There is too much overhead, too much ego, too many promises, too much indifference, too much fake, too much neatness, too much control, too many being lofty, too much distance. And not enough creativity, not enough differentiation, not enough honesty, not enough sincerity, not enough imagination, not enough compassion and not enough questions!

Why can small businesses compete with the corporates? Because:

They have soul

They have passion

They have a sense of community

They have small teams that can make quick decisions

They are more intimate, personal and in touch with their customers

They can change their business models to fit new ways of marketing

However, small businesses need to get better at:

Reinventing their marketing…..period.

Differentiating themselves.

Executing at least some of those great ideas they come up with.

Employing leadership behaviours not management traits.

Investment not cost cutting.

Taking a hard, long look at what they need to change in the next 3 years.

The question is, are you making waves or just ‘bobbing’ along to see where all this takes you?

Amongst all the noise, doom and gloom there are some good news stories, you just have to look hard to find them. But one of the most fundamental questions we have to ask ourselves is what our customers will expect and want in 2009!

Customers won’t want price hikes but possibly won’t expect price cuts either. However, they will want to understand why you are different, where you add value, see new ideas yet, will still want the assurance of consistency in terms of delivery, quality, service and value for money. They won’t want ’solutions,’ won’t want to be seen as a number, nor a segment. They will want to be seen as a person, as an individual with particular needs that meet their desires and whims. 

Customers in 2009 will demand to become more involved in your business and you will encourage it, knowing that you are taking advantage of a unique and exceptional opportunity to innovate. You will, like never before, utilise the ability of the internet to communicate and have conversations with your customers. The trick will be to start this straightaway and not wait to see how things ‘turn out’ in mid 2009!

Change is inevitable. Recessions, big events or Black Swans as Nassim Nicholas Taleb mentioned in his book in 2007, cause havoc and disruption. But what is certain is that huge amounts of change follows and rightly so. By understanding how the big events of 2009 will impact our customers thinking, their behaviour and attitudes, we may just stay one step ahead of this game we are all playing.

People not saying thank you for that proposal you sent through, that idea you suggested, that bit of info you researched for someone without being asked. Not showing our wholehearted appreciation when a customer comes back to us for more when there is so much competition out there that is a little cheaper or looks fabulous and amazing.

Developing a product for the market place without having a thought about how you are going to market it. Ego’s of any shape or form in business. Manipulating people’s lives rather than enriching them and introducing more complexity when only simplicity is required. Following direction, or the way things have always been done when huge heaps of imagination and innovation are required. Creating sales and not loyal customers and compromising long term benefits for short term profits.

I could go on….I won’t.

It’s more important in these times than ever to be tuned in to what’s happening out there. Today is a good place to start considering how you are going to take advantage of these interesting events! And it’s a great time to know these five things:

1. Out of site, out of mind…..marketing on a consistent basis is essential not only for survival but growth. Customers forget very quickly what you do. Marketing gives you your profile, it builds your reputation and it reinforces that you are still there to existing customers. To stop marketing is a quick walk to the the edge of the cliff!

2. Your competitors won’t go away. If they are switched on they will be deciding on their next amazing strategy that’s going to attempt to woo your customers away from you. They’ll be thinking about how they can be more creative than you, offer a better customer experience than you and communicate far more clearly what they do than you are doing at present. They are never far away cooking up something that will blow customers socks off!

3. With existing customers you have to maintain their state of mind, with potential customers you have to change their mind. Existing and potential customers are different, so develop a strategy that reflects that!

4. Marketing is not a one off event, it’s a series of events over a sustained period of time. That means it rarely brings results immediately. Commitment to the long haul is required, investment of realistic time and money essential and an understanding that it will be at least three months before results start to show is a hard dose of reality. Stop moaning your marketing is not working and give it a reasonable chance! 

5. Keep ahead of the game. If you want to know how to market, ensure you have a sound understanding of what is working and what is ‘old school.’ Read, read and read…yep for some that’s boring but get attuned to the latest trends. Get signed up to Seth Godin’s blog, buy the latest leading edge thinking in marketing books and subscribe to at least one magazine that pushes your thinking such as Fast Company!

If you are not keeping up, you are almost always falling behind.

Think into the future (there is one I promise) three years from now. Look back and identify what are the big decisions you have implemented that have made all the difference to performance/growth/survival. You now know what to do next….!!! 

