Author: Paul Tagent

Keeping the customer happy

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Let’s assume that the work you have been doing for your clients has been delivered; you will need to continue to keep the clients happy between projects in the same way you won them in the first place – by being helpful, professional and adding value to their business. However, for any organisation, one of the key aims for keeping customers happy is to have repeat business.

To me, this isn’t about you having all these accreditations like IIP or BS 5750 – some organisations see quality standards as applicable to procedural matters, keeping customers happy is about ensuring that everything has gone as planned on each project and then maintaining contact with your clients using their experiences as a way of improving your business.

An even better system than the routine of despatching customer standardised satisfaction questionnaires is the infrequent (but in depth) client review meeting. However, before having such meeting, try and do an internal review so you can try and assign a monetary value of the client to your organisation and review cross selling opportunities. For the former, not all clients are profitable and some are more profitable than others. Maybe scrutinize the figures and construct some sort of lifetime projection. For the latter, are there opportunities to exploit so that you can become more valuable to the client client…and vice versa?

Ultimately, dialogue between you and the client is essential and without it, someone else may be tapping into your client!

Market Research – DIY Tips

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Knowledge is power.

I have been involved with a number of blue chip clients over the years who have embraced my idea of actually engaging an external agency to research the markets they operate in before actually implementing marketing initiatives, in terms of buying behaviour, competitive analysis, cost comparisons etc, but what about if you are a small business and want to conduct research yourself?

Well, this thought process prompted this post about tackling research in house.

Firstly, dont underestimate the time and effort required. Most organisations are simply not set up to conduct their own research as it requires considerable time to do properly not to mention space for handling the volume of paper it can create + costs incurred for things like post, the time needed for checking data etc. So……below are some key areas to use as a checklist for you:

Define your sample, its size & selection method
Choose your data collection methods (face to face, post, telephone…)
Design your questionnaire
Collect your data
Clean your data
Enter your data into the computer & define analyses required
Interpret & report your findings

There are immediate solutions if time, resources and/or actual knowing what to do is a problem. There are loads of small agencies offering research and these can offer you help in the areas you need or simply do the study for you. Yes, there would be a cost, but I personally believe research should be a key part of your marketing plan.

Possible objections when cold canvassing

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When it comes to objections, how many could you come up with? How many have you had? I am sure the prospect will have more, but below are a list of the ones I have encountered and some tips to overcome them –

1. Happy with competition – am I the same? Is my offering the same. Very unlikely.
2. Too expensive – how do they know? Prices are project based and talk about value rather than cost.

3. Used you before – may have used the company, but have they actually used “you?” After all people buy from people not companies.

4. No budget – irrelevant as you are in it for the long term.
5. You’re too big; we’re just a small business – flatter them with your attention.
6. Put something in the post – danger here! Tell them that your services are tailored so would be far more beneficial to meet up rather than send literature.
7. Too busy at the moment – very typical. Have your diary open for the next 3 months and just put in a speculative date that can be changed.
8. I’m not interested – anybody in business should be aware of what is out there. Since when was ignorance bliss?!?
9. I’ll think about it – try and help them in the thought process.

If you can keep a mental note of what might come up as an objection you can sort of prepare your answer. My suggestion is to accept the objection and then try and neutralise it by offering a different perspective. Remember that your aim is to get a meeting not to make an immediate sale.

Money, money, money

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One of my Tweets this morning was just a snippet about profit being far more important than numerous sales or account wins. The reason for it was that I have experienced working with one particular agency who threw everything (including the kitchen sink!) at a possible bit of new business making the creative team work all night to produce hundreds of bits of work in the hope that if enough mud is thrown, something will stick. How much for marketing

This is wrong. Yes, every prospect wants to see what you can do and possibly some ideas. But, the fact that they are sitting in front of you should go some way to reassuring you that you are in the running for their account. In the case of marketing, a prospective client has come to you as you are the expert not them and they will expect to pay for this expertise.

For example, if your house develops a leak in the roof, you will most likely contact a roofing specialist to sort out the problem. Will he/she arrive with an example of previous work done? Maybe. Will he/she start reducing prices to win the work? No. Apply this rule to pretty much every professional service industry and the same will happen.

Don’t be tempted to buy business.

When pricing remember you are a boutique not a supermarket. Stress value rather than actual cost and if need be, set client benefits against your price. You could even break down your costs into some sort of menu or even include some sort of extra.

