10 things I hate about you (say our clients)

October 25, 2007

10things RainToday.com (one of my favorite resources) has an eye-opening collection of articles that reveals the 10 major problems encountered by decision makers during the process of hiring consulting and professional services providers.

Not only are these the things decision makers hate about you, but, more importantly, they are also the reasons why they don’t buy your services.

It’s a must read.  You have to register to get to the download page, but you can always say you are Arnie Fuddleknicker.

Seriously — go read it now.  Shoo.

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Grow or die. How’s that for simple?

October 21, 2007

Wilting A business cannot remain stagnant for long. You either grow or you wither up and die.   Now remember that grow doesn’t necessarily mean you get bigger.  Maybe you just get more efficient and more profitable.  But somewhere, there needs to be growth. 

Bob Bloom (former US Chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide) has created a free e-book called Bloom on Growth.  In the e-book, he’s pulled some money quotes out of his new book, The Inside Advantage, which will be available in early November.

Here’s my favorite.  Probably because I’ve been preaching this for eons.

“You can deliberately influence your customer’s entire experience with your firm or you can simply let it happen.”

We all know this is true.  We feel it when we walk into an Apple Store or fly Southwest.  So why do you think most businesses do not do this for their own business?

  • Is it too hard?
  • Too expensive?
  • Too time consuming?
  • Do they not know how?

What do you think?

Related posts:
~ A guidebook to reinventing the customer experience
~ Brandingwire: The coffee shop
~ Knock down the barriers

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Dr. Marketer?

October 13, 2007

Picture_12 Sometimes, we get so caught up in discussing tactics or crunching numbers that we forget we’re in the human behavior business.  At the very root of marketing is this reality: 

Our job is to get people to do something.  Believe something.  Care about something.  Our job is to affect human behavior.  And to affect it, we must understand it.

I’m not saying we all need to run out and get our doctorate in psychiatry.  But I am suggesting we’d better be avid students. 

On any given day, a marketing professional might have to:

  • Understand what motivates a 33 year old suburban mom
  • Talk a client down from the figurative ledge because their boss is demanding instant results
  • Ask questions that get people to think in a new way
  • Write in a way that’s native and comforting to a person facing their death
  • Motivate employees to do superior work for a client who nitpicks and changes direction mid-stream
  • Take a furious customer from screaming to calm and feeling heard
  • Guide a group discussion to help a client unearth an uncomfortable truth about their company’s service
  • Figure out how and why three 19 year olds react completely differently to a new product
  • And so much more

I don’t believe a person can be successful in marketing if they don’t understand and care about how people tick.   

Of course, the couch is optional.

What do you think?  Am I placing too much importance on this aspect of marketing?

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What is the most powerful selling tool?

October 3, 2007

This just in from the folks at Nielsen.  No great shock (I don’t think) to see word of mouth topping the chart, in terms of effective selling tools.  The power of a recommendation from a known/trusted source has long been the gold standard.

But what’s pretty interesting, and a big change from a few years ago, is the third highest item on the list.  Opinions posted online. 

Picture_12_2

 

So, what do you think?  What does this say about blogging?  Sites like epinion.com?

If you’re on the company side — what do you think it means for you and where you spend your resources?  If you’re a consultant or agency-side pro — what do you think it means for you and for your clients?

By the way…this was an international survey.  It covers 47 Markets: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Thailand, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, UAE, United Kingdom, US and Vietnam.

Related posts:

~ How to get customers to talk about you
~ Is that your hand in my pocket?
~ Your future customer is behaving very oddly

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How well do you listen to your marketplace?

October 3, 2007

Listen We’ve all heard the quote from the Greek philosopher Epictetus, "we were born with two ears and one mouth, so we can listen twice as much as we speak."

I doubt Epictetus was a marketing consultant, but it is not a stretch to apply his wisdom to our efforts.  Marketers have a tendency to "talk" a lot.  After all, we have a lot to say.  We have features to point out.  Benefits to reference.  Special pricing to announce.  Nothing wrong with any of that.

But we also need to listen.

How do we listen to our marketplace?  Try some of these on for size:

  • Client satisfaction survey
  • Client needs assessments
  • Attend industry trade shows
  • Monitor blogs for mentions of your company and your competitors
  • Read trade publications
  • The old-fashioned suggestion box
  • Google yourself/company

Along with those effective methods, there are also more direct and immediate ways to actively listen.  After you’ve completed a project or delivered your product, why not just pick up the phone and call? Ask for their impressions.  Find out if you surprised them in any way (good or bad) and what they expected the experience or product usage to be like.  Imagine how you would feel if you received that kind of call.  Appreciated?  Special? Is that the kind of call you’re likely to talk about?  You bet.

A word of caution.  Do not try to sell anything during this call.  This is about listening, remember? 

If you commit to listening more, you will glean insights that change the way you do business and you’ll see a spike in sales as a result.  Guaranteed.

How are you going to improve your listening this month?

