Times are tough, the buzzword of the moment is recession and the strong economic climate looks like it’s taking a battering and for some time to come. Customer confidence is wobbling, cash is tight and we are all feeling more than a pinch. So its easy to take a knee jerk reaction and try to cut costs, yet perhaps thats the easy route and a route to nothing. So what are you going to do?

The best answer is before you do anything…….. ‘think.’ Here I offer some thoughts:

1. It’s a long haul - whilst there may be some quick hits you can implement, make sure you don’t cut costs too much, an anorexic business ain’t going to get you far in the long term. Being overstretched will only work for so long.

2. Understand what creates the true value in your business. Is it the staff? Is it employees? Is is your products? Is it your customers? Whoever provides the value, they are providing the profit and they need supporting it’s as simple as that.

3. Differentiate, differentiate, differentiate. Get to grips with why people buy from you, invest in marketing and sales tactics that communicate that and if you have creative thinkers…..these are the last people you get rid of in these tough times.

4. Lead your team through this period. Don’t make it tougher for your staff. Encourage, engage, motivate and inspire them to become better at what they do and more productive. If they are led with those words in mind they will come up with the solutions and make it easier for you. Keep morale high and don’t start slashing expenses, bonuses without doing it properly. Strong, clear communication is priceless.

5. Concentrate on customers even more. Identify your top 20% of customer performers ie: those contributing to profit, growth and cash and go visit them. The last thing you want to do is lose customers at this time because in the panic you forgot about them. Set targets for increased spend from these customers. If your top 20% of customers spend 10% more this next year, what difference would that make?

6. Do something now. Get on with it and don’t put it off…you don’t want it biting you on the bum in the next few months. Think, understand and prepare for the actions required. Don’t let decisions be forced on you and think long term solutions.

Looking back on these points, perhaps it’s timely reminder that tightening the old belt can sometimes be good for us!

Been thinking over the weekend, aided by the bad weather and nothing else to do, what small businesses need to be concentrating on. It seems sensible to be throwing a lot of thought into the following:

1. In a crowded market place, build a sense of exclusivity or differentiation from the surrounding clutter.

2. Our prospects are tired, it’s a matter of turning their opinions and pre conceptions on their head. Period.

3. It strikes me that going against what your competition boasts is a good start.

4. Market your company’s characteristics, values and ideas rather than price.

5. Have conversations with your customers don’t just communicate.

6. Customers don’t compare products with products anymore, they compare the experience with the experience.

Just a couple of questions:

1. What two ideas have you created, developed, influenced, launched so far this year?

2. Are you making waves or simply bobbing along hoping for the best?

Answers on a postcard please…………………..!

In the New Scientist (19th April 2008) they mention in their Evolution feature on page 30 that “You Don’t have to be perfectly adapted to survive, you just have to be as well adapted as your competitors are.” Whilst this may be true in the animal kingdom, evolution over a relatively short time in the business world, has determined those days have long gone. Thank goodness!

Being good enough to be just as bad as your competitors sends an interesting and telling message to customers. Those companies that are doing well in crazy times are breaking the rules, generating creativity, standing out from the crowd and, perhaps in some instances, not giving a damn what their competition is doing.

Differentiating ourselves at every stage in the business process is mandatory. Knowing what makes us distinctive and then communicating that in a compelling message captures customers imaginations.

Sometimes it’s the right thing to do your own thing!

Learn a little more in the free e-book at www.clarityprojects.co.uk

I spent quite a bit of time in the car today which got me thinking (to pass the time.) What are some of the key questions we should be asking ourselves on a regular basis. You know the ones we avoid immediately as soon as they enter our head, or, the ones our staff possibly ask themselves each day. Anyway I came up with five:

1. How would your customers recognise you if you got rid of your company logo?

2. What if your best customer was about to go and do business elsewhere?

3. What if your exceptional reputation for customer service was based on just a couple members of your staff or team?

4. What else would you do at work if you had an extra hour a day?

5. Which customers should you be picking the phone up to tomorrow…. urgently?

I’m not saying what you come up with you might do, but hey it may get you thinking!!! What other questions should we be posing?

