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 it seems even the world of football is following this trend and tapping into the power of their customers…

I recently read about Murcielagos FC in Mexico; a team which is managed by the crowd who make decisions about strategy, substitutions and best players.  The team talk is made public and fans can vote on whether they agree with it.

The team is apparently performing very well…http://abiteof.com/2011/03/17/who-needs-a-trainer-when-you-have-a-crowd/

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?

Sites such as Groupon and Living Social have sprung up seemingly overnight.  Voucher Codes offers discount codes for everyday items, such as shopping, meals out and clothes.  Martin Lewis’ money saving expert site is also full of discounts and deals – and they’re proving more popular than ever.

It’s very easy to think of joining the bandwagon and adding your deals to these sites, but how can you do so profitably?  Here are our top tips from our experience and that of our customers:

1. Ensure you’re making a profit.  The number of people we’ve met who have created deals that lose them money is frightening.  Deals are not about no profit.  They are about great deals that attract new customers and make you a good return.  Look at added-value, rather than discounts.  And if you can’t make money, don’t offer the deal.
2. Try to use a site that will help you reach new customers.  If you can attract new people to your business, it could be worth a reduction in profits on their first visit.
3. To achieve a long-term growth in business and profitability, you must keep a database of these new customers and then market to them directly.  With hotels and restaurants, you save approx. 20% commission if people book directly, so encourage as many as you can back to stay with direct offers.
4. Ask for reviews.  One hotel that we work with has been rushed off their feet with Groupon deals and it’s been really hard work.  But the reviews they’ve received on Trip Advisor (and the database they’ve built up) has been worth slightly lower profits on these first visits.
5. You must impress the people who use the vouchers.  If you’re happy to take a smaller profit margin on the first visit and see this as a marketing expense for finding new customers, you must generate a profit at a later date.  If they are impressed, they’re likely to return… and they might recommend you to friends as well.

To see what might be next for the Daily Deal sites, look at http://www.thinknear.com/main_pages/how_it_works

It’s all very exciting!

If this is your situation, or you know someone in that position, please pass on some marketing tips that will help them get the cashflow moving again:

1. Chase every debt.  This is money in the bank; it just often isn’t in yours.  People think debt recovery falls into admin rather than marketing, but this is easy income and every debt should be chased in a systematic way.  Speaking to people about the money they owe is also another opportunity to find out what needs they have that you may be able to solve.
2. Keep in touch with past clients.  All too often, we spend time looking for new customers and forget about the people who already know, like and trust us – those who have bought before.  By keeping in touch, you remind them you exist and what you can offer.  (Just this week I had a client come back after 5 years, so it’s never too late.)
3. Listen – ask customers, prospects and contacts what they need.  What challenges do they have and how can you solve them?  Listen first, ask questions and propose your solution afterwards.  You’re more likely to solve their problem that way – and they’re more likely to buy.
4. Stay positive.  It’s increasingly difficult to ignore the news, but ignore it you must.  People are spending money.  The question is whether they’re spending it with you.  Your mindset is a large part of whether you succeed or not, so monitor your thoughts and keep them positive.  (This sounds fluffy, but you wouldn’t believe the power of it.)
5. Ask for the sale.  Make the calls. Get active.  Take massive action if you need massive results.  You are the route out of your situation, so set a target and then enjoy smashing it.

Times are changing.  And they’ve been changing for millennia.  It’s the only constant.  As someone famously once said – you can make money, or you can make excuses, but you can’t make both.

I wish you success and I offer my assistance if you need it.

a) Nip to the loo?

b) Pop the kettle on? Or

c) Fast-forward the adverts?

The presenters on some channels even encourage you to leave the room now (which would upset me a little if I’d paid thousands of pounds to show my advert on their channel).

Let’s imagine you choose option C (otherwise this will be a very short post).  You fast-forward the adverts.  But one of them is so compelling, you have to rewind the recording and watch it.  Surely that is the new power of advertising.  It happened in our house last night and I was absolutely amazed that my husband (who really dislikes marketing!) rewound the adverts to watch one that had shown.

…which got me to thinking.  Perhaps we should be designing adverts (if we don’t already) that work fantastically well on fast-forward.  Many people do watch the adverts at speed, so advertisers can perhaps use that to their advantage.  I for one would love to see what they could achieve.

The ads will use a ‘sex sells’ strategy to see if advertising triggers primate responses in the monkeys.  They’re keeping it simple – a billboard shows a graphic shot of a female monkey – Well… if it works on humans!

Yale University research shows that monkeys understand money and behave in similar ways to humans when faced with decisions in games, so the results should be fascinating.  If you’re as fascinated as I was, you can read more at http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-06/28/advertising-campaign-aimed-at-monkeys