FNSPRM603 Grow the practice

FNSPRM603 Grow the practice
2 © AAMC Training Group Learning Guide V2.1
Contents
Section 1 Grow the practice 3
Learning outcome 3
The approach 3
Business planning 3
Marketing strategy 4
Developing a promotional plan 9
How to write a marketing plan 13
Identifying finance markets 16
Leveraging off relationships 17
Finding prospects 19
Developing a growth plan 35
Implementation plan 37
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Section 1 Grow the practice
Learning outcome
Once you have finished this section, you will:
 be able to identify markets
 know how to leverage off existing relationships
 know how business prospecting processes work
 be able to develop and implement a marketing plan.
The approach
Many companies and organisations suffer from poor marketing. It is
often seen as a risky cost rather than a vital investment. Marketing
is essential no matter how your company or organisation carries out
its business activities. Without effective marketing your organisation
will suffer.
Your marketing strategy must be one that takes a business
approach to another business rather than from a business to the
individual consumer. The basics of marketing still apply, but there
are other considerations to be taken into your thought process.
Vision statement
Every business must start somewhere and to ensure you have a
good handle on what you would like your business to look like,
you must come up with a Vision Statement. To achieve this
outcome it is always advisable to involve your team members as
the old saying “no input, no ownership” rings true in this process.
Once you understand what your company’s vision is you are then
better placed to develop your marketing plan for the business.
Business planning
The first thing you are going to need in order to start and grow a
business effectively is a business plan. Once you’ve conducted
research into the feasibility of the business you’re ready to write
your business plan.
Your business plan is essential for your business – it’s your
blueprint for the future. It sets the direction for your business and
keeps you on track once you’re up and running. It’s also a
requirement when you’re seeking finance.
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Depending on what type of business you intend to start, your
business plan could include these elements:

	executive summary – a one-page overview written after your business plan is finalised introduction – explains the purpose and objectives of going into business marketing analysis – looks at the industry you are entering and how you fit in marketing plan – your marketing strategy operations plan – how you’ll set up the business, i.e. structure, location, regulations management plan – how you’ll manage your business Financial plan – how you’ll finance your business, costing and financial projections.
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Business planning is an ongoing business activity – you should
regularly review and revise your business plan.
Marketing strategy
A marketing strategy is the result of decisions being made about
how a particular product or service will be promoted to its target
customers. Marketing strategies are used to increase sales,
launch new products and generally provide profit for a company.
Strategies involve the construction and implementation of the
marketing mix. The marketing mix, which is also known as the
five Ps, refers to the product, price, packaging, promotion and
place or distribution.
A place or distribution marketing strategy may include selling
items in a brick and mortar store as well as through a website.
Or, it may involve choosing one distribution channel over the
other. Selecting the right distribution strategy for a business is
important as this is how the product gets to the customer.
The media landscape is changing beyond all recognition. With the
number of channels available increasing and widening year by
year, you need to understand how to develop strategy that can
be executed at a tactical level. Therefore use the most
appropriate channel or mix of channels to suit your preferred
target audience.
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A marketing strategy helps you focus on the target markets that
you can serve best.
Marketing research
It is worth taking time to complete relevant marketing research.
It will prove invaluable in building your marketing strategy.
Talking with prospective borrowers, lenders and your peers may
uncover many of the requirements, such as service issues or prior
dissatisfaction, possible new products and policies and guidelines
to follow.
Don’t ignore or overlook trends that affect sales and profitability.
It is vital to keep up to date with information such as economic
climate, industry and time of the financial year. These are the
variables that need to be considered.
Target market
Small business usually has limited resources to spend on
marketing. It is beneficial for them to concentrate on a few key
market segments that will get the most return, rather than try to
cover the whole range of market options.
Once you have established the objectives and goals for an
organisation, you need to focus on target markets. It is
important to be able to research and identify the target markets.
These will differ for every industry and will also depend on the
organisation’s goals. You cannot effectively market a product or
service unless you know how to target the segment of the
population that will most likely buy the product or service. You
can identify your primary market and this way the organisations
funds and energy will be spent efficiently.
To identify your target market, you can follow three steps.
1. Identify why a customer would want to buy the product or
service
2. Segment your overall market
3. Research your market
Identify why a customer would want to buy the product or
service, this way you can identify common characteristics of your
potential market. A simple way to do this is table of Features and
Benefits. For example: toothpaste with a stain-removing
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formula, or hand-made leather shoes for extra comfort as a
completely different product.

Features	Benefits
Stain removing formula	Whiter teeth
Soft hand-made leather	More comfortable to wear

To segment your overall market is to break down your possible
customers into groups. Even though every organisation would
want to target as many people as possible if you don’t segment
your market your promotional strategies will never directly target
a group and your budget will not be cost efficient. You want to
create a highly focused campaign that speaks to a specific group.
Example: A job placement firm has a target market of
unemployed; even though anyone looking for a job would benefit
from this organisation by focusing on the particular group of
unemployed such as new graduates they can market assisting
these graduates with career paths and resume writing etc.
Professionals who are in transition between jobs may be dealing
with trauma of being made redundant and usually have a defined
set of skills and a career path.
If your target market is quite large and encompasses a majority
of people you can divide it into smaller segments. You may not
require all the categories but it may help you break it down into
more manageable areas.
There are four categories you can address:

	Geographic – decide if the organisation is heading for local, national or international levels. Identify specific boundaries for the business to operate. Demographic – potential customers may be identified by age,
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race, religion, gender, income level, family size, occupation,
education level and marital status, business industries, size of
other organisations who could be clients and how established
or how long an organisation that could be a client has been
running.
 Psychographic – many organisations offer products based on
the attitudes, beliefs and emotions of their target market. The
desire to enhance appearance and more money are factors
that could influence certain segments of the market. You need
to look at the lifestyle of your market, their hobbies, are they
conservative, are they sports enthusiasts, if your clients are
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other businesses, then are they conservative, innovative,
employee friendly etc.
 Behaviouristic – products and services are purchased for a
number of reasons and you need to determine those reasons.
Are they for brand, loyalty, cost, seasonal? What are
consumers buying habits in this industry? What is the reason
or occasion for the consumer to buy this product or service,
how many times will they make their purchase, what amounts
are they purchasing, are all questions that need to be asked.
Now you can research your market. There are various ways you
can do this:

 	Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Trade Association Journals
	Acquire data from existing clients
	Small business surveys
	Libraries
	Internet information
	Chamber of Commerce surveys
	Industry reports
	Telephone surveys
 	Personal interviews Mail surveys.

