Marketing Exercises

How this works

Open your worksheet and fill in your answers — it’s yours to keep. 👉 Open the Marketing Exercises worksheet (Google Doc) ↗
Work through all four on your own — Exercises 1 and 2 during your Monday solo block, 3 and 4 whenever you get to them. Take your swing solo; don’t wait for anyone.
Once you’ve done them, we sit down together, go through your answers, and unlock the model answers below — then they stay unlocked here as part of your packet.

Reference material: the Company & Industry Primer and Brand Voice & Guidelines.

🔒 Unlock the model answers:

Exercise 1 — Ideal Customer Profile & Buyer Persona

Our top segment is the commercial property manager (firms like CBRE, AMCOR, City Property Management). First, a distinction worth keeping straight: an ICP describes the ideal company/account; a persona describes the individual human you talk to inside it.

Account vs. person. Describe (a) the ideal Anderson account (the ICP — what kind of property-management firm: how many buildings, what types, what size) and (b) the individual you’d actually talk to (the persona). Why is it useful to define these separately?
A day in their life. What’s a property manager responsible for, what goes wrong in their day, and where do locks / keys / access show up — usually as a problem, not a project?
Their scorecard. What is this person measured on by their boss (tenant satisfaction, uptime, cost control, safety/liability)? How does choosing a locksmith help or hurt those numbers?
Pains & trigger events. List 3–5 specific moments that make a property manager call a commercial locksmith. Mark each urgent or planned.
Where they learn & who they trust. How do they find and vet a vendor like us — and what makes them trust Anderson over a cheaper unknown?
Objection. What makes them hesitant to hire us, or to move from basic lock work into access control? Write it in their words.
Sum it up. One sentence capturing who this person is, plus a believable quote about what they care about.

Model answer — one strong way to think about it (not the only right one):

ICP (the account): a regional or national property-management firm running dozens-to-hundreds of doors across multiple commercial / multifamily buildings in metro Phoenix; has in-house maintenance, buys on NET-30, and values having one reliable vendor across the portfolio. Persona (the human): “Dana,” a regional property manager who actually picks up the phone. Separating them matters because the firm is who we qualify and target; the person is who we message and build trust with.
Day in the life: juggling tenant turnovers, maintenance tickets, vendor coordination, and budget across many buildings. Locks/keys/access surface as fires — a lockout, a broken closer, a tenant moving out, a lost master key.
Scorecard: occupancy & tenant satisfaction, uptime, cost control, and liability/safety. A locksmith who answers and shows up protects all four; one who flakes blows up her day.
Triggers: tenant turnover (planned), lost/stolen master key (urgent), break-in (urgent), failed access reader (urgent), a new build-out or compliance push (planned).
Trust: referrals from other PMs, Google/Maps, existing relationship; trust comes from live answer, same-day, “we’ll still be here in 5 years,” and a full support staff — not the lowest bid.
Objection: “Access control sounds expensive and complicated — my keys work fine.”
One-liner + quote: A time-strapped manager who just needs security handled without babysitting a vendor. “I don’t have time to chase three locksmiths — I need one company that picks up and shows up.”

Pitfalls to coach against: demographics theater (age/hobbies don’t matter in B2B — role, KPIs, and pains do); and describing our wishes (“they value quality”) instead of their reality in their words.

🔒 Model answer locked. You'll open this together with Garrett when you review — then it stays unlocked here for you.

Exercise 2 — The Buying Committee (the Decision-Making Unit)

Decision-maker vs. end user — mapping the DMU, the group that decides a B2B purchase together.

Scenario: a property manager is upgrading a building from keys to card / fob / mobile access. In B2B the person who signs is rarely the person who uses it — so we map the whole Decision-Making Unit (DMU): the committee that decides together. The six classic roles: Initiator, User, Influencer, Decider, Buyer, Gatekeeper.

In your worksheet this is a table — each role is a row, and each question is its own column. Fill in a cell for every role:

Who plays it? A plausible job title for each role (and note where one person wears two hats).
What do they care about? Each role’s #1 concern / decision criteria.
The message you’d lead with. One sentence per role — same product, different angle.
The gatekeeper. Who is most likely to block us from the decider, and how would you earn past them without going around them?
Rational vs. relationship. Which roles are swayed more by hard data (cost, downtime, security) and which by trust/relationship? One example of each.
Sales-cycle reality. Sketch the rough stages from “someone notices a problem” to “signed & installed,” and note which role drives each.

Model answer — one strong way to think about it (not the only right one):

Role	Who plays it	What they care about	Message you’d lead with
Initiator	On-site building engineer / a fed-up tenant	Keys keep getting copied / walked off	”Let’s end the key chaos for good.”
User	Maintenance tech, front-desk staff, tenants	”Will this make my day harder?"	"Add or cut off access in seconds — no more chasing keys.”
Influencer	IT, a security consultant, or the GC/architect on a renovation	Spec fit, integration, code compliance	”It integrates cleanly and meets code.”
Decider	Property owner or regional facilities director	ROI, liability, minimal disruption	”Lower liability and stop re-keying on every turnover.”
Buyer	Procurement / accounting	Price, terms, PO, NET-30	”One vendor, predictable pricing, NET-30 across the portfolio.”
Gatekeeper	The property manager (screens vendors) or an exec assistant	”Don’t waste my time — is this vendor credible?"	"60-year local partner — here’s the proof.”

