your selling to be effective. Selling is the act of to trying to persuade your target that you alone offer the

quality he wants, at the price he wants. It will not always the cheapest price. He/she will be juggling with a whole range of things such as price, system, performance, habit, prejudice, fashion, value and personal relationships. The bottom line is that he/she will come up with a simple conclusion that “I like it” or “I don't like it”, and if it is “I don't” he/she will go away and buy whatever it is he/she “likes better” from somebody else.

The crunch question is “What is the customer looking for?” and your success in marketing lies in getting it more nearly right than your competitors. If you get it right you make money.

Question Yourself:

Make sure you know the answers to:

“Give me a really good reason why anyone should actually choose

you rather than someone else”

“What is so special or different about your courier service that they should choose to spend their money with you”

“Is there anything unique about your quality, features, specification, service, design, convenience, availability, presentation, or performance that actually matters to the customer?”

“Which customers don't you want?”

“Which customers do you want?”

“Where are they and how many of them are there?”

“How do they go about making their buying decisions?”

“What actual benefits will they get, and why would they get more benefit than from buying from someone else.”

“What problems can you solve that are commonly experienced by your customers?”

You should know the answers to all of these, and rehearse them in front of someone who will give you friendly criticism.

Make sure you know who your target market is. Look at what your competitors

are offering to those people, and make sure you know why your business

services more closely correspond to what your target market wants to buy.

You can find this out by phoning your competitors and asking them, usually, and by looking at their website. Work out areas in which you offer a better service or are better value than they are.

From all of this, decide on price, presentation, service quality and selling method, and keep this clear in your mind.

Respond to changes in the courier market, both local and national, such as the arrival or disappearance of a competitor, or changes in their prices or service, or the emergence of new technology such as freight exchanges, social networking, realtime Proof of Delivery systems, and online booking. If you fail to supply what your customers really do want they will simply take their money and spend it with someone who does.

In the end, business is about people, it is about understanding what they want, about supplying it when they require, wherever, whenever, and however they want, at a price they are prepared to pay that maintains your margin. And then getting paid.

"One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-

confidence is preparation."

(Arthur Ashe)

© 2009 Tim Gilbert – All rights reserved.