Articles
Ten ways to push your company forward—by doing it backwards
by John GrahamThere are times when getting it right means doing it wrong. Yes, flat-out
going against the accepted wisdom. For example, some investors wait to buy
stocks until the market tanks. Others follow a strategy of purchasing only
out-of-favor market segments.
Then, there’s sales. Most sales techniques aim at “capturing”
customers by identifying what appear to be the “likely buyers”
and then go after them in the most persuasive manner. Others seek to get
lucky through cold calling, particularly when business is slow or they
are new to selling.
Only a few salespeople use a strategy of wooing customers and constantly working
to pull them closer and closer so that when a need arises, they have a “top
of the mind” position with prospects.
Such contrarian or against the grain thinking also applies to marketing, as well.
Unfortunately, executives demonstrate a lemming-like marketing mentality: only
do what the others are doing. Since the others don’t know what they are
doing, more often than not the results are disastrous.
Here is a series of “do it backwards” marketing concepts aimed at
helping companies take a different approach to marketing, one that fits the times
and provides the needed extra energy to drive sales forward:
1. Advertise when others pull back. In a slower economy,
there are far fewer ads. According to studies, advertising was down as
much as 30 percent in 2001. Significant opportunities are available when
advertising revenues are off. Along with much better pricing, you can negotiate
preferential positioning for your ads in publications and on the air.
But more important than either price or position, is less ad clutter. Newspapers
“stack” ads on the page and use more of the page for advertising.
The old 70/30 rule still stands––except that it is now 70 percent
advertising and 30 percent editorial. Fewer ads translate into greater
visibility.
2. Use direct mail when everyone is on the Internet. Email
is quick and cheap. So, why not take advantage of it? Broadcast faxing
is quick and cheap. So, why not use it? If quick and cheap is the goal
then go to it. If the objective is to position your company and make an
impression on the recipients, then most email and broadcast faxes fall
in the “junk”
category. Yes, along with so-called “junk mail.” Junk by any
other name is still junk!
While so much activity is with email and broadcast faxing, the time is right
to take advantage of highly segmented, carefully crafted, and highly appealing
direct mail. But this takes planning, coordination, and effort. Happily, this
is what pays off.
3. Be direct, not clever or cute. Don’t make people
work to get your message. They are far too busy to spend time trying to
figure out what you are trying to say. Today, the eye avoids cute headlines
in ads and brochures, and other marketing communication. Be direct. It
shows you are businesslike. Even more important, get to the point fast
or you have lost the reader.
In other words, be direct and be clear. A recent ad for Lincoln cars makes the
point: “Elite vehicles. Everyday pricing.” An IBM ad headline does
it very well: “Introducing the xSeries 300. It stacks up. Your bills won’t.”
4. Write longer––sometimes much longer––letters. Forget
everything you’ve heard about what is known as the “one page
business letter.”
Who said a letter should never be more than a page? Where’s the evidence?
Readers toss both long and short letters if they are poorly written,
fail to involve the reader, and are painfully dull. If there is no message
for the recipient, then a letter fails, whether long or short.
The length of the letter isn’t the problem––it’s the
message! Start with what’s in it for the customer, not this way:
“We’re proud to be a new member of the XYZ Chamber of Commerce.
This letter is to introduce our staffing services to your company…Our
company is proud to be the fastest growing….” Who cares? This
type of letter is dead before it arrives. Begin with the customer’s
problems and indicate you have a solution.
The major issue with the one-page letter is that it tends to be so boiled down
that it becomes lifeless––and unread.
The point is to engage the customer. If the message takes one page,
fine. If it takes three pages to tell a good customer-oriented story, then do
it.
5. Stop making irritating (and useless) follow-up phone calls. Stop
plaguing customers with irritating phone calls and voicemail messages: “I
just want to make sure you got our mailing…”
“Our vice president, Rick Jones, is going to be in your area later
this week….” “What did you think about the proposal we
sent you….” On and on it goes.
Grabbing the customer or forcing your foot in the door isn’t the marketing
goal. That was yesterday’s approach. Take steps to pull the customer to
you so they want to hear what you have to say.
6. Get glued to prospects. Many companies let business
get away without even knowing it is happening. Everyone is so focused on “making
sales,”
no one makes it a priority to build prospect databases.
Salespeople lurch from one call to the next, hoping to get an order. There is
no prospect strategy or planning. Salespeople make a call and then follow up
a couple of times. If there’s no order, they give up, failing to recognize
that decisions aren’t made instantly today. Managing the sale
is the primary task, not just getting the order signed.
The job is to stay glued to prospects. Management has a responsibility to develop
strategies for cultivating prospects carefully and appropriately for as long
as it takes. That’s right––for as long as it takes.
7. Take the longer view. This is a tough one. Everyone
is so engaged in dealing with this week, this month, this quarter, there
is no time or focus on the future. That spells trouble down the road. If
the company doesn’t know where it is going and have a strategy for
getting there, it gets sidetracked by attractive activities that divert
it away from its primary mission. Not even Snapple’s initial success
or the consumer swing to water broke through Coca-Cola’s in-the-face
focus on selling more Coke. Having a clear vision of the future helps avoid
what can turn out to be disastrous mistakes.
8. Focus on what you can do for your customers. Too often,
marketing and sales considers only what they can do to a customer,
not what they can do for a customer. Everyone says they are there
to “help.”
But look a little closer, and it is easy to see that “help”
carries little credibility because making the sale is all that really counts.
Customers can see through such subterfuge.
When Agway, the largest feed producer in the Northeast, recognized that its 500
bagged feeds dealers, all small business owners, could benefit from learning
how to grow and market their businesses, it established an extensive support
system for the dealer network. The objective was to win dealer interest in Agway
by making a genuine, concerted effort to help them run more successful store
operations.
9. Don’t delay; act now. The skeptics will be doubtful
about doing it backwards. “Sure, all this sounds good but we need
sales now. We can’t wait,” they say. But the statement proves
the point: unless a company is willing to make a fundamental change
in its marketing and sales approach, it will continue to lurch from one
sales crisis to the next, waste valuable sales time trying to find the
next customer, and fail to position itself as the dealer, retailer, manufacturer,
or distributor of choice.
“All I do is call on one kitchen and bath store after another,”
reports one salesperson. “We have no marketplace identity. They see
us as just another cabinet manufacturer.” And then he adds, “As
I see it, first we shave pennies, then nickels and dimes, and finally dollars,
to get the deal. That’s no way to operate.” Unless a company
decides enough is enough, it will continue to experience more of the same.
10. Stay the course. The major failure in marketing and
sales is failing to stay on track. As one program gets underway, management
kills it and comes out with another. After a while, “the next one”
is nothing more than a variation on the last one. No one pays attention––nothing
really works because there is no follow-through.
Once Ford Motor Company faced up to the recall of Firestone tires on thousands
of its Explorers, the company stayed the course. It continued communicating with
customers and even announced that its dealers would replace tires when it was
dissatisfied with the way Bridgestone/Firestone was handling the problem.
Of course, changes should be made if the strategy is flawed. And many times,
constant switching from one campaign to another is an indication that a program
was poorly conceived. But the Ford experience illustrates the right way to approach
a marketing and sales issue: once you get it right, stay with it so it can work.
Taking a contrarian position lets a company break old patterns and move in a
new direction. While the rest of the pack are trying to outdo each other, contrarians
move forward by doing it backwards.
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.