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How many business objectives are more important than creating new customers?

Reasons why new customers are important:

• Replace shrinking base by people out of business or lost to competitors

• Gain market share by converting more prospects than our competitors

• Create leading edge marketing to understand what Prospects require

• Increased flexibility by adapting organization to the newest demands

• Makes organization customer oriented (demand) instead of supply oriented

• Develops relationship building skills to retain customers

• Creates opportunities for more referrals

I frequently express the need to create a Unique Selling Proposition that is broadcast with keywords into the best target niches.

A few ways of doing this are

• Search Engine Optimization

• Blogging

• Article or Ezine writing

• Face Book

• Twitter

• Traditional Advertising

The goal of each is to get the Prospect to interact.  In the permission based society and Relationship Marketing, we give the Prospect the opportunity to make the first connection.

Most of the above vehicles give them an opportunity to be followers, comment, or ask for more information.

Why not create a bridge that takes a very interested Prospect in the Buying Cycle to a safe step;  Instant chat?

It is like Face Book or Twitter on droids.  There they are on the other end of the line without the risk of commitment or of you knowing who they are. They can engage with questions about the very problems for which they are surfing.

It creates the stickiness websites are supposed to effect to prevent bounce.

If it would work for your organization, think about the cost versus what you spend to run a prospect through the conversion process and the amount of time it might save in the buying cycle.

I have no business tie to this organization, but it is one of many that are available by surfing live chat.

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In reality, this is what the new consumer expects.

If we don’t guarantee it in a very credible manner, the consumer will decide on his own whether our service or product will positively create the outcome he desires.

If you are not guaranteeing it and even if you are, the consumer will look at several indications of who you are.

Your  History:  He wants to know how long you have been in business, why you got into this business, and About You.

Your Experience: He wants to know who you have served, see some testimonials, see a Why Us, and be convinced you have the knowledge you claim.

Your Character: No one likes to send money for something they feel they will not like and have no chance of getting their money back. That is why Brands have such an advantage.  Samples, Free Trials, 30 day Guarantees, partial payments are all ways to deal with this.

Give them some FAQs, Case Studies, White Reports, E Books, and even Blogs so they can get a feel for how you deal with people and problems.

Converting Prospects to Loyal Customers requires you first convince them you can solve a problem and then that you can be trusted.

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Is it Time to Stop Cutting and Start Positioning?

“Companies have maxed out on the cost cutting activities. Now they are thinking about positioning themselves for the growth ahead. “ Francis J. Quinn, Supply Chain Management Review

A recent Global Spec survey found that 51% of manufacturers were experiencing higher sales and 49% were therefore experiencing lower sales for 2010. It also found that most companies were still cutting costs but the number had dropped by 9%.

It’s like the first day of Spring and the ground hog is looking for the sun.

Since most companies prosper from growth more than from retrenchment, it might be wise to position for recovery.

In the new economy, most have learned not to extend themselves beyond their means, reserve capital, and choose wisely.

The increase in technological, communication, and therefore marketing capabilities has never slowed.  We can start helping business look for new customers. The customer has a newer  perspective from 3 years ago.

We have all learned some lessons.

Our Unique Selling Proposition should have a new face.  How has the surviving business or consumer changed in our industry? What is the secret to making them more efficient and productive?

Productivity will be at the highest premium in the future. Everyone and everything must pay for itself. Our message must focus on saving and building. We can save time, money, labor, and build revenues, followers, customer satisfaction, repeat business.

We can start extending ourselves into the communication channels of Mass media with our optimistic plan on recovering to full production.

Refine  your  Unique Selling Proposition

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Build your Keywords

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Businesses are more rationale than the average citizen waiting for the government to help. Business knows that no one can afford to wait.

Three things can help business create a new reality for itself:

1>Analyze what the existing Conditions are in their industry

2>Determine what End their Expertise Serves Best

3>Exploit the Best Avenues to Broadcast their Solution

Some industries are showing slight recovery and some are still declining. Recovering industries may need marketing support. Declining industries may need efficiency, labor, cost cutting improvements.

A business has to have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that Prospects are seeking. Prospects are solving priorities on a list that are usually tied to a budget. Each priority has a Buying Cycle.

During the Buying Cycle, a business needs to be available with their expertise at the place and with the information necessary when the Prospect goes searching.  An optimized website or blogs with keywords the Prospects are Googling is the way to be found.

Relationship Marketing keeps your information in front of the Prospects or targeted market and allows them to opt in to get Free Reports, E Books, Case Studies, Videos, and Webinars.

Websites should have FAQs, Testimonials, Why Us, About Us, and pages explaining your USP.

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Your ideal targets are interested in your Unique Selling Proposition.

Your USP has to have meaning in their world.

It has to be a Tactic that is on their list of priorities to support their strategies.

For example, if you sell a truck that has a bigger cargo area and gets better fuel economy that allows them to better serve an audience they are trying to reach, you become a resource.

If you make your customer more efficient and more competitive, they need you on their team. If you save them time, money, or labor, you are a tactic that helps them achieve their goals.

