find, keep and grow your customer

February 28, 2009

Out of Sight, Out of Mind, Out of Business

Filed under: customer experience, sales process optimization, 1-to-1 relationship marketing, branding/differentiation, marketing strategy —

BY DON RIGBY

As published in the Tri-City Journal of Business

The need to stay in touch with customers, to cultivate top of mind awareness, to create preference for doing business with you has never been greater or more difficult to accomplish.  With the advent of exciting new communication methods, the ability to communicate effectively and respectfully will differentiate winners from the losers. Customers have an unprecedented number of choices in the marketplace — so the need to connect and be compelling is both imperative and urgent.

HOW TO CONNECT:  Don’t sell …Nurture.  This powerful communication strategy aims at the core of why people buy.  It’s fueled by an understanding of human nature, the need for trust, relationship and enabled by fresh new technology. It’s a way of connecting personally to build rapport and gently embed your brand in their hearts and minds causing them to call you when they’re ready to buy.  You can automate many of these processes to help you be more efficient and effective.   

With each prospect and client, teach them how to buy through ongoing, personalized correspondence and carefully sequenced touch-points.  Begin by documenting your approach. Map your process.  Do this and you’re ahead of 85% of the small and mid-sized companies who don’t.  This step-by-step process outlines your expectations of the sales and marketing teams.  You’ll minimize failure from human error while celebrating the human spirit.  People don’t care what you know until they know you care.  This simple idea revolutionizes the cultivation of loyal customers.  Set yourself apart.  Don’t sell. Through a nurturing philosophy, help people buy. 

HOW TO BE COMPELLING:  You earn it.  Your product or service offering is deeper, more relevant and better strategic fit than your competitors.  That’s because you know your customer–you’ve taken the time to understand their wants, needs and desires.  You’ve analyzed competitive offerings and created an added dimension that further solves the customer problem.  You operate with a true differentiator.  The only one that matters is one that’s admired by your customer.

Are the promises of quality and service good differentiators?   It’s not enough. You sound like your competition which adds noise and confusion to purchase process leaving price as the primary consideration.  Give your customer tangible reasons to make emotional decisions they can justify logically.

HOW TO CREATE PREFERENCE:  Live your brand promise.  Your brand is the sum total of what you say, how you deliver and the customer experience you provide.  In essence, your authenticity.  You can certainly influence your brand, but you don’t own it as it is the perception of how your prospects, customers, partners and vendors view you.  A well articulated brand strategy is the bedrock foundation of every successful enterprise.  It’s no longer optional or nice-to-have. It’s required.  

Your brand strategy serves as a blueprint for management and marketing decisions.  It articulates what makes you unique, supports long-term vision, explains why customers buy and aligns all your employees with messaging elements to reinforce the values and principles your company stands for.  

WHAT EXACTLY DOES YOUR COMPANY STAND FOR?  Hint: more than shaking the money tree.  The best brands are created from the inside out.  This requires outside objectivity.  I can’t empathize this enough–seek outside expertise to analyze your competition, talk to your customers, interview employees and review industry trends.  You’re too emotionally tied to you business.  Even though your opinions and bias make you less than objective, you should be involved in the co-creation process so the brand values of your company are authentic.

Your brand is more than your graphic logo, your positioning statement, your unique selling proposition.  You own and manage those elements.  Your brand is owned by your customer and their beliefs.  The single most relevant thing you can do is deliver a customer experience worth repeating.  When you properly manage customer expectations and then exceed them, you create brand ambassadors.  These non-paid soldiers will do more to validate and create demand for your business, but you must give reason. The good news, you don’t have to spend a dime.  Spending time to innovate around customer experience pays big dividends and begins with speaking to those who have already had one.  

To summarize, let’s break things down into two actionable takeaways; 1) If you’re not making enough sales, you’re not talking to enough people, 2) If you want to change your income, change your marketing.  Key word is change.  Yes, the market has changed and so must you. When the market was good, you could exist without a refined brand strategy, without documented sales processes and without compelling messaging to build awareness, preference and a solid foundation for a customer experience worth repeating.  Today is very different.  The market you compete in is less forgiving. Assuming failure is not an option, there’s really no choice but to out smart, out market, out sell your competition.  Do this and you won’t be out of sight, out of mind or out of business.   

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February 22, 2009

4 Tips On How To Interview Your Customer

Filed under: sales team development, sales process optimization, 1-to-1 relationship marketing, lead generation —

BY MICHAEL MCCLELLAN

“Converting prospects into customers” – which is what GrowthANSWERS calls the “Customer Gap” – should be an important issue to most small-to-mid sized manufacturers.  The reason?  Most manufacturers under $75M in annual revenues rely heavily on niche markets for business – which means that they generally will have a limited pool of current and potential customers to do business with.  This makes it imperative that they convert as many prospects as possible into customers in these niche markets. 

