Total Marketing Solutions

The Chartered Institute of Marketing’s autumn 2009 Marketing Trends Survey has revealed that optimism amongst the UK’s marketers has grown since reaching a low point in 2008. Apparently, UK marketers are now confident that they’ll see economic growth in 2010. They’re even feeling positive about their own organisation’s prospects in the year ahead.  A total of 51% of the 1198 respondents indicated that they were predicting an improvement in 2010.

Interestingly, a total of 35% of of those surveyed said that the recession had even created some new opportunities for them to exploit. So what new opportunities have you identified - and more importantly, are you ready and able to exploit them to your benefit during 2010? It’s worth taking the time to reassess your current product or service offering to see if any new growth areas warrant a change of focus. As marketing consultants we invest time in understanding our clients’ markets and how they are changing - and - crucially - what that means in terms of new opportunities in the new yet unpredictable economic landscape of 2010.

For many it’s the start of a new sales year and those sales targets might seem like an impossible mountain to climb - particularly with the UK still in a state of economic flux. So just how should you attempt to achieve what might seem like unrealistic targets?  There are many different avenues to explore - some old, some new and some which you just might not have tried before. As strategic marketing consultants, we don’t get bogged down in marketing theory or stop working with clients as soon as the ink on the marketing strategy has dried. We often get involved in analysing sales processes and helping our clients change the way they sell to achieve greater efficiency - and of course results!

We always find with our clients who are looking to change the way they sell that a little change can often make a big difference to their sales, so why not try a new approach?

Time - spend time EVERY week prospecting for new business. Sounds blindingly obvious but it’s so easy to get bogged down with existing clients that prospects get forgotten and suddenly the sales pipeline looks empty. An allotted amount of time every week will help to avoid an empty pipeline and contribute to a smoother supply of prospects.

Spread your wings - time spent identifying new markets and applications for your products or services can really pay dividends, particularly if your current sector or sectors are reaching saturation point or are being squeeded by competitors. One of our clients has to date focussed on a particular application for their product in the NHS. Given the impending budget cuts they have identified a potentially lucrative new application for logistics companies - all by thinking about new possible applications.

Improve the “value” in your proposition -  increased competition in a crowded market means you really need to stand out from the crowd - and quickly. Make sure your customers get what you do better and how this really benefits them. Don’t overload them with information - streamline your communications to drive home just how good you are and why it makes sense to do business with you. Be specific for each customer by investing time to find out what makes them tick.

Front of mind - you might deliver a fantastic sales presentation. So might 8 other competitors. Make sure you stay in your prospect’s mind by communicating with them - it might be an email newsletter, relevant tweets, follow-up calls. It goes without saying that in every communication, reinforcing the strength of your value proposition will add weight to your argument and bring you closer to winning the customer.

Define your sales role - It might all sound like basic stuff, but it’s very easy to get sidetracked by customer service issues, which eat into valuable selling time. Whilst it can be difficult to let go or to take a back seat once a customer is up and running, it’s always surprising how much selling time is spent servicing an account - even when a more than capable Customer Service department are waiting to get involved. Finding the right balance is tricky, but it’s essential that the job of selling to new customers remains the focus.

Buff yourself up - it’s true that the business landscape has changed in the last 18 months and so have customer expectations. So sales people need to keep smart - listen to that new podcast, get some coaching, follow your competitors on twitter. In short, spend the time keeping up to speed with what’s going on in your customers’ lives and you’ll be better positioned than your competitors to react to and exploit any changes.

A few tweaks in your sales approach now could put you in good stead for the potentially rocky road that lies ahead for the rest of 2010. None of the above suggestions are hard to implement, but they could result in a significant change in your sales pipeline and bring some light to the end of the tunnel.

We’re always keen to stress just how much work we put into the initial research stages of any project we undertake, how getting and then interpreting the right information informs how we develop an appropriately effective marketing strategy further down the line. But just what do we mean by research - and is it really worth investing time and effort into finding out stuff our customers might already know anyway?

The answer is yes! As strategic marketing consultants we strive to ensure we get the strategic thinking right, and to do this we need to have a clear understanding of the market and of our client’s customers. Whilst we also dig deep into the hidden recesses of our clients to gain a profound understanding of how they work and why, we also take the time to really get to grips with the outside world too. So just what sort of information do we look for and where do we find it?

Firstly, we identify who we want to talk to. Current and lapsed customers as well as potential customers all provide valuable insight from different angles - some not always favourable but nevertheless critical to understanding the role our client plays in their lives. We also might speak to industry bodies or organisations as well to build as full a picture as possible of the landscape in which our client competes both in the present and in the future.

Once we’ve identified our targets, what are we going to ask them? Generally, in order to really make the most of each contact without eating into too much of their day, the information we gather falls into 3 main categories:

1. Their take on the