On this hot, sunny day in the UK, I’m cheating on my blog today but then Seth Godin is just saying what’s key in marketing and as always I couldn’t have put it better myself. He has just posted a blog that is cut and pasted below: (it’s okay he is allowing people to do it!) I particularly like the one about static marketing budgets! For further information on Seth go to www.sethgodin.com

What Every Good Marketer Knows:

• Anticipated, personal and relevant advertising always does better than unsolicited junk.
• Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.
• Your best customers are worth far more than your average customers.
• Share of wallet is easier, more profitable and ultimately more effective a measure than share of market.
• Marketing begins before the product is created.
• Advertising is just a symptom, a tactic. Marketing is about far more than that.
• Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That’s not marketing, though, that’s efficiency.
• Conversations among the members of your marketplace happen whether you like it or not. Good marketing encourages the right sort of conversations.
• Products that are remarkable get talked about.
• Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, the typesetting on your bills and your returns policy.
• You can’t fool all the people, not even most of the time. And people, once unfooled, talk about the experience.
• If you are marketing from a fairly static annual budget, you’re viewing marketing as an expense. Good marketers realize that it is an investment.
• People don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want.
• You’re not in charge. And your prospects don’t care about you.
• What people want is the extra, the emotional bonus they get when they buy something they love.
• Business to business marketing is just marketing to consumers who happen to have a corporation to pay for what they buy.
• Traditional ways of interrupting consumers (TV ads, trade show booths, junk mail) are losing their cost-effectiveness. At the same time, new ways of spreading ideas (blogs, permission-based RSS information, consumer fan clubs) are quickly proving how well they work.
• People all over the world, and of every income level, respond to marketing that promises and delivers basic human wants.
• Good marketers tell a story.
• People are selfish, lazy, uninformed and impatient. Start with that and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what you find.
• Marketing that works is marketing that people choose to notice.
• Effective stories match the worldview of the people you are telling the story to.
• Choose your customers. Fire the ones that hurt your ability to deliver the right story to the others.
• A product for everyone rarely reaches much of anyone.
• Living and breathing an authentic story is the best way to survive in an conversation-rich world.
• Marketers are responsible for the side effects their products cause.
• Reminding the consumer of a story they know and trust is a powerful shortcut.
• Good marketers measure.
• Marketing is not an emergency. It’s a planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn’t end until you’re done.
• One disappointed customer is worth ten delighted ones.
• In the googleworld, the best in the world wins more often, and wins more.
• Most marketers create good enough and then quit. Greatest beats good enough every time.
• There are more rich people than ever before, and they demand to be treated differently.
• Organizations that manage to deal directly with their end users have an asset for the future.
• You can game the social media in the short run, but not for long.
• You market when you hire and when you fire. You market when you call tech support and you market every time you send a memo.
• Blogging makes you a better marketer because it teaches you humility in your writing.

I know it’s easier said than done but by following just a few of his principles you might find your marketing works better. In my e-book I talk about some similar things. For a free copy go to www.clarityprojects.co.uk

I recently had a holiday in the Canary Islands and very nice it was too! Everyday, well almost everyday, we caught the free shuttle bus from the hotel down to the beach and village (a short 1.5km) to do what your average holiday maker does on holiday. What was interesting was that the bus driver (on his own accord) gave out small boiled sweets to all the passengers both going out and coming back! Small gesture but huge feel good feel factor. He didn’t need to do. His motivation, to make people feel welcome to his island and so he could engage in conversation!

This just proves that great customer service can be so very, very simple or should I say we need to keep it simple. It’s those things that make a huge difference and engender loyalty to your product, service and brand.

Intrinsically motivating your customer – making them feel good about the purchase, gaining their trust and respect, understanding their values, over delivering, saying thanks and appealing to them is far more powerful than extrinsically motivating them - giving them materialistic rewards such as money off vouchers and buy one get one free. It’s essentially making your only differentiating factor price which, of course, is not sustainable.

Provide customers with great service, a few simple, low cost great surprises along the way (the sweets) and ensure any customer retention strategy has gaining customer trust and respect at it’s core. That’s what customer service should be about. Perhaps a little more creative thought required but isn’t that the point?