(By the way, this also means that keeping as many customers as possible from these niche markets – i.e. closing the “Loyalty Gap” – and servicing them in as many ways as possible, which is addressed by the “Expansion Gap” – are also important issues.  These will be addressed in future editions of this newsletter.) 

Given the limited nature of the prospect pool in niche markets, some market research into the needs and pain points of prospective customers may be cost-justified.  In addition, it is equally important to explore the key reasons that current customers buy your products and/or services, as well as the reasons that fallen-away customers no longer buy from your company.  Only then will your sales force be truly prepared to convince prospective customers that your product or service is the best solution to address their needs and areas of pain.

Whether you use a professional market researcher or decide to have one of your internal team members conduct the interviews, here are a few tips and techniques for interviewing prospects, current customers, and fallen-away customers:

1) USE OPEN PROBES: Open-ended questions allow your prospects and customers the opportunity to think and respond in ways you might not anticipate.  Be ready to ask the question in another way if you meet resistance or if they have trouble getting started with their answer.  Probe deeper when you aren’t certain you have a clear understanding, or if you think they might have more opinions and insights to share.  Most importantly, listen.  Your goal when making the phone call is to uncover points of pain that perhaps you didn’t realize your prospect or customer is experiencing.  Even nuances make a difference in how effectively a piece of marketing collateral is written. 

2) GET FEEDBACK ON PAST EXPERIENCES:  Take the bad with the good — and don’t get defensive.  Asking for specific details regarding a bad experience will give you valuable problem solving material.  Address concerns at the end of the conversation or, better yet, set up a future meeting so that you have time to prepare and offer a well thought out solution.  You are just trying to pinpoint the key gap areas during this interview.  But, don’t forget to ask what your company does particularly well.  Good performance is just as important to know about as bad.          

3) TEST SOME NEW CONCEPTS: Use the questionnaire as an opportunity to test some new concepts or approaches that you would like to explore with your prospects or current customers.  It’s a perfect time to informally introduce a new idea or product/service offering.

4) KEEP IT SHORT: Do have a dialog, but don’t ask so many questions that it overwhelms your customer.  Normally, 8 to 10 minutes is what you want to allow for this type of interview.  Let the customer be your guide here, though.  Sometimes they want to talk a lot longer.  Do enough to make it meaningful, but don’t make the set of questions so long that you can’t complete it.  Focus on your key objective areas, and make questions in those areas count.  End the call by letting the contact know how important their comments are to you and your business.

By conducting interviews with your current customers, you are creating deeper, more meaningful relationships.  Conversations with fallen-away accounts help you to discover why certain customers fell away and what steps you might take to bring them back.  And, periodic interviews with prospect companies in your targeted niche markets will help you to understand what you can do to become even more valued and differentiated in that niche. 

Finally, remember that current customers (and sometimes those who once were your customers) are your best source and most cost-effective business prospects. 

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February 20, 2009

No sale? Just ask your potential customer WHY?

Filed under: sales team development, sales process optimization, 1-to-1 relationship marketing, lead generation, General —

BY J. MARK WALKER

Several years ago I was the regional sales manager for a small manufacturing company.

One of our product lines was made by this German parent, and was often used in OEM applications.We had a prospect in my Region who bought $500,000 per year worth of a product like one of ours, and we wanted their business. I worked through their Purchasing Department and Engineering Group to insure that we met or exceeded all their design specifications, and that our price was right. After more than a year, we still did not have the order.

I called the Purchasing Agent and asked, “We have the best product at the best price. Why don’t we have the order?” His answer floored me. “Our Vice President of Sales and Marketing does not want to change suppliers?” I asked, “That seems a little out of the ordinary. Why is that?” He responded with a story about a big problem with their present supplier which caused a major public relations disaster in one of their markets. They eventually got the problem resolved, but the VP of Sales and Marketing did not want to risk going through that kind of issue with a new supplier.

After verifying that he wanted to order our product, I asked the purchasing agent to set up a meeting. My Vice President of Sales, Director of Engineering, and Product Manager met me at their plant and we sat at the table with their Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Director of Engineering, Quality Control Manager, and Purchasing Agent. We got all the concerns out on the table and demonstrated how the problem they experienced in the past could not occur with our product. We then agreed upon a plan for a site visit to our facility by their people to verify that we could serve them.

From then on it was just a matter of working the plan, and we got the order.

What was the question that I had failed to ask one year earlier? After we became an approved vendor, I should have asked the Purchasing Agent something like this: “Who else needs to agree to this before you can place the order with us?” I could have saved a year of time and earned an extra $500,000 in revenue had I uncovered the issue with “changing suppliers.” Often there are factors in a purchase decision which don’t make sense to us, but which relate to a cultural issue or a historical problem like my customer had.

You will only learn this when you ask questions to pull out the information.

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February 7, 2009

GrowthANSWERS’ Don Rigby Makes The AJC!

