Alberta Business Marketing

Talk to any company and the mantra is the same – we want to grow our business. Here’s where it gets a little fuzzy. The weight of this growth falls on the shoulders of marketing and sales. It’s marketing’s job to get the leads and sale’s job to close them. Don’t get me wrong, that’s why they are there and that is their job, however there’s a hidden sales force right before your very eyes that can unearth a gold mine if you engage them. I’m talking about your entire organization – yup everyone from the receptionist to the CFO.

Here’ the thing – the # 1 reason why people buy is relationships – fyi # 2 is the company, #3 the product/service. I remember sales guru Jeffrey Gittomer’s advice to a room full of eager entrepreneurs and sales people – you want more customers – make more friends – people do business with people they like. Now here’s where it gets interesting - you have a team of employees that all have a network of friends, all you need to do is equip them with the right message. I’m not suggesting you turn your organization into a hard core group of hunters, I’m suggesting you provide them with a powerful message that compels people to say hmm tell me more or gees I should really talk to one of your salespeople. Behold the power of the elevator pitch.

I must confess, in the past I have attended many a family gathering and should have used the elevator pitch – no-one could figure out what the heck I did – hmm you’re not going to generate many referrals that way. As a result, I have fine tuned the elevator pitch so even your Aunt Martha gets it. The formula is simple (adapted from author/speaker John Assaraf).

Highlight the customer problem you solve – i.e you know how.....waiting for a heating guy to come on a sub below zero freezing day to fix your furnace drives you crazy?
Present the solution your company provides – i.e. well what we do it is......guarantee we will be there in an hour to fix it or you don’t pay.

Simple, to the point, I not only get what you do, I see why you are different than your competitors. We learn through stories and metaphors. When you tell me a mini story that highlights what you do, I start to see myself in that picture. You peaked my interest “ Wow you guarantee that you will be there in an hour, how do you do that?”

Thanksgiving is a time to get together with family and friends, break bread and test your elevator pitch. It could lead to a new customer or two, definitely something to be thankful for.

Tags: This and That
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Why oh why do companies fall into these branding traps that wind up costing them a ton of cash for virtually no return or worse yet, actually cost dollars in lost revenue. There are two big branding blunders (I’m sure there are more than that, but these are the ones that immediately come to mind) to be aware of if you are considering rebranding.

1: Fixing what isn’t broken

Change is not always good; there is something to be said for the familiar especially in tumultuous times. Take the “new look” of Tropicana orange juice. A US 35 million dollar blunder. Yes, that’s right, a 35 million dollar blunder (and that’s only the first 2 months not the final tally). Thanks to the new simplified look of Tropicana, consumers mistook them for a "bargain basement” no name brand and walked right on by and purchased a competitor’s orange juice. The Tropicana look was not broken. They were not losing market share. There is something to be said for the comfort of a familiar logo. That orange with the straw sticking out of it and dark green lettering for me represents premium, freshly squeezed OJ and it makes me feel good. And that’s what matters most your customer’s perception. Once you have lost a customer it’s tough to get them back. Good luck on that one Tropicana.

2: Fixing (aka changing) your brand/logo before you fix your product and/or service

We’ve all seen it – a new look, a new logo, an onslaught of advertising – all telling you we’re new, we’re great, come and do business with us. There’s just one problem – outside you’ve changed, you’re wearing a new suit so to speak but inside you’re exactly the same. Now I feel like I’ve been duped, you’re making a promise that you have no intention of delivering on or at least not in any immediate time frame. A certain Telco comes to mind that shall remain nameless. A new CEO comes in, anxious to make his mark and show he’s different, he immediately rebrands. Ahh I’m not quite sure how to tell you this but – you’re wrong – as a customer now I feel betrayed. I know nothing has changed, your product and service offering is status quo. So let me get this right, you’ve spent millions of dollars changing your letterhead, repainting all of your trucks, redoing your web-site and all of your multimedia and yet as far as I’m concerned you haven’t spent a dime to improve your customer service that quite frankly I think sucks. A word to the wise – improve your offering/service first and once you have it right and you’ve tested to make sure it’s right then and only then should you present a new face (aka logo) to the world.

Coca cola is a one hundred and twenty three year old company and its logo hasn’t changed. And by the way, they are still the dominant soft drink worldwide. Perhaps there is something to be said for deciding what you stand for and then delivering on it, consistently year after year. It’s not glamorous but it pays the bills and in fact chugs out a pretty decent profit. And at the end of the day isn’t that why we’re all in business?

Tags: Branding
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Why oh why do we need to make things so complex? It’s a human condition and we simply can’t help ourselves. Take consumer behaviour. We are obsessed with gathering and analysing data, conducting focus groups and interviews – we’ve even gone as far as developing a brain scan to “see” what a consumer’s initial response is to various products. It’s not that I am discounting these methodologies (ok I really do think the brain scan is going too far) it’s merely time is a scarce resource. In a down economy, money isn’t exactly flowing freely either, and the above mentioned methodologies require plenty of both. There’s got to be a better way – oh wait there is and it’s dead easy.

