281 Coaching & Consulting Business courses delivered Online

What do you want to achieve with your marketing strategy? Your marketing objectives are the basis for all of your marketing activities and the foundation of your marketing strategy. This Microcast details what every entrepreneur should measure, where to target your customers, and how to evaluate the marketing methods of competitors. You will also learn how to decide what goals and measurements are right for your business—setting specific sales growth goals, landing partnerships, expanding distribution, and more.

These days, entrepreneurs have more ways than ever to sell their products or services, including directly to consumers online. The trick is to identify which selling strategies will yield the right mix of profits and market share. While using direct sales methods enables you to pocket more of the margin and establish direct connections with your customers, indirect sales methods can spread your products far and wide quickly and help your brand gain a foothold fast. This learning stream delves into individual selling strategies, outlining the advantages and disadvantages of each, and provides a framework for evaluating which are most appropriate for your business. Tips for connecting your selling strategies to your marketing strategy and incorporating selling models into your company financials are also covered. Extensive worksheets and exercises enable you to identify the sales techniques that will win customers most profitably.

Customers as well as investors want to know that you’re going to be offering new and different products, services, and enhancements going forward. That’s what your product roadmap communicates. This walk-through details the 1-to-2 year plan that documents short term and long term product goals, taking you from product launch to the future incarnation of your product or service. Learn why your product roadmap is both a business planning tool and your rollout blueprint and why it’s so important to focus on benefits to the customer (not features!)

Take advantage of the vast amounts of growth data available to you as you craft the market growth story for your business. By doing market research, computing your compound annual growth rate (CAGR), and validating your positioning, you will create an impressive market growth story. This market growth Microcast will help you get it done. Covered are: Deciding where you plan to sell your goods or services, identifying which segments of the market apply to your business, using historical growth rates, and how to validate your growth assumptions.

Time to put pen to paper—or fingers to keyboard. Take a look inside the Prep Worksheet that prepares you to write the pricing strategy section of your business plan. The key to success is taking the time necessary to deeply understand your business and be prepared to run it—use this workshop and Prep Worksheet to do just that.

Contrary to popular belief, having plenty of competitors is a good sign – that's what makes a thriving market. This course delves deep into the competition, with strategies for identifying and evaluating competitors and classifying them to discover where opportunities lie to fill gaps in the marketplace.

It may seem counterintuitive, but perfection is your enemy when it comes to shaping your product or service strategy. You may want everything to be perfect before you launch, but if you ever hope to start ringing up sales, you need to ruthlessly focus instead on just those elements of your offering that address the core customer need, and build a vision and a plan for development that tests your concept in the marketplace sooner rather than later. This learning stream offers guidance on how to shape a product or service vision, strategies for developing a minimum viable product, ways to create a roadmap you’ll stick to, and responses to questions about market defensibility. With examples of real companies cited throughout and workshop sessions for tailoring your own product or service strategy, this learning stream equips you with everything you need to build a product or service strategy that puts launch within reach.

What are the most effective ways to attract customers to your product or service? This video walks through three key steps in depth: Analyzing the marketing programs your competition is using, choosing a marketing mix for your business, and creating your marketing plan.

To communicate value to customers, you need more than a list of features; you must communicate both the practical and emotional benefits customers will derive and create a story that calls out the most unique and compelling attributes you offer. This learning stream will guide you through the process of identifying which business elements to highlight in your unique value proposition. You’ll access tools for brainstorming how your offering satisfies emotional desires, alleviates fears or stresses, and addresses immediate practical needs, including prompts specifically for B2B companies. You’ll learn why your unique value proposition is different than your unique competitive advantage, while also surveying your competitors’ unique value propositions to better understand what sets them apart from each other – and what distinct elements your own business should highlight. Workshop exercises will apply the tactics in real life, so that you can better articulate your businesses most compelling and unique benefits and set the stage for success.

When sizing your potential market, it's tempting to say the sky's the limit – but if your goal is an accurate projection, tighten the focus until you have a clear and specific picture. This course introduces the market funnel framework, a three-step process for defining your target audience and sizing segments in terms investors can use and you can apply to your financial plan.