Competitor analysis
Once you have developed your organisations objectives,
identified your target market you can develop a competitor
analysis. A competitor analysis is an assessment of the strengths
and weaknesses of current potential competitors.
Quite often when businesses fail to assess their competitors in
the market they are targeting they make a large mistake. Your
visions may lead you be to be the largest provider in your area.
However, you only find, after spending a large amount of funds
and effort on advertising and other promotions, you have much
larger competitors in your area that are well established and have
access to products to which you are denied.
In your competitor analysis you may also find that a competitor
failed in their attempts to establish in your area due to many issues
that you have not even considered.
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Some important questions to ask in your analysis are:
1. Who are our competitors?
2. What threats do they pose?
3. What are the objectives of our competitors?
4. What strategies are our competitors pursuing and are they
successful?
5. What are the strengths and weaknesses of our competitors?
6. How are our competitors likely to respond to any changes in
the way you might do business?
Data can be obtained from many possible sources:

	Annual reports
	Newspaper articles
	Press releases
	Government reports
	Price lists
	Advertising campaigns
	Promotions
	Tenders
	Meetings with suppliers
	Trade shows
	Sales meetings
   	Seminars Recruitment of ex-employees Discussions with shared distributors Social contacts with competitors.

A SWOT analysis is a framework for generating strategic
alternatives from an analysis.

Strengths	Weakness
Opportunities	Threats

If you can identify these items it will give you a greater
marketing strategy. Learn from your competitors and then
develop your own strategies.
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Strengths and Weaknesses tend to factors of the present such as
pricing, profitability, performance, people, adaptability, brands,
services, reputation, infrastructure etc.
Opportunities and Threats are more future factors such as
markets, sectors, audience, fashion, seasonality, trends,
competition, economics, politics, society, technology and law.
Developing a promotional plan
Promotions
A promotion is an increase in rank which may also be accompanied
by a raise in pay, benefits, and responsibility. Most people view
promotions positively, as they indicate that the individual being
promoted is successful, valuable, and useful. In many workplaces,
people actively work towards promotion and its accompanied
benefits. The term is also sometimes used to refer to a general
change in status such as a graduation, which is why you may find
yourself attending a “fifth grade promotion” instead of a fifth grade
graduation.
Typically, someone is rewarded with a promotion when he or she
performs exemplary work, or shows aptitude for a position with
more responsibility. This is usually a cause for celebration, as it
indicates that the employee has a potential for development and
long employment within the company.
A promotion may include supervision responsibilities, as the
promoted employee becomes responsible for administrative
assistants and other staff. These responsibilities should not be
taken lightly, as most employees look to their supervisors for
guidance and examples of appropriate workplace behaviour.
A promotion plan covers all phases of communication between the
seller and potential customers. It addresses advertising, sales
tactics and other promotional activities. The promotion plan will
outline tools or tactics you plan to use to accomplish your
marketing plan objectives. The promotion plan can be mistaken as
the entire marketing plan because it outlines where the majority of
the marketing budget will be spent. It is however, just one
component of the marketing plan. The marketing plan is about
strategies, planning and overall objectives of an organisation.
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Whatever your products or services are, you need to create an
image or brand. If you are going to promote an image or brand
some areas to look at are:

	Logos and letterheads
	Slogans
	Style guides
	Templates for communication and invoicing
   	Writing styles Facility décor Images Phone answering protocol.

You need to look closely at the products and services you are
promoting and see how this brand or image will benefit the client
and then how in turn you can start promoting those products. In
your market research you have studied your target market and
this will assist you in your promotional tactics. There are so many
promotional tools available, some include:

	Advertising – this can be programs for events, trade journals, magazines, newspapers, direct mail, billboards, radio, television or internet Marketing collateral – materials such as brochures, newsletters, flyers and posters. Promotional Activities – sponsorships for special events, participation in community projects, trade shows, job fairs, give-aways, coupons and free samples. Public speaking and conferences – making speeches at conferences, professional association meetings and other events. Publications – newsletters, trade journals and books. Telemarketing General networking and referrals.
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If you were to engage in a product brochure for example, you
need to create your image and you have already at this stage
answered the following questions:

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Who is your customer? What does my organisation promise to do? What are my organisations strengths and weaknesses?

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 	How am I unique? What are the current trends that I can capitalise on?

You want your brochure to help you develop a strong sense of
your position in the marketplace. You want to inspire confidence
in your products. Your brochure should ideally:

	Connect your business with your target market both emotionally and logically Build trust, confidence and personal rapport Position you as an expert
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	Convey uniqueness and personality with passion and believability Promise tangible results and value
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	Communicate the personal values that guide and excite you and affect your ability to serve your clients in an exceptional way Motivate the reader to request more information or place an order.
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If you are developing a promotional package you should include a
range of pieces such as brochures, letterheads, business cards,
factsheets, price lists, labels, news releases, catalogues, display
items, samples, websites etc.
Brand development
Most companies open the doors and feel satisfied that they have
registered their company name only to find out later that
someone else has ownership to their chosen logo or brand name.
A very important part of the brand development is to secure your
logo with Intellectual Property in Australia
(www.ipaustralia.com.au) along with your chosen key words. Once
you have these registered, it can take in excess of three months
before you will hear if there are any objections. Dealing through an
Intellectual Property Lawyer can ensure a proper process takes
place. Getting brand logos professionally done can also increase
the marketing power of the brand as you grow and establish it.
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Marketing performance
Whatever marketing strategies you have in place, the results
must be measured to ensure the most ongoing cost effective use
of your hard earned money. Through this measurement, you will
be able to fine tune your strategies by dropping ineffective
programs and building ones that lead to success.
You may also ask yourself the following questions as part of
evaluating your strategies performance:

 	Am I doing all I can to be customer focussed? Am I doing all I can to exceed clients expectations so they will want to use my services again? Am I making the whole borrowing process easy for my clients so they can decide on the products and services that suit them best?
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When marketing finance, you should specifically include the
following:
Improved client relationships
Finance clients tend to have a closer relationship with their
Finance Broker if they are serviced in a professional manner. In
most cases, business clients will view you as one of their
‘professional advisers’ similar to an accountant, financial planner
or solicitor.
Greater emphasis on personal selling
Clients will expect to have a lot of personal contact with you to
assist in their decision making. Getting ‘close’ to your clients so
you are able to know their future needs will enhance the
relationship. This will also enable you to increase your cross sales
opportunities as you and your clients feel comfortable with the
resultant package.
Internet use
Building your reputation online is one of the most important
things you can do to aid the success of your business. One of the
most popular ways to do this is to provide highly useful,
interesting and profitable information to people contemplating
your services.
When people see you as a provider of good information they can
use and profit from, then the reputation of you and your company
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becomes more credible. When this happens people will be more
likely to buy your products and services or indeed the products or
services you have recommended.
Clients should not only be able to access ‘sales’ information to aid
in decision making, but also monitor the progress of their finance
applications.
More complexity in the decision making
A decision as important as the company’s finance structure and
provider is rarely left in the hands of one person. When securing
a finance client you may be required to make presentations to
multiple people who form the decision making unit.
These people are jointly responsible for the ‘buying decision’ and
often include the:
 Managing Director/CEO
 Company Accountant
 Finance Officer
 Operations Manager, etc.
More complexity in technicality
Most business products and services are considered more
technically complex than their consumer counterparts and finance
is no different. Business problems often contain multiple facets
and people; therefore the solution is more complex.
How to write a marketing plan
Tips for writing a marketing plan:

	Do your homework first
 	Identify what you want your plan to accomplish Commit to a tightly written effective plan, rather than a long plan that has no focus Understand what you are really selling
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	Be honest about your opportunities and obstacles
	List your marketing actions
 	Assign accountability and set deadlines Measure results.

During your research to enable you to create an effective
marketing plan you need as much information as possible so you
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can create a realistic marketing plan and achieve the plans
required outcomes.
An example of a marketing plan can be found in the written
assessment.
The following table will help you with your research:

Gather information on:	Specifically:
The market	• total market size • customer profiles • customer needs • market segmentation • trends and seasonal factors in the market place
Market structure	• major players (competitors, regulators, suppliers etc.) • branding (importance of ‘name’ in the community) • distribution structure • trends in market positions held by competitors
Products/services	• what products are available now • usage patterns of consumers • differentiation of competitor products and services • linkage to the market • innovation and life cycle of products and services • customer satisfaction levels
Customer perceptions	• underlying needs • perceptions of brands • perceptions of key players
Pricing	• current price structures • past trends • price sensitivities • effects of price changes • tolerances • impacts of quality on pricing and customer perception
Advertising/promoting	• campaign planning • creative promotion • promotion evaluation • sales activity planning • media data • types of media used
Distribution	• distribution levels • partnering agreements /trends • sales at retail level
New product/service development	• unsatisfied needs • acceptance of new products and services • communication of new products and services • branding of new products and services
Legal implications	• legislation • what you can and cannot do

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You also need to consider the following when developing a
marketing plan for your product and services and the following
should be considered:
 The image of your business
Every time a client or potential client has an opportunity to
see, or engage, with your business (including your
promotional materials) you generate an image of your
business.
 The tools of promotion
Promoting your business is about brining your agency and
your products and services into the attention of the target
market, persuading them to do business with you. The
primary aim of promotion and advertising is to increase sales.
 Branding
A brand is a customer experience represented by a collection
of images and ideas; often, it refers to a symbol such as a
name, logo, slogan, and design scheme. Brand recognition
and other reactions are created by the accumulation of
experiences with the specific product or service, both directly
relating to its use, and through the influence of advertising,
design, and media commentary.
 Your promotional budget
One thing is for sure in business, you need to spend money to
make money, particularly in promotion and advertising. You
need to determine an effective promotional budget to help
achieve business success. (See our template in the
Appendices.)
 The legal aspects of advertising
The Trade Practices Act addresses a number of aspects
regarding promotion and advertising for all businesses. These
largely relate to ‘misleading and deceptive conduct’ and ‘false
or misleading conduct’. Another issue may be regulation
requirements from your state regulators relevant to your
industry/profession.
 Your marketing action plan
In planning for your marketing activities many small business
find it helpful to develop a marketing action plan. This way you
know what activities will occur when, you can target your
marketing efforts around peak times and you can watch you
budget at the same time.
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We have looked at the many ways in which you can gain market
share and market your right product and services to the identified
target markets and now to make it a reality you need to complete
a marketing plan that we have provided for you as the old saying
what gets written gets done is so true in this area of your
business.
Remember, make the plans non-complex and ensure that you set
realistic targets and objectives otherwise nothing will be
achieved. It is also very important to include your team members
in the process as the saying no input no ownership is also very
true in this area as well.
Identifying finance markets
Market segmentation is the process in the marketing of a grouped
market (i.e. customers) into smaller subgroups. It is derived from
the recognition that the total market is often made up of
submarkets (called ‘segments’). These segments are
homogeneous within (i.e. people in the segment are similar to
each other in their attitudes about certain variables). Because of
this intra-group similarity, they are likely to respond somewhat
similarly to a given marketing strategy. That is, they are likely to
have similar feeling and ideas about a marketing mix comprised
of a given product or service, sold at a given price, distributed in
a certain way, and promoted in a certain way.
The requirements for successful segmentation are:
 segments are measurable and identifiable
 segments are accessible and actionable
 segment is large enough to be profitable.
Targeting strategy is the selection of the customers you wish to
service. The decisions involved in targeting strategy include:

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which segments to target? how many products to offer? which products to offer in which segments?

