The Five Levels of Marketing - Level Two: Putting Data and Information to Work
April 18, 2025
Phil Krone, President
Tracking key types of data each month provides insights that can build a highly productive marketing plan.
In a prior Productive Insights blog, we introduced our Five Levels of Marketing model. This column will focus on Level Two, where we see a range of data and information that can be used to leverage the sales effort. Before getting into details about Level Two, we’ll share a story that will help illustrate the Five Levels.
Suppose that 50 years ago you were a slide-rule manufacturer. If your objective was to increase revenues you could take action on each of the levels.
Level One: Sales. You might decide to hire more salespeople or improve the sales results of your present team by training them in consultative selling skills and building a custom sales process.
Level Two: Information/Data/Analytics. Let’s assume you’ve discovered through research that a very high percentage of slide rules are purchased from high school and college bookstores around the time school starts each year. That piece of intelligence can help leverage Level One by pointing the sales team to the identified target, campus bookstores in this case. You also learn that a small percentage of slide rules are graduation gifts. This information might direct product development as you will see below.
Level Three: Tactical or Campaign. Perhaps you run a tactical campaign. Every week you mail a promotion to school bookstores (yes, via snail mail here) and let your salespeople know which schools receive the mailing each week. This heads-up further leverages your sales team’s time.
Level Four: Marketing or Program. Pause here and segment the market based on buying motive. Then develop a targeted marketing model for each segment with product attributes: Basic for students (functional yet low in price); as a high-quality gift for business managers, with a leather case and a higher price; and professional for the engineer or scientist using the slide rule on the job every day.
You could go along just fine investing in any of the first four levels until the electronic calculator was introduced. At that point your market could be significantly impacted, and the survival of the firm could be at stake since future unit sales will now be under attack.
Had you been marketing on Level Five: Vision, however, you probably would have anticipated slide rules being replaced by calculators and taken strategic actions. That might mean selling the company or partnering with an original equipment manufacturer of calculators (you know the market; they know the product). A third strategy could be taking control of the product yourself either by buying and reselling it or by manufacturing it.
To determine which end of Level Two you are marketing on now, ask yourself how you use data and information in the marketplace or within your firm. Here is a short list of possibilities:
- Buying motives for your product or service learned from surveying current clients, prospects, and lost prospects. We find our clients can identify only about half the reasons customers buy from them.
- Data you collect as part of providing your service that can be gathered, analyzed, and sold into the marketplace. Perhaps your entire business becomes collecting data and re-selling it.
- Information such as formulas that help your prospects understand the cost of the status quo. We helped a client develop an algorithm to calculate the cost of medication waste at senior living communities. Our client offered a significantly more efficient packaging system that saved money but needed a way to convince their prospects.
- Our formula used rules of thumb related to average prescription prices, frequency of prescription changes, number of skilled nursing beds, and types of packaging. Using the algorithm with data supplied by our client’s prospects, the amount of medication wasted by packaging could be calculated quickly on the spot and compared with our prospect’s packaging costs. This type of data creates value for prospects. In this case, they know that medication waste is costing them money, but they typically don’t know exactly how much.
- Information that each month tracks your current 12-month total sales divided by the prior 12-month total sales. For instance, divide the total sales for the 12 months ending September 2024 by the 12-month total sales ending September 2023.
- Do that every month to remove seasonal differences and put that data into a visual to illustrate your real growth rate. This straightforward way of looking at sales can be used both for forecasting and for inventory control. Optimizing those two categories improves customer experience and can drive growth.
Finally, be sure to keep these Five-Level Model takeaways in mind:
- The fastest way to increase revenue in the short term is to improve the sales function on Level One. This means stronger consultative selling skills, the development of custom sales processes, and good coaching.
- Effective use of Level Two
information can significantly leverage your salespeople’s time and
boost their productivity.
- The most efficient way to obtain competitive advantage is to market one level above your competition. If they are marketing on three levels, you differentiate by marketing on four.
- The goal is to gain sustainable competitive advantage on all five levels and at the high end of each one.
- There are many ways to market successfully using the Five Levels Model. The first step is to identify which level you’re on now and how well you’re doing. Improve on that level and test other levels as it makes sense to find the best combination for your business.
We have an extensive list of other types of data that can be used to market at the higher end of Level Two. Just get in touch if you want to discuss additional data points that can help drive revenue. We’re at
pkrone@productivestrategies.com or 847-446-0008 Ext. 1.
