Description:

This two-day course on the management of business markets is aimed at professional service providers and covers an important business topic.

Most businesses start in a small way in response to a need and grow as they become more successful. Often this is a very convenient and stable situation which suits all the parties. Then something changes and overnight the business becomes vulnerable. Up until this point marketing did not seem necessary as the business was always negotiated between trusting and reliable partners. Now the business is faced with looking outside their convenient environment to look for other opportunities. This is the point where marketing seems to have a place.

Professional service providers have a tendency to stay with what they know and so the marketing tends to be done in-house with each professional staff member looking for work and soliciting clients. This course is about the introduction of marketing at this stage within a businesses development.

The marketing process at this stage is intended to bring all the various marketing effort into a focused and effective business function. The course starts at the beginning, with the business plan and the current public messages (core values, mission statements and so on) and works towards a very clear picture of the business goals. It goes through a range of processes to gather information of existing and future clients, opportunities, competitors and the market at large. The course will also consider the product (services), price, place, promotion, processes and people in a search for a marketing strategy which will bring a sustained competitive advantage. It considers the value proposition and what the business does which is special and different. Marketing is a huge subject but the course will try to create a framework in which the concepts are clear, the tools are relevant, the clients are available and the opportunities real.

Marketing is a vital business function which brings real benefits through a culture of careful and scientific study of the specific opportunities available to your business. You may still survive if the effort is diluted, but with full strength you will surely develop.

An Attendance Certificate will be provided at the end of this skill course.

Vital Benefits:

There comes a time when all professional service providers realise that a more focused effort is required to understand the scope of their market place and how they can increase their benefit from it. This course provides you the following vital benefits:

• A clear understanding of the scope of the market
• An understanding of the services which can be provided
• Developing a clear strategy for development
• Coordinating all the diverse efforts within the business into a marketing function
• A clear vision of the image to be adopted and the public messages which confirm it
• An introduction to the many relevant tools used in marketing

Objectives:

There are huge opportunities for those who are organised to take them. This organisation must be focused around the market place. It this course, it is our objectives to:

• Introduce the clear and vital benefits of marketing
• Understand the use of public corporate messages
• Provide an understanding of the tools of marketing
• Introduce product (service) strategies which capture a wider margin of the market
• Understand the complex concepts of sustainable competitive advantage and how to create it
• Understand the language of marketing

Topics:

The course covers the following topics:

• The seven “P’s” of marketing
• The unique difference between service and products
• Marketing strategy
• Corporate statements
• Economic threats and opportunities
• Internal analysis
• The value proposition, RBV and VRIO
• Competitive advantage strategies
• Quality, accessibility and many other issues

Who to Attend:

Marketing is a vital business function and works at the highest levels in the business. We would recommend the following people would find this course valuable:

• Business leaders
• Business executive
• Business managers
• Marketing and sales managers
• Operations managers
• Line managers
• Those who make important decisions for the business
• Those who face the client or customer
• Those who want to develop their business skills