Marketing Consultant… Developing Your Competitive Advantage
Alongside Business Consulting will guide you into the growth process, through the growth cycle
…and out the other side into successful, sustainable and continuous growth outcomes.
We are business growth experts
Helping frustrated and confused owners
Understand and build
Marketing and sales systems
That work all day every day
By starting with a Competitive Advantage
Marketing & Sales -> what we help you with
Analysis of your business, competitors & market
Campaigns that convert (we build them)
Training for & development of Competitive Advantage
Implementation of marketing and sales systems and process
Organisation of your business for growth
Nailing your goals!
Making Business Growth Simplified!
So that you can get away from the “Daily Grind” of manual sales lead generation and stop worrying about where and when your next opportunities and then sales are coming from.
…allowing you to focus on delighting your customers with what you do best!
The Elephant in the room… Does Marketing actually work?
The short answer = Yes!
…The longer answer = Not unless you apply science – as there is a missing link (not secret) that most businesses and agencies gloss over because you can get around it for a quick win (what most people want) with glamour and hype.
The Foundations for a good marketing system need to be set from research, analysis and a solid marketing strategy – which includes testing and cross checking with the end users.
…which then allows you to create sustainable customer attraction and solid base for scalable system for growth (a Competitive Advantage).
The marketing system is to get the attention needed to attract the volume of customers you want.
Your message – is what keeps them engaged and attracts them – because it resonates deeply with them (the ones you focus on targeting with the message).
To develop the message and the system you need to deeply understand your potential customers and WHY they would be attracted to what you offer them – as a solution to their problem.
This is all captured when the foundations of marketing are researched, analysed and tested. Then your marketing will start working and you will be able to keep it working over the long term – because it will then be formed around at least one competitive advantage!
Marketing Strategy through to sales conversions
What we’ve done – to be able to provide what we do:
- had loads of real world experience marketing and selling
- studied the best marketers and campaigns (of those who have gone before and been UBER successful)
- documented the foundations of great marketing and tested these truths over time
- put them into some really simple frameworks to follow
- Actioned all in our own businesses and others… see comments below 🙂
You’d think we’d to tell you that, “we’ve created these amazing marketing services and systems that no-one else is using”… so that you’ll only want to work with us.
…but it’s just not true.
Marketing is a science that companies with budgets as large as Australia’s GDP have perfected = so why re-invent the wheel?
We’ve taken the best bits and formularised it all – creating the ‘ABC Growth Framework’. All our past training and experiences have helped us to be able to make the #1 problem most businesses face = NOT a problem.
… because we know what works – all day everyday (even when Google and others change their Algorithms!).
The difference is… we tell you WHY your marketing isn’t working first and then advise you HOW to make marketing work all day everyday… our lead gen system ‘Fail-Safe Marketing’.
“Getting more sales – whenever you want” is what most businesses struggle with.
The biggest roadblock EVERY business encounters – is getting leads… but why?
Almost every business thinks they are presenting something “brilliant”, however it is not unique, attention grabbing or attractive to their target market… and without a system to “get leads whenever they want”.
When we work with you, you’ll have the right potential customers and staff lining up whenever you want them… because they’ll be attracted to what you’re best at!
Here are a few quotes from some of our customers
After the first consult, I could land a commercial jet between what I learnt from team A.B.C. and all other marketing agencies/ consultants who gave me advice and a quote
Matthew identified some major gaps in our thinking in the first meeting and helped us focus on the right way forward – to lay the foundation we need to achieve results.
If you want a “no nonsense approach & the truth” about what you’re doing wrong and how to get going in the right direction… the team at A.B.C. will sort you out from concept to getting results!
A Software Vendor... somewhere in AustraliaI got 2,000 more views than normal = with one training session
In one session with Mathew, I increased the impact of my next LinkedIn post – by 2,000 more views than normal with a strategy from the training session. I would highly recommend Alongside Business Consulting, for businesses looking for leads and growth...
A Sales Manager in Media... from MelbourneI’m excited about my business again and I’m even doing marketing homework!
The lessons learnt from my time with Matthew, has given me a new lease on life, I’m even doing ‘marketing homework’! There’s also now a buzz of excitement running through the staff… about the future of the shop!
Thank you team Alongside Business Consulting.
A Pizza Shop Owner... somewhere in Melbourne
We know one of the biggest struggles for most businesses is getting new customers and also keeping the customer lifetime value high; as customers grow to love what you provide.
A reliable and therefore systemised Marketing and Sales system is what all businesses need.
1. a continuous flow of new sales leads (effective marketing)
2. an assured way to turn leads into customers (effective sales)
We walk alongside frustrated owners (like you) and implement sustainable & scalable sales growth. Forbes had an article in late 2019 which mentioned one of the defining factors in business growth being the human connection… which we are very strongly in favour of. You cannot understand your customers unless you interact deeply with them and people also buy from people, so you need to be there for them.