Recent posts:

~ Are you really listening?
~ Listen and respond (Marketing Lesson from Walt)
~ Listen up

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Marketing isn’t about shortcuts

October 1, 2007

Shortcut Remember that one essay test you took in school.  You meant to study.  But for some reason you just didn’t have the time. Truth be told, you didn’t really read the book.  But you skimmed over the Cliff Notes.  And you did repent in the end — cramming the night before the test. 

Sure, sure…you should have started cramming a few days earlier or at the very least, not so late that night.  With the radio on. 

Do you remember what you got on that test?  I’ll bet you weren’t happy with the grade.

Shortcuts didn’t work in school and they don’t work in marketing either.  I have yet to see a marketing department or agency that had a drive-up window. 

I get why it happens.  There’s an almost constant demand on CMOs and marketing directors to produce results.  And no agency worth their salt doesn’t want that too.

But there are some pretty important aspects of your business and products/services that need to be understood before we just whip up a brochure or direct mail series.

We aren’t doing the  strategic thinking and planning just to get our jollies.  We have a responsibility.  We owe it to you.  Because you’re about to spend a lot of money.   We want to make sure you spend it right.

This applies if you’re doing your own marketing too.

Getting ready to produce something. Are you sure you’re not taking a shortcut? 

  • If you can’t describe how you are genuinely and relevantly different from your competitors,  stop.
  • If you can’t describe your ideal customer, stop.
  • If you don’t have a broad brand/marketing plan so that you aren’t operating in a vacuum, stop.
  • If you haven’t defined how you are visually going to communicate your company’s offerings, stop.
  • If you don’t know how you’re going to follow up on the leads the new marketing tactci generates, stop.

Whether you’re working with your internal team or with your agency —  don’t short change the process.  If you do some strategic thinking up front and make some of those key decisions, the tactics and tools actually get produced much faster and much more cost effectively. 

Shortcuts are never going to yield the results you want.  Better to do it right than do it again.  Just ask your former teacher who gave you the C.

How do you ensure that you’re not taking a shortcut?

Related posts:

~ SWOT:  Your annual check up
~ Do you go where everyone else goes?
~ Product packaging – part of your brand or disposable?

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Where is your customer’s watering hole?

September 26, 2007

Tiger You're on a photo safari.  You want to get a great shot of the elusive white tiger.  Where do you go?

How about where the tigers hang out?  Where is their watering hole?  Odds are pretty good that if you hang out where the tigers hang out — you'll get that shot.

The same is true of your customers.  Want to have access to them?  Go where they go.  Walk their walk.  Talk their talk.

By hanging out at your customer's watering hole, they become a person you're having a conversation with, not a crowd you are shouting at. 

Where do your customers gather?  What are you doing to make sure you're there too?

Related posts:

~ No one is a demographic
~ How's the view from inside the bottle?
~ BrandingWire: The coffee shop

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Whatever you do, don’t brush their butt

September 24, 2007

Grocery You know how we say that marketing isn't rocket science?  Well, it isn't.  But sometimes it is about the science of understanding your consumer.  Paco Underhill, in his best selling book The Science of Shopping, identified a significant negative motivator for shoppers.

The butt brush.  Yes, the butt brush. 

According to research, a shopper, especially a woman shopper, is far less likely to buy something if her rear end is bumped or brushed, even lightly, by another customer, while they are both looking at a display. 

The net result of this research is that stores need to be very aware of creating wide and clear aisles.

If you aren't in a retail business, how does this apply to you? 

In every industry, there is the equivalent of the butt brush.  Some little, seemingly insignificant factor, that makes your customer decide to shop or buy elsewhere.   Something that just makes them a little uneasy.

Can you identify what it is for your business?  If not, spend some time watching the shopping and buying patterns of your clients. 

Look for clues. Or better yet, ask.  A slight shift in your selling environment, materials, pitch or product may result in a measurable jump in sales.

Do you have a personal "butt brush" story?  Something that turns you off as a consumer?

Related  posts:

~ How men and women shop differently
~ Describe Kohl's in one sentence

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RFP’s — what did we do to deserve them?

September 23, 2007

Pencil If you want to make an agency person or consultant cringe, just whisper "RFP" 

I have to wonder what level of mistrust or what horrific deed was done years ago that forced someone on the client side to create the first RFP.  They are torture for the applicants and I can't imagine much fun on the client side.

We're having a lively discussion about RFPs over at Marketing Prof's Daily Fix.  Come join us.

Related posts:

~ RFP = Really Flawed Plan
~ How to choose an agency (part 2)
~ How much is a house?

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Don’t play hide and seek with an unhappy client

September 20, 2007

Hide Sooner or later it happens.  Something goes horribly wrong.  You want to crawl in a hole.  Or slam your office door. 

But the one thing you do not want to do to face the client.

Too bad.  How you handle this disaster will say more about your brand than any marketing tactic or campaign.  Zane Safrit tells a story of how he dealt with a client's event that went down the tubes in a hurry. 

All too often, companies dodge the problems.  Or they recite company policy when a sincere "I'm sorry" would actually heal the situation.  There's no empathy.  Just rhetoric.  And that just won't cut it.

Do your employees understand how you want them to deal with the situation when a client is angry or disappointed?   Have you not only told them but modeled the behavior?

How have you handled this in the past?

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