Seth Godin mentions that 90% of our business will come via word of mouth or digital marketing by 2011. Couldn’t agree more. Wrote something similar myself on 3rd April. To see his full blog click on the link below:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/04/sixty-to-zero.html

The expression ‘you get what you ask for’ has never been more prevalent. As small business owners we have an amazing opportunity to influence. Influence our customers, influence our prospects and influence the people that work with us. Just a few thoughts:

The mundane breeds the mundane, average breeds average, being cheaper just breeds more cheaper things, rules breed rules, convention just breeds more convention, control breeds more control, defensiveness just breeds defensiveness, competition breeds more competition.

Yet, creativity encourages creativity, knowledge breeds more knowledge, ideas encourage more ideas, inspiration inspires more inspiration, leadership encourages leadership, thinking breeds more thinking, revenue breeds more revenue, opportunities encourage other opportunities, value breeds more value, trust inspires trust, customers breed other customers.

Behaviour in business can get you very different outcomes.

Technology, the internet and social media are forcing us to create and adopt new business models. Lots of the old rules have evaporated and many new rules are there for the taking! You can’t hide on the internet. Your customers can find you easier than you can find them!

Transparency and openness is now an important value in your business. Understanding what that means, how it will impact and how the hell you are going to manage it is incredibly important. The more open you are, the more people will trust you. But that leaves many business owners feeling vulnerable….

It’s a conflicting thought, however, how can you form great partnerships with customers and collaborate with other companies to develop great products if you don’t open up? Two heads are invariably better than one!

Look at it this way, it is better to create, develop and build strong relationships of trust with your customers and identify lucrative opportunities than worry about the competition pinching your ideas.

The laws of supply and demand are changing. Rapidly, they are ceasing to exist and disrupting the way we have set up our company’s to do business. Corporate and small business alike. Business in the past was built on scarcity and we haven’t changed our businesses radically enough to cope.

It isn’t so long ago that to do any kind of banking, even to set up a bank account, you had to go into the bank. Now you can do it from the comfort of your own armchair. If you wanted to read a newspaper, or get the latest news, you either watched TV or wandered to the local newsagents for a paper. Now you can get news alerts to your mobile phone or read The Times online.

If you wanted to book a holiday, you used to have to go to your local travel agents and book something there. Not anymore. If you fancied a new car, you would normally test drive a model you liked, organise a loan and then drive it away a week later. Not now, a car is sold every 2 minutes on eBay!

Not surprisingly, if I wanted an Abercrombie hoodie, I would have had to go to one of the stores in the UK or make the trip to the US. Now I can buy online anytime I want 24/7. And, it’s the same for most small businesses whether you are selling marketing advice, gifts, clotted cream, kettles, wine, graphic design, IT support or garden equipment.

The only thing scarce nowadays is trust, great leadership and fabulous customer service. The very thing that makes us different, competitive and sustainable over the long term.

The challenge for all business is to shift from product orientation to developing business models based on trust, leadership and customers.

So the highly respected British company Innocent has sold a £30 million stake to Coca-Cola. Often upheld over the last 10 years as a flagship of entrepreneurism in the UK, Innocent promoted itself as a non-corporate, eco-friendly and value driven company. No better demonstrated than its send up of naming its headquarters ‘Fruit Towers.’ The company has enamoured consumers with ethical and moral ways of doing business. But has it sold out?

The motivation; to raise funds to help them expand into Europe. Its not the first time though. Pret a Manger and McDonalds, The Body Shop to L’Oreal, Ben & Jerrys to Unilever and Green and Blacks to Cadbury’s.

Naturally an optimist, on these occasions, I can’t help feeling sceptical. The very things that made these bright start up companies special seems to dispel once a conglomerate gets involved. Its hard to see how genuine and sincere values cannot be compromised with a company that has other motivations and does business so differently.

