Often, as companies try to pump up their sales volume, they forget to turn toward one of the most valuable and cost effective sales tools they have, their employees. By making sure your staff is engaged and interested in the company's operations and goals, you activate a powerful tool in your sales tool belt. There are a couple of reasons that this helps your sales efforts.
First, an engaged and motivated workforce tends to do a better job. They care more about the job they are doing because they better understand their role in the overall success of the organization. This always translates into fewer mistakes and more delighted customers. That translates into positive word of mouth, the holy grail of marketing.
Second, a staff that knows and understands the companies goals, can articulate those when they engage with others. When a customer or a prospect hears about the benefits of a product or services line from everyone she interacts with, and not just the sales manager, she is much more likely to accept the message and act on it.
So engage your entire workforce to get the most out of your sales efforts!
Showing posts with label relationship marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label relationship marketing. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Friday, February 8, 2013
The Many P's of Marketing: Perspective
Marketing has gotten more and more nuanced, as new technologies and strategies have opened up many options for marketers. It is my contention that today, the marketing mix contains much more than the traditional four or five P's that are taught in school. In this series I am exploring the Many P's of Marketing.
Perspective: YOU know how many hours, days, weeks and years you spent designing and crafting the product. YOU know how you sweat every detail so you could deliver the service just so. YOU know how hard you have worked to design and deliver a solution to the problems or needs of your customers.
So why aren't THEY (your customers) standing in line to buy what you have to offer like its the latest iteration of the iPhone?
Perhaps it is because from their perspective, you don't have the product, price, packaging or promotion right. Perhaps it is because from their perspective, you addressed needs they don't have any more, or at least don't care about any more. Perhaps you haven't looked at your product, and the rest of your marketing P's, from the perspective of your customer.
Apple does and they stand in line for the iPhone.
Monday, January 21, 2013
The Many P's of Marketing: Prediction
Marketing has gotten more and more nuanced, as new technologies and strategies have opened up many options for marketers. It is my contention that today, the marketing mix contains much more than the traditional four or five P's that are taught in school. In this series I am exploring the Many P's of Marketing.
Prediction: Prediction is something we are supposed to do in marketing. In some circles, they try to make it sound more scientific and business-like by calling it research, but when you boil it down, we are really talking about predicting. Predicting which ad will be preferred by males aged 18-34. Predicting at what price will people stop buying a specific service. Predicting which new market will be most profitable. Predicting which tag line will generate the most sales, or clicks, or votes.
Let's face it, research is the forgotten stepchild in many marketing plans. Most of us got involved in marketing because of a love for writing or designing or photography or sales. I haven't met too many people who got involved in marketing because of a love of research, or prediction. I know that I would much rather play with words and pictures than with number and percentages (which I don't care what my math teachers told me, are not the same as numbers!) While research is included in plans, I bet that it is often given scant attention.
Backing up your gut
But research, or prediction, or as one colleague calls it "educated guestimation", is important. Nate Silver, possibly the most famous predictor around right now, in his book The Signal and the Noise says "[p]rediction is important because it connects subjective and objective reality." In other words, prediction, or research, attempts to take some of the risk out of marketing decisions by making data-informed calculations about how people will act in a certain situation with a certain set of circumstances. Prediction, especially as it is usually used in marketing, uses scientific methods to collect data to help marketers make what are essentially subjective decisions. Or as my Grandpa would say, prediction backs up your gut with numbers!
Research is important because marketers are usually spending large sums of someone's money on seemingly arbitrary decisions. Most people who are paying for the marketing, usually known as clients or bosses, are more comfortable with some sort of external justification for how their money is being allocated. Research is also important because no marketer can be an expert in every field or every target market. Research can help to inform and educate us as to the realities of the marketplace. Every time I feel that I know the market I am working in and how the customers think and act, quality market research helps to prove to me that I have more to learn. In other words, market research can help keep our marketing egos in check.
Market research isn't always about predicting what WILL happen. Sometimes it is about perceiving what IS happening. A while back, I was managing the roll-out of a new name and identity for a healthcare system. We had developed a marketing plan and our research showed that we were actually performing above expectations as far as market penetration on the new name and understanding of what healthcare entities were included in the newly formed and named health system. It also showed that people had no idea how to pronounce the new name. We had not even thought of this as an issue when we were developing our roll out campaign. Armed with the perceptions that market research provided us, we were able to add radio to our promotional mix and soon had people pronouncing the health system's name correctly!
