I supply a lot of training to business support agencies funded by the government. I enjoy doing them and I meet some great people running businesses. Yesterday I got a letter from one of them, who will remain nameless, addressed to “Dear Valued Supplier.” It annoyed me…if I’m particularly valued why haven’t they addressed me by my name?

Fundamental mistake in marketing no business, if you are addressing a letter to someone never ever make it ambiguous. Be courteous and get straight to the point…Dear Ann, Hi Ann or whatever! It’s unbelievable that basic errors like this are being made.

Rant over…….!

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 read Chris Anderson’s book a while ago and have just re read it. Its an interesting look at the future trends using the media and entertainment industries as an example. I’d recommend the book to anyone who has an interest in how business could work, actually is working now and in the future. You can see a preview of his thoughts in a video on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yku0GTrcuw and have an option to download the full video when you are there.

Enjoy.

Abandon everything you have been taught about marketing before. Take a cold quantitative look at your marketing activity and start again. All marketing should bring a return on your investment. Break from the past and think about:

- Beginning again – I feel a truly clean sheet of paper works well

- Start solving the root cause of why your marketing is not working as well as it should

- Create a strategy, yes I know it’s dull, but it will help shape your marketing and keep you on track when it inevitably gets tough

- Put a budget aside, you are going to need it

- You don’t need ten goals, two will do. But make sure they are the ones you can over commit to. If you do this, how successful would your business be?

Don’t be fooled, changing the marketing of your business is not going to be easy. You need a new marketing framework that will help you make sense of a new business environment where success is judged less on complex, sophisticated, financially driven factors and more on humanised customer relationships and new ideas that not have been used in the past.

For further marketing rules go to www.clarityprojects.co.uk and download the Marketing Rule Book. Hope you find it useful!!