We have concluded that the use of this time, more than any other single thing, dictates the quality of the results realized. Consistently make good decisions and results improve.  Make thoughtless, inconsistent or reactive decisions and results are sub-par.

One of the ways to ensure that you make good decisions is to create a comprehensive plan – a written, thoughtful plan of action addressing the most impactful things you can do.  A plan should be the result of good, focused thinking, where you analyze and prioritize a number of different aspects of your job.

ANNUAL PLANNING RETREAT

Every manager should discipline themself to an annual planning “retreat.”  Set a day or two aside, every year, to engage in some uninterrupted quality thinking and planning.  Turn off the phone, shut down the email, and immerse yourself in deep thought about the coming year.  Begin by specifying a series of annual goals.  What, specifically, do you want to accomplish this year in your job?  We recommend no more than five goal areas.  Typically these goals start with the total revenue you want to generate; another may describe the number of new customers you want to acquire; yet another may relate to the number of high value customers you want to attract.  Regardless of what your goals are, an annual, written, specific set of goals is the beginning of a plan.

Next, give some thought, and express your thoughts on paper, as to your basic strategy to accomplish your goals.  If you are going to acquire 20 new customers, for example, exactly what are you going to do to accomplish that goal?
Classify all opportunities by their potential.  Rank them in order, identify the highest potential, and then plan to spend more time with those with the highest potential. To do this well, you will need to devote some time.  This annual exercise is the first part of a good plan.

MONTHLY PLAN

Next, you should develop a more detailed plan for each month. Produce a one- or two-page document which contains your specific, quantifiable commitments related to the most impactful actions.  Once again, you analyze and prioritize your efforts in regard to their ROI or ROYT (return on your time).

First, your monthly objectives:  What do you want to accomplish each month relative to the annual goals that you have set?  Next, address your priorities in order of priority – which should you invest your time with based on potential? 
You may have certain key products or services that you want to emphasize.  If so, you’ll need to analyze and prioritize your efforts in regard to those product lines.  What will you do this month?  What specific actions will you take?
Finally, what will you do this month to improve/renew yourself?  What classes or seminars will you attend?  What books will you read?  Which CDs will you listen to?

But don’t think that you can keep all this in your head, and skip the discipline of writing it down.  Writing each specific action and strategy down, whether it’s on a yellow pad or a computer document, forces precise, disciplined thinking.  The written word also commits you to a degree much deeper than if you try to keep the idea locked in your head.

After you have completed this monthly plan, it’s time to lay out a plan for each day for the next 30 days.  Where will you plan to be, and who will you plan to see?  Reflect first your priorities from your monthly plan.  Then fill in the non-priority calls.
Of course, our days rarely go according to plan. However without a plan you lose the ability to control and manage your time.  By having a plan, you have something to fall back on, something to refer to, some benchmark by which to measure the constant demands on your time.

So, there is an annual component, as well as a monthly discipline to your plan.  But you are not finished yet…

WEEKLY PLAN

You need to revisit and recommit to your monthly time plan each week.  Adjust your plan based on what actually happened the previous week.  Make adjustments, and spend some time preparing for the upcoming week.

DAILY PLAN

Finally, you need to plan each day.  What do you want to accomplish, and what do you need to do in order to accomplish it?  Again, you’ll be more focused and more committed if you write down a specific outcome that you would like to achieve. Keep in mind that this is a process, consisting of a series of steps that all lead to good decisions.  Your planned outcomes should be narrow and specific.

The creation of a solid, actionable plan is not a simple, one-time event.  Rather it is a discipline that involves a commitment of time and thoughtfulness at specific intervals throughout the year. It is also not just an administrative requirement, but a powerful tool that enables you to consistently make good decisions about the most important decisions you face.

1. Consistent, sustainable revenue

2. Ideal customers

3. Cost reductions that don’t hurt quality

We would all agree that accomplishing these goals is what good business is all about.  But while the goals have not changed over time, how to accomplish them has become significantly more complex with changing dynamics of the market, changes in customer needs and preferences, new ways of reaching and interacting with customers and prospects, new competitors entering the landscape, as well as trying to take advantage of new technology – just to mention a few! 

