find, keep and grow your customer

December 30, 2008

Serve Your Competition, And You Won’t Have Any…

Filed under: web/interactive marketing, internet marketing, branding/differentiation, marketing strategy, General —

It took me a while to buy into this concept.  But I get it now.  And believe in it.

I first heard this phrase from Stone Payton, a friend and business partner.  At first, I didn’t want to do anything to help the competition - felt that I had to protect my space. But as both myself and my business matured, I came to understand what it means.

But with Intrepid now two years old and with my growing activity in social media, this concept of service is gaining increased power and weight.  Why?  It is essential to building a strong brand.  It helps differentiate you in the marketplace.

How does this manifest itself?  Here are nine ways:

1. Never speak ill of your competition. There will come a day when they need a strategic partner, and they just might throw that business to you.

2. Don’t be afraid to throw business to competition.  If you are too busy - or the new prospect is just not the best fit for you - never a bad idea to give it away.  I will bet many of those same prospects will still come back to you down the road.

3. In the social media world, there are only about 1.6 million other marketing pros like me.  What, am I gonna compete with all of them? Push them, promote them, forward their strong content - it all looks good on you.

4. We each have special skill sets. There will be a day when you need a competitor’s special talent to benefit your own client.  Get them on board.  I promise they will return the favor some day.

5. Despite what the press is reporting, there is enough business to go around. Help refer business to other competitors - and they in turn will become a secret sales force for you too.

6. Comment on the blogs of your competitors. Not to tear down their service, but rather to promote them as well as demonstrate your expertise. Some of those shopping around will land on your doorstep.  Encourage your competitors to contribute to your blog too…

7. When networking - both at the local Chamber and/or on social media - introduce people to your competitors. If you have self-confidence AND a strong service offering - you won’t lose any business.  And you will make friends with those in the enemy camp.  That friendship will mean something someday.

8. There will come a time when you need the expertise of one of your rivals to serve your client. With your client’s best interests at heart, you WILL NOT lose your client. And at the end of the day, you will go a long, long way to cementing customer loyalty by sacrificing for their benefit.

9. When answering general questions about your industry space on social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter, don’t be afraid to speak positively about the whole industry - not just your company. Speaking well of everyone helps the whole bunch of us, and paves the way for customers to move forward confidently. A rising tide lifts all boats.

These are just a few ways to serve. I bet you can come up with more. Please share. But at the end of the day, by serving your competition, you will actually grow your business. And while you are at it, you will slowly build a strong network of friends and allies that will ultimately benefit both your business and your clients.

Todd Schnick. Be Intrepid. http://intrepid-llc.com

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December 28, 2008

Social Media and Manufacturing: The Wave of the Future?

Filed under: web/interactive marketing, internet marketing, lead generation, marketing strategy, General —

Q: I was reviewing the manufacturing white paper that was done recently by GrowthANSWERS, and I was surprised by how few manufacturers surveyed utilize online tools to prospect.  Is there a reason for this?  Can it change?

A: It’s a great question.  Many of the manufacturers surveyed are specialized, and focus on niche markets.  As a result, they will tell you that their potential customer base is quite small, and thus there maybe isn’t a real benefit to social media tools.

But I wonder.  I think there is a great opportunity for social media tools to expand the market place for manufacturers.  And in opening up new doors, provide extra prospects to feed into the direct or indirect sales channels that exist.

The advantage of targeting a niche market is that you should have a solid profile of the type of customer you can serve.  Why this is important is it enables you to find others who match that profile.

And I think social media and online marketing can be an important support strategy to find more prospects that meet that profile.

Other manufacturers said that trade shows were an important tool in their marketing program.  Makes perfect sense.  Marketing, in all its forms, is meant to engage and educate – to build community.

I am willing to bet that when surveyed a year or two down the road, online marketing strategies will make up a significantly larger percentage of tactical options used.  What do you think?

Let me know what you think about social media and manufacturing.  What strategies have worked?  What social media strategies have not?

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December 20, 2008

GrowthANSWERS: The Marketing Resource for Manufacturing

Filed under: Resources, marketing strategy, General —

BY MICHAEL MCCLELLAN - www.plexusmarketing.com 

GrowthANSWERS and Plexus Marketing Group, Inc. recently completed a qualitative survey of Georgia manufacturers which focused on which marketing strategies and tactics they used and found most successful, and which “Growth Gaps” were the most compelling for their companies.

Several key themes were identified relative to the marketing strategies employed by the 38 manufacturers surveyed:  (a) the importance of niche marketing (especially among manufacturers with revenues of $10 million or less per year); (b) the importance of “word of mouth” and “referral” marketing; and (c ) the relatively high degree of variability regarding how the economy was affecting the various types of manufacturers surveyed (which appeared to be affected not only by the particular industry segment they were in, but also by the marketing and selling strategies and tactics used).

The most frequently mentioned marketing tactics used were:  (a) websites, search engine optimization (SEO) and email marketing; (b) direct mail and catalog marketing; (c) tradeshows, (d) print and trade media advertising, and (e) personal selling (as a marketing tactic).