The second thing that we are very much agreed upon is that business growth relies on excellence in Marketing; Strategy, Structuring and Systemisation are all cornerstones of effective marketing and sales.
If you’re wondering why we think we can help you…
We’ve grown businesses for the past 20 years! A number have been our own, in different industries as well as those we have led for other people.
10X sales pipeline growth is about normal and sometimes greater – in under a year!
We are a mix of business, marketing and sales management professionals who advise WHY your business is not working as desired and show you HOW to make it work more effectively!
Business Growth Simplified!
Marketing Consulting
We work alongside owners and managers helping them with research, analysis, planning, strategy and execution of marketing and sales efforts.
When you have tried to get past a roadblock and are at the point of frustration… sometimes you just need some expert guidance (who is not inside your business).
Now more than ever you need to have an attractional marketing system that helps you Stand Out from your competition!
Do you know where and when the next new customers are coming from?
What Frustration???
The result of doing ‘marketing’, without getting the results you want.
*** knowing how to do or why you’re doing certain things like SEO, SEM or social media content marketing and also making them convert ***
The probable cause of a growth ceiling stopping you, is that you don’t have the foundations of marketing defined and refined. Implementing a solid foundation prior to launching into a marketing strategy or campaign is the key.
Marketing and sales systems that work effectively, always start with a very refined focus, a level of automation and with an outlook of scalability.
Harnessing digital tools for all customer facing staff and cohesiveness within your team is a very important part of developing a sustainable marketing and sales function. Enabling you to grow your business for the long term includes training for your staff. That’s why we offer LinkedIn training for customer facing staff, because it’s essential in todays digital world.!
Reach out today and understand how we can help you overcome the frustration everyday
Strategic Marketing
At the heart of every successful business is a great strategic plan and marketing system.
Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together!
– James Cash Penney
Are you FRUSTRATED!!! with Sales and Marketing???
Many business owners and managers get frustrated with the lack of good results their sales team is achieving… but don’t know why the results aren’t great.
We identify the gaps in the market and help you structure, plan and implement effective systems and processes to make your team more successful and get much better results… yes we actually help you get results!
Marketing and Sales are the lifeblood of all businesses – don’t neglect them and expect everything to work out!
The reason why so many companies and also marketing agencies FAIL to deliver great results is that…They don’t do the essential research and analysis before marketing!
We pick up clients all the time – that have had a terrible experience with promises given and no good results achieved – just money wasted!
Our mantra is ‘Business Growth Simplified’. We help you identify what’s holding you back and establish what needs to happen to start your ffbusiness growing sustainably for the long term.
We focus on cohesiveness throughout the business so that sales, marketing and the service and product delivery teams are all working towards a reproductive sales cycle with referrals becoming a major part of your business.
Competitive Advantage
As you can understand – you know your business better than we do. Therefore we start with a competitive analysis to help both you and us understanding your business and the competition and market. This helps us quickly get on the same page with you and establish the correct direction to go forward. We normally put all of this information into a marketing mix, which helps us clearly identify the gaps for potential marketing and sales improvements and areas to glean additional profitability.
Alongside this, we are often able to establish unique selling points (USP’s). USP’s are often NOT clear within a company and staff cannot identify or explain them – which is a huge roadblock to successfully winning more customers.
There are a number of other main issues we see… a lack of a singular focus – on one Niche (your top 5 customers) and a different Value Proposition from the competitors.
These lead to most sales people thinking they need to cut margin – because their potential customers don’t know why they should buy the product or service from you or the competition.
Unfortunately this does more damage to a brand than just lowering profit. Consumers are actually looking for value for money above all, rather than the cheapest offering. They like to feel like they are getting a deal that is worthwhile for them, not just purchasing something that is cheap. There has been a lot of research conducted on this topic.
All companies have something unique about them, which is the reason why they have customers. This differentiator can be developed into a serious competitive advantage, which is the start of “stopping margin cutting”, and being able to win customers and projects more often.
As described above, you need a competitive edge. We provide the competitive analysis service and also coaching for implementation, in order to support you through the process of developing a competitive advantage.
Value Proposition… why you need a difference!
We’ve found the problem of NOT having a unique Value Proposition stops companies from becoming the best they could be and securing their rightful part of the market to call their own.
You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do. – Henry Ford
Part of building a reputation is marketing. To effectively market your brand, you need to clearly state what you stand for. Positioning your brand through your marketing process is the most effective way to stake your claim on a part of the market ie. your potential market share.