Companies that stay on top have a disciplined process to review their strategies and tactics.  They invest in effective marketing and sales, and they invest in their people, processes, operations and technology in order to accomplish their goals.  Their teams have a clear understanding of the opportunities and challenges in all critical areas of their business.  And they have an understanding and appreciation of how each area impacts other areas in the business and they provide integrated and comprehensive strategies and tactics to make it all work together.

So if all successful teams have the same goals, and assuming they know how to accomplish them, then why aren’t all companies operating optimally?  The number one reason is that not all companies are investing the time or money in the details required to actually effectively make it all happen.  They feel that since they have hired staff to do this…why isn’t it happening?  The main reasons we have found are as follows:  

1. Managers (and employees) either don’t have time available due to competing initiatives or other perceived priorities; or they simply don’t have the expertise on their current staff.
2. Processes are harder to change once a lot of people are relying on them, and initiatives often get delayed and drawn out.
3. There can be confusion or uncertainty on which investments and changes will make a difference.
4. There is a lack of awareness of what technology is available and how to effectively and impactfully implement it
5. There is the question of how to make changes stick by creating and supporting new habits.

Imagine if there was a resource available on a project basis that would allow a company to address all of these areas and more, while working collaboratively with your team to solve these challenges quickly – once and for all. 

That’s what we do at Harden!  And once effective strategies have been identified, we make sure they are implemented and executed – right down to the details.  Because we see your business from a C-level perspective, and know how to make it all happen – in many cases our clients have been able to see an increase of 30% or more in profits without adding staff.  That’s because even small increases in each area can add up to big numbers that all fall right to your bottom line.

We would welcome the opportunity to visit with you, starting with a 15-minute, no-obligation phone meeting so you can decide if you would like to talk more about how we can help you tackle those projects that will have a big impact on your revenue and profit goals – if you can get them done quickly.

Call us at 952.926.9190 and let’s talk.  Or visit our website at www.hardeninc.com for more details.

While buyers may have grown accustomed to having a lot of choices, that doesn’t mean that it is a good idea – for anyone.  Research points out that the task of actually having to choose is often experienced as suffering – not a pleasurable experience at all.

The explosion of choice has actually made it more difficult in some cases for buyers to identify what they want and how to get it.  Years ago when I was in consumer banking, my colleagues pointed out to me that the number of check options we were offering customers was extending the amount of time it took to open a checking account by as much as 45 minutes! 

Clearly, providing more options had turned what should have been a simple, quick choice into a mind-numbing experience.  What was supposed to be perceived as a positive was not.  We responded by offering only the dozen most popular options, and never heard a peep from any of the 60,000 customers served by that bank. 

In this case, providing fewer options helped people narrow down their choices to a more manageable number, whereas a large assortment left them confused and unsure – and jammed up the bank lobby thereby increasing the bank’s costs while wasting the customer’s lunch break.

The fact is, there are neurological limits on our ability to process information.  And psychological studies have consistently shown that it is very difficult to compare and contrast the attributes of more than about five things at any given time.

There are many examples of businesses providing more choices with the intent of giving the buyer more power and satisfaction.  But in reality this sometimes overestimates their capacity to manage these choices, and results in an overwhelmed and frustrated buyer who is vulnerable to either choosing the most familiar option, or simply forgoing the purchase choice altogether.

The effects of too much choice have been observed in purchases as simple as buying chocolate, to more complex transactions such as financial services, technology, hardware and software.  While buyers seem to keep expressing a desire for more choices, and businesses keep expanding products and services to fulfill this perceived desire – it often does more harm than good.

The answer is to give them what they REALLY want – not what we THINK they want.  There are ways to determine which options are meaningful to your customers and prospects so you can offer what really matters to them, and are also profitable to your business.

So…how is this accomplished?

Less is sometimes more.  Think about reducing the number of choices.  Let’s face it, most companies avoid reducing anything – products or services.  This in light of the fact that companies who have done it the right way have experienced increases in profits of as much as 50% as sales actually increase and costs are lowered dramatically.  In fact, as your product line becomes more streamlined and simplified, you will discover that 80% of your revenues are generated by 20% of your products or services.  The other 80% are either marginally profitable or losing money. These products require more internal support, which translates into higher overhead.  This is another example of the cause and effect chain at work. 

