Kick-Ass Business & Marketing Secrets: How to Blitz Your Competition

Chapter 3

Moment of Truth

The Business and Marketing Audit

The most critical elements for any organization to develop are the business model, the business plan, the marketing strategy, and the resultant marketing implementation designed to achieve established goals. A brand can have fantastic offerings; however, unless it can precisely identify its potential clients, differentiate from its competitors, clearly target the correct message as cost effectively as possible, and then motivate a purchase, it will not achieve its true objectives.

It is essential for all professionals to realize that merely having an office, plant, equipment, stock, and staff does not make a business. A real company exists only when customers buy your product or service, and your net income exceeds your gross expenses.

There are only five drivers in any business. These are:

1. Product/service/technology

2. Business strategy

3. Funding

4. Customer need

5. Marketing strategy

All businesses have some kind of product/service/technology. Some have a proven business model, and some have a business strategy. Few differentiate themselves clearly from their competitors, and most usually have some level of funding. Yet none of these elements is sufficient to make a business.

In far too many instances, it is the two elements that really make the business—understanding the customer's need and developing a quality marketing strategy—that is lacking.

This is why the majority of traditional and web companies fail. ...