I recently had a great discussion with my delegates at a recent seminar I held. One of those challenging ones that shifts’ everyone’s thinking. As a group we talked about how we often fear customer rejection when, in fact, what we should really fear is customer indifference. A topic I’m inclined to get on my soapbox about!

In it’s most simplistic terms, there are two types of marketing…old school, traditional. It’s all about communications where we assume people are listening, we are comfortable telling the prospective customer, existing client, colleague, supplier how good we are. Commuication is all one way. Worst of all, your competitors are doing it too! And the practical examples of this; advertising in the local rag, glossy magazines, direct mail or dead tree media as it’s now called! Even basic websites are starting to fall into this category, where return on investment is disappearing quickly, if it ever existed at all?

The second is what I call conversational marketing, engaging with the market place, the customer. It’s about ideas generation, exploring future products and services together, provoking a positive, interactive reaction from customers whether old or new. Creating a marketing campaign that fires their imagination which in turn fires yours. Sounds far more vibrant, far more dynamic doesn’t it? Oh a little exciting too!

What do I mean by this? Well rather than allowing your customers indifference to your business being maintained, it’s about starting to think creatively about marketing campaigns that your customer finds appealing, where ideas not service are at the forefront. I’m talking about online marketing, viral marketing on the web, YouTube, a product/service with a true and I mean true differential advantage! Something where you revolutionise the customer experience in your industry! Or you package your offering in a new way like Radiohead did with their (only if your brand is well established) new album in late 2007, which allowed customers to chose what price they paid.

Radical stuff? Frightening? Uncomfortable? Expensive? Well, try this…imagine the way in which you have marketed in the past is denied to you. You can do anything with your previous budget. How would you engage in ‘marketing conversation’ with customers using non traditional marketing?

Blimey, further proof that marketing is radically changing. Just this week Google announced its latest advertising revenue figures that are set to overtake ITV’s, here in the UK, possibly within the next year - (www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology). Interesting times! Times that are giving opportunities for small businesses to engage with customers like never before. For me there are two types of opportunity, those that are missed and those that are taken! So why are small businesses still struggling to execute profitable marketing strategies?

I think there are a few harsh realities out there that we still haven’t got to grips with. As controversial as that might be here’s a few to get you started and stimulate debate:

We don’t think about marketing enough. I’ll explain. We go head long into a plan that usually takes the form of traditional marketing without planning or researching it thoroughly. Advertising, networking (the actually meeting people face to face variety) and direct mail are the most common. We spend lots of money and then wonder why it didn’t work. Plans that clearly state a return on investment for marketing activity are a must.

We develop marketing approaches that look like a weak universal appeal rather than niche focus and clearly communicating our offer! Even if our products are boring, it’s our job to make them exciting!

Lots of small businesses seem to think that they must sell price as the differentiating factor in their product/service offering. In fact, it’s about how you behave as a brand that’s now important. Brand is about trust (and so is the internet), the new business world is more about open and trusting relationships with customers and staff, which in itself means more transparency. Imagine that!

Marketing isn’t about telling people how good you are. The customers a lot more informed and sophisticated than that. We’ve gone beyond just communicating with customers and moved to having conversations with them. That’s about developing a dynamic relationship and above all getting them involved with what you are doing and developing.

Small businesses haven’t run out of ideas, they just struggle with executing them and don’t differentiate themselves enough! We all look too similar; the products are the same and we sell ‘quality’ too much. Creative marketing campaigns are too rare. Your market place will be typically crowded so it’s more important you stand out.

Traditional marketing has been dead for about 15 years. Some of us are slowly turning our back on the traditional advertising solution, however, many of us can’t see the wood for the trees or is it we’ve just lost sight of what’s in front of us? Those of us who run small businesses don’t have much choice nowadays. As a client of mine said recently “You have to grow really big or go niche.” Drifting along isn’t an option.

As Seth Godin www.sethgodin.co.uk (I like this guy a lot) says “Alternative approaches aren’t a novelty – they are all we’ve got left.”

The key question is what in your product/service portfolio is clearly different, unusual even curious in your market place? Do you provide it and if your answer isn’t convincing enough to you, you might have a problem.