Real Institute of Management and

Research , Nagpur

Subject
Management Case Analysis

The Business Owner Who Lost Track of Her Sales

by Joe Gracia
In the early nineties, a small business owner, Mary, contacted us to ask
for our help.

She said that she was spending a lot of money on newspaper ads to
promote her small business, but that she didn't feel like she was
getting very much return from her investments.

After one meeting, it was obvious what was wrong. While she had an
excellent service and was getting rave testimonials from her current
customers, her marketing strategy had several major flaws that
were preventing her from attracting significantly more customers
and sales.
She wasn't tracking her advertising results
Mary was placing ads in over 10 different publications each month, but
had absolutely no idea which of those publications were producing
results for her and which were not.
Since she was getting very little response anyway, we knew that most
of the publications were producing nothing for her. She was not
only wasting a great deal of money, she was also losing a lot of
money from lost sales
While there are a number of effective ways to code your marketing
pieces, we showed Mary the easiest and most appropriate for her
situation. We simply had her put a different, fictitious Extension
Code next to her phone number in each ad.
 When you don't track, you lose more than
just the cost of the ads
We also explained that when you don't know which ads are working, you're
not only losing the money that you spent on the ads themselves, you're
also losing the sales that you would have received by investing that same
money in a profitable ad.
This can quickly add up to thousands of dollars in lost sales.
Mary was still not completely convinced that this was necessary--she was
hoping that our solution would be more "creative." She thought she
needed more sophisticated and clever ads.
We explained that before we even looked at the content of her ads, it was
vital that she establish an effective way to track her marketing results.
The tracking system reveals the truth about
Mary's ads
Mary was right. It is foolish for business owners not to track their
marketing efforts, but few do it. You can easily tell if they are
tracking, by just looking at the bottom of their ads. If you don't see
an Extension Code, a Department Number, or something like "Ask
for Sue, Operator 87, or Catalog 132, etc.," chances are, they aren't
tracking.
You can't guess your way to profit. If you're not tracking, you're losing
thousands of dollars. It's that simple.
We congratulated Mary on her new system for tracking her marketing.
Now she had a system that would allow her to pick and choose her
marketing efforts based on specific results and facts, not just
guesses and opinions
 Questions:
Q 1- Explain Mary’s marketing strategy.
Answer : In the early nineties, a small business owner, Mary, contacted us
to ask for our help. She said that she was spending a lot of money on
newspaper ads to promote her small business, but that she didn't feel
like she was getting very much return from her getting rave testimonials
from her current customers, her marketing strategy had several major
flaws that right.

Q 2- What were the issues that you think , Mary was missing out on?
Answer : Mary was right. It is foolish for business owners not to track their
marketing efforts, but few do it. You can easily tell if they are tracking, by
just looking at the bottom of their ads. If you don't see an Extension
Code, a Department Number, or something like "Ask for Sue, Operator
87, or Catalog 132, etc.," chances are, they aren't tracking.
Q 3- How was the problem that Mary was facing could be identified?
Answer : "It may seem like it would be difficult and confusing, but
really it's not," I assured her. "Mary, the solution is simple," I
explained. "All you have to do is put a little tracking code in each ad.
Then as your prospects and customers respond to the different ads,
you just ask them for that particular code." each ad. Then as your
prospects and customers respond to the different ads, you just ask
them for that particular code."
Q 4- “Spending money blindly is the sure way to failure” .How would
you explain this in Mary’s case?
Answer : “Spending more money blindly is the sure way to failure” this
statement is very clearly explained by the case study of Mary. She
was not tracking her advertising results causing her to lose a lot of
money from lost sales. She did not know if her money used for
newspaper advertisements was being utilized or not but she was
still paying the newspaper each month for ads so in a way she was
blindly paying money was not bringing her results. The tracking
revealed the truth about Mary’s advertisements. As later analyzed
only one paper was bringing Mary good results others were not.
Q 5- What have you learned from this case
Answer : There is a lot to learn about how to build a big business from
a small business and what to do to turn that business into a big
business and how it happens with an example