You have to word your Tactic or USP in keywords they use to search for your service. You have to be in a better position to be found than your competitors so that you are given consideration.

In the past, everyone broadcast their message in traditional marketing. Now it is too expensive and too ineffective for most. The reason it is ineffective is that the culture of response has changed.

Consumers do not want to respond to messages from unknown sources that don’t identify their exact need. This is why the Sherpa Market Survey showed 8 out of 10 executives prefer to find their own solutions.

Solutions are best found on the internet with keyword phrases we sometimes call the long tail. The consumer can find exactly what they want in a well defined niche. This forces providers to be specific on the service they are providing.

It saves the consumer a lot of time if they can find the most credible provider for exactly what they need. Secondly, the consumer wants the option of when they opt in.

In Relationship Marketing, you provide all your expertise in the form of web pages, Free Reports, E Books, Case Studies, Webinars, Blogs, Videos, and Articles and the consumer will decide if you are in alignment with their objectives.

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What is Innovation?  Creating something more profitable or effective.

What is Creative Destruction?

“It is the destruction of the current condition while a new order replaces it. Creative destruction can cause temporary economic distress. Layoffs of workers with obsolete working skills …creative destruction can cause severe hardship in the short term, and in the long term for those who cannot acquire the skills and work experience.” Wikipedia

Donald Trump talking to Wolf Blitzer on CNN said that if we don’t handle China and Opec differently plus curtail spending on wars and don’t bring back manufacturing, we are going through destruction.

Some say the government is propping up the economy until we can get used to a lower standard of living.

Soon businesses that are designed to prosper in down economies will take over. Is there such a thing?

What is the individual or small business to do?

Reinvent. Assume government is too gridlocked to arrive at a solution for the bottom three fourths of businesses and individuals. Governments will have its own solvency problems over the next 20 years.

Assume we are two years into creative destruction. Now What?

You have to start looking for the processes and products needed by struggling businesses. Every business is cutting back and getting more out of their staffs. They are learning to sell on leaner margins. They are looking to find new markets because their existing markets are probably shrinking.

Businesses are outsourcing to other more efficient Providers or countries.

You have to accommodate their consolidation and expansion. We have to provide products and services that require customization and maybe immediate delivery.

You have to get closer to your Customer.

Businesses that won’t be outsourced will provide services that can quickly interact, deliver, and adapt to changing Consumer circumstances.

Start looking at your industry through different glasses.  If you were your ideal customer, or a typical customer, what type of provider would you create? How would the provider deliver, charge, bill, and respond? How would they communicate with you and what type of resource would they become?

What type of service or product will keep your Customer in business? How much information and expertise can you continue to provide?

It’s time to stop wishing, hoping, and complaining and time to become one of the new front runners.

Start being a solution that leads business through adaptation.

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See Seth Godin’s blog on   The Forever Recession

Purchase The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing    by Lisa Gansky   

As Seth Godin says:

Lisa Gansky has written a groundbreaking book about a fundamental building block of modern business.

In Lisa’s words, “The Mesh is the new way of doing business. Mesh businesses leverage data and social networks to enable people to share goods and services efficiently and conveniently-to gain superior access to what they need without the burdens or expense of ownership. There are already thousands of these businesses-in transportation, fashion, food, real estate, travel, finance, entertainment and many other categories-with more starting every day.The Mesh has emerged as the best new creative engine for getting more of what we want, exactly when we want it, at less cost to ourselves and the planet.”

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We hear certain name Brands and we have respect for what they have accomplished.  We hear Fed Ex, Best Buy, IBM, Ebay, McDonalds, Amazon, and Facebook and we recognize that there is a special concept with each brand.

Each has a special niche it fulfills and each has a reputation for dependability or safety.  Eliminate safety and the brand like Toyota, becomes impaired.

Most Brands also create another mindshare commonality. They save time. Consumers whether B2B or B2C want to know that they will find what they need at a competitive price, order quickly, and get out quickly.

Delivery is crucial in all services. Some companies overlook the importance. One company I order from online sends me a message within a few hours that the product has been shipped. Amazon does the same thing. The first company can always be relied upon to deliver within the 4 days they promise.

Response to problems is important. Whereas I rarely have problems with the above companies, they have money back guarantees or ways to trace shipments. More technical providers have 24/7 service desks. The service is the reliability I depend on.

Quality is flawless. I work with no companies that have products or services that do not deliver at least 99% of the time. No one has time for down time.

They follow up with Customers. Most operations and especially technical or service organizations want to know how each order was perceived. They also want to offer more opportunities to increase my purchases with specials. Amazon, Vonage, GoDaddy, Nutsonline follow up like a pesky parent.

Like car companies, a lot of people can deliver a product or service. It is what some may call the intangibles that really build Brand. The whole organization has to be attuned to providing flawless service and follow up.

Anyone can ship.

There are opinions on whether we are recovering or sinking and everyone is right.

An industrial survey by Global Spec shows conditions in manufacturing are improving. Manufacturers are hiring, sales are better in 2010, spending is increasing, and fewer companies are reducing spending.