The two are distinctly different yet we use the two words far too interchangeably. As Professor Levitt said in his book “Marketing for Business Growth” in 1974, “Creativity thinks up new things. Innovation does new things.” He said it a while ago but its still as pertinent now as it ever was.

To our detriment in small business, we do mix the words up in our definition. Small businesses are usually a hot bed of ideas and creativity, it’s what makes them so special yet, quite often, we fail to implement the ideas. Both creativity and innovation are crucial to small business. They are the difference between an average and exceptional one.

Innovation in it’s most basic sense starts with constantly asking the questions about every aspect of your business. In it’s most sophisticated sense, it actually simplifies your business. Whilst creativity will generate lots of initial work, innovation should always make things easier for you, if it doesn’t it is actually complication.

Innovation turns lots of ideas into meaningful action. It asks creativity the question; will this add value? And it’s not just about customer interactions, production efficiency, product development or financial investment. Innovation can work just as easily when improving the way you deal with your people!

Innovation constantly asks these questions:

1. What is preventing us from doing what we talk about doing?

2. What do we need to do to improve and add value to our customer experience/employee experience?

3. What is standing in the way of me (owner) getting what I want from the business?

4. What is the best way to do this?

Not only does it force you to think about improving things, it’s a great way to invigorate a team by getting them involved and engaged with the process. Makes innovation a lot easier to implement too!

…with a bit of true grit and determination. Great video. If you haven’t bought his new book, “Tribes” and you are into developing your leadership skills look no further!!!

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/the-seed-the-pi.html

An employer pays his/her employee money in exchange for time. For that time an employee traditionally gets told what to do when to do it and within what parameters (job descriptions). There is a degree of control. It’s been a one sided affair for many decades/hundreds of years….perhaps I’m being a little unfair? But on the whole an employee is at the beck and call of us employers….why?

An employer may be giving a salary or a wage but the employee is giving up their time. It’s just as tangible, just as important as money and of equal weight, yet the relationship in many, if not most businesses, is lopsided. In the past that’s because employees had little choice. The employers factory was the only one in town and there were only a few people at the top who provided all of the employment in the surrounding area.

As this real life scenario rapidly dissolves it’s changing the ‘power’, things are becoming a lot more balanced. Employees have more choice. Employment is not provided by two or three heavy weights. Business is changing, we are selling intellect and less materials, we are managing our employees imagination not production lines and the business world around is changing very fast, small businesses themselves are changing but not as fast and the leaders of those small businesses, on the whole, are hardly changing at all.

We still see the employee as ‘ours,’ that they belong to us and that we say what goes. I’m not advocating breaking company rules or values but there is a shift. Employees really can choose where they work. They will increasingly make choices, understand where they fit and will leave quickly when they don’t fit.

Increasingly, small business owners will need to learn how to lead these changes and provide a working environment that is less centred on one person making the decisions. They must stop managing people and start leading, understanding that the employee has more choice than ever before. They can stop working and go travelling, they can stop working and do a degree, they can stop working and have a break from work and worse of all, they can stop working for you and go and work for the competition.

The balance has to be restored. As employers we must recognise that our employees can do a hundred things instead of being where they are with you right now. The relationship must not be lopsided and less based on control, order, authority and more on change, emotion, trust, influence and motivation.

The market place out there has raised it’s voice, there are more people talking to you, providing feedback, on social networks and on forums as well as SEO, PPC and the more traditional marketing stuff. But, instead of listening, we more often than not start shouting as loud as we can to be heard above the ‘noise.’ And, it doesn’t seem to matter what market you are in, we are all up to it!

Consequently, the customer/prospect/client can’t hear us. They find it difficult to distinguish us from anyone else, we are just part of that ‘noise.’ It turns people off, they start to ignore us and even worse they become indifferent! They become bombarded with information and as a result close their eyes and cover their ears.

Now is a good time to STOP. A significant dose of looking is required. Look at what you are doing. Look at what the competition is doing. Look at what other businesses are doing in other sectors. Look at where the return on investment in marketing is working or where it isn’t. Then, I bet a good deal of change is required.

If you are not different then you need to be cheaper. The change must be around how you are different, measurable, demonstrable and tangible difference. It may not be your product but it may be your customer experience. It may not be delivery times but it may be that you have the most talented people in the business. It may not be location but it may be that your marketing message is so compelling that people buy into it.

Ultimately, the question and answer is not so much about how your product stands out from the crowd nowadays but how you stand out from the ‘noise.’