Create confidence when a larger number of choices are required by helping buyers navigate the complexity of a purchase so that they actually have a positive “choosing experience.”  In other words, help create order out of seeming chaos and collaborate in ways that create confidence in the buyer.

Break it down into bite-sized pieces.  Dell does a nice job online of breaking down a large number of seemingly complex features into manageable pieces.  They clearly present the options and, better yet, explain the benefits of each.  The whole objective is to prevent the buyer from becoming discouraged by the daunting task of choosing – and therefore not buying.  Ever happen to you?  Doing nothing is always an option.

Start small.  Buyers who “warm up” with fewer, more manageable choices and options are better able to figure out their own preferences and move on to greater complexity (an opportunity to upsell?).  The alternative is that they grow tired and settle, or simply walk away…or to your competitor.

The good news is that today positive customer engagement can be technologically facilitated at a reasonable cost.  There are tools that can be used to engage and educate in a cost-effective manner in order to provide relevant information to help bring buyers along in the sales cycle.

The goal is to invite the buyer to enter into a collaborative, mutually beneficial relationship by helping them navigate a bewildering and even debilitating world of options to ultimately choose…you!

When it comes to selling, many of us have operated under the old rule of thumb that it takes three contacts to get on our prospect’s radar screen, and at least seven before he or she is ready to consider us as an option.  We have all heard stories that up to 90 percent of leads are never even followed up on and that most sales people, under the pressure of delivering results NOW, don’t ever reach the third contact let alone the seventh where all the action is supposed to take place.

Today, in a world of challenging economic conditions and complex sales cycles, the new rule of thumb is more like 8-10 contacts to be recognized, and 16-18 to be considered an option.  At the same time the pressure for immediate results has not gone away.  In many cases, the direction from sales managers is simply to work harder and make more calls, which is not a long-term solution to the challenge facing us.

Clearly we cannot continue to operate the way we have in the past and expect, or hope for, better results.  And the answer is not in adding staff to recognize the additional number of contacts required to make a sale – let alone continue to support and expand the relationship with a new customer so they won’t bolt at the first hint of a better deal.  So what is the answer?

We remind our clients that most salespeople chase the 5% of the market that is looking to buy what they sell right now.  On the other hand, 75% to 100% of their prospects will buy over a period of time.  We ask them if they were given the option, would they like to chase the 5% along with everyone else, or also be part of a very small group establishing a relationship with the 75% to 100% who eventually will buy.  While the answer may seem obvious, strategies and tactics to accomplish this seem to be beyond what many are willing to take on after a hard day trying to make more calls.

In all fairness, most top sales professionals are excellent creative thinkers and communicators.  They emote, relate and empathize.  They know how to sell value and how to become a trusted resource.  However, their gifts are often not in the area of organization and details.  Those who are successful have either developed passing skills in this area, or they have figured out how to cover their blind spot.

But there is good news.  Today technology offers the tools to do the heavy lifting in the new sales process.  This is a tactic that uses technology in addition to personal contacts to educate a prospect over time as to why they should choose you when it comes time to buy.  Over time, by supplying the prospect with helpful, relevant and timely information, the salesperson’s credibility begins to build so that, when they actually make personal contact, it is not seen as a dreaded cold call at all.

Technology offers the opportunity to take time-consuming letter writing and follow-up off the salesperson’s plate and allows that person to spend more time closing deals.  Since technology never has a bad day, predetermined follow-up contacts at all phases of the sales cycle are never left to chance.  Each contact has been thought through as part of an overall strategy, and each piece has been written with a specific hot button of the prospect in mind.  It helps make average salespeople good, and good salespeople even better.  It helps make salespeople successful which aids in recruitment and retention.  Salespeople get to do what they love most.

What it does require is the time and effort to think through a longer-term comprehensive, integrated strategy – one in which all components work together to deliver a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.  It requires more work invested up-front, but offers bigger payoffs for years to come because the same strategy can be used to remind current customers why they do business with you.  While common contact management programs such as ACT or Goldmine offer a good starting point, more sophisticated options and add-ons are preferred in order to support the expanded needs of most companies today.  The good news is this does not have to translate to “very expensive.”