The problem with the numbers is that 51% are reporting better numbers but 49% are reporting worse numbers. 18% have increased headcount over 5% in 2009 but that means 82% are not hiring.

But the number that stands out that shows the reason for the schism is that 64% are reducing spending compared to 73% in 2009. A 9% improvement of companies not reducing spending ignores that 64% are still reducing their spending.

Jack Cafferty of CNN has online questions which get a high volume of reader responses. He asked the question of whether we are in Recession.  The responses were overwhelmingly yes and the feeling is things are getting worse.

The industrial figures released by Global Spec could support this theory as well depending which company or industry you were involved with.

Fed Ex says its revenues are up 110% for the quarter. Employment figures show that we are still losing jobs. Unemployment figures are finally starting to admit there is a large underemployed segment of the economy and it is growing.

I think one reply to Cafferty’s question  is worth repeating: Are We in Recession?

“ You betcha! With the stalemate in Washington, the preoccupation with getting reelected, the obstructionism of the republicans and lack of a spine by the democrats, irresponsible spending, the refusal to actually have a budget, the failure to budget wars, home foreclosures, job loss, increased outsourcing of our jobs, etc our elected nonrepresentatives have lost sight of the fact they are supposed to be representing “we the people”. We need term limits!!!!”

Big business has lots of cash and is sitting on it. Individuals are having more problems with debt.

Everyone wants representation in Washington and there are diverse interests. Banks want less regulation. Business wants lower taxes and more financing. Consumers want more spending and more jobs. The Tea Party wants less spending by the government.

There are diverse opinions on which direction we are heading and the right solutions. There are no short term solutions that solve everyone’s problems. The real solution will only be waiting for the long term.

What are you to do?

It’s everyman for himself. You can’t wait for solutions from anyone.

I see two options depending where you are in your own business. If you are well entrenched in providing a product or service, you have to build strong relationships with your customers and spend extreme efforts creating new ones.

If spending is decreasing, then each customer is worth more. If there are fewer customers, then new ones have to be taken from competitors.

Secondly, if the market is not buying what you are selling, you may have a limited amount of time to find out what to supply or how to get connected to your ideal target market.

Traditional marketing is dying for most firms because it is expensive and too broad. Relationship marketing is dominating because it targets narrower markets and has a higher ROI.

You need to dominate your Niche for a Unique Selling Proposition. You have to find the ideal service for your niche and capture the available audience. You need to find a Unique aspect to your service or product whether it is your location, your delivery, your price, your support, or your quality and hammer it home.

The ideal marketing strategy is to start with a small niche and gradually grow your reach. You might have to retrench if your broad scope marketing is failing against increased competition.

If you have a website, you have to optimize it for the keywords of the niche you want to dominate.

Consumers feel we have been thrown back into the stone age.  In manufacturing it seems at least 49% of the businesses have to create new strategies.

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The partnership of business, banks and the government has fractured.

The banks, corporations, and government are at odds over trying to both stimulate new growth and protecting from a melt down happening again.

Taxes, regulation, and finance are a mess and working counter productively. The political parties are showing their concern for both the individual and fear of over government spending. Expect more gridlock.

The self employed, independent contractor, and small business are on their own. The stimulus package never made it to the grass roots. Funny how banks, insurance companies, security institutions, and car companies were saved.

And yet technology, social connection, information access, device capacity and speed are increasing geometrically. I mentioned yesterday that the one gigabyte internet speed arising increases current broadband speed by 200 times.

The third tier of commerce meaning most everyone that is not a Fortune 500 company has to be more interconnected with each other and the consumer.

Businesses can’t wait for banks or government to save them. They can’t wait for unemployment to improve; it may not. Businesses can’t wait for recovery, it is going to be an anemic few percent for the next few years.

Whereas we may not dip into a new recession, we are a long ways from a boom. With congress sure to be hamstrung and banks hampered and afraid, the capital is only going to increase from faster circulation.

Consumerism drives 70% of the economy will become the only real bright spot for businesses. Consumerism will be best supply of new capital.

Most major retailers have learned how to connect and get Brand awareness through Social Media like Face Book and Twitter. Even though 90% of business does not want to get involved, ask your self the question, what if the consumer was my bank?

Retailers know where their bread is buttered.

For businesses that sell to businesses, the same picture is evident. Creating better relationships in the industry you serve is the secret to future capital.

If you have to pay a percentage to borrow money, consider alternatively what the ROI is on money spent for marketing, public relations, and new customer development. This might be the interest required for your new bank.

Your industry needs your expertise, your information, your resources, and your services. How can you make your customers and partners successful?

Consider them family.

Even if you get less from each, the volume will be your security of survival. It has been said for a long time that the most efficient will rule. Now the most cooperative, unselfish, interconnected, transparent, and accessible have new market cache.

Relationship marketing where the consumer or business customers are respected, invited, and informed has more relevance than ever. Giving away your expertise gains followers and trust.

Your organization can be transformed into a Relationship marketing machine that gives away free information and expertise and creates followers and new customers.

Your whole organization has to be transformed to be in alignment with the marketing plan and consumer shopping patterns in the new era.

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