There are three steps to targeting:
 market segmentation
 target choice
 product positioning.
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Targeting strategy decisions are influenced by:

    	market maturity diversity of buyers needs and preferences strength of the competition the volume of sales required for profitability situational factors
–	Urgency (for example, fast growth businesses operating in consumer markets often need short-term funding in a hurry)

– Size of borrowings (for example, you may only want to
deal in +$5M loans)

	personal characteristics
–	Buyer/seller similarity (for example, you may prefer to deal with outgoing people, because we are outgoing)

– Attitudes toward risk (for example, low risk takers vs high
risk takers)
– Loyalty (for example, borrowers that are relatively loyal
toward their traditional lender).
You may decide to target small businesses showing fast growth
potential with the view to assisting their growth. If you
successfully execute relationship marketing strategies these
clients will remain with you even when they become much larger.
In business-to-business markets the aim of segmentation is to
arrive at clusters of like-minded companies.
By understanding the specific needs of your prospects, you can
tailor a solution to match. This will allow you to achieve a better
conversion ratio from enquiry to application.
Leveraging off relationships
The origins of modern relationship marketing can be traced back
to a passage by Schneider (Schneider, B. 1980) in which he
observes:
“What is surprising is that researchers and businessmen have
concentrated far more on how to attract customers to
products and services than on how to retain customers”.
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At the core of relationship marketing is the notion of customer
retention. Relationship marketing involves the creation of new
and mutual values between a supplier and an individual
customer. Novelty and mutuality deepen, extend and prolong
relationships, creating yet more opportunities for customer and
supplier to have mutual benefits.
Studies in several industries have shown that the cost of retaining
an existing customer is only about 10% of the cost of acquiring a
new customer so it can often make economic sense to pay more
attention to existing customers.
The need for organisations to be customer focused should be
intuitive. A well-executed Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) strategy can result in quantitative benefits such as
improved customer retention, opportunities to cross and up-sell,
and reduced service costs. However, it has taken decades for
organisations to realise that performance dimensions such as ‘the
bottom line’, units sold or public opinion are contingent on how
successful organisations are when interacting with customers.
By focusing on the needs of customers, CRM aims to increase the
long-term profitability of organisations. CRM practices are also
used in the non-profit sector (such as local government) to obtain
goodwill towards organisations and greater understanding and
compliance for marketing initiatives. CRM is one of the most
popular new areas in marketing and has become a ‘buzz word’ for
managers in organisations of all shapes and sizes.
To maximise leverage from relationships you should:

   	build solid relationships show how clients benefit from your services regularly keep in touch with existing clients never consider that your good clients are ‘in the bag’ and don’t require nurturing satisfy clients—clients are keen to refer you to people they know if you maintain contact network well.
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Let’s now look at the key elements of business relationships.
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Establishing quality business relationships
Your introduction and how you initially establish a rapport with
clients cements the basis for an ongoing relationship.
Understanding client needs, listening to what they are really
saying and then finding the solutions will establish long term
benefits.
Keeping the relationship ‘hot’
By staying in regular contact with clients you are able to keep in
touch with their changing needs and provide quality solutions. In
turn your clients perceive you as always being there at the ‘right
time’ and are happy to refer you to their friends and business
acquaintances.
Building on the stronghold
All relationships suffer from ups and downs and the client/broker
relationship is the same. There will always be ‘good times and
bad times’ and you can be an important cog in the wheel to help
clients through the tough times.
In your profession you should develop an excellent array of
‘experts’, such as, Financial Planners, Accountants, Solicitors etc,
to whom you can refer your clients, should they need professional
assistance. They then see you as integral in the success of their
business.
Finding prospects
There are as many ways to promote you in the financial market
as there are in any other market. Prospecting should be seen as a
continuous, seamless daily action.
Some successful ways to prospect are:

	Exhibitions
	Websites
	Referred business
	Direct marketing
 	Networking Creation of Centre of Influence.

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Industry exhibitions
While your industry may have suffered economic bumps and
slumps, one sure way of pulling out and improving sales and
forecasts is to include face-to-face trade show participation in
your marketing plan. With well-defined goals and strategies,
exhibitors will experience a significant return on their trade show
investment.
There are many economic benefits of trade show participation.
Opportunities collected at trade shows cost less than those
generated from more traditional prospecting methods, require
fewer sales calls in the follow-up process, and cost half as much
to close.
Trade shows deliver qualified sales opportunities at one location
in a relatively short time frame. As many as 88 percent of people
with buying power or influence who attend a tradeshow have not
received a sales call in the past 12 months. This indicates that
other traditional prospecting methods do not reach a significant
pool of potential business.
Successful trade show results, however, depend on pre-show, atshow and post-show strategies. You have to do more than just
show up.
You have to show up with specific goals, a professional look, a
dynamic message, a trained, enthusiastic staff and an effective
follow-up plan:
 Read your exhibitor show book early and thoroughly to plan
your budget. Missed deadlines and last minute decisions are
costly, affecting the show budget, follow-up plans and your
other marketing projects.

	Create a realistic budget, realising that short cuts or omissions may cost more in the end if potential sales are lost because of poor quality booth display and poor product representation. Booth selection is a critical decision. Corner booths and island
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booths are the best locations, but usually are reserved quickly.
Don’t miss out by waiting too long to get your request in.
When selecting an inline booth, choose one along an aisle
marked ‘access or freight aisle’. These aisles are usually wider,
which are more appealing to attendees who may skip an aisle
if it looks too crowded. Locations near bathrooms and food
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service areas may be noisy, congested and littered, making it
difficult to concentrate and conduct productive conversations.

