I was doing my rounds, checking out the usual marketing blogs the other day, and found an interesting article on Robert Middleton’s site Action Plan Marketing about what he called intellectual firepower. Basically he talks about how in order to be successful you have to put in the work. This is all really easy to agree with; I’ve always been a fan of hard work. The truth of the matter is that lately I feel that many marketers out there are just plain lazy. What can be done about this? Read on…

It really starts with motivation. Before even trying to develop intellectual firepower, you have to genuinely want to improve yourself. If you’re just trying to motivate yourself, then you should already know which buttons need to be pushed. However, if you’re a manager, tyring to motivate a team or specific members of a team, you’ll need to really understand what motivates them both professionally and personally. Once you and/or your team is at the point of genuine motivation, then you can begin to arm yourself with intellectual firepower. How do you do this…

Back in school, you’re given homework. Why should it be any different at work. Give your employees reading assignments, and spend some time addressing new marketing ideas and emerging concepts. I think that most businesses merely exist with no real emphasis on growth, development, or innovation. Of course, the CEO’s of the world are looking for growth, but what about the average employee? Find some way to arm your employees with knowledge, and show them that their development is important to the future of your business. Then maybe you’ll see some real effort. Motivate and then educate.

Of course, developing intellectual firepower is about more than just reading. You have to put in the work. This means that management has to be approachable, and flexible. Listen to what your employees tell you and take it into consideration. Reward good ideas, and encourage everyone to bring their A game to work. I could go on and on, but you get what I’m saying.

What do you do to develop intellectual firepower? Let me know in the comments below or email me privately at edwardviator@evil-marketer.com.

In this link, Robert Middleton (founder of Action Plan Marketing) discusses an interesting tactic in pricing. I’ve actually heard this one before from a sales person I used to work with. Just like all sales people, he constantly had to face clients unwilling or unable to pay the price for the product or service he was selling. I asked him what he did in those situations and he told me “tell them you can lower the price, by taking away one of the features.”

I was amazed by the simplicity. But you know what? It works. Lower the value of your product, and then the price will follow. It takes you the same amount of time and money to produce the product; it takes the same amount of work and effort. Why should the price be lowered? Especially in these troubled economic times, most customers will be willing to do a little extra work if it will save them money. If they aren’t then they are basically valuing their time over yours.

Another tactic that Robert discusses in the link is to create tiered levels of the product or service. You know, Platinum, Gold, or Silver (hopefully you have more creative names than that, but you know what I’m talking about). Once the client has bought in on the value of what you offer and is ready to discuss price, the discussion becomes “which of these do you want” rather than “do you want it or not”. 

Agree / Disagree? Hit that comments button below or email me at edwardviator@evil-marketer.com