Marketing: SWOT as a sales tool
– By John Foust
Raleigh, NC
Libby provides her advertising clients with creative services that extend far beyond ad layouts and headlines. “I found a helpful idea in one of our staff meetings at the paper,” she told me. “We were doing a SWOT analysis on a new business recommendation, and I was impressed by the way the formula helped us see the situation objectively. So I decided to add SWOT to my sales toolbox.”
SWOT represents four areas in the evaluation of prospective business initiatives: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. By focusing on these four areas, decision makers are able to gather and organize relevant information. “What I like about it,” Libby explained, “is that the SWOT formula is simple and effective. Clients grasp the concept quickly, and it doesn’t require a lot of explanation.
Libby told me about a new business that had opened in her market. In their first appointment, the marketing manager said that top management was considering putting the entire advertising effort into one big announcement – a full-page, full-color ad. Libby knew it was a bad idea to run just one ad, but also knew that she had to be diplomatic in talking about it. So she suggested a SWOT analysis.
Strengths: “It was important to start with positives,” Libby said, “and it was important to work through the process together. I took out my legal pad, and we made a list of the good things about a full-page, color ad. For example, the ad would stand out in that issue of the paper, it would present the advertiser as a serious entry in that product category, and it would give employees a sense of pride.”
Weaknesses: This step allowed Libby to help the advertiser understand the value of repetition in advertising. Their list of weaknesses included things like: One ad would quickly disappear from readers’ radar screens, and competitors could get the “last word” by running ads to answer their message.
Opportunities: By the time they got to the third step, the advertiser was ready to discuss alternative plans that could be of interest to top management. They examined how a budget could be distributed throughout the year, potential campaign themes, and the best times to advertise certain products and services.
Threats: Here they talked about internal and external threats to the opportunities they had listed. Internal threats included budget issues, as well as possible resistance from others in the company. Most of the external threats dealt with questions about how competitors might react to their marketing tactics.
“After our analysis, it was easy to develop an action plan,” Libby concluded. “The marketing manager shared his concerns with his immediate boss – note that the concerns were now his, not mine – and we set up a meeting for all three of us to discuss possibilities. The result of that meeting was a long-term ad campaign in our paper.”
Add the SWOT formula to your sales toolbox. Properly used, it can help you become a better marketing partner.
(c) Copyright 2008 by John Foust. All rights reserved.
E-mail John Foust for information about his training videos for ad departments: jfoust@mindspring.com