At a recent seminar, I asked my audience to stand if they watched or listened to the news in the morning.  About 90% of the room stood up.  I asked them to sit down if they felt motivated after they’d watched the news…and only a couple sat down (which I think might have been fatigue, rather than honesty).

The fact is that the news is depressing.  Especially at the moment.  And it provides you with an excuse if your business isn’t performing as well as you might hope.

I listened to a customer this week tell me how ‘sad’ it is ‘out there’ at the moment and how everyone seems to be suffering in business.  But, on the flip side, a property developer we work with has just received three reservation forms for new build properties in the past four weeks – and they only have 8 properties to sell.

The business is there.  Whatever the news and the media would like to tell you.  It may be that you have to fight harder for it at the moment, but customers are spending money.  The question is whether they’re spending it with you.

My advice…

• Stop watching the news before work and read something motivational instead
• Start your day with your marketing actions
• Do some sales and marketing activity every single day
• Think positive – you’ll be amazed at the results.

Sounds simple?  You’ve got nothing to lose, so why not try it and let me know the results?

And so to 2012…

My first prediction is that the news won’t really change.  If you want to avoid the doom and gloom, I’d recommend not watching it / listening to it at all.  It will only serve to depress you.

The perception in the British market is that money is still tight, but for many people, they’re better off than they were before the recession.  They’re often not spending their money, in many instances because the media keeps telling them times are tough.  So savings are increasing… and people’s money is earning them nothing in the bank.

Consequently, people are looking for better returns and there are some very interesting things happening in the investment market with people finding and using alternatives to banks.

As a result, the property investment market is buoyant.  Investors are spotting opportunities and buying property across the country; the only limit being their access to finance (as for everyone else).  One developer we work with has just sold 3 properties in 4 weeks… not bad considering some people think the property market is stagnant.  He did have some great marketing advice though!

The luxury market also seems to be holding steady and holiday bookings in January appear to have maintained their usual peak for this time of year.

Baby boomers are driving the wellness trend and most analysts expect that to continue for the next decade; making this a great market to be in.

We were out in Lancaster city centre on Saturday night and the city was filled with people eating and drinking.  We struggled to get tables in the restaurant and also the local bar… but they’re both great at what they do.  So I suspect the businesses offering great value and good quality will be busy.  And those offering the same as others will be quieter.

So my top tips for 2012?

1. Differentiate yourself.  If you offer the same as everyone else, you’ll melt into the background.
2. Customer service is king.  Never before has service been more important – you must remember that any customer is paying you a huge compliment if they choose you.  So look after them.
3. Make the most of mobile technologies.  Smartphones have really come of age in 2011 and 2012 and they are changing the way people search for and buy things… you need to take advantage.
4. Keep in touch.  It isn’t the customer’s job to remember to do business with you.
5. Remember that people are spending money.  Stop watching the news and feeling negative and instead get out there and meet your customers.  Your attitude will be the measure of your success.
6. Once you’ve got some momentum, do everything you can to keep it.
7. Contain your costs.  Check every bill that comes into your business – just last night I found I’d been spending £5 pcm on roaming for my mobile phone – something I added over a year ago and never removed!  It’s only £60, but that’s an extra hours work I’ve had to do to pay for it.  If I could reduce every bill by the same amount, my life would be much less complicated.

Have fun and may 2012 bring you health, wealth and happiness in abundance x

You don’t ask them any questions.  You might record their telephone number.  And, worst case scenario you lose the scrap of paper containing their details over the coming weeks.

Whatever the reason (or excuse) you don’t follow-up.

What if they haven’t received the brochure (trust me, it happens on a frighteningly regular basis)?  What if they’re interested and are waiting for you to call?

It isn’t the customers job to remember to do business with you – it’s your job

Most customers take on average seven points of contact before they buy.  And most sales people give up at 5 points.  What’s even more scary is the number of businesses who don’t follow-up at all – despite the fact that it’s free marketing!

