Insights

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:43:09 : The Diffference between Sales and Marketing

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:33:47 : Snow can make us more efficient

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:10:53 : Get Money for Value - or not

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:32:37 : Penny Pincher Wrecks Goodwill

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:55:36 : Never give up on follow up

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:25:16 : Don't cut off the plug!

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:43:09 : The Diffference between Sales and Marketing

What is the huge difference between sales and marketing

Anyone who has ever been on one of my training courses or worked with me on a marketing project, will know just how much emphasis I place on the answer to this.

For the sake of brevity, Marketing is a planning process and sales is an action process. Marketing is all about deciding what you are selling, who you are going to sell it to, what sales channels you are going to use and how much you are going to charge - it is also about a lot of other things but these are the essentials.

Effective selling  - that is, cost effective selling - can only take place when you have answered all of the planning questions. It is exactly the same as the (rather overworked)  example of booking a flight to your holiday destination which can't be done until you have decided where you are going, where you are going from, what class of ticket you want and how long you will be there.

Selling without planning becomes very , very expensive. When you have developed your marketing plan you will have a clear idea of who and where your customer is and how to reach them. This means that you may not have to use National TV to reach them. If you know who they are and where they are, you are in control of the least cost route to reaching them.

Far too many years ago, I took over the running of a National sales force of 34 field sales representatives in a company that did not have a marketing department and no marketing direction.

That is 34 well paid people. 34 fully financed company cars and 34 expense accounts.

All of them were cold calling anywhere they though best within their territories and most were slightly successful at selling the lowest priced products.

It took a while but after defining the target market groups for each product and re-defining the channels for each product, a telemarketing team was created and the number of field based reps reduced. The net effect was 35% increase in sales value and a 20% reduction in the cost of the sales team. Along the way management controls were put in and monitored to help each salesperson to make the most of each opportunity.

Why then, would a company go out and recruit a field based sales person without a marketing plan?

Why would they recruit a sales person without having any sales management experience or sales management controls?

The same question applies to those who place advertisements or spend money on any kind of marketing communication without placing that activity in the context of a well worked out marketing plan.

Somehow though, recruiting people without a framework for them to work within, seems  a lot more expensive  - and can mess up their lives for a bit.

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:33:47 : Snow can make us more efficient

During the last few days I have managed to get through the snow to most planned meetings but it has not been easy or very time efficient.

I have had Skype on my computer for a long time and use it occasionally when family and friends are overseas and for calls to overseas helplines (mainly USA).

This week I have used Skype as a substitute for face to face meetings and find that many of my customers are also registered users.

 I have a headset, a web cam,  a desk top microphone and a gadget for switching easily between headset and desktop speakers and microphone and find that most conversations can be had, hands free,  without needing the headphones. This means I can sit at my desk, (see and be seen, optional!), have a conversation with a customer, access their files and work on spreadsheets and word documents  - just as though we are in the same room.

You are probably aware of systems that will also allow you to look at the same file together and I have recently found, installed and successfully used a system that is designed to work with Skype and is completely free.

Go to www.yugma.com and download the Free Yugma SE (Skype edition) and you will soon be able to talk over Skype to other Skype users for free and look at the same files together.

From now on I am going to work a bit smarter and try to save some travel time by holding some of my meetings over the internet using Skype and Yugma.  For example, yesterday I was helping a customer to develop their business plan. After a conversation on Skype we broke off so that I could prepare a spreadsheet and he could get on with something else. Later in the day I e mailed the spreadsheet and we resumed the conversation over Skype.

We made changes to the spreadsheet on our respective computers and whilst we ended up with a satisfactory result it would have been better if my customer could have seen my screen and we used that to make changes - we can do that now with this Yugma system.

I can also show you a powerpoint presentation on my computer ; or a video or a picture - in fact anything that I would share with you if were holding our meeting in the same room.

So, to help me to help you more efficiently, get Skype (Skype.com), put £10 credit on it - it will last forever - get Yugma (Yuma.com) and we can all work smarter and see each other more often.