Focus on building the best possible business. If you are great, people will notice and
opportunities will appear. – Mark Cuban
Brand Marketing
To add authority to the advantages of your business – our branding services were developed to focus your sales and marketing efforts with a brand marketing message, highlighting the differences we’ve identified with you in the analysis stage above. Then we setup systems, processes and structures to help automate the lead generation and business’s sales delivery system – to work more effectively and efficiently.
This is part of developing a business and critical to the branding process. The point of branding is to have your company associated with the thought of a particular generic service or product that your target market needs/ wants. Simply, branding is “the process of creating, maintaining, clarifying or changing a brand”. A perfect example of this is the “Stanley knife or Biro”.
Business Development
If you’re looking for a ‘quick fix’, we’re not for you. Growing, improving and developing a business takes careful consideration and a lot of time and effort. We do shorten the timeline for you, as our business is to know how to do effective marketing and optimisation of sales processes.
Implementing inbound marketing services, sets the stage for sustainable growth as a part of an effective sales framework. Today’s modern buyers are directing the way we sell; therefore we work with their buying mindset – to get the best results for you.
A lot of companies that are not achieving the goals they have set, miss some fundamentals of developing and growing a business. Simplicity is often the best place to start. Most people chase the fancy new ‘quick fix’ because it seems like it will work and it will cost a lot less than the proven way => research, time and hard work.
Most businesses focus too much on new customer acquisition and forget about the huge amount of opportunities they are missing within their current data base. We start with analysis, because this helps all involved to see what the strengths and weaknesses of the current state are… then – together we create a meaningful plan to implement and test as we go forward.
Business Development is about improvement for the long term. Good business development is all encompassing, therefore, as a business development agency, we look at all aspects of a business that have anything to do with the Marketing Mix and the Sales Process.
Online Marketing
Promotion is an extremely important part of the overall marketing mix. The key is to correctly target the niche and where they interact, in order to educate themselves about your product or service. Targeting correctly ensures the results are achieved; but also keeps costs down and increases ROI, creating the start of great results in actual sales.
To put this targeting into action – marketing is the key. We focus a lot of what we do in marketing on:
1. Website rebuilds (updating technology and look and feel). A website is the only thing that you can own on the internet.
2. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO campaigns)
3. Google My Business Listing
4. Online reputation management
5. Online Advertising Campaigns
6. Social Media Marketing
- Content Strategy
- Content writing
- Non-paid Lead Generation Campaigns
7. Email Marketing
Rounding out this holistic way we work, is the training and coaching aspect of our business. Just advising how to make businesses grow is fine; but helping companies to develop themselves and thrive without our intervention – is the way to build an amazing legacy.
Start your business growth journey with a FREE initial Strategy consultation.
There are a lot of useful resources here, if you are interested in growing your business.
You’ll find information on business development, sales planning, marketing strategies, competitive advantage, digital marketing, branding and positioning, online reputation as well as building websites.
We have also written a mass of articles on these topics above and a few more… under “Blogs” in the menu – TOP RIGHT of screen.
1. We don’t have enough leads and opportunities! / How can we get better results from our marketing efforts?
2. We have lots of opportunities that never drop – so we have a really high cost of customer acquisition… and still not enough sales!
Potential clients we meet, have almost never had research and analysis done as a standard precursor to any marketing or sales effort.
As well as the above mentioned services we also offer implementation coaching for specific projects like developing sustainable competitive advantages and improving conversion rates through a sales process or marketing campaign.
This combination is what our clients have told us – is what has made us their choice of sales consulting and marketing agency in Melbourne.
Using the available data we direct you and your team in understanding how to start achieving your goals more regularly. We’ve found that many businesses (A) don’t understand how much data they already have available to them and (B) how to use it effectively to drive better results!
Business, market and competitor data are all invaluable resources that you already have. These data sets (when interpreted well) will inform and help guide you in planning and making strategic decisions about how to best go about implementing business, sales and marketing plans.
In fact we guarantee that you will get a double digit percentage increase in ROI for your marketing and sales efforts – if you allow us to lead and guide your team in the marketing and sales functions of your business.
Not using the available data (and in a cohesive manner for marketing and sales functions) to create the direction, systems and processes for your team to follow… is one of the largest reasons companies and sales people are struggling to achieve their sales goals.
We’ve found that when some structured research and analysis is carried out in the strategic planning phase the results speak for themselves!
“Best Small Business Marketing Consultants in Melbourne – According to our clients reviews, combining Digital Marketing Consulting Services with Data, Analytics, Sales, and just plain good sense, in our Agency.”
Alongside Business Consulting - Head Office
Find out how & where to start growing
Your business.
book a meeting today!
Contact us
Bayswater, Vic 3153, Melbourne, Australia