Always be aware of the sector in which you operate and the price level it justifies. Remember that if you go in at a low price to clinch the deal, you will never be able to increase it. Clients want value not just a cheap price. I have one associate I work with who will never reduce his rates as he is very aware of the level of product he offers and what value it brings to clients. Similarly, I know that Bath Marketing Consultancy’s price and very high quality end product represents great value.

If pricing becomes the issue, treat it as an objection and overcome it. The expression about paying peanuts and getting monkeys is very true!

Develop a clear vision

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I was with a new client the other day who told me a number of times how good his business was at supplying the product he sells. When I questioned the word “good” there was a lack of statistics or information to substantiate his claims. Sometimes business owners can get a bit blinkered when it comes to what sets them apart from their competition.
In a nutshell, are you a business that is satisfied with your position in the market? What are your strengths and weaknesses? How do you want to be perceived and what sort of information have you go to substantiate your claims??
In my opinion, each business should have a clear vision; a sort of mission if you like. This is necessary to give a focus to the business and something that can be translated into a marketing message for clients and prospects. It should be obvious to anybody who comes into contact with your company exactly what it stands for. Why not claim the high ground and tell everyone about it i.e Bath Marketing Consultancy is Bath’s only full service, pay-as-you- go marketing company!
Naturally, the mission needs to be credible and it may well need regular review, but without it your business has very little to differentiate it.

My final bit of advice on this is to ensure that the mission has real distinguishable features. Too many statements centre on “……we aim to be the number 1 supplier for…..” i.e. there is no client focus or addressing of what clients want. Adapt this type of statement to be more along the lines of “….we aim to be the number 1 supplier for those clients with need for xxx thanks to the benefits offered by our unique xxx package.”

This might be a little long winded, but I hope you catch my drift!

What is marketing all about?!

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To me marketing is not just about making sales or having a glossy brochure as a leave behind, it is about following a number of initiatives that all work together producing clarity about your USP and facilitating business growth.
To clarify this, below are what I feel, the process of marketing should include:

1.Winning new businessWhat is marketing all about?!
I still feel that 5 or 6 initiatives should be running at one time and that each new initiatives needs testing. For example, do you use cold canvassing? It can be incredibly successful

2.Understanding your market
How well do you know your market? What sort of experience do you have from your contacts? Is there potential to do a real SWOT analysis?

3.Brand building
My personal favourite. Ensure you use a mix of corporate id, advertising, PR, sponsorship, SEO, corporate literature etc. All of these are great brand building elements so use them, maybe in connection with visibility at seminars, networking or conferences.

4.Plan your strategy
Make sure you know exactly what you are doing withyour business or marketing plan. Are you the sole driver in this or can you outsource?

5.Managing existing clients
Put in place manageable deliverables and some way of monitoring activity.

6.Internal marketing
This might not be something that you need if you are a small business, but internal communications and training are essential.

Some might say that marketing is a bit of an obsession for me, but how well do you know your market and your position within it? How much more turnover could you make if you increased your market share or were on more radars?

Too often marketing is a knee jerk reaction to falling sales rather than a planned process. In a crowded market place, you must shout to get heard. You mush shout to get noticed and to be remembered. Jump in and take control or someone else will. Make sure you have a simple, clear and differentiated offer.

After all, there is nothing worse than seeing some other business/organisation doing really well when you know your offer is better. Don’t let it happen!

But what should the proposal document include?

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Following on from yesterday’s post, I believe that a written proposal should separate itself into 7 individual parts and these are:

  1. Background information & objectives – do an analysis & overview as it shows understanding
  2. Discussion – the “consultancy” stage where you can make assumptions, state pros/cons of your options, outline benefits etc
  3. Solution/Methodology – go into detail of features selected to solve the problem
  4. Timings & costs – try not to include on their own in a final section, but set alongside a recap of benefits & maybe offer options
  5. Deliverables – drive home exactly what they get for their money!
  6. The team – their titles, roles they will play etc.
  7. Your credentials – outline experience of you & your team + any examples

 If the proposal is a large one, you might have to include contents & appendices, but make sure that your logo is on every page along with the client logo and page numbering exists to ensure that no pages are lost.