Making predictions is easy. Making accurate predictions is hard!
We all make predictions all of the time. Taking the highway will be faster. I won't take an umbrella because its not going to rain until I get back. The Cubs are going to win the World Series in 2013. Making predictions is easy. Making accurate predictions is hard.
The subtitle of Nate Silver's book is "Why so many predictions fail -- but some don't." Human beings, Silver tells us, are hardwired to look for patterns in the world around us. While that would seem to be an advantage when it comes to evaluating data to support subjective decisions, sometimes it just makes it difficult to sort out the data that is important to pay attention to from that which is, well, just noise.
You see, the problem with research or prediction in the 21st century is not data but filtering.
We have plenty of data. We have more data bombarding our synapses every day than we could possibly process in a week! So the challenge then becomes learning to select only the data and information that is relevant and helpful in making accurate predictions.
Just as we make predictions all the time, we also filter all of the time. One of the ways most people filter is by seeking out the familiar. If you are politically conservative, you most likely watch Fox News more than someone who is liberal. If you are from New York, you are much more likely to know last night's Knick's score than you are the score for the Suns. This is one of the ways we manage the tidal wave of information we are exposed to each day. As the amount of information we must deal with has increased, so has the size and the intensity of the filters we use.
The problem is good researchers need to learn how to remove the filters when they review research data. While filters help us get a handle on raw information, they can also hide real research results. An objective predictor is aware of her biases and prejudices and accounts for them when evaluating data. A careless predictor looks at data through biased colored lenses and gets a distorted, and most likely inaccurate picture of the world.
Prediction, or research, may be the forgotten stepchild of your marketing plan, or the part of your marketing mix that never gets crossed off of your "to do" list. If, however, you take the time and make the effort to do some carefully planned and executed research and analysis, it will be a great help to your marketing efforts. It will provide you with greater insights to your market and a better understanding of how well you are communicating to that market.
At least that's my prediction.
Prediction: Prediction is something we are supposed to do in marketing. In some circles, they try to make it sound more scientific and business-like by calling it research, but when you boil it down, we are really talking about predicting. Predicting which ad will be preferred by males aged 18-34. Predicting at what price will people stop buying a specific service. Predicting which new market will be most profitable. Predicting which tag line will generate the most sales, or clicks, or votes.
Let's face it, research is the forgotten stepchild in many marketing plans. Most of us got involved in marketing because of a love for writing or designing or photography or sales. I haven't met too many people who got involved in marketing because of a love of research, or prediction. I know that I would much rather play with words and pictures than with number and percentages (which I don't care what my math teachers told me, are not the same as numbers!) While research is included in plans, I bet that it is often given scant attention.
Backing up your gut
But research, or prediction, or as one colleague calls it "educated guestimation", is important. Nate Silver, possibly the most famous predictor around right now, in his book The Signal and the Noise says "[p]rediction is important because it connects subjective and objective reality." In other words, prediction, or research, attempts to take some of the risk out of marketing decisions by making data-informed calculations about how people will act in a certain situation with a certain set of circumstances. Prediction, especially as it is usually used in marketing, uses scientific methods to collect data to help marketers make what are essentially subjective decisions. Or as my Grandpa would say, prediction backs up your gut with numbers!
Research is important because marketers are usually spending large sums of someone's money on seemingly arbitrary decisions. Most people who are paying for the marketing, usually known as clients or bosses, are more comfortable with some sort of external justification for how their money is being allocated. Research is also important because no marketer can be an expert in every field or every target market. Research can help to inform and educate us as to the realities of the marketplace. Every time I feel that I know the market I am working in and how the customers think and act, quality market research helps to prove to me that I have more to learn. In other words, market research can help keep our marketing egos in check.
Market research isn't always about predicting what WILL happen. Sometimes it is about perceiving what IS happening. A while back, I was managing the roll-out of a new name and identity for a healthcare system. We had developed a marketing plan and our research showed that we were actually performing above expectations as far as market penetration on the new name and understanding of what healthcare entities were included in the newly formed and named health system. It also showed that people had no idea how to pronounce the new name. We had not even thought of this as an issue when we were developing our roll out campaign. Armed with the perceptions that market research provided us, we were able to add radio to our promotional mix and soon had people pronouncing the health system's name correctly!
Making predictions is easy. Making accurate predictions is hard!
We all make predictions all of the time. Taking the highway will be faster. I won't take an umbrella because its not going to rain until I get back. The Cubs are going to win the World Series in 2013. Making predictions is easy. Making accurate predictions is hard.