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:10:53 : Get Money for Value - or not

One of my clients is an IT company with a superb reputation for customer service and quality of their work. They were somewhat surprised a few months ago when a major customer of theirs in Derby decided to terminate their service contract and brought in a competitor.

They did all that they could to find out why and to rectify any problems but to no avail.

I have been to see my client today and am delighted to report that they have got their customer back but there are a few lessons we can either learn or re-learn from their experience.

The reason that they got the job back was that the company in Derby did not realise what a great level of service that they were getting from my client until they made the change to another IT service provider.

THIS IS BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T TELL THEM.

It is all very well being quietly great at what you do but if nobody knows it - if your customer doesn't know it and you lose the contract - you have less income to your business than you did before.

My IT client operated a great system of remotely identifying potential  problems in their customer's computer system before they occurred and fixing them - but nobody knew.

Also, if they were ever called to fix a problem on site they looked for other problems and fixed those too and if they saw something that might be a problem later they fixed that too - but didn't tell anybody.

The company in Derby soon realised that they were missing something - not getting the service that they used to from the recently appointed contractor -  and the contract is now re-instated at a much higher value and regular meetings and bulletins are used to make sure that they know what great value they are getting.

We all know a builder or a plumber or a car mechanic who will spend all day telling you what they have done before they present their bill which is why we think they are great value - that they have done a great job - that we will use them again - that we will introduce them to our friends and so on..........so what do you do to make money from the value you deliver?

If you would like some help to answer this please get in touch

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 09:32:37 : Penny Pincher Wrecks Goodwill

In late November 2009 we exhibited at Business Yorkshire at Doncaster Racecourse. It was not a cheap experience and our investment exceeded £4000. However, the event had been well publicised, the organisation was excellent and although visitor number were down on the first day,  most exhibitors felt that the organisers had done their best. Day Two of the show and exhibitors were arriving early and loooking forward to the complimentary croissant and coffee that they expected to be served in the networking cafe - as it was the day before.

One of the show organisers came into the cafe and we greeted him cordially but he responded by saying that he was trying to ensure that exhibitors - the ones who paid around £4k to be there - were not to have any croissants and coffee and that they were to be served only to visitors - free admission. The croissants were duly removed and along with them went the goodwill of most of the exhibitors.

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:55:36 : Never give up on follow up

We know from experience and many studies just how important it is to follow up on sales visits and quotations. One US study even suggests that we optimise success with up to 12 follow up contacts. One of my clients told me this week that they had received a letter from a prospective customer telling him that his company had not been successful in their bid to supply them.

They have a system for these situations which involves a further call to identify the reasons for their lack of success.

Whilst going through the checklist with the prospective customer, the buyer who was giving the feedback stopped and said "Actually your bid was quite good - very good in fact. I can't understand why you didn't get the order. I haven't awarded the contract yet - the job's yours!"

So even when you have it in writing, even when it looks final -  it isn't. Start a follow up system today and make sure you ask for feedback what ever the outcome.

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:25:16 : Don't cut off the plug!

I was running a training course today about how to create and develop a marketing plan. We were discussing communicationg with customers and one of the delegates, Managing Director of a sizeable local business that deals with electrical generators,  provided the material for this insight.

His company rents generators for a variety of on site applications and this insight is about a customer of theirs who ran a regular exhibition using a portable cabin on sites without mains power. His company - we'll call it Genpower - had a regular contract to provide the generator and wiring loom to connect to the cabin. One day the MD of Genpower received a call from the MD of his customer company and at the subsequent meeting was read the riot act. It transpired that the customer had been cutting the plug off the end of the wiring loom to feed the cable through a conduit on the cable and because it was never re-wired properly,  they always had electrical problems on site.

The MD of Genpower went to the meeting with one message in mind - you guessed -  "Don't cut off the plug" - but when he disussed the matter with his custome, he realised that if the cable was fed in in the opposite direction there was no need to cut off the plug.

Problem solved but nearly at the expense of a valuable customer. Talk to your customers regularly. Look for problems. Look for trouble and don't ever let a problem escalate to MD to MD dialogue because no one in your business could be bothered to listen or solve the problem.

TIP: Make a point of calling at least one customer a day to ask themn why they bought from you in the first place and why they still buy from you today