Even more practical, productive sales and marketing ideas and advice can be found in Phil’s new book:
Asking the questions that give you the confidence you need to win in sales.
This faith-based not-for-profit achieves 40 percent year-over-year growth for 17 years by applying well-known business principles, one in particular. Why can so few businesses even dream of such growth?
Are you selling business to business or business to government or both? There are similarities but also differences that need to be recognized to optimize your results.
Last year after a talk I gave at the Small Business Expo on Business to Business Selling (B2B) , a woman asked for my card because she wanted to meet to tell me about her business and learn more about mine. When we eventually got together she shared that her start-up company’s goal was to console consumers who had suffered the loss of a loved one directly, as she had. But my talk had inspired a new idea: assist funeral homes to improve their services by showing more empathy to their customers who were struggling as she was. I sensed that my talk gave her confidence that, despite the challenges, her business could succeed. What I didn’t realize was that this small assignment for a start-up would eventually have such a big impact on her business as well as an industry.
To date we have covered the Sales, Information, Tactical, and Marketing Plan Levels. Although the fifth level is the last to be discussed, it is often what sets a business in motion when it is founded. Today we will illustrate marketing to support a vision by discussing two very successful businesses.
As a reminder, the Five Levels of Marketing are (1) Sales, (2) Information/Data/Analytics, (3) Tactical or Campaign, (4) Marketing or Program, and (5) Vision/Strategic. We’ve explored each of the first three levels in separate columns in August, September, and October. They are available on our website's Productive Insights collection.
Using intelligence from prior levels leads to revenue-building sales campaigns on the ground in real time.
The Five Levels -
Sales: Prospecting, qualifying, discovery, presentation, demonstration, proposal writing and closing; Information/Data/Analytics; Tactical or Campaign; Marketing or Program; Vision/Strategic
If you believe you have ADHD, you can be more successful by scheduling fewer first meetings and spending that time on more second and third meetings with qualified prospects. For our client, that meant cancelling half the medical CFO conventions his sales rep was planning to attend and investing more time following up with the CFO prospects he had already met. When your discovery is not productive, step back and restart at the point the discussion began to be about whose system is better. That’s an argument you are not going to win. Don’t waste years in prospect meetings in which you ask the same questions every time and get the same answers. Either decide that your product or service isn’t right for this prospect and move on—or broaden your discovery to find a need behind the need. In this hospital case, the hidden need was a fear that because no outside vendors had audited their system they might be in violation of regulations that an outsider would spot right away.
Several years ago, I helped a Wisconsin piece-part manufacturer compete for a multimillion dollar opportunity. They asked me who I wanted to take along from their company, and I said the chief engineer, the head of quality control, and a production representative. Day 1: On the plane ride to the East Coast, I let everyone know we were looking for information that would give us a competitive advantage. Without it our odds of winning would be one in three or one in four, depending on how many competitors we were facing. The prospect organized a get-to-know-you cocktail event that evening. There we learned that the project involved a complete redesign of a common household appliance. The prospect’s people were excited because they had already received a large Christmas order from a major retailer. Our team debriefed later. Despite getting to know each of our counterparts from the prospect, we had not learned anything that would give us a competitive advantage. Day 2: We met with departmental leaders, including purchasing. Before the meeting our head of quality assurance had breakfast with his counterpart. He had learned that a design issue had not yet been resolved and was causing intermittent failures in the prototypes. Our prospect’s quality assurance head explained that just before going to one of the vice presidents for budget approval, he and his colleagues were playing with a prototype that failed to function intermittently. They went to the meeting and did get the approval. But just as they were heading out the door the VP asked, “Do we have a working prototype?” The engineers said yes, pulled it out of a briefcase, and handed it to him, holding their breath. He tested it, and it worked fine. “Let’s go,” he said. When I heard that, I knew we had learned something that could help us win the business: our competitive advantage. We started the meeting with the buyer’s procurement team by asking what the project we were bidding on would mean to each of them. We heard a range of responses: • “This project has the potential to help me be promoted from a line manager to production manager.” • “There should be so few quality issues I might be able to go on vacation this year.” • “The bonuses will help me pay for my kids’ college expenses.” Clearly, the success of this program was important to everyone on their team. More Stories about Winning the Business Read similar stories in my new book, B2B Selling: Business-to-Business Marketplace Insights and Observations, which is available on Amazon . We asked about what