With the cold weather expected to continue through this week, some businesses have already noticed an increase in custom due to the snow and ice.  Shops that supply their local area are booming – one butcher’s in Derbyshire was reported as seeing a 150% increase in business, as the locals walk to the shops in their nearest town or village, rather than travel to city centres.

As with all climates – economic or otherwise – someone always benefits.  And it’s clearly the turn of the local shops for the time being.

So, how can you make the most of the opportunity the weather has presented?

• Ensure people can reach your shop or business easily and won’t harm themselves
• Offer home deliveries for those who can’t make it out of their houses
• Call the most vulnerable people in your neighbourhood and ensure they have sufficient food and warm clothing
• Keep stocked up – this is your chance to prove you’re just as convenient as the out-of-town supermarket
• Don’t use the opportunity to profiteer from the weather – people will know if you put your prices up overnight and will hold a grudge in the long-term.  They will also tell others of your unethical practices
• Smile – people do business with people they like.  This is an opportunity to build a relationship with your local customers, so be nice
• Provide people with vouchers, so they’ll come back and shop with you again (when the weather improves)

This is a great marketing opportunity for some local business owners who have lost out to the larger retailers – make the most of the chance and remind your customers what a great service you offer.

Your competitors can provide a wealth of knowledge about your industry and your customer base – they may have spotted opportunities you haven’t, or have found new ways to produce or market their products that save costs or increase profits.  Understanding them can therefore be very beneficial and, at Showing Off, we include a competitor review as part of our consultancy system.

One of the key things we look for is strengths and weaknesses – often your competitors have different strengths to you and, by understanding that, you can focus on the things you do well and create some meaningful unqiue selling points for your business.

When you’re researching your competitors, there are a few common mistakes to avoid:

1. Hiding Your Identity.

Whilst this was a well-used (and fun) way to capture competitor information, there are now certain laws that protect companies from this.  It’s much better to ask a customer to call, or contact the owners yourself and agree to meet and share information that could benefit you both.

2. Copying Your Competitors.

This is a common trap business owners fall into, because they see a competitor doing something they aren’t – and they don’t want to be left behind.  But, beware – unless you know their marketing is better than yours, and producing a great return on investment, why assume they know something you don’t?

3. Dissing The Competition.

If you only research your competitors in order to tell customers how bad they really are, then please don’t waste your time.  You will only serve to destroy your credibility, as noone likes the kid that tells tales on their friends.  This is a very basic rule of marketing, but I never cease to be amazed by the amount of companies who ignore it.

James Dyson put it into perspective in his autobiography when he commented that comparing yourself to your competitors in a public arena only serves to promote them – using your own money.  And why would you want to do that?

4. Treating Competitors Any Differently to Prospects

Your closest competitors can often be your very best allies, and can also be a potential source of business, so we recommend building a relationship with them if you can.  You often find you both have expertise in different areas and can work together to provide more value to customers than you could on your own.

For example, if you run a hotel, would you rather turn a guest away when you’re full and let them look for a competitor on their own.  Or could you suggest somewhere they could try, that you know will offer a similar level of service to you?

In some industries, I appreciate this is very difficult.  They may be very traditional and extremely competitive, but working together at some level may be worth a try – it’s definitely the best way to do business.

The 4 Ps model of marketing that we covered yesterday is the cornerstone of marketing strategy, but a later model looked at areas specific to services – expanding the model to seven Ps.  (This causes a problem for marketers, as we love our two by two-box models and seven Ps just doesn’t fit!)

Please ensure that you cover the four Ps first, then have a look at the additional three.  You need all seven when looking at services marketing.

The next layer is as follows…

P – People

If your company ‘sells’ services, they are usually inseparable from the people who deliver them; making your people crucial to your marketing mix.  Effective training, customer service, relationship marketing and standardised forms of delivery all play a part in this aspect of the marketing mix.  How many strategies do you have for developing your people?  Do you have scripts and templates to help ensure each person delivers to the same high standards?