Filed under: 1-to-1 relationship marketing, branding/differentiation, marketing strategy, General —

Business owners are being tested for courage. Some are reacting, others are pro-acting. Here’s an encouraging story published in the 2/1/09 edition Atlanta Journal Constitution how forward thinking businesses are proactively advancing customer growth.  Don Rigby, Managing Director of GrowthANSWERS, believes business owners must stay on the offensive. Smart companies use this down cycle to rethink, reinvent and innovate their way through this and win early in the rebound. To view this article (click here), but we want to know what other proactive business owners are doing today to ready themselves for tomorrow.  Share yours or other acts of courage your observing in the business community. 

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January 2, 2009

Three Things You Can Do NOW To Be Intrepid Marketers

Filed under: 1-to-1 relationship marketing, web/interactive marketing, customer service, internet marketing, direct response marketing, branding/differentiation, lead generation, marketing strategy —

I wonder why some people are so afraid to market their business.

They say they want new customers - they say that want more revenue - they say they are worried about the impact of the economy. But they don’t take decisive action to do anything about it.

I think most of them are dealing with fear - or they are procrastinators - or they don’t have a plan in place to proceed. A fear of failing holds way too many people back from bold action.

I have resolved to JUST DO IT in 2009 - to just DECIDE to take action - to mercilessly kill any evidence of procrastination.

Yes, even I hate to admit - I too sometimes get snagged by procrastination. And it really stresses me out when I catch myself doing it. The only way to fight it? Take action. Smart action, of course, but action nonetheless.

When it comes to boldly marketing your business - here are three things you can do RIGHT NOW:

1. If you haven’t already done so, get active on social media. Start a company blog, get on Twitter, create a company Facebook page. They are free and can be set up in minutes. They are not all time-consuming, and they are a great way to promote your business, build your brand, and make new relationships.

2. Start a direct response campaign to find new customers. Assuming your have your niche target market defined and your marketing message secured, there is no reason not to do a campaign right now. If you have a good product or service, get it out there so that you can help new people. But get out in front - don’t assume your competitors will remain stuck in the goo. Be first in 2009!

3. Send out a survey mailer to your existing customers. Show you care, ask what they need, ask what their current problems are, ask how you can serve them better. [this can be done electronically too - and another reason to get active on social media] Your customers will appreciate the outreach. This will help differentiate you. This will generate action and conversation that will result in cross-sell opportunities AND serve your existing customers.

Well, there are three things you can start working on TODAY. Motion creates emotion. And that first step is the hardest. Choose to take bold, intrepid action in 2009. Good luck!

TODD SCHNICK - BE INTREPID. www.intrepid-llc.com

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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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November 11, 2008

November eMERGE! - The Journal of GrowthANSWERS

Filed under: eMERGE!, sales process optimization, 1-to-1 relationship marketing, marketing strategy, General —

Close the Expansion Gap

When speaking with business owners, the most common growth issue I’ve traditionally heard is one of lead generation. When digging deeper and discussing the findings of the Growth Gap Self Assessment, what I often find is that they also have an Expansion Gap problem. While finding new customers is important to growth, continuing to offer solutions to existing customers is not only easier, is much less costly.

If you’ve heard me speak, you know I preach focus, focus, focus. So I will say here it’s not about just adding products or services. It’s about adding the RIGHT products or services - ones that will further solve your customer’s problem. If you’re solving an issue of entertainment, offering a steam cleaner isn’t the right option.

And perhaps most importantly, make sure you can deliver the same level of service with those new products or services.

In our first article below, Mark Walker explains how to use questioning to uncover new opportunities. Zahir Palanpur follows up his “Meet the eXpert” presentation in October with a timely article on the use of innovation. Stone Payton’s unique writing style is on display in our third article. And finally, Don Rigby writes on the appropriate use of nurture marketing.

Steven Winokur, Turning Point Strategies

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October 19, 2008

“Would You Like Fries With That?” How this simple phrase – coupled with your Direct Response Marketing program – can power your sales!

Filed under: 1-to-1 relationship marketing, web/interactive marketing, internet marketing, direct response marketing, marketing strategy, lead generation, General —

BY TODD SCHNICK – www.intrepid-llc.com 

Do you know how many times I have pulled up to a drive-thru window with the sole intention of buying a single burger?  My intentions are sincere.  Honest.  Fries are high in carbs.  Salty.  Lots of reasons to avoid them.  I think to myself, this time I will avoid that bad, bad food. 

But then that pesky sales person in the first window says those magic words that get me every time.  You’ve heard them – uttering that phrase sprinkled with mystical pixie dust that turns me into soft goo every time… 

“Would you like fries with that?”   

“Yes,” Todd says quickly and matter of factly, as if it was his intention all along. 

Seems ridiculously simple, doesn’t it?  But this little sales technique is so powerful, so common sense, that every business utilizes it, right?   

Wrong.  You’d be surprised how many businesses – both large and small – don’t ask the equivalent of “would you like fries with that” for their products or services.