Two “Growth Gap” areas were of key interest to the respondents:  the “Prospect Gap”, which is related to a company’s ability to attract more qualified prospects, and the “Margin Gap”, which relates to a company’s ability to get paid more for their products. 

GrowthANSWERS’ whitepaper on the survey results will be available in early December 2008.  It not only provides more detail on the above findings, but also presents several recommendations on how small to mid sized manufacturers can address the Growth Gaps they find the most compelling. 

For example, one of the reasons that niche oriented manufacturers find the “Prospect Gap” of key interest is because they have a limited pool of current and prospective customers.  However, the “Customer Gap” and “Expansion Gap” should be of equal interest in these situations because these address how to better create customers from this limited pool of prospects, and how to develop new product and service offerings that result in deeper and longer term relationships with these customers (which also reinforce the company’s position in its market niche).

DOWNLOAD HERE: http://www.growthanswers.com/articles/GAManufactureSurvey1208.pdf

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December 13, 2008

Phone-Based Demand Generation Demands Consultive Approach

Filed under: Resources, sales process optimization, lead generation, marketing strategy —

BY MICHAEL MCCLELLAN - www.plexusmarketing.com

You have your main message selected, product features/benefits and questions/objections pages written.  You’ve purchased a thoroughly researched list of suspects you hope to move to the prospect stage.  So, what’s left to do but get on the phone and talk to people?

If that’s as far as you’ve gone, the demand generation project you’ve sunk so much time and money into may not create the results you had hoped.  A consultive call guide can be your best ally when trying to engage a busy executive or decision maker. 

But, writing a consultive call guide is not for amateurs.  With only a few seconds to create interest, you quickly want your suspect to become part of the conversation.  That means you have to ask open ended questions that pull your contact’s focus away from all the other stuff on their desk and get their full attention.

But, when you finally hear the voice of the contact you’ve been trying to reach for days on the other end of the line, it’s tempting to try to use those first couple of minutes to present your offering and its key features and benefits.  This approach, however, is likely to elicit a “no, we’re not interested” response from the contact person that you’ve waited so long to reach. 

Instead, be prepared make a short, credibility-building introduction of your company, then be ready to ask questions and consult – which gives you the opportunity to listen as well as talk. 

Making this simple change will save valuable time and expense, because you will find out more by asking the right questions and listening to your contact – and earn the opportunity to engage in a longer discussion. 

So, before you start your next demand generation project, consider enlisting the help of a professional call guide writer to help you develop a highly-effective script or call guide.  
 

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December 9, 2008

December eMERGE! - The Journal of GrowthANSWERS

Filed under: General —

Close the Margin Gap

In today’s tough economy, everyone is concerned about price. Consumers are watching every penny they spend. Unfortunately, this can lead many businesses to institute promotions and attempt to “buy” the business - any business. While I understand the mentality, I urge readers to be careful how they look at sales promotions for their products or services.

The last time I spoke about the Margin Gap, back in July, I spoke of the auto manufacturers and their price promotions. They conditioned their target market to simply wait until a 0% financing or employee pricing promotion. If such a promotion was not going on, people simply would simply wait until it was.

My point here is this - certainly everyone is looking at how they can get more business. However, instead of strictly cutting the price, look at how you can provide more value. More and more prospects are looking at just price in times like this, but if you can demonstrate more value than your competition, you’ll be better off. While you might not get any many customers as you would if you slashed your prices, you’re at least getting better margin. And keeping your brand from falling into the price / commodity abyss.

In our first article below, Michael McClellan discusses the learnings from a recent research project. Todd Schnick examines how to use direct marketing to target your best customers in the second  article. Brent Brooks follows up his “Meet the eXpert” presentation with a message on using heroes and villains to tell your story.

Steven Winokur, Turning Point Strategies

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December 6, 2008

Zahir Palanpur on Customer Engagement Marketing

Filed under: web/interactive marketing, sales process optimization, 1-to-1 relationship marketing, internet marketing, marketing strategy, branding/differentiation, General —

BY ZAHIR PALANPUR - www.azularc.com 

Recently we went through a very effective sales education process conducted by Mark Walker (who does a fantastic job). A good part of the sales training focuses around the “approach” that allows you to build rapport and a relationship and the “interview” which is where you listen and learn about what it is your client wants.

What if you could take this a step further and have your customer engaged in the process of helping you develop your products? Now, what if you could take it a step further and engage them in the selection process and have them help you in the marketing of your brand? This approach can dramatically increase the involvement and participation of your customers and sphere of users – they become part of your product development process, decision makers and marketers. This makes them highly vested in your brand.

The ideas behind today’s web 2.0 networking technologies are making these increasing feasible. An example of this is a platform we launched this week which you can view at - http://www.txstyle-mannington.com/. This is the first “user generated” web based system for commercial interiors and is already getting significant momentum. It is taking the collaborative approach to the next level by leveraging these web 2.0 / networking ideas and applying it to product development. The user is involved in the product design creation process as well as the selection and marketing. By inviting people to come see what they have created and vote, the users are marketing for you and registration has risen rapidly in the first few days of its launch by this push.

This heralds a new level of marketing and sales that can best be defined as “Customer Engagement Marketing”.

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