GUERRILLA MARKETING STRATEGY

GUERRILLA MARKETING STRATEGY : (GUERRILLA SALES)

From this point onwards , we will be speaking about sales & marketing both, whichever may be relevant in a particular area or domain which we are discussing

[picture shows a Vietcong guerrilla
during the Vietnam war]

It seems incredible to me that our average students still tend to confuse sales & marketing. ( I say this from my personal experience wherein I have seen that every sales-coach at the start of the training session, will be inevitably queried about sales and marketing). Let me make this more simpler.

Sales is that part of Marketing which is concerned about transfer of the goods manufactured/compiled or sevices offered/presented to entities which require them in exchange for value received. The main functions of the marketing department are market information & research, budgeting, strategy finalization, forecasting, sales and after sales. I have intentionally made this definition as simple as possible so that it is easy for comprehension. The sales function lies inside the function of marketing along with a number of other sub activities, which are equally important to the process of marketing as the sales function.

Now that we know the boundary limits between Sales & Marketing, let us go back through decades in search of Herr Karl Von Clausewitz, an Austrian General who is widely regarded as the greatest military tactician ever.Today in the world of marketing, it is a war out there. You cannot afford to loose one single order. Things are becoming desperate now.In these chaotic times, it is essential that Clausewitz's truth isms are known by everyone in the profession, of which the most important one is that of numerical superiority. The side with the higher numbers always win... Examples are all around us.

Germany lost World War II as their army was much less in numbers then the Allied Forces.  Before America enterd the war, The Allies were being subjected to defeat after defeat. But when America joined the war, the germans become numerically less and lost the war. In business, how does a small company with a million dollars turnover fight its competitor with a billion dollars capital base. It doesn't if its wise for that will be suicide.

What it does is to analyse all the businesses where the big company is involved in and to what extent.Generally all bis companies have a few VIP niches where they rule; Some more where they are not so formidable and a few where it has a small presence. 

The smaller company often tries to target one of these third category niches and introduce products which are better then the big company models.They sneak in introduce their product and sneak out. They then bring out better versions of their own product in a continuous upgradation. The big company becomes aware of this and in most cases has no time or interest to take on the small company against a product which contributes  only a paltry amount to its turnover. There are cases where the big company has even sold out its small share in the particular product business to the smaller company.

In marketing, these type of attacks from the flanks are called Guerrilla Marketing marketing and the 'guerrilla market sales' are called Guerrilla Sales

See you next time

Bil