So what is best practice with follow-ups and how can you really make the most of incoming enquiries?  Here are our top 5 tips (most of which are free or cheap to implement and could be done very quickly):

1. If a customer calls, have a script to follow and find out as much information as you can
2. Gain permission to follow that person up and ensure they received the information they wanted
3. Answer enquiries promptly – be available by phone and email and respond where possible within 24 hours
4. Record all the information you take in a database (ideally customer relationship management – CRM – software)
5. Diary a follow-up and stick to it (and then diary another)

If people take time out of their busy lives to enquire about your product, they’re paying you a huge compliment.  The least you can do is treat that compliment with respect and try to help the customer towards a solution.

Allotinabox have taken advantage of the trend and introduced ‘Grow Your Own’ boxes so city dwellers can join in.  For just £50 you receive seasonal boxes are filled with organic seeds and a kit for growing the vegetables which contains details of how and when to harvest them.  Visit http://www.allotinabox.com/grow-your-own/for more details.

The National Trust has taken things a step further, with the launch of MyFarm which aims to reconnect people with food.  Using crowd sourcing techniques, they’re recruiting 10,000 would-be farmers and giving them a say in the running of a 2500-acre farm in Cambridgeshire.  For just £30 a year, the group works together and votes on major decisions on the farm.  Have a look at http://www.my-farm.org.uk/ home for details.

It’s a trend that looks set to continue into 2012 – is there some way you can take advantage?

What top three things could you do (for free) every day to boost your profits pre-Christmas?

1. Call five existing customers and ensure they have everything they need for this quarter / ask whether they need any help with other items you provide
2. Call five past customers and remind them you exist.  Perhaps tell them about your autumn special offers and incentives
3. Make contact with five prospects and give them a special offer if they buy before Christmas

If you did this every day to Christmas, you’d make contact with 1200 people who already know, like and/or trust you – in other words, the people most likely to buy from you.

I’d love to hear your results – if you stick to the plan, I’m certain your tills will be ringing into the New Year.

Good luck!

1. First is a decision about time or money
2. Second is about what you want to achieve – for some companies, it’s about building awareness, but for most it’s about generating enquiries.  For the purposes of this article, I’m going to assume you want more leads (and sales), so we’re looking at direct-response marketing (marketing that generates a response).

If you have time and little money, pick from the following:

• Targeted networking
• Up-selling to existing customers
• Incentivising referrals
• Exhibitions / Events
• Social Media
• E-newsletters (targeted)
• Posters and Flyers
• Increase your prices (where the market allows)
• Incentivise repeat purchases

If you have money and no time, these methods might suit you better:

• Training staff in up-selling to existing customers
• Incentivising referrals from existing customers
• Highly targeted telemarketing
• Appointment setting services
• Search Engine Optimisation and Adwords
• Postal mailings

Fundamentally, every marketing method works…to a greater or lesser extent.  But you must action that method consistently. Try any method for at least 90 days and monitor the results before you swap and change things – you have to give them a chance to work.

We always suggest that customers have at least four or five marketing methods working for them at any one time.  This can even out the peaks and troughs in a business and ensure a stable forward-order book.  So choose a few and monitor them all.

They will all work for you (to a greater or lesser extent).  But if you want to know which will really work for your specific business, that’s when you need to take advice.  And that’s the value added by consultants.  They can save you time and work and make you more money more quickly, but you have to pay for that expertise; as in any industry.  The choice, as always is yours, but hopefully the post gives you a starting point.

As usual, your comments and feedback are welcome.  I’m sure there are methods I’ve missed, so please send in your own experiences and give others the benefit of your knowledge.

He was telling me about their forthcoming trip to Derbyshire in their caravan – yep, he’s 78 and still tows a caravan and drives classic cars (so he’s fairly cool).  He was explaining how he’d picked the campsite he planned to stay on and described in detail how he took the postcodes of the certified sites and put them into Google Earth, so he could look around the area where the site was.  He then used Street Map where he could and would wander around the site and see what was there.  From that, he picked the best site for them and booked it.

And when I say ‘booked it’, please bear in mind, this is a couple who will be staying on one site, off-season for 10 days.  This isn’t just a two-night weekend break when sites have little problem filling their books.  The shoulder season is when hospitality businesses are traditionally quiet, so any custom is great custom – especially a 10 night stay.

It’s worth looking at your own location on Google Earth and Street map and linking to these tools from your website.  Make it easy for people to see where you are and what facilities you offer and it will likely pay off.