might derail the project. Despite soft questions from us, nobody brought up the problem of intermittent failures that we knew about. Finally, I did bring it up without revealing how we knew about it. The discussion then turned more serious. Not only did the appliance not work, but to make the delivery promised to a major retailer for Christmas, the tooling construction had to be started immediately. But before that the design issue had to be fixed. We said we would like to spend the afternoon addressing the design problem and come back the next morning with a solution, if we could come up with one. Day 3: We were sitting in the buyer’s office waiting for the morning meeting to begin when our competitor called the buyer to see “how he looked” on the program. (We could hear the buyer say, “I don’t know how you stack up. I haven’t made the spreadsheet yet.”) This was a really interesting response for two reasons. First, adding up the piece price and the tooling amortization figure for three or four potential vendors in a spreadsheet would take five minutes, so the spreadsheet probably existed already. Second, and more important, was that even though the person calling was a current supplier the buyer did not tell him about the design issue. The company did not want a lot of people to know about the problem until they had fixed it. We knew about it because we were there. We had shown up. At the meeting with the procurement team, we reviewed what we had learned about their objectives for the project and the need to address the design issue. Before sharing our solution, I asked what would happen if they delayed the project to reengineer the product and missed their Christmas commitment to the retailer. The answer was that they would have a hard time getting an order for the following Christmas. I then asked what would happen if they went ahead and produced the product knowing there would be intermittent quality issues. The answer was that not only would this product have a hard time getting shelf space in the future, but the retailer might also reduce shelf space for other legacy products our prospect supplied. Of course, I wasn’t suggesting they do either of these things. I just wanted them to state the cost of the status quo out loud to emphasize the consequences of not resolving the issue. That in turn would emphasize the value of our solution. We then presented our solution to address the “have to start . . . can’t start” issue. We proposed starting the tooling immediately but staying away from the gear centers, which we believed were the source of the design issue. We also proposed building prototypes with different gear centers to resolve whatever issues there were. The prototype experiment would produce an optimal design in time to keep the tooling on schedule. Everyone was happy, and they asked us to drop by the next morning to pick up the order. Day 4: When we walked into the meeting, we could see something was wrong. We learned that they couldn’t award the contract to us because the approved project plan required them to use a current vendor to reduce risk. Why had we been asked to bid at all then? The plan also called for them to get three bids and one of their current suppliers had declined to bid. Key Point: When this kind of roadblock comes up, it’s important to stay calm and to focus on how to get the ball back in your hands. Before asking them if they could change the plan, I went over everything we had covered since day one: The importance of the success of the project for each person on the team, including what it meant to each of them personally; the importance of meeting the retailer’s demand for delivery in time for Christmas; that we were the only ones that knew of the design issue, and, most important, that we were the only ones with a potential solution. Then I asked if they could modify the plan. They had of course thought of that, but the VP who had approved the plan was out of the country. When this happens it is important to just ask the question that can bring the businesses back to you, in this case: Can we call him to see if he would approve the change? They made the call on a speaker phone so everyone could hear. His response wasn’t surprising. He was first of all unhappy that he hadn’t learned about the design issue sooner and that the vice president wasn’t told before approving the capital budget. Then he summed up the situation: “So what you’re telling me is that, first, we have a design problem none of our current vendors even know about let alone have a solution for. And, second, that you have a potential vendor on the spot who does have a solution and who can make the Christmas delivery date. Is that right?” After a pause, he said, “Change the plan!” We flew home that afternoon with the order. Here are the major takeaways: 1) The best way to gain an information advantage is to show up and do discovery in person. 2) If you can build bridges in addition to sales-to-purchasing, such as quality-to-quality, production-to-production, and engineering-to-engineering, you have increased the odds of learning what you need to know to gain a competitive advantage. 3) When told the business is not coming your way, but you know an order hasn’t been placed yet, keep asking what it would take to bring the project back to you. 4) Make sure your presentation is “prospect-centric”—that it is about the customer and his issues—not “seller-centric” and only about your capabilities. 5) If the program is large enough, or important enough, hiring outside resources to get the win can be a sound investment. 6) When following up on a submitted proposal, don’t ask “how do we look?” That reduces the discussion to price. Please get in touch with us directly at 847-446-0008 Ext. 1 or pkrone@productivestrategies.com .