The subtitle of Nate Silver's book is "Why so many predictions fail -- but some don't." Human beings, Silver tells us, are hardwired to look for patterns in the world around us. While that would seem to be an advantage when it comes to evaluating data to support subjective decisions, sometimes it just makes it difficult to sort out the data that is important to pay attention to from that which is, well, just noise.
You see, the problem with research or prediction in the 21st century is not data but filtering.
We have plenty of data. We have more data bombarding our synapses every day than we could possibly process in a week! So the challenge then becomes learning to select only the data and information that is relevant and helpful in making accurate predictions.
Just as we make predictions all the time, we also filter all of the time. One of the ways most people filter is by seeking out the familiar. If you are politically conservative, you most likely watch Fox News more than someone who is liberal. If you are from New York, you are much more likely to know last night's Knick's score than you are the score for the Suns. This is one of the ways we manage the tidal wave of information we are exposed to each day. As the amount of information we must deal with has increased, so has the size and the intensity of the filters we use.
The problem is good researchers need to learn how to remove the filters when they review research data. While filters help us get a handle on raw information, they can also hide real research results. An objective predictor is aware of her biases and prejudices and accounts for them when evaluating data. A careless predictor looks at data through biased colored lenses and gets a distorted, and most likely inaccurate picture of the world.
Prediction, or research, may be the forgotten stepchild of your marketing plan, or the part of your marketing mix that never gets crossed off of your "to do" list. If, however, you take the time and make the effort to do some carefully planned and executed research and analysis, it will be a great help to your marketing efforts. It will provide you with greater insights to your market and a better understanding of how well you are communicating to that market.
At least that's my prediction.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
The Many P's of Marketing: People
Traditional marketing education teaches that the "marketing mix" is made up of four key themes, also known as the Four P's of Marketing. In recent years, many marketing writers have proposed that the traditional four P's of marketing, Product, Price, Promotion and Place do not reflect the current marketing reality. As the focus of marketing has taken on more of a relationship bent, a fifth P, People, has often been added the to the traditional concept of the marketing mix.
People: People are the key to marketing. People make decisions. People make purchases. A marketing effort is an attempt to influence the behavior of...you guessed it...people.
With the introduction of better information about the customer, better communications technology and more sophisticated practitioners and customers, it is not controversial to say that the focus of marketing has shifted from touting a product or service toward building and nurturing relationships. Relationships are key to a successful marketing effort. Most successful marketers now focus significantly on developing and maintaining relationships with customers, prospective customers, opinion-makers and staff.
Affinity programs such as frequent-flyer programs are attempts to develop a relationship with the customer. When Netflix makes recommendations for movies you might like based on movies you've watched and rated, they are trying to build value into your relationship with them. When Ace Hardware or your local coffee shop gives you a discount card or every tenth cup free, they are trying to do the same.
Relationships have become so important that a whole branch of marketing, called relationship marketing, has emerged. This is where marketers focus primarily on building and nurturing a relationship with a desired customer. Relationship marketing often takes a long-term view towards towards the profitability of the customer relationship. I will explore relationship marketing more in a future blog.
The "people" aspect of marketing refers to more than just the customers and prospects that a company works with. It also refers to the people who deliver the customer service and communications that makes or breaks that precious customer relationship. As I discussed in my blog on low cost retailers, that you can read here, the people that work on the front lines serving the needs of the customers make a monumental difference in the success or failure of a business. How many times have you had a complaint or a problem with a company when the "above and beyond" service of one person totally changes your impression of the company. How the people you employ treat the people you are trying to sell to may be a more significant factor in long term sales than any other element in the marketing mix!
For example, I used to go to a particular dry cleaner. There was a clerk who worked at this dry cleaner who always knew my name (and phone number) and often had my dry cleaning ready to go before I ever got to the counter. She always had something pleasant and often funny to say to me, often referring to a previous discussion. I was definitely NOT a number to this woman but a person. Furthermore, if I had my daughter with me, she remembered that her favorite candy was Tootsie Rolls and always had a couple for her. My daughter wouldn't have let me switch from that dry cleaner if I wanted to! The day that exceptional woman retired was the last day I went to that dry cleaner.
As someone said to me recently, people are often the forgotten element of the marketing mix. People are, however, essential to good marketing!
People: People are the key to marketing. People make decisions. People make purchases. A marketing effort is an attempt to influence the behavior of...you guessed it...people.