Surely it’s a contradiction, Coca-Cola often criticised for its unhealthy product, Innocent the complete opposite! When I look at Coca-Cola I don’t think ‘ethics,’ I don’t think ‘family,’ I don’t think ‘natural.’ It leads to the question, can these big companies really sustain these smaller, highly innovative companies under its wing retaining the original values?

The original three founders have said nothing will really change as they  ”continue to lead and run the company.” That may be so, if a little naive, only time will tell.

Geoff Hoon says he broke no rules in claiming second home allowances for his Derby home while living in a taxpayer-funded apartment in Whitehall. The transport secretary lived in the flat in Admiralty House while he was defence secretary. He also rented out his own London home while there.

This, a classic example of believing that if you are not breaking the rules then it’s okay. What’s worse than Geoff Hoon claiming these allowances is the fact that he didn’t stand up and say this is wrong and change it.

Maintaining the status quo, challenging what is obviously wrong and questioning what we are doing is fundamental to progress and strong leadership. Leadership in terms of return on investment, in terms of ethics, in terms of authenticity and in terms of doing the right thing.

It’s a stark reminder to us all (none of us are exempt from this) that you can’t justify something if it’s plainly wrong and you certainly can’t hide transparency!

It’s a point of difference from the customers point of view. It asks the following questions:

1. How different is this product/service from the other suppliers I could buy from?

2. Why is it different and do I believe what I am being told?

3. Does it reinforce my values and the feeling I want to get from buying this product and service?

4. Is it going to remove the anxiety I feel when buying?

This point of difference clearly demonstrates why you clearly stand out from the crowd. Why you have attained the reputation you market and provides a compelling reason why your customer should buy from you again and again.

This point is communicated by all the people working in your company and experienced by your customer at every stage of your interaction with them. Those companies not effectively doing this are the ones struggling to rise above the competition.

We have become adept at covering our ears and closing our eyes to the constant onslaught of mass communications and multi million dollar-marketing campaigns that attempt to attract, goad and engage with us. Fortunately, it seems this era is coming to an end.

Direct marketing, exhibitions, advertising and brochures cost so much but offer little percentage returns and frankly, we have all moved on. Is anyone listening anyway? It’s easy to create an amazing brochure, or a clever advert for the press, but it’s actually grabbing someone’s attention and getting them to act on it that’s the hard part.

We loose interest quite quickly especially when we are bombarded by interruption that doesn’t stimulate relationship building. This is where word of mouth is becoming so important again. Not that it ever went away, it just got side lined by marketers who couldn’t make any money out of it!

It’s still the most important form of human communication in a business setting and it’s a great cost effective way of doing business. Small business could never afford the budget for mass communications and so ignored marketing thinking it was out of reach.

Perhaps now with technology able to support word of mouth referrals and reputation, small business can look at a marketing strategy that removes the noise and improves the signal to customers who are listening and want to hear about what you have to say. Literally because their friend, work colleague or peer swears by what you do.

There is a lot to be said about concentrating on this as the main, prominent force of your marketing activity. Find people, that special group of people in your network that heavily influence others. Go and get referrals from your existing customers. Pick out people who can encourage and promote your reputation. Encourage advocates.

It might take some time and effort but little cash and bring about a more suitable return.

You may have the best, even most innovative product on the market. You may be developing the most talented team with the latest leadership skills. You may have a significant competitive advantage through your brand. But if you’re not preparing your company for the effect of globalisation and the changes that will bring, you could fail in the blink of an eye.

Change and the speed of change will increase and affect the way we do business. Wealth and success will change and the definitions of those words will become very individual. Growth of your business will be different, how you make a profit will change and competition will be even greater.

Trust will be your most important asset with customers and employees. You will need to justify why you are different at every step even if it means you are cheaper. Technology will drive your business and we will become obsessed with trends. Marketing is changing and rapidly. No longer will you have brochures or attend that exhibition, that part of your budget will be spent online.

One of the best investments you can make at the moment is to read a couple of books on the subject of globalisation and get geared up. According to the leading experts on the matter, it is here to stay so we better damn well understand the implications for our small business.