P = Processes

Which brings us nicely to processes.  These are important in any business, but with services they assist in standardising delivery.  If you imagine a company with two offices, selling accountancy services.  You may have the same branding over the door, and the customers will have the same expectations from each office, but the individuals delivering the service can make the difference between happy and unhappy customers.  Processes seek to standardise the delivery as much as possible – so the customer always receives the same level of service on every occasion.  (MacDonalds provides a great example of this in action.)

P = Physical Evidence

Because customers cannot touch and feel your ‘product’, they often require more tangible extras to encourage them to buy.  This physical evidence can take the form of brochures, websites, testimonials from existing clients; anything that helps the customer understand what you deliver and how you deliver it and reassures them that you do what you say.  How many strategies do you have for increasing the physical evidence you have available and do you know which are most suited to your target audience?

See tomorrow’s post for more specific information on marketing services.

After Visibility, the next step to success is CREDIBILITY.  But, how do you create it?

Trust is a vital component in any sale; particularly a long-term purchase or with intangible purchases (like a service you can’t touch or hold in your hand).  But many business owners overlook its importance, or fail to take the time for customers to build trust and get to know the sales person.

They say it takes on average seven points of contact before someone will buy from you – and credibility is the reason why.  If people don’t trust you first, they’re unlikely to part with any money.

So, how can you build trust or credibility? Our top five tips are as follows…

1. Have a clear brand, through signage, business cards, telephone numbers etc.  People are happier with landline numbers that are local, rather than PO box numbers and mobiles.  And they like to know who they’re dealing with, so keep things simple and clear.
2. Ease of contact – is your telephone number easy to find on your literature and website?  Do you encourage people to call you and make it easy for them to do so?
3. Stick to your promises – if you say you’ll call back, call back.  As and when you promised.
4. Provide testimonials – let your customers see what other people say about you.  That’s far more convincing than any sales pitch.
5. Give something away for free – with services, it’s great if you can offer a tip or a piece of advice for free, especially if it proves you are great at your job.  If it’s products, offer a guarantee – put your money where your mouth is if your products are fantastic, instead of asking the customer to take all the risk.  You’ll be surprised how powerful it is.

When you take the time to build trust with your customers, they’ll reward you by referring you to other people and put their reputation on the line based on their relationship with you.

And, then you’re on your way to the third and final step…Profitability (see Monday’s blog for more…)

It never ceases to amaze me how some companies are content to pull the wool over the eyes of their customers; selling them things they don’t need or convincing them to buy something before they need to replace it.  So, I ask the question… are your customers stupid?

More importantly, are you stupid?

If you found out that someone had sold you something you didn’t need, or told you something needed replacing when it didn’t, how would you feel?

Let me give you an example – we recently had our company car serviced at a main dealer.  We were told the brake pads and discs needed replacing, after just 30,000 miles, at a cost of £250.  My husband questioned this, as it seemed a bit premature.  So, we took the car to another garage – someone we knew, liked and trusted (which is important) for a second opinion.  We were told the brake pads had another 1000-2000 miles in them and that the discs didn’t need replacing at all.  The cost for the pads was about £80.  My question is… will I ever trust the main dealer again?  And, are they likely to make any money out of me in future?

Some businesses do this all the time – selling ‘stuff’ instead of solving problems.  And, by talking people into spending more money, they think they’ve done well and can have a better holiday or a fancy car.  But, if you take a long-term view of your business, and ask whether you think your customers are stupid, would you make the same mistake?

If the main dealer had told me to book the car in again in two weeks to have the pads done, would I have more respect for them?  I might have said ‘great – just do it now and save me bringing it back’, but the important thing is that the choice is mine to make (because I don’t like to think I’m stupid).

The lesson for your business is this… if you focus on the sale and not the relationship, you will take a short-term view and not value your customer.  You run the risk of treating them like they’re stupid – is that how you’d like to be treated?

Do your customers like you?

It would be great if you could answer that question honestly.

If your answer is ‘no’ or ‘I don’t know’, ask yourself what you’ve done recently to give your customers a reason to like you.

That’s all relationship marketing is – it’s about understanding that people buy from people they like.  People want to know you care and they want to know what’s in it for them.  If you give them no reason to like you, why would they come back – or buy from you in the first place?

Relationship Marketing is about making friends.  It’s about remembering little details about customers, like where they went on holiday, or what their kids are called.  It’s asking how they are and how their business is, and offering help and contacts where you can.  It’s also about providing solutions – not selling.