Finally, make sure that your document is written in a style that the reader(s) can understand, taking them easily from page to page. Not everyone is a good writer so you might consider getting professional help from a copywriter.

If you would like some tips on actual writing techniques, please see a previous article on my Blog, these may well make the difference to ensuring you have a winning written proposal.

Writing a winning proposal – Part 1

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I have recently found myself in a number of pitch situations where the prospective client has wanted to review a number of similar organisations before they make a decision on who to work with on their marketing.
I have written a number of articles about how to prepare and improve the pitch process in this Blog, but not all business can be won face to face; some of the decision process is made when viewing a written proposal or tender so I thought it would be beneficial to share some of my experiences about the written side of winning new business.

What advice can be given about the production of such a document? Well, to me, the same rules still apply. Guarantee that the client problem is identified, the objectives defined and the means selected are consistent. The client wants a specialised solution so the document must take the client through the full consultation process by indicating empathy with their problem while revealing your unique solution to it stressing how you add real benefit to the process.

Your document should encompass 5 roles which should all feature:

  • Consultant
  • Information Provider
  • Problem Solver
  • Professional Partner
  • Negotiator
  • The resulting document should therefore comprise of a number of sections that lead on from the previous section, but always write from a client’s point of view.

Later in the week I will outline and define these sections of the document.

Websites & Internet marketing

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The Internet. Let\’s be honest, we cannot resist the lure of the Internet. Everyone is using it for marketing. It is impossible to resist!
However, with the sheer volume of people and businesses using the Internet, my suggestion is to try and be different in the way that you use it. Be helpful and that means offering interest and/or value. A web site that offers data or offers training/instruction or even a game is one that will stand out. In return that site may gain the one and only thing you are really looking for – visitors.

Although results are still a little unclear, I see the Internet as a platform that has evolved incredibly quickly and this brings fresh challenges to its users. To help, I have put together what I see are the 3 ways it has changed:

Yesterday – the first era of Internet Marketing.
This was the web brochure era. If you were on the web you were cool! Just showing your brand or company on the web was deemed state-of-the-art. Most websites were full of hip graphics – and that was about it. The price of a website was huge and very few actually worked as they all suffered from the same syndrome – the \”about us\” syndrome. They all looked the same and did nothing to add value to the browser.

Today – the second era of Internet Marketing
Here is where people started catching on that \”about us\” needed to become \”about you.\” These sites then started to build traffic and relationships by giving access to information. The \”whizz, bang\” design element started to tone down and sites became easier to use; quicker and more user friendly. They also became cheaper.

Tomorrow – the third era of Internet Marketing
I see the main purposes of a website is to crystallise a brand and get a business’s personality across. The best sites in my opinion, provide a rich, interactive experience making their companies appear like an old friend. The very best ones, look good, work well, capture data and drive enquiries.

To sum up my last 4 posts on advertising and now the Internet; my advice is that these are both initiatives that I would advocate using for marketing, but only if you can do them well and can justify using them. There are literally thousands of businesses that can help you, but I would always suggest working with a business that is independent i.e not just offering the one initiative that you are reviewing.

After all, if you approach a graphic designer or a website designer, this is what you will get – graphic design or a website. Dont be afraid to talk to a consultant or someone who can look at the bigger picture of how these initiatives can be used together.

Media buying – how to play the game.

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Negotiate hard.

For any publishers that are reading this, I would like to apologise in advance as I am going to go through how to get the best deals when buying advertising space!

When purchasing space either in print or online, there is one key word – negotiate! Very few people pay quoted rates or “ratecard.” Always go for the special offer or the “late space deal.” This may mean waiting until the last moment, but it will be given. In print media, my suggestion is to avoid the special supplement or feature unless there is exclusivity as all these initiatives are are just vehicles for the publisher to make more money and 99 times out of 100 you will be surrounded by all your competitors meaning your impact will be reduced now matter how good your ad.

Always fight to get to get colour inclusive; to get a full page for the price of a half; maybe even demand a repeat for a tiny extra price! You need to be run of the page on the right, in with the news and out on your won not will the rest of the ads on the left. Remember the telesales person will go on and on about their circulation and how their magazine is the best, but ultimately, you hold the cards and can dictate price, position and frequency!

If you need help with constructing a media plan, please get in touch with me. I recently saved a client £35 per ad in a well known magazine as well as £50 per ad on the actual design – and he now gets quality response!