With the introduction of better information about the customer, better communications technology and more sophisticated practitioners and customers, it is not controversial to say that the focus of marketing has shifted from touting a product or service toward building and nurturing relationships. Relationships are key to a successful marketing effort. Most successful marketers now focus significantly on developing and maintaining relationships with customers, prospective customers, opinion-makers and staff.
Affinity programs such as frequent-flyer programs are attempts to develop a relationship with the customer. When Netflix makes recommendations for movies you might like based on movies you've watched and rated, they are trying to build value into your relationship with them. When Ace Hardware or your local coffee shop gives you a discount card or every tenth cup free, they are trying to do the same.
Relationships have become so important that a whole branch of marketing, called relationship marketing, has emerged. This is where marketers focus primarily on building and nurturing a relationship with a desired customer. Relationship marketing often takes a long-term view towards towards the profitability of the customer relationship. I will explore relationship marketing more in a future blog.
The "people" aspect of marketing refers to more than just the customers and prospects that a company works with. It also refers to the people who deliver the customer service and communications that makes or breaks that precious customer relationship. As I discussed in my blog on low cost retailers, that you can read here, the people that work on the front lines serving the needs of the customers make a monumental difference in the success or failure of a business. How many times have you had a complaint or a problem with a company when the "above and beyond" service of one person totally changes your impression of the company. How the people you employ treat the people you are trying to sell to may be a more significant factor in long term sales than any other element in the marketing mix!
For example, I used to go to a particular dry cleaner. There was a clerk who worked at this dry cleaner who always knew my name (and phone number) and often had my dry cleaning ready to go before I ever got to the counter. She always had something pleasant and often funny to say to me, often referring to a previous discussion. I was definitely NOT a number to this woman but a person. Furthermore, if I had my daughter with me, she remembered that her favorite candy was Tootsie Rolls and always had a couple for her. My daughter wouldn't have let me switch from that dry cleaner if I wanted to! The day that exceptional woman retired was the last day I went to that dry cleaner.
As someone said to me recently, people are often the forgotten element of the marketing mix. People are, however, essential to good marketing!
Friday, March 9, 2012
I Recognize the Value of Recognition
Yesterday, I wrote a blog titled The Fallacy of Awards. In it I questioned the value of awards like the ADDYs or the Academy Awards. I questioned the value of awards that (often) stray from the primary mission of the activity (increasing sales or selling movie tickets.) My comments should NOT, however, be taken as casting of aspersions on the value of recognition.
Recognition can be a powerful tool. Most lists of top things employees are looking for from a good workplace will include "appreciation," "respect" and "recognition" near or at the top, well ahead of good pay. Customers respond to recognition the same way. I went to a certain dry cleaner for years because the woman who worked the counter always remembered my name and phone number and, if she was with me, that my daughter liked Tootsie Rolls. After she retired, I became a number. I had to give them all of my information every week. Shortly after that, I found a new, cheaper dry cleaner.
But recognition only works when it is genuine and sincere and when it provides true value to the targeted person. My kids could not have cared less about the participation trophies they got in Pee Wee soccer because the didn't do anything extraordinary to earn it. On the other hand, I have stayed with Netflix, despite being upset by their pricing and listing fiascoes, because their recommendation tool already has thousands of my movie reviews loaded into it and does often make inspired recommendations. They recognize my tastes in movies and create value out of that recognition.
Awards are great, if they recognize and encourage actions and behaviors that support the mission and purpose of the organization. Often, however, the recognition of a simple "thank you" and "good job" delivered honestly, directly and in a timely manner can be just as effective or more so.
Recognition can be a powerful tool. Most lists of top things employees are looking for from a good workplace will include "appreciation," "respect" and "recognition" near or at the top, well ahead of good pay. Customers respond to recognition the same way. I went to a certain dry cleaner for years because the woman who worked the counter always remembered my name and phone number and, if she was with me, that my daughter liked Tootsie Rolls. After she retired, I became a number. I had to give them all of my information every week. Shortly after that, I found a new, cheaper dry cleaner.
But recognition only works when it is genuine and sincere and when it provides true value to the targeted person. My kids could not have cared less about the participation trophies they got in Pee Wee soccer because the didn't do anything extraordinary to earn it. On the other hand, I have stayed with Netflix, despite being upset by their pricing and listing fiascoes, because their recommendation tool already has thousands of my movie reviews loaded into it and does often make inspired recommendations. They recognize my tastes in movies and create value out of that recognition.