Whether you call it a “Nurture Marketing,” or “Relationship Marketing,” if done correctly, your salespeople will build greater credibility with prospects, be perceived as more professional, with the result that you will distinguish your company from your competitors who are still just trying to make more calls.  Meanwhile, you have the opportunity to double or triple the productivity of your sales force without adding one person.

In short, the Great Recession has forced consumers – and businesses – to shift their behaviors, and there is surprisingly little difference in the expenditure reductions across demographic segments.  So if business spending is destined to remain soft during a prolonged recovery, and consumer behavior has changed in perhaps permanent ways, waiting for a return to a pre-recession mind-set is not a productive strategy. Instead, we need to adapt to the new realities of frugal behavior and spending.

What to do…

The foundation of doing that is making sure we have a very clear understanding of what is important to our customers and prospects.

The first thing we do when working with a new client is to invest time in determining, from an internal perspective, what the driving factors are in building the confidence needed to buy their product or service.  This, of course, is a challenge in any economy and only exacerbated in an environment that can literally take one’s breath away.  That’s why it is critical to revisit past assumptions, and the strategies and tactics developed for them.

Next is the need to revisit how best customers feel about their situation.  What shifts have taken place, or are in the process of changing?  What do people need to know?  Where do they get their information now, and how do they want to be informed going forward?  We have helped many clients discover that they were spending a considerable amount of their budget on communicating an off-target message through an inefficient medium.

Finally, the need to embrace technology to leverage the multiple touch points required today by customers and prospects is absolutely critical.  In today’s world, people require and demand more information – when and where they want it.  At the same time, the cost of delivering that message demands a ROI analysis that is measurable and quantifiable.

So…what’s the benefit?

We hear over and over again from companies, “If I do this, what impact can I expect to realize on my bottom-line?”  Or, “I think my company already knows/does this.”  Or, “I hired people to do this.”  Or the feeling that, “Our marketing department should be doing this.”

Another question is, “How can I tell if I could benefit?”  We can tell you with confidence that in every situation there are always opportunities to make improvements that will have a significant impact on the success of your business.  And as people are so busy today, or they have a very different expertise and experience, the result can be a loss of objectivity and fresh ideas.

It can be very productive to have marketing, sales, operations and technology areas looked at periodically by an independent source to ensure consistent and measurable results are achieved year after year.  And, as one of our current clients recently said, “We accomplished more in one year working with Harden than we could have accomplished in seven years – if ever – by ourselves.”

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said that the only thing constant is change.  So, while the speed of change has increased, this thing we call change has been with us for awhile – and will be.  The key is to stay on our toes, listen carefully to our customers and their shifting priorities and needs, and do a better job of meeting those needs and delivering our message with consistency and impact.

Regardless of why and where we are engaged, it is clear that clients are looking to invest in projects that accomplish one thing – generate more revenue and gain market share.  Everything else is just details that support those goals.

Since there is so much interest about generating new sales for businesses selling to other businesses (B2B), we thought it would be helpful to highlight some key areas that can truly matter to your bottom-line.  In doing so, it is important for all businesses to understand the end customer sales cycle as well, whether it be a Business to Business or a Business to Consumer (B2C) sales model. 

Even in good times, getting past “No” to “YES” is a challenge.  In today’s world that requires at least 10-12 coordinated, consistent, concise, and compelling touch points that nurture the relationship along toward the confidence and trust required before buying your product or service.

Adding to the challenge is the fact that in tough times a prospective customer may be less willing to consider a new product or service because there is less margin for error to take on new risks – even if it may represent a better solution.  This makes the sales process even trickier for new customer acquisition.  So it’s not surprising, then, that customers and prospects might see us and our enthusiastic recommendations for change and better value as being more than a little threatening.

Toward the goal of successfully nurturing a prospect toward becoming a customer, or keeping one you already have, there are some universal truths that deserve to be dusted off as reminders early in the New Year on how to continue to get to better results from your marketing and sales efforts:

Break your message down into bite-size pieces.  The human brain can only handle five active items at a time.  Do a “dump” on someone, and watch their eyes roll back in their head.  If your solution involves complex products and services, significant resource commitments, extended development cycles, or a large price tag, you are talking a comfort level low in the decision making zone.  Rome wasn’t built in a day, so think through what it is that people need to hear and see to feel comfortable in buying what you sell.  Then plot out how and when you will deliver that information over time.  