Happy Googling!

The fundamental thing about a marketing strategy is that it should be a working document.  It should be on your desk; not buried in a filing cabinet.  As a result, it should be a simple document and not a lengthy, verbose file containing words nobody understands (these documents are just created by marketing people who don’t really have working experience, so they try to baffle you with long words that they often don’t understand either).

The contents should be simple and should include the following:

• An aim, mission or vision.  Call it what you will, but the beginning of any strategy should be an over-arching statement about the reason your business or organisation exists.  What are you trying to achieve – in a single paragraph if you can.
• Your objectives.  Underneath your vision should be your specific objectives.  These should be measurable and should relate back to your mission statement.  For example, we plan to increase profits by 20% in 2011 or we will donate £1000 per month to our selected charity in 2011.  I would recommend sticking to about 5 or 6 objectives, as that will keep you focused.
• The third stage is your action plan.  How are you going to achieve those objectives?  In marketing, there are hundreds of methods you could use to achieve the same outcomes.  What really saves time at this stage is getting some quality advice from an expert who can tell you which marketing methods will work the best for you and your customers in order to achieve the objectives you’ve set.  (That’s the clever bit of marketing and you’ll save a heap of time asking someone who does this for a living to work this out for you.  It’s the value of using a professional, as they know what works and what doesn’t.)
• Finally you might want to put measurement or evaluation tools in here, so you know how you will monitor your progress against your objectives.

Such a document should take no more than one or two A4 sides for most businesses and it should give you a working action plan that you undertake and monitor every day.  That will build your business and grow your profits.

Good luck – and let me know if you need any assistance. I’d be happy to help and get you on the right track.

You’re probably reading this and thinking ‘who would be so stupid?’! But you would be amazed at the number of businesses I come across who operate their company this way.  Usually because of one of two reasons:

a. They don’t know their numbers

b. They don’t calculate their time

When it comes to ethical marketing, I believe this is one of the most crucial items a marketer need to understand about your business.  (There are many consultants who won’t ask the figures because that holds them accountable and some believe marketing is more ‘art’ than ‘science’.  I’m afraid I disagree.)

Perhaps I can illustrate with a story:

When we were visiting the Pyramids in Egypt, we were warned about the local traders at the site who constantly try to ‘rip off’ the tourists.  The Egyptian who told us this said that whilst he loved his countrymen, the people who worked the Pyramids were a different breed and would happily take tourists’ money by whatever means they could.  So, he told us to barter – and to barter hard – if we did want to buy their wares.  He informed us that no trader would sell an item if they weren’t going to make any money – they simply wouldn’t do it.  They would lose the sale – and keep the potential profit for the next tourist.

What a great lesson – they wouldn’t make the sale if they were going to lose money.  They knew their break-even – the minimum they could accept and still walk away with profit.  I wish we could learn from these traders and all know these figures for our businesses – there would be far fewer business closures with just this simple piece of data.

Like I said…the holy grail.

But some of us take those relationships for granted… at our peril.

Take an example a friend shared with me last night – she met an insurance broker a few years ago whom she liked and their company now looks after all of her business.  She has never in that time shopped around for insurance, or used comparison sites.  A few months ago, she was due for renewal and at the same time, she realised it was the broker’s daughter’s birthday.  So she sent a personal email wishing her Happy Birthday and mentioning her renewal needs, but she didn’t receive a reply.  Her renewal papers came from someone she didn’t know.  And now she’s considering shopping around.

There could be a really great reason the email wasn’t answered – the broker could have been away / ill / might have left the company / it may have been answered by another member of staff who didn’t realise the depth of the relationship.  But whatever the reason, the relationship has been damaged.  And it’s been proven that 67% of customers leave because of ‘perceived indifference’ – they think we don’t care.

According to a report ‘Loyalty: A prescription for cutting costs’ by Fred Reichheld of Bain & Company, in the financial services sector a 5% increase in customer retention produces more than a 25% increase in profit.

It’s time we realised that people think they’re important – and they are.  We need to treat all of our customers,  introducers and suppliers as individuals and respond to them and their family in a way that shows we care and that we’re grateful for their business.  It’s hard work – of course – but it’s easier than continually finding new customers!