Articles
How to get more than you expect in 2006
by John GrahamAlan Greenspan expresses cautionary concerns about the economy. The price
of gasoline eats into the family budget, the fiscal impact of Hurricanes
Katrina and Rita will be felt for years, the debt from the Iraqi war mounts,
interest rates edge upward, and millions of families stretch to make ends
meet.
This is not the backdrop anyone wants to start a new year, but this is the hand
we’ve been dealt. So, what shall we do to make 2006 a profitable and productive
year? Here are 20 ideas that can make the next 12 months turn out better than
we might imagine.
1. Focus on saving money for customers. Use this theme to brand your
business. Be known for coming up with solutions that reduce costs without compromising
quality. If it isn’t necessary or correct, don’t let them buy it.
If it isn’t right, advise against it: “Do you really want to do that?”
2. Be the consultant. This isn’t about gimmicks or ruses. It isn’t
using a title on a business card to mask that you’re in sales. And this
isn’t so-called “consultative selling.”
It means being thoroughly knowledgeable of a customer’s business
so you can be candid and offer workable options that may or may not be
related to what you sell. As a by-product, this is perhaps the best way
to earn respect.
3. Offer ways to save time. While price is always important, saving
time can be equally so. It translates into reducing costs. Make sure your customers
recognize the time-saving benefits of what you’re selling.
4. Stay closer to customers. Customer contact is changing as companies
deal with high gasoline and travel costs. Develop a schedule for all
types of planned contacts––phone conferences, direct mail, email
and in person. This is more important than ever since the competition is on the
prowl. Large companies are looking to attract long ignored smaller customers,
for example. You need to be there.
5. Focus on differentiation. There’s danger ahead when we allow
our products and services to look like everyone else’s. Do battle to avoid
anything you sell be perceived as a commodity by giving products and services
a unique identity.
6. Keep the CEO out of marketing. Top management controls the budget
so its buy-in is necessary when it comes to marketing. But the top brass can
also present a problem: they tend to view everything through company eyes and
have a particularly difficult time thinking like a customer. It’s only
natural since the company is their mission. Make sure you have a capable marketer
available to help the CEO understand the role of marketing.
7. Don’t get distracted. This is the year to stay
on course. That means focusing on performance, getting everything right.
While new ideas are exciting, they can be dangerous if they distract from
getting the job done.
8. Plan and execute. Talking doesn’t make it so; simply saying
“yes” doesn’t necessarily get the job done. Make this
a priority: Who’s going to do what to whom and when? Poor performance
results from poor planning.
9. Take advantage of your expertise. Every business has more expertise
than it realizes. Pick out two or three niche markets where you have several
customers and brand your company as the “go to” people for each one.
Create specialized letterhead, businesses cards, direct mail and other marketing
materials such as a dedicated web site for each segment. Put your expertise to
work where it works best for you.
10. Take advantage of direct mail. Forget about all those email and
fax “blasts.” Make sure emails are personalized and focused on the
recipients. The goal is to connect with the right customers. While
“blasting” is easy and cheap, it rarely delivers expected results.
Direct mail takes planning and careful execution, but you can hit the right
customers.
11. Update corporate identity. You want customers and
prospects to give you a second look. Attract attention by selecting compelling
colors and a logo design that sends the message your company is energized.
Use this as an opportunity to reaffirm your core message.
12. Prospect systematically. Most so-called “prospecting”
is random and dependent on luck rather than carefully planned, properly
executed and consistent efforts. Efficiency and sales growth depend on
year-round prospect development. Since buying decisions take longer and
longer today, cultivating a minimum of several hundred prospects at all
times is necessary.
13. Marketing precedes selling. “The goal of marketing is to make
selling superfluous,” stated the legendary Peter Drucker. Failure to create
a buying environment through marketing makes getting sales like pushing boulders
up a mountain.
14. Ask customers what they want and give it to them. It isn’t
just the wrong movies that keep the theater seats empty; it’s the wrong
venue. Why go out to see an expensive movie, eat pitiful popcorn and walk on
a sticky floor, when you can relax at home and watch a movie on a brilliant,
sharp flat screen on the wall? Why not answer an email in real time with a BlackBerry
rather than waiting to get back to the office to check your email? Why not let
consumers listen to the music they want when they want it on the cheap? Give
them an iPod nano.
15. Cut the nonsense. Knock off the hype and all the corporate
jargon. Telling it simply and clearly captures attention. Forget about
using the latest titles; they’re self-serving and no one cares. Get
off the kick of trying to impress people; then you’ll have plenty
of time to hone a compelling 30-second speech on why a customer should
do business with you.
16. Knowledge-based relationships. It’s slow to
sink in, but the revolution is here: knowledge-driven business relationships
are where it’s at today. India’s Deepak Chemicals is a company
showing astounding growth and huge gains in after-tax profits. Chairman
C.K. Mehta talks about leveraging Deepak’s technology-base and knowledge-driven
sales and marketing strengths. “Knowledge-based business relationships
are critical to sales success,” states the announcement about a sales
training seminar led by York University’s Brain Harrison Smith.
17. Avoid overload. Don’t pile the plate so full
that it loses its appeal. Tantalize customers and prospects with one benefit,
one concept or one opportunity at a time. If you’re doing direct
mail, plan the campaign so you can showcase one facet at a time. Don’t
try to tell the whole story in a single letter. Let the story unfold in
a series of letters. In the same way, plan several sales calls before trying
to close the deal.
18. Persistence is power. Salespeople know decisions are
delayed and often drawn out over months (and sometimes even years); you’d
better be there when a prospect is ready to buy. Fourteen years after giving
a seminar, a marketing executive received a call from a salesperson who
had attended the session and received the marketer’s newsletters
over the years. What followed was a meeting with the company’s VP
to plan a marketing effort.
19. Use technology to the fullest. Technology wins. The issue isn’t
whether a person answers the phone; it’s making it easy for someone to
contact you. Call forwarding from the office to a cell phone sends the right
message. One of the best ways to compete with large corporate competitors is
to push the technology. No salesperson should be without a laptop with a cell
phone connection, a BlackBerry or both. More and more, customers expect real
time responses.
Salespeople who do it now, get the business. At the top of the list should be
a customer relationship management system that automates sales activity and prospect
cultivation. ACT!, Maximizer and GoldMine are versatile and powerful.
From a service perspective, call centers have evolved and are virtually transparent
to the customer. If it makes it easy and convenient for the customer it passes
the test.
20. Business isn’t warfare. It’s easy for
the competitive spirit that drives business to get misdirected. It’s
less about beating the competitor and more about getting and keeping customers.
In some ways, this is a far more difficult and less exciting task, but
nevertheless, it’s the really important one.
In fact, business consultant Gary Hamel holds that the task is to move away from
the competition. That’s what differentiation is all about and why IKEA
is so successful.
There seem to be indications that 2006 may hold some surprises, one of which
is a more serious and focused business mindset. These 20 guidelines can help
you get even more than you expect from the year ahead.
John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a marketing services and sales consulting firm. He is the author of The New Magnet Marketing and Break the Rules Selling, writes for a variety of business publications, and speaks on business, marketing and sales issues. Contact him at 40 Oval Road, Quincy, MA 02170; 617-328-0069; jgraham@grahamcomm.com.