GroCurv has worked with over 2000 SMEs since 2019 on various Sales and Marketing projects. These projects give us deep insights on how successful young brands navigate the marketing world, compared to others who just have to struggle a bit longer to gather momentum.

Sharing a few lessons we have learnt:

• Expect that it’s a long journey. It cannot happen in a few weeks or even months. Be patient.
• Find the narrowest customer profile that you can scale up. Starting off in marketing, you cannot communicate with too many people as you don’t have the resources. So start small. Who is the customer who is currently buying from you. Understand this customer deeply, understand what message will strike a chord with this customer. Identify where you can find other similar customers. Communicate your message there. As this profile grows, and you get more successful with this cohort, you can expand more.

• Spend time to build content. You understand your company and your brand best. Create stories (with the help of a good writer), customer success stories, failures, key milestones in your journey.
• Connect with people relevant to you: journalists/ industry leaders/ potential clients. First give, then give more, then give even more. Finally ask a little for yourself.
• Your customer is a human being . He has a problem. His solution required above all, a mindset change in him so that he can try a new solution (yours). Don’t forget this. And he needs your help, make it personal...that he realises you understand his journey.

• Train your sales people to be powerful story tellers, who can communicate with empathy, conviction. Who can create trust. Then sales will come. Hard sell tactics fail.
• Stay in touch with your customers. The most profitable ones and the ones walking away. But from them come your insights to expand your customer base. You don’t need massive amounts of data. You need a few powerful conversations to find people who are really excited with you. Understand why.

• Customers will always give you another chance, so don’t worry about failure. Worry about correcting that failure. Then the bond gets stronger. Customers are rarely keen to switch their suppliers.

To know more about how to find and work with the right marketing agency partner, visit us on GroCurv.