Keep it short and simple.  Simple is always better than complex.  Easy is always less risky than difficult.  Try to avoid the temptation of adding in extra elements when you are preparing your recommendation – no matter how tempting it is to add just one more thing that you are absolutely certain will close the deal.

Always link your solution to your customer’s needs.  One of the best ways to have the outcome you are looking for is to leave no doubt as to how your product or service will solve the problem.  Start any presentation with a quick summary of the two or three key issues that your prospect needs solved.  Ask for their confirmation of your read of the situation.  Then for each, link your solution back to how your product or service addresses it, what their benefit will be, and support it by previous success stories to build the confidence that it will actually work.  Remember, people buy solutions – results – not theory.

Include guarantees when appropriate.  Sometimes our clients are nervous with this concept.  We ask them, when there is a problem do they always make it right.  If the answer is yes, we suggest that since they are in effect providing a guarantee already, they might as well include it in their offering to help close more sales.  The one caution is that if your customer must deliver on their end to realize the results you promise, be careful to make those requirements clear in your agreement.  Examples are any action they need to take, deadlines they need to meet, or the promised availability of inside resources, etc.  Having said that, your potential buyer is more likely to feel protected if you are willing to offer them a way of measuring your collective performance – and you are also putting some of your revenue at risk.

It’s not about you.  We need to always add value in everything we do.  Always leave our customer better off than before they did business with us.  If it is not Win-Win, it can’t be justified – an old-fashioned value that is still true.  It is the right thing to do and, here’s the best part, it is good business in the long run when they come back again, expand their relationship with us, and send referrals. 

Provide a convincing value proposition.  People will take risks when the potential payoff is big enough.  Unfortunately, most proposals fail to articulate a clear, compelling value proposition.  No buzz terms that only an insider would understand and your prospect has to decode.  Just good old plain English.  And make sure it includes quantifiable, measurable results that will have a positive impact on their lives.

Paint a picture.  Tie your recommendation to inescapable compelling events. If the client has a fixed date in the future by which something has to be done, and your solution will help them get there, make the connection obvious.  Finally, describe how great things will be, and get excited together!

Need more proof?  There are quantifiable business benefits to be realized by paying attention to these points that mean increased profits.  Independent research done by Forrester shows companies using nurturing strategies realize:

• Increased closing rates by 30%
• Increased revenue by 18%
• Increased revenue per deal by 17%.

And some of the key components of the Harden 360 Methodology beat these results across the board.

As always, we would welcome the opportunity to hear your dreams for your business, and offer suggestions on how you can get there faster and with better results.  Please click here to view our new two-minute movie.  It shows how we have been able to get results for our clients.

Marketing Budget

First of all, it is important to establish a preliminary marketing budget based on the type and maturity of your business. If you’re a high-margin business, you can make a case that you want to continue to spend until you begin to see diminishing returns on your investment. Along that line, another important point to consider is the lifetime value of a customer. Establishing appropriate metrics is the first step in knowing when enough is enough.

As a rule of thumb, a new business trying to establish itself, needs to think 5 to 10% of projected gross sales (remember – gross sales will most likely not be that high a number compared to where you would like it to be in 3-5 years). Because of this, we recommend spending at the level of your projected sales – not last year’s actual.

On average, if you’ve been around awhile, we’d recommend lowering this figure to 3 to 5%. If you are an established business, operating for some time now without much marketing, count your blessings…and set aside perhaps 2 to 3% of projected gross sales. While it’s nearly impossible to give you a rule of thumb for marketing due to so many variables, allow me to make a few comments about what is ultimately needed.

Sales Budget

What you should allocate for your sales budget depends on a variety of factors. First of all, your sales cycle must be thought through. Second, determine where there are opportunities for process improvements, automation, coaching, and stronger sales management improvements.

Another important point – many people confuse marketing with sales. The truth is, in nearly all cases, it is impossible to simply market your way to success. At some point, somebody has to move the customer from an interested prospect to a client-signed-on-the-dotted-line. Many organizations or new product initiatives within larger companies cease to exist, or don’t perform to their potential, after just a few years because they are unable to get a steady flow of paying clients, or don’t establish the critical mass needed to be sustainable.