We’re fast approaching the best time of year to say ‘thank you’ to your customers for their business.  And, if you weren’t planning to thank them this year – in the middle of a recession – when are you?

Don’t forget your top referrers too – if you want them to keep passing you business and mentioning your name next year, it might be worth the cost of a bottle of wine??

Here’s to boosting your Christmas list – and reaping the benefits in 2010!

I’ve just started reading Brian Tracy’s ‘Advanced Selling Strategies’; a fantastic book that I can highly recommend.  It got me to thinking and the first chapter alone reminded me of some great sales tips that I’ve come to take for granted.  They are definitely worth repeating though, as they could make a huge difference to your sales conversions…

1. One of the most important tips focuses on attitude.  If you enter a ‘sales opportunity’ thinking you’re going to fail, or be knocked down on price, then you probably will.  You generally achieve the outcome you imagine, so focus on the positive and you’re likely to improve your success rate.
2. Consider yourself to be self-employed.  Whilst you may well be self-employed, you may have sales agents or employees who are not.  But, it’s only when you (or they) take responsibility as a business-owner for sales and targets, that conversion rates increase.
3. Be the best sales person you can be.  If your role in the business is sales, you need to learn how to be good at sales.  Read sales books, attend seminars, develop your skills and invest in yourself.
4. Take a consultancy approach.  The top sales people see themselves as consultants or problem-solvers, not sales people.  They have great relationships with their customers and find solutions for them – which may or may not be what they’re trying to sell.  They put the customer and their relationship with them first and the sales follow.
5. Become a doctor – examine, diagnose and then prescribe.  Leading sales people ask lots of questions.  And the better the questions you ask, the better the answers.  You get to the route of the customers problem, before you ‘prescribe’ a solution.  That way, you can offer a better solution – and are more likely to get the sale.

These are just five tips from a single chapter of Brian Tracy’s book.  If you’re responsible for sales, I would recommend reading the rest of it (I won’t be sharing any more of what I read, as that wouldn’t be fair, so it you want to benefit from Brian’s experience, you need to buy the book – it’s only £7.50 on Amazon!)  It would also be worth sharing this book with your sales people.

As marketing consultants, we’ve worked with many different web design companies (good and bad).  Some were our choice and others were companies already selected by our customers.  Through that experience, we created a list of top tips to help you find the right company to ensure success with your web marketing strategy.

Firstly, speak to a few web design companies and meet with at least two or three.  These are the top things we are looking for when recommending web partners…

1. Someone you can work with and get along with. It’s important you build a great relationship with your web designer, as they should become a ‘partner’ in helping you achieve success on the internet.
2. A fantastic design service. First impressions are very important with a website, so you need a company that employs good designers.
3. Fabulous back-end, technical skills. Websites must be easy to navigate and the technical back-up and security behind websites is often over-looked.  But, it’s vital to a successful website, so ensure your web company has high-level technical skills to ensure your users have a safe, secure and simple route through your site.
4. Outstanding search engine optimisation knowledge. Creating a website and failing to optimise it is like printing 1000 brochures and leaving them in your office – it’s a complete waste of money.  Ensure your web team understand optimisation and ask them for examples of companies they’ve helped and how they changed their position – on Google specifically.
5. An understanding of marketing. A website is one small part of a promotional strategy.  And promotion is one quarter (at best) of the marketing mix – so it’s a very small part of your overall strategy.  Your web designer needs an understanding of where your website fits in your strategy and how it integrates with your other marketing methods.

As a result of these demands, it’s highly unusual to find them all in one individual.  Gone are the days when web designers could set up on their own, in their back bedroom and create fantastic websites.  You now need many more skills.  We therefore look to work with companies with all these skills under one roof – they usually have at least three staff; one of whom specialises in each of the key areas of web design.  (Look at www.ibexinternet.co.uk for an example of the company we choose for all our web design and support.)

I hope this helps you in your choice.  Whatever you do, please don’t use your ‘nephew’, unless he runs a very successful internet company.  If you can’t afford a properly designed website, question whether you need one at all, rather than spending money on something that won’t work.