Awards are great, if they recognize and encourage actions and behaviors that support the mission and purpose of the organization. Often, however, the recognition of a simple "thank you" and "good job" delivered honestly, directly and in a timely manner can be just as effective or more so.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
An Inside Job: The Importance of Internal Marketing
A friend of mine recently spent a lot of time and money developing a very good marketing campaign. He was very excited about the project and had seemingly done everything by the numbers. He even tested the campaign before launching it, scoring very well with the test audience.
A few weeks after the launch he was dismayed. The beautiful (and expensive) campaign had not yielded the results he had hoped. Sales hadn't really increased. Testing showed that even his reputation and similar scores weren't changing.
It wasn't until a customer cornered him and told him about the negative things that she had heard an employee saying about the company that my friend realized that he HAD NOT done everything by the numbers. He had forgotten to market to his internal customers. While he was sending out positive, marketing-focused messages out the front door, his staff (or at least some of them) were sending out negative complaint-focused messages out the back. Any marketing who has been working in this field for 30 minutes can tell you that negative word-of-mouth trumps positive word-of-mouth almost every time.
My friend tinkered with his campaign to make it appropriate for his internal audience and shared it with his staff. Slowly but surely, as his staff understood and bought into his campaign, sales started to improve.
In my blog It's All About Relationships, I talk about the value of developing good relationships with your customers. The same holds true with your employees. You not only have to treat them well as a "boss," but you need to keep them informed and up-to-date as potential spokespeople. An informed employee is an extension of your marketing efforts. A misinformed or uninformed employee is the worst enemy to your marketing efforts, often unintentionally.
Readers, please share any stories or tips you have on marketing to the internal audience! Thanks!
A few weeks after the launch he was dismayed. The beautiful (and expensive) campaign had not yielded the results he had hoped. Sales hadn't really increased. Testing showed that even his reputation and similar scores weren't changing.
It wasn't until a customer cornered him and told him about the negative things that she had heard an employee saying about the company that my friend realized that he HAD NOT done everything by the numbers. He had forgotten to market to his internal customers. While he was sending out positive, marketing-focused messages out the front door, his staff (or at least some of them) were sending out negative complaint-focused messages out the back. Any marketing who has been working in this field for 30 minutes can tell you that negative word-of-mouth trumps positive word-of-mouth almost every time.
My friend tinkered with his campaign to make it appropriate for his internal audience and shared it with his staff. Slowly but surely, as his staff understood and bought into his campaign, sales started to improve.
In my blog It's All About Relationships, I talk about the value of developing good relationships with your customers. The same holds true with your employees. You not only have to treat them well as a "boss," but you need to keep them informed and up-to-date as potential spokespeople. An informed employee is an extension of your marketing efforts. A misinformed or uninformed employee is the worst enemy to your marketing efforts, often unintentionally.
Readers, please share any stories or tips you have on marketing to the internal audience! Thanks!
Friday, December 4, 2009
It's all about relationships
It really all comes down to relationships. Everything. I am fond of saying that everything is marketing (hence the name of this blog) and since marketing is really about developing relationships, everything really is about relationships. If you have a solid relationship with your customers, they will
- more readily believe what you say
- trust your products or services
- more easily forgive customer service gaffes or the occassional faulty product
- provide you with the holy grail of marketing - positive word-of-mouth messages
- have to spend a lot more in time and resources to get your message accross
- will be at a competitive disadvantage, even compared to unknown products and brands
- find out just how ineffective marketing can be in the absence of a connection to the customer
- risk experiencing the definition of marketing hell -- negative word-of-mouth messages
Friday, November 27, 2009
When 8-year-olds grow up
My wife and I recently attended one of my daughter's choral concerts at her high school. It was the first such concert of the year. The music was fantastic. But my wife and I were floored by the number of younger siblings of our children's friends were in the choir and had grown-up and no longer the 8-year olds that we remembered them as. Now they were tall, mature young adults. In our minds, they were still 8-years old because they were the last we had seen them.
The same is true for your customers and former customers. Most customers remember your company as it was when they last saw you. If you have grown, improved or changed, they won't know that know that if they last worked with you before that growth or those improvements and changes. The challenge is to stay in front of your most valuable customers and stakeholders so they know who you are today.
The same is true for your customers and former customers. Most customers remember your company as it was when they last saw you. If you have grown, improved or changed, they won't know that know that if they last worked with you before that growth or those improvements and changes. The challenge is to stay in front of your most valuable customers and stakeholders so they know who you are today.
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