People buy for two reasons – hope or fear. Hope of gain or fear of loss. Period. This translates to risk/reward – what is the risk/reward associated with purchasing your product or service. Rather than get caught up in analysis paralysis - get out of the office, go for a walk, clear your head and if possible go to where you customer hangs out. Observe them, engage in a casual conversation with them, and step back, way back into their world.

To test our theory, let’s go into the world of sports. As Canadians, we love hockey so let’s lace up our skates, grab our sticks and get out on the ice. Now imagine your job is to sell hockey sticks, but not just any sticks. These are premium hockey sticks and your target market is the NHL. Hmm an NHL hockey player – what matters to them most, how is their success measured....could it be the Stanley Cup? Is it every NHL hockey player's dream to win the Stanley Cup? Why yes, I think it is. So what would my messaging need to look like to appeal to an NHL hockey player? One thing for sure, I’d need to talk about the Stanley Cup. I might say more players have won the Stanley Cup using my sticks or it could have a picture of a player holding my stick and the Stanley Cup. The Stanley Cup is the key; it is why any hockey player has gotten up at 4 AM for hockey practise since the dawn of time. In a nutshell, it’s their primary motivator.

Now what about your customer? If you can’t get out and be with them in their world you can at the very least imagine their world. Grab a piece of paper or better yet download this document. On the top, write risk on one side and reward on the other. Down the side write personal and organization. Block it into 4 squares and capture the risk/reward both personal and organizational of doing business with you. Now that you’ve captured this information, use this as a filter for all of your communication with your customers. And please oh please don’t forget what is it that they are measured on and what spells success. In hockey it’s the Stanley Cup, in the soft drink business its market share, what is it for your customer?

It’s up to you – you can take a couple of months and thousands of dollars or you can take a couple of hours and go on a virtual mind tour - daydreaming encouraged – to better understand your customer. Either way, understanding your customer spells success and that as a reward is priceless.

Tags: Strategy
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I’ve sat on both sides of the fence and really don’t get it. Why is their friction (and not just friction, unproductive friction i.e. finger pointing) between marketing and sales in a relatively high percentage of organizations? It comes down to a difference of opinion.

Marketing’s perspective: Why can’t sales close the leads we give them?

Sale’s perspective: Why can’t marketing give us some decent leads we can close?

In good times this attitude will slow you down, in tough economic times it will kill you. Let’s face it, there’s enough external competition without having internal competition - that’s a recipe for disaster that will get you nowhere fast.

So what’s a sales and marketing leader to do? First of all call a truce. Admit that in the past you haven’t always seen eye-to-eye and going forward that needs to change. If you need to purge to get past it, do it in your own time and space. Write down every frustrating experience you’ve had with your former “enemy” and make a vow to forgive and forget.

Next, schedule a half-day off-site – just the two of you (and perhaps your CEO/President) to get clarity AND alignment on your goals, values and strategy. Consider bringing in a third party to facilitate to provide fresh eyes and a perspective that helps to bridge the gap. Here are some ideas on how to structure the session:

Goals: Identify both short term (1 year) and long term (5 year) goals i.e. revenue targets for your organization. Use SMART goal setting techniques (Specific, Measurable, Action Oriented Realistic and Time Bound) to ensure you’ve covered all of the bases. Here’s why goal setting works – 98% of what we do is ruled by our unconscious brain. When we consciously set a goal our unconscious brain kicks into action doing everything it can to make that goal a reality.

Values: What is it that you stand for, what are your core beliefs (for a list of values right click on this link www.wemeanbusiness.com/values.xls and choose save as).This serves as your foundation, your pillar or rock that remains strong in a sea of change, in even the stormiest waters. Great things can be achieved when people are coming from the same place. Where are the two of you coming from? What are the commonalities? What is it you value and how do you live it day in and day out? Having this kind of insight into yourself and others helps to bridge communication gaps that inhibit results.

Strategy: What is your go to market strategy? Where is your path of least resistance? How can you focus your efforts to maximize your return? A good way to narrow your focus is with The Big Easy. Take a piece of paper, draw a quadrant table. Put Big on the top of the first quadrant, Small on the top the second quadrant. Along the side put easy on the first quadrant and difficult on the second quadrant (for the Big Easy Table click on this link www.wemeanbusiness.com/bigeasy.xls and choose save as).Having accomplished this, list everything you can do that is easy and provides a big return. Do not even entertain doing anything in any other quadrant until all of these activities are completed. This makes sure you are quite literally on the same page and focusing on what matters most. Simple and effective.

Now that you’ve kissed and made up (not literally of course) it’s time to present a united front to your teams. Host a joint meeting sharing your new found insights and invite your teams to brainstorm tactics and ideas as to how you’re going to get there.

Here’s the secret to achieving your goals – you need to do it yourself AND you can’t do it alone. Very wise words from speaker and writer John Assaraf. With summer here, it’s an ideal time to retrench so you’re ready to hit the ground running come September and achieve, or hey who knows, surpass your goals.

Tags: Strategy
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