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“ Marketing’s job is never done. It’s about perpetual motion. We must continue to innovate every day.” – Beth Comstock, Former CMO & Vice Chair, GE
Marketing is a vital part of any business, but it often gets overshadowed by other operational tasks. Many business owners struggle to prioritize marketing efforts or lack a clear understanding of effective marketing strategies. Coach Ralph White saw this challenge and created a simple, yet powerful game called “The Bucket Game” to streamline and optimize marketing activities. In this blog, we explain what it is and how it works so that you can implement it in your own business.
In the Bucket Game, four buckets are created for tracking marketing. These buckets are described below.
Bucket No. 1: Leads, Ideas, and Possibilities
This bucket serves as a place for all potential leads, possibilities, and ideas for the business. Leads can come from various sources such as books, magazines, trade journals, or customer recommendations. It’s important to continuously keep track of the leads in this bucket and to ensure a steady stream of potential opportunities.
Bucket No. 2: Qualified Prospects
Qualified prospects are individuals who have been verified as potential customers based on conditions of satisfaction. To optimize business operations and profits, it’s important to establish these conditions to filter out undesirable prospects who do not align with business objectives. In his book “12 Steps to Success in BusinessLife”, Ralph discusses how he developed the conditions of satisfaction for his business:
“The ‘good’ customers communicated. They paid their bills on time, and they were nice people to do business with. Based on this assessment, I established four criteria as my conditions of satisfaction for customers: 1) communication, 2) timely payment of bills, 3) work that my shop is designed to do, 4) work that is profitable.”
It’s also important to create a strategy for managing existing customers to ensure that they continually meet these criteria.
Bucket No. 3: Quotations
Quotations represent potential customers who are interested in the service and have received price quotes. Closely tracking prospects that have quotations and having an effective follow up system with them is important since they are close to converting into customers.
Bucket No. 4: Customers
Bucket four consists of current customers with whom business transactions are ongoing, including those that don’t have open orders. Monitoring customer satisfaction and identifying opportunities for repeat business are key areas to focus on for customer retention.
The Flow of The Buckets
Visualizing outcomes that you want in your business and life increases your confidence and success. By imagining the steps of a system going well, you also prepare yourself to take those actions in real life. In his book, Ralph offers his strategy for visualizing the flow of the buckets:
“I simply envision the buckets filled with water. I clearly see the water flowing from one bucket to the next to the next. At the bottom, I envision my hands feeling that water as it turns into money. The palms of my hands are at the bottom of a waterfall overflowing with money.”
Visualizing the flow of water from one bucket to another represents the progression of leads through the marketing pipeline. Regularly assessing the water levels in each bucket allows for the adjustment of marketing strategies as needed.
Quantifying and Analyzing
Quantifying the potential conversion rates at each stage of the marketing process provides valuable insights. For example, you can determine how many leads, qualified prospects, and quotations you need to generate 3 solid customers. You can use this information to scale your business to the number of customers that you want to generate in a given period of time. Analyzing past performance data helps to establish realistic goals and action plans for future marketing activities.
Implementing Action Steps
Identify specific action steps required to move leads through the buckets to streamline your marketing efforts. Regularly review and adjust action plans based on performance metrics to ensures continuous improvement.
In conclusion, The Bucket Game offers a structured approach to marketing that enables businesses to effectively manage and optimize their sales pipelines. By implementing clear criteria, visualizing the marketing flow, and focusing on measurable outcomes, businesses can achieve sustainable growth and success.
Take the first step towards unlocking your full business potential. Click here now to seize the opportunity and schedule an appointment for an exclusive one-on-one conversation with Ralph or Bryan, your expert business coaches who are dedicated to propelling your success to new heights.