That’s why, early on, principals may need to invest an inordinate amount of time, energy and effort into presenting proposals and closing orders (Sales 101). Author Michael Port has suggested that company founders often have to spend as much as 70% of their time early on simply to build their cash flow. Since most principals don’t count this as one of their most favorite responsibilities, at a certain point (the sooner the better!) there is an attempt to hand this function off.

But without the proper strategy, selection, training and support, this is often a disappointment – definitely more costly than it needs to be, and risky to the success of the business. The good news is it doesn’t have to be with proper marketing and sales solutions available to raise the odds significantly in your favor. These solutions may include assessments of your team, inspection of your sales activity, analysis of your processes, and use of effective technology just to mention a few.

Closing the Gap and Achieving Increased Returns

Marketing, on the other hand, is the work required to provide a steady stream of prospects to your business. It is our belief that many organizations make the mistake of believing they can hire a less experienced person, or outsource this function and forget about it entirely. The truth is – your marketing needs to have “A” players involved! But the fact is, someone at the very top of your organization needs to be actively involved. All of the following activities, for example, require top-level attention:

• Understanding your ideal client.
• Understanding the tangible value you represent to that client.
• Knowing how they prefer to receive and process information.
• Understanding what they need to hear to feel comfortable buying from you.
• Understanding the sales process.
• Ensuring proper communication between marketing and sales.

And there is more!

Now a final bit of good news: all of this costs less in real dollars than it did just a few years ago, and can be paid for in many cases with an existing marketing and sales budget. Email marketing, Web site development, phone prospecting, and CRM tools cost a fraction of what they once did.

Not surprisingly, the way a customer defines loyalty is often completely different from the company’s point of view.  Customers define their own loyalty based on how long they have been buying a particular brand, or their preferences for one particular brand over another.  In short, customers see loyalty as being any factor that makes them stick to a brand despite all the temptations to switch. This causes marketers a problem in that even low profit customers can consider themselves to be among a brand’s most loyal patrons, and they expect the brand to recognize them for having stayed faithful for so long.

So, unless marketers can recognize those customers who not only have been faithful to the brand for a long time, but are also actually profitable, the company may well be incenting the reduction of margins – or even losing money.  They may be even more surprised by the sheer impact that these customers can have, given the age of instant communication.  It takes only the click of a mouse to spread the word, and refermore marginal business your way.

Marketers need to look at the issue from the view of what is the most sustainable strategy in terms of building market share over time with acceptable margins.

For starters, that usually includes the following:

1. Recognize that “loyalty” is not the sole criteria for judging the profitability of a customer.

2. Build customer metrics based on several aspects of customer behavior.  For example, frequency of buying, depth and breadth of involvement with the brand over time, value of each transaction as well as lifetime value of the relationship.

3. Develop benefits that build and nurture relationships across the spectrum, incenting the low to the medium value customer to become a high value customer.  While it is obvious that you can’t spend the same amount of money on low value customers as you can on a higher value customer, loyalty is not directly proportional to the money you spend – it is dependent on the care and attention you show to each customer in areas that matter to them, and that actually may not take much money at all.  Simply ask yourself how you can make the valued customer’s overall experience better, and the answer will give you a range of loyalty-building tools.

4. Understand that loyalty is not just about rewards points and birthday greetings. It is the company’s burning desire – its passion – to ensure that customers get the best value for their money. And if you can translate that into the right behavior of employees and the true value technology can offer them (not just you – think telephone customer service that can’t speak English), so that your valued customer has the greatest experience possible every time she or he does business with you; then you have the makings for a real Win-Win solution that builds the most sustainable value – without giving away the store.

Find out what is most important to the people who buy your product or service

You have heard this before in our newsletters. First is the need to make sure you really understand what is important to those who buy your product or service. Now this may sound obvious, but it determines what you need to say, and how you need to say it; so that prospects will hear what they need to hear in order to feel comfortable buying from you.

It is very easy to assemble a group of internal people around a table for a couple of hours and let the group talk itself into just about anything. Throw in a little office politics, and a race horse turns into the proverbial camel. But the only thing that really matters is what the people who write the checks think, your customers, so that makes it critical that we look at our business through the eyes of our customers and prospects.

Most important, beyond determining what your prospects actually value, it drives how you should spend your marketing budget. We have worked with many clients who spend an alarming amount of money without determining how productive their investment really is.