Gatekeeper: usually the property manager herself — earn past her by being credible and useful (references, a clean walkthrough), not by going around her to the owner.
Rational vs. relationship: Influencer/Buyer lean rational (specs, price); Decider/Gatekeeper lean relationship + risk (trust that we’ll deliver and still be here).
Sales cycle: notice problem (Initiator/User) → scope & spec (Influencer + us) → quote/approval (Decider/Buyer) → schedule & install (us) → ongoing service. Weeks-to-months, not an impulse buy.

Pitfall to coach against: collapsing everyone into “the decision-maker.” Deals die when one ignored role — a skeptical engineer, a cautious IT influencer — quietly kills momentum.

🔒 Model answer locked. You'll open this together with Garrett when you review — then it stays unlocked here for you.

Exercise 3 — SWOT Analysis

Frame this around a real goal: growing Anderson’s access-control line. SWOT splits into Strengths/Weaknesses, which are internal (things we control), and Opportunities/Threats, which are external (the market). Be specific and honest — a SWOT no one disagrees with is useless.

Set the lens. Write the objective at the top (e.g., “grow our access-control business”). Everything below should serve it.
Strengths (internal). 3–4 specific strengths, each with a one-line “so what?” for the customer.
Weaknesses (internal). 3–4 honest weaknesses, especially around the access-control push. Facts, not excuses.
Opportunities (external). 3–4 outside trends we could ride — plus the evidence behind each.
Threats (external). 3–4 outside risks.
Bucket check. Re-read your lists — did anything land in the wrong bucket?
(Stretch) Make a move. Combine your best Strength and best Opportunity into one strategy sentence (an “SO” move).

Model answer — one strong way to think about it (not the only right one):

Objective: grow access control from a small slice toward a major share of revenue.
Strengths: 60 years + deep commercial relationships (so what? warm base to cross-sell access control to); 3 shops + full support staff (so what? we show up and stand behind it); full-service incl. restricted keys & safes (so what? one trusted vendor for the whole security stack); bonded/GSA (so what? credible for schools/gov/banks).
Weaknesses: known for “locks & keys,” not electronic access; possible skills/depth gap on newer access tech; modest brand awareness & lead-gen maturity; access control still a small share today.
Opportunities: commercial shift from keys → credentials/mobile; recurring-revenue service contracts; security/liability concerns rising; metro-Phoenix construction; upgrading the existing base.
Threats: national security integrators; DIY/cloud access vendors selling direct; price-shopping locksmiths; a commercial-real-estate slowdown.
Bucket check: “a competitor is cheaper” is a threat, not a weakness; “we’re slow on new tech” is a weakness, not a threat.
SO move: use our 60-year relationships and trust (S) to be the one who upgrades existing accounts from keys to access control (O) — the warmest path to the growth goal.

Pitfall to coach against: vague flattery (“great team, good service”). Push for specific, falsifiable points.

🔒 Model answer locked. You'll open this together with Garrett when you review — then it stays unlocked here for you.

Exercise 4 — Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning (STP)

STP is a sequence: segment the market → target the best segment → position in their minds. (Your Exercise 1 ICP is really the output of doing this well.)

Segment. List 4–6 distinct types of commercial customers Anderson could serve, and one thing that makes each one’s access/security needs different.
Test two segments. For two of them: Distinct? Accessible (can we reach them)? Measurable? Profitable (repeat business, contract value)?
Pick a target & justify. Choose the one segment to prioritize for access control — justify with fit (our strengths) and attractiveness (size, growth, profit).
Desired position. In your target’s mind, what should Anderson stand for, in one phrase? What’s the alternative they’d otherwise pick, and how are we different?
Positioning statement. Fill in the template: For [target] who [need], Anderson Lock & Safe is the [category] that [key benefit]. Unlike [main alternative], we [point of difference].
(Optional) The 4 Ps. One line each — Product, Price, Place, Promotion — and check they reinforce your position.

Model answer — one strong way to think about it (not the only right one):

Segments: property managers (turnover + portfolio scale), retail/multi-location chains (consistency across sites), facilities teams (compliance/integration), education & government (credentials, bidding), banks/financial (vault + compliance), general contractors (project schedule + full hardware package).
DAMP on two: Property managers — Distinct ✓, Accessible ✓ (referrals/associations), Measurable ✓, Profitable ✓ (repeat). Education/gov — Distinct ✓, Accessible ✓ but slow (bids), Measurable ✓, Profitable ✓ (large projects).
Target: property managers — best fit (our relationships and responsiveness) and attractiveness (repeat volume, easy cross-sell to access control).
Desired position: the trusted local partner for commercial access control — not “cheapest,” not “biggest.” Alternative they’d pick: a national integrator or a cheap solo locksmith. We’re different: local, 60 years, full-service, and we’ll still be here.
Positioning statement: For commercial property managers who need security handled reliably across their buildings, Anderson Lock & Safe is the full-service commercial locksmith that answers every call and stands behind the work. Unlike national integrators or one-van locksmiths, we pair 60 years of local trust with the full stack — keys, restricted systems, safes, and access control.
4 Ps: Product — full commercial security incl. access control; Price — premium-for-value; Place — 3 shops + mobile techs Valley-wide; Promotion — referrals, search/GBP, relationship-driven B2B. All reinforce “trusted local full-service,” not “cheap.”

Pitfall to coach against: targeting “everyone.” No real segment = no real position. And the “Unlike… we…” clause must create real separation, not a feature list.

🔒 Model answer locked. You'll open this together with Garrett when you review — then it stays unlocked here for you.