The Prairie Sky Group Five Step Process

Step 1: Understand your strategic direction and business goals

Action without direction is just wasted effort.  One of our mottos at Prairie Sky is, “Think Strategically, Act Tactically.”  Experience gives us this perspective.  While many organizations have a good idea of where and what they want to do, many haven’t refined their direction.  So the first step is making sure that your business development activities align with your strategic direction.  We make sure we:

  • Understand your business goals
  • Validate your strategic direction
  • Corroborate your strengths and weaknesses
  • Evaluate the competitive landscape
  • Amplify your differentiation

Step 2:  Validate your target prospects.

Who are your prospects and why?  How well do you understand your prospects?  What do they really think of your company?  Many organizations have a good understanding, but what are you missing?  At Prairie Sky we help refine the picture of your target prospects and clients by:

  • Determining real prospect needs and perceptions
  • Establishing win/loss analysis
  • Evaluating customer loyalty
  • Refining your demographic database
  • Establishing prospect personas
  • Creating prospect narratives
  • Monitoring prospect behaviorMarketing Consulting Lead Generation Minneapolis St Paul Minnesota Atlanta

Step 3:  Accelerate your inbound marketing

More has changed in marketing in the last five years than the previous twenty.  Eighty percent of customers and clients now say they find their vendors rather than the other way around.   When they are ready to engage, they are much further down your sales funnel.  The key question is how well are you positioned to take advantage of the tools of inbound marketing and social media?  At Prairie Sky we help by:

  • Establishing a web and social media strategy
  • Creating an inbound and social media marketing engine
  • Assuring consistency of messaging across platforms
  • Adding effective digital into your marketing mix.

Step 4:  Optimize your outbound marketing

With all the shiny new tools in inbound marketing, one would think that outbound marketing is dead.  It’s not.  It’s just that the tools have changed here as well.  While brochure ware and tradeshows may not be as cost effective anymore, the question you should ask is, “Am I using the right blend of outbound marketing tactics for my markets?”  At Prairie Sky we help by:

  • Establishing consistent and effective market and sales messaging
  • Running triage on your marketing tactics to improve ROI and sales results
  • Optimizing your lead generation programs
  • Establishing the appropriate blend of email and outbound marketing

Step 5:  Help drive sales performance

At Prairie Sky we believe your most important business development asset is your sales team.  Nothing happens until you sell something.  Helping sales drive results is too often an afterthought for marketing.  But you want your sales team closing business and celebrating success, not burning time attending meetings and networking to generate their own leads.   At Prairie Sky we help by:

  • Giving sales the tools they need to succeed
  • Helping sales teams optimize their territories and target prospects
  • Establishing sales processes
  • Assuring forecast predictability
  • Making sales cry with qualified leads