We have found that in many cases the most effective way to reach prospects has changed, and that has actually meant spending less for even better results! I have one example where we advised our client to spend 30% less (think $1 million) and their revenue increased 20%. They were previously spending money doing what was considered the industry norm.

Pick the low hanging fruit first!

Second is an appreciation of an extremely valuable and often ignored asset your existing customer base. This is the first place we look when working with a new client. We want to know right away if all the low-hanging fruit is being picked, and that this high-potential asset is being fully mined. The programs we use to get immediate results for clients are the most cost-effective you can run, and yet they yield the highest ROI.

The good news is that, while these programs require some thought and strategy in putting them together, they can be remarkably inexpensive over the long term because they are so focused and targeted. We are big boosters of simply providing the information prospects tell us they need to hear over a period of time to help them feel comfortable buying our clients product or service. The goal is to gain their continued business, both repeat and cross-sell. Of course, it has to be done in a believable and compelling way. It also has to be true!

The whole should be greater than the sum of the parts

Third is the importance of leveraging your marketing investment through an integrated, comprehensive marketing strategy that ties together everything you are doing for the betterment of the whole. Simply stated, we see too many dollars spent without looking at what the cumulative impact is. Because of this, instead of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts like it should be, it ends up being far less.

This should include an overall branding and positioning strategy in which each and every marketing dollar you spend complements the overall objectives of your company. The bigger you are, often the more difficult it is to make sure everyone is working together as a team on the same page.

Departments and divisions don’t talk with each other, or actually compete in poorly structured measurement systems. The smaller you are, the more difficult it is to get away from all the fires you are putting out daily to do some quality thinking to see the forest through the trees. The price of operating this way is enormous in real and relative terms.

Here are ten ways companies can win consumers’ hearts and minds during challenging times, most of which are based on the simple, common sense premise of providing great customer service:

1. Use cost savings to boost marketing

Focus on cost savings in addition to revenue generation when implementing a customer initiative, and then use those savings to fund a more aggressive effort to grow market share while others are cutting their efforts…and dropping off your prospects’ radar.

2. Don’t stop customer initiatives

Don’t discontinue all existing customer initiatives in an uncertain economy. If possible, look for ways to perhaps reduce the scope, or postpone certain less critical enhancements or improvements for the time being. Most important, keep the ball rolling on important initiatives in order to not lose momentum, or the equity you have already built toward capturing important relationships and markets.

3. Be proactive in watching for possible defectors

Don’t wait for customer relationships to weaken or, worse, head out the door before you decide to take action on service or quality issues. It takes a long time to build a brand, and a short, short-sited time to damage it unnecessarily and perhaps permanently. Make sure you are asking your customers how you are doing even more now than usual. You can’t afford the loss of revenue or goodwill in an uncertain economy, or a strong economy for that matter, so proactively take steps to manage those relationships well — now.

4. Provide better service

Customers make purchase decisions more deliberately in uncertain times, so give them the service and reasons they need to choose your company over the competition.

5. Provide more information

Customers take even longer to make purchase decisions when times are tough, so continue to fill the gap with a consistent series of messages that provide tangible information on specific benefits that meet their needs.

6. Target the marketing budget

Spend your budget wisely, by shifting dollars to more targeted, measurable programs and communications directed to those customers who are most valuable, or who are most likely to grow in value.

7. Communicate real, tangible value

Clearly communicate value that really matters to your target market in each message, articulating how and why your product or service addresses and answers their concerns and questions, and why it makes the most sense to buy from you.

8. Use customer feedback effectively

Feedback is important, but don’t bother customers with mindless surveys or calls. Make sure your questions are thoughtful and demonstrate that you know what is going on — by addressing what is important to them. When a customer does respond, let them know that their feedback has been received and that it is sincerely appreciated.

9. Invest in innovation

Invest in innovation that is driven by customer feedback during challenging economic times because, while it can not only help lesson the short-term impact, it positions you for a quicker recovery when things turn around and your competitors are just beginning to react.

10. Create memorable experiences

The memory of customers will extend far beyond the end of challenging economic times. They won’t forget the positive actions you take…or forgive you your transgressions and other violations of trust. But they will remember great customer service!