	The best booth locations are near the centre of the exhibit hall, rather than near the entrance and exit areas. Review the layout for traffic patterns, and remember that most people are orientated to their right side and to right turns.
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The size of the display is also important. Have enough room to
meet your goals and conduct any planned presentations.
Pre-show strategies begin with establishing measurable goals.
Your goals may include:

 	Identify 25 qualified opportunities Introduce a new product or service to the marketplace
	Schedule ten interviews for the following month
	Evaluate the competition
	Collect specific information from attendees
 	Demonstrate new features of your product Be ready for show set up with a well-designed booth, quality display and graphics that clearly and effectively communicate your message. Recall exhibits that were appealing to you or call an exhibit consultant to help you design an effective display booth that will attain your goals. Make sure your current display is clean and in good condition, and plan a show preview prior to shipping your display. There



are many display accessories and graphic ideas that can be
added to your existing display equipment for a fresh and
current look.
Your pre-show planning will reduce stress and set up time at the
show. It is important to remember that your tradeshow booth
represents your company. Design your booth to be open,
uncluttered and inviting. Plan sufficient storage to keep extra
literature, coats, brief cases, trash, etc, out of sight. Colours,
lighting, motion and large format graphics will capture attention.
You have three to five seconds to get a person’s attention, tell
them who you are, and communicate what benefits they may
achieve by simply answering a few questions.
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Follow-up
It’s amazing how many people go to all the effort of setting up an
exhibition stand, attend the stand for days, get names of
prospects and then fail to follow up! What a waste of time!
You must follow up on every opportunity you get within 48 hours.
Not following up damages your business immensely as people see
you as lazy, not hungry for their business and not showing
urgency in important matters.
They think “If this person doesn’t show interest in getting my
business, how much interest will they show in following up on me
and my needs”?
Print advertising
Advertisements are found in many places and in many forms.
One of those forms is known as print advertising. Advertisements
in this category include those that are printed on some type of
paper handled by the potential audience. This includes offers sent
through the mail and posted in newspapers.
A print advertisement can only be effective if people see it. When
people are looking through publications, they have a tendency to
be receptive to new information and observant of things of
interest. One method of print advertising aims to attract people
to products and services as they are reading or scanning
publications.
Such advertisements are found in newspapers, newsletters, and
magazines. A great deal of planning generally goes into this type
of advertising. This often requires a team of individuals.
There are some people who are employed to create the best
ideas to attract attention and inspire people to spend their
money. These people develop a concept. Then, they decide on
the imagery and wording that sufficiently ties the idea together.
There may be other individuals who deal with placement.
Generally, the larger the advertisement, the more it costs to place
it in a publication. Also, some areas of publications can be
considered premium spots, and these are expensive. It is,
therefore, important for a publication to make sure its clients get
the exposure they pay for.
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Internet marketing
There are many internet marketing strategies a company may
use to attract the attention of web surfers and encourage them to
visit its site. These strategies are not only used to attract visitors,
but also to obtain sales, membership requests, and even just
inquiries. Generally, companies use more than one internet
marketing strategy to achieve their goals. For example, a
company may work to both include targeted keywords in its
website content and employ link-building strategies.
Search engine optimization is one of the most commonly used
internet marketing strategies; this method involves making a
website’s content search engine friendly. This means making it
easy for search engines to find and index by including certain
keywords and key phrases in the content, based on what
consumers are likely to type into the search engines. It also
means carefully crafting Meta tags, descriptions, and title tags.
However, stuffing web content full of keywords isn’t enough to
secure a high ranking in the major search engines. Instead,
website owners typically spend time crafting, or buying, quality
content and ensuring that keyword usage stays around a certain
percentage.
Using the internet
It seems that everyone wants to be on the Internet and for good
reason as it is safe to say it is the most important new method
for conducting business in the last 50 years, if not longer.
Unfortunately, many marketers jumped in with little knowledge of
how to do it right. Internet marketing experts agree that anyone
who is interested in doing business on the Internet should take
time to learn the benefits and shortcomings of its use.
Estimates indicate that over 90% of Australian businesses are
connected to the internet. Three items drive internet use:
 websites
 email and
 social marketing.
The following article was written by Trenton Moss and copied
from the following website
http://www.webcredible.com/blog/content-usability-writing-web/
It contains some suggested guidelines for your website content.
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Website content & usability
Writing for the web is totally different to writing for printed matter. We tend to scan
content on the web hunting for the information we’re after, as opposed to reading
word-for-word. As a result of this, there are certain guidelines you should be sure to
follow when writing copy for your website:
1. Use clear and simple language
Reading from computer screens is tiring for the eyes and about 25% slower
than reading from printed matter. As such, the easier the style of writing the easier
it is for site visitors to absorb your words of wisdom.
Some techniques for using clear and simple language include:

	Avoid slang or jargon—get your grandmother and ten year old nephew to read your site—if both can understand the page content you’ve done well! Use shorter words where possible—‘begin’ rather than ‘commence’, ‘used to’ rather than ‘accustomed to’ etc. Avoid complex sentence structures—try to include just one idea or concept per sentence Use active ahead of passive words—‘we won the award’ is shorter and easier to comprehend than, ‘the award was won by us’.



2. Limit each paragraph to one idea
If you assign just one idea to each paragraph site visitors can: easily scan through each paragraph get the general gist of what the paragraph is about move on to the next paragraph.	  

All this and without fear that they’ll be skipping over important
information, because they will already know roughly what the paragraph is about.
Limiting each paragraph to just one idea is especially effective when combined with
front-loading paragraph content.
3. Front-load content
Front-loading content means putting the conclusion first, followed by the
what, how, where, when and why. The first line of each paragraph should contain
the conclusion for that paragraph, so site visitors can:

	Quickly scan through the opening sentence
 	Instantly understand what the paragraph is about Decide if they want to read the rest of the paragraph or not.

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Because each paragraph contains just one idea, users can do this safe in the
knowledge that if they jump to the next paragraph they won’t be missing any
new concepts.
Front-loading also applies to web pages, as well as paragraphs. The
opening paragraph on every page should always contain the conclusion of that
page. This way, site visitors can instantly gain an understanding of what the
page is about and decide whether they want to read the page or not.
Unfortunately many websites don’t adhere to this guideline and end up
writing page content in a story-format. On each page there’s an introduction,
middle and conclusion, in that order. Unfortunately, when scanning through web
content we don’t tend to read all the text nor read all the way to the bottom of
the screen. As such, you may easily miss the conclusion if it’s left until the end.
So remember, conclusion first, everything else second! For a great example
of front-loaded content, just read any newspaper article. The opening
paragraph is always the conclusion of the article.
4. Use descriptive sub-headings
Breaking up text with descriptive sub-headings allows site visitors to easily
see what each section of the page is about. The main heading on the page
provides a brief overall view of what page is about, and the opening paragraph
gives a brief conclusion of the page (because you’ve front-loaded the page
content). Within the page though, there are various sub-themes which can be
quickly put across with sub-headings.
There’s no hard and fast rule for how frequently to use sub-headings,
but you should probably be roughly aiming for one sub-heading every two to
four paragraphs. More importantly though, the sub-headings should group onpage content into logical groups, to allow site visitors to easily access the
information that they’re after.
5. Bolden important words
Another way to help users locate information quickly and easily is to use
‘bold type face’ for important words in some paragraphs. When site visitors scan
through the screen this text stands out to them, so do make sure the text
makes sense out of context.
Bolden two to three words which describe the main point of the
paragraph, and not words on which you’re placing emphasis. By seeing these
bold type face, words site visitors can instantly gain an understanding of what
the paragraph is about and decide whether or not they want to read it.
6. Use descriptive link text
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In the same way that bold text stands out to screen-scanning web
users, so does link text. Link text such as ‘click here’ makes no sense
whatsoever out of context so is useless to site visitors scanning web pages. To
find out the destination of the link, site visitors have to hunt through the text
both before and after the link text.
7. Use lists
Lists are preferable to long paragraphs because they:

   

allow users to read the information vertically rather than horizontally are easier to scan are less intimidating are usually more succinct.

8. Left-align text
Left-aligned text is easier to read than justified text, which in turn is easier
to read than centre- or right-aligned text.
When reading through justified text the spacing between each word is
different so our eyes have to search for the next word. This slows down our
reading speed. Right- and centre-aligned paragraphs slow down reading speed
even more because each time you finish reading one line your eye has to search
for the beginning of the next line.
Conclusion
These eight guidelines are nothing revolutionary nor are they difficult to
implement. Yet so many websites structure their content so poorly to the
detriment of their site visitors. Have a quick look over your website now—how
does it do with regards to these content guidelines?
Trenton’s crazy about web usability and accessibility—so crazy that he went and
started his own web usability and accessibility consultancy to help make the
Internet a better place for everyone.
by Trenton Moss August 2005
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Email marketing
Email marketing provides an extremely convenient method for
prospects to engage your services. From a marketing
perspective, email follows many of the principles of direct mail,
but at a fraction of the delivery cost. It has developed into the
preferred communication channel for business and social life,
behind the telephone. It’s easy to deliver, fast and convenient. In
reference to the push-pull theory, the primary aim of most email
marketing strategies will be to push prospects to your website,
where they will be encouraged to take further action.
Social marketing
Social media mainly consists of user-generated Internet content.
Rather than waiting for the professionals to bring content to
them, anyone with a computer and Internet connection now has
the ability to create content themselves and share it with the
world. Social media gives content creators a venue to express
their ideas to anyone who will read them. Most are highly
interactive, which is partly why they are appealing to many.
Some of the most well-known social media sites include Twitter®,
YouTube®, LinkedIn®, and Facebook®. All of these allow users the
ability to create a profile, put up pictures, update their current
moods and feelings, and add friends. Additionally, users can choose
who sees their profile, whether that be anyone on the Internet, or
just friends and family.
Facebook® is typically most popular among the younger crowd,
while LinkedIn® is known for being a site where many professionals
have profiles related to their careers. Facebook® started out as a
website that allowed only college students, but has developed into
an online meeting space for people of all ages. Twitter® has fast
become one of the most popular due to its simplicity and speed to
broadcast messages globally.
More and more companies these days are using YouTube® as a
viable marketing tool. YouTube® is a social media website where
you can host your video clips for free and people can view the
clips for free. Given its massive popularity, innovative marketers
look at it as a perfect opportunity—a free opportunity—to
showcase their offerings.
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Phone usage
The material in this section is focused on using the phone to gain
face-to-face interviews.
The sole purpose of any telephone conversation whether
incoming or outgoing during the prospecting phase is to gain a
one-on-one, face to face interview. It’s important at this point to
make a distinction—this is not telemarketing. Telemarketing is
focused on contacting large numbers of prospects in a relatively
short timeframe.
Using the phone to advantage
Smile! Nothing beats a smile when talking on the phone. Clients
pick up on your mood from your voice, so it is vital to let the
client know that you are interested in helping them by smiling
while you talk.
The most common introductions are:
“Hello, this is George Jetson from Pearler Finance” and “Good
morning/afternoon, this is George Jetson from Pearler Finance.”
These really are very ordinary introductions. It’s what everyone
hears all the time.
For your clients to be interested in seeing you, you must be
interesting to talk with!
Try introductions like:
“Good morning, is that Mrs Smith? Mrs Joan Smith? Mrs Smith
you enquired about how Pearler Finance can help you with your
need for some money to finance a purchase you wish make. My
name is George Jetson from Pearler and I’d be happy to help you
achieve your wish.”
Then give a brief description of your service. For example:
“We help people like yourself to structure their borrowings as
efficiently as possible.”
Areas of interest
Introduce an area of interest that you know interests them. For
example, “I spoke to you at the networking function” or “I deal
with Henry Smith your solicitor” or “You entered our competition
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at the exhibition recently.” This helps to put their mind to rest
that you are not calling cold but already have some familiarity.
Qualification
Qualifying the prospect is the first step to ensure you are able to
assist them with their finance.
Experience tells us that the best way to establish how you can
assist a client is through the use of a ‘client needs review’ form.
Essentially this asks the important questions that indicate how
you can be of assistance.
Some form of mini analysis is handy at this time to assist you in
qualifying prospects over the phone. But this is extremely difficult to
do on its own with certainty, when dealing in the finance market.
Get permission to ask
Don’t overlook this. It sets an expectation that you need answers,
so always explain what you need the answers for to get their ‘buy
in’. This simple step takes away any suspicions they have on why
you are asking so many questions. Without this you probably
won’t get all the information you need from the client.
Always start with:
“Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”, followed by “Is it
convenient to talk?” If they answer no, then say:
“When is it convenient to ring you back?” Prospects will appreciate
your good manners and will be more likely to respond positively.
Your offer
The sole objective of any call is to get into personal contact with
your prospects. Nothing works for a broker like face-to-face
contact. Like all marketing, your offer needs to hit their hot
button. Keep it simple, concise and to the point.
Objections
When you first start you will come across a whole new range of
client objections. Record them and work on developing precise,
logical responses. Don’t make the responses complicated or full of
jargon. If the client believes your response, it’s because they
understand it and can see your logic. Confirm their understanding
of your response by having them feed back to you in their own
words.
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Agree on the next step
The last thing you do on every call is to confirm what happens from
here.
You should always make statements like:
“Thanks George, I confirm that we will meet at 1pm on Thursday
afternoon the 10th of November at your office to discuss a lease
on the aircraft you are purchasing. I look forward to helping you.”
Mastering networks
Mastering networking is essential to become a long-term success
in financial services. Networking forms the backbone of your
marketing activities.
Without networking, your business becomes introverted. That is
to say it does not continually enrich its database by infusing itself
with opportunities from diverse demographics. Networking leads
to other marketing opportunities, such as strategic alliances with
third party referrers, establishing two way street relationships
with other businesses and the development of joint ventures.
A network allows you to enjoy relationships, which will provide
access to invaluable resources, such as fresh ideas, relevant
information, quality advice, business opportunities, referrals and
support.
Networking is the process of interaction with people from various
demographics with the aim for all to assist each other to gain new
business. Under this definition you soon realise that social functions
are as much a networking opportunity as any Chamber of
Commerce meeting.
This is all about meeting people. You need to see as many as
possible.
Establishing networks
This takes time and is not a one off action. Networks must be
beneficial to all within them to work efficiently, otherwise why
make the effort.
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Here are few pointers in establishing effective networks:

	Identify existing networks What networks exist by default? What friends, relatives and

associates do I have or who have I met either through work
or in my social life.
 Make up a ‘Hot List’ of potentials
Who do I want as part of my network? You must think outside
the square at this point. Think of who would gain a ‘win’ from
being in your network that can also assist you. Don’t just
think about people in your industry, but anyone that could
potentially benefit your business and vice versa.
 Identify opportunities
Target groups that have the potential to put you in contact
with your Hot List. Identify any events that will bring you into
contact with these people. This includes:
– Sports clubs
– P & C Associations
– Special interest or hobby groups, such as model aeroplane
clubs etc.
– Chambers of Commerce
– Lions, Apex, Rotary or similar
– Industry associations (MFAA, FBAA, REIA, FPA and AFA
etc.)
– Business clubs
Research your local area to find out about any groups that
regularly get together.

	Attendance Once you establish a network attend regularly. This is vital to

establish your sincerity and commitment to success, not only
for you but for all in attendance.
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Successful networking strategies

	Realistically analyse and identify your interests, strengths and weaknesses, complementing your analysis by the results of proven diagnostic tools and objective assessments. Identify specific, unique attributes and/or work experiences


that set you apart from other Brokers. There are many people
with good track records and sound skills. In order to develop
an edge, you must identify and capitalise on those aspects that
make you unique.

	Target specific program/service areas that match your profile and your developmental needs. Determine where you would really like to work and why.


Become as knowledgeable as possible about these areas and
be able to effectively demonstrate that your sound knowledge
of the mandate, operations and needs of the organisation can
contribute to meeting those needs.

	Within your own environment, seek cross-sectional assignments that will provide you with new contacts that fall within your career path/goals. Consider asking your superior to use his or her contacts to open doors and help obtain assignments or secondments. Call on your own network of colleagues, friends and



acquaintances, who may not only direct you to possible
employment opportunities, but can also offer support in your
search. They can provide feedback on your job-search
strategy, suggest employers to approach, and give you tips on
how to do so.
 Arrange meetings with appropriate contacts. To get a manager
to set aside time to see you, you should emphasise that you
realise there are likely no openings in the manager’s
organisation. Respect your time allotment.
 During the meeting, demonstrate how your particular skills
and experience can serve a manager’s needs and bring added
value to the organisation. At the end of the meeting, ask the
manager to suggest the names of others who could make use
of your services. Seek advice on how to improve your
presentation and/or CV. Leave a business card. If you have not
already left your résumé, send it within a week.
 Send a thank you note to a manager who has spent time
giving you advice, as well as to other people who helped you in
your search.
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Follow-up activity
This cannot be taken for granted as it is as important to your
business as everything else. Feedback helps you to fine tune your
offering.
So you made some great new contacts at last night’s networking
party. Follow up, now! If you want to receive calls or emails, then
do not delay in sending them at your earliest opportunity.
 Secure follow-up instructions right away
When you first meet a contact, mention when you will contact
them next. Write in your cover letter when you will call. Tell
people you have just met when they can expect to hear from
you. Ask prospects when you can reach them.
 Take any referrals a networking contact gives you
Say your friend gives you a lead that doesn’t turn out to be
effective. Call the prospect anyway. Your friend might find out
if you didn’t and think you don’t appreciate their help. They
may think you’re not taking their leads seriously, or that you
are no longer interested in their referrals—which could result
in her not giving you anymore. Just because you aren’t
impressed with one referral doesn’t mean you won’t be
impressed with the next. Make sure you get the next one.
 The sooner the better
If someone emails or calls, respond to the message the same
day. When you meet someone new, call the next day. If you
want to obtain an interview, send a thank-you letter within 24
hours, and include instructions as to when you will follow up
on the phone.
Centres of influence
Brokers with third party referrers have the most effective method
of obtaining new business. By nurturing prime Centres of
Influence, they can achieve regular high quality referral
opportunities. Without them, most simply wouldn’t survive.
By far the most effective way of establishing Centres of Influence
is through strategic alliances. This is a deliberate and systematic
relationship with a complementary business for the mutual
benefit of both. Strategic alliances work because they are
convenient for clients of professional service providers to be
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referred to another. It reduces their search time to source a
provider of the service that in turn saves them money.
Centres of Influence form the foundations of your business,
especially in the early stages. Make sure that you develop and
nurture them appropriately. You should view the establishment of
these as the start of a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.
Seven major sources
These are the seven main related service providers that finance
brokers need to be targeting as major Centres of Influence:
1. Property developers
2. Real estate agents
3. Solicitors
4. Project managers
5. Accountants
6. Financial planners
7. Bookkeepers
Think outside the box
Note that any third party referrers you develop must have a need
for your services as well due to your advice, wisdom, knowledge
and insight. You must have the ability to help them increase their
business. There must exist a ‘win/win’.
Remember the principle concerning KASH!
Knowledge
Attitude
Skills
Habits
You must have all of these to be successful and you must strive
to gain all knowledge in your area of expertise. What will lift your
sales above all else is attitude!
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Developing a growth plan
A growth plan is essentially that, a plan for an organisation to build on
what is already in place and re-assesses its objectives and how to reach
those expanded targets. The obvious objective is to increase sales and
that can happen in a number of ways.
 Multiple locations – if your organisation requires a retail
presence, outline where you might seek to open additional
shops and what your geographic strategy will be.

	New Client Base – once you have reached your original core customers, who else might be interested in your products? New Products – ensure this is carefully executed if you want to expand on your overall base. Franchising – is a feasible option for many industries as long as your product is consistent and customers already have certain expectations about your brand. Online Strategy – can you use the internet to grow sales?




Should you partner with an existing internet retailer or develop
your own site.

	Marketing – Have you already addressed all the facets of your business plan or marketing strategy or can you further expand on this? Decreasing Costs – Are there ways you can economise now


that you are firmly established. Having run for a period of
time will assist you in gaining experience in where you can
more efficiently reduce costs without affecting your products.
 Acquisitions – This could become necessary to expand into
other markets or sectors. You could acquire companies that
will present new opportunities for growth.
Pros and cons of business growth
It is essential that you research and plan the growth of your
business. If your business grows too quickly, or expands too
much, you could experience financial, legal, staffing, resource
and supplier problems. For business growth to be successful, it
should be sustainable.
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Common problems caused by rapid growth:

	You could outgrow your premises in the short-term. There may not be enough space for everyone to work efficiently. Morale may drop if staff cannot cope with the extra work. Productivity can decrease. There may be a shortage of cash to meet expansion costs. Taking on more and more work to generate more income places additional pressure on your premises and staff. Management may be under pressure, operating reactively rather than proactively. The quality of your products and services could drop, causing





an increase in customer complaints. You may even lose
customers to your competitors.

	Staff turnover may increase due to heavy workloads. Vital knowledge could be lost as staff leave. Hiring and training new staff takes time and money. Your business may lose touch with competitors’ activities.


Growing to overcome problems
Do you want to grow your business because you are responding
to strong competition, smaller margins or falling sales? Growing
your business may help you to overcome these problems and
attract new customers if you move to larger premises and
increase your resources and stock.
However, growing your business because you are experiencing
problems can sometimes make your problems bigger, with more
money and risk involved.
Growing because of success
Do you want to grow your business because the cash is flowing
in, profits are increasing and all your hard work is paying off?
Your business may become a market leader if you take advantage
of strong opportunities. You can capitalise on your success,
expand into other locations, and employ more staff to cater for
increased demand.
But if you expand too quickly you risk your business becoming
unsustainable. Growth can put pressure on staff and resources,
as well as financial and management structures.
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Implementation plan
An implementation plan is a management tool designed to assist
an organisation in managing and monitoring implementation of
growth and promotion plans effectively. These plans are
designed to be flexible; however the level of detail should be
sufficient to enable the organisation to effectively action the plan.
Implementation plans cannot be effective unless they have been
developed in consultation with all relevant stakeholders.
Stakeholders are any persons or management that have a vested
interest in the outcomes of the implementation plan. You need to
benchmark or design indicators in order to ascertain when there
is success or achievement of the plan. You may need to adjust
the plan at certain stages to ensure you meet your organisations
objectives, which is why an implementation plan must be flexible
enough to do so.
Assessment
Now you have finished this module, FNSPRM603 MCQ
assessment is to be completed.
This is located in the AAMC Training Members’ Area – Course
Content and Assessments. Once you have completed the
assessment, you will be immediately advised of your competence
via an automated email.
Once you are successful we advise you to download and complete
the written FNSPRM603 Assessment and ensure your
FNSPRM603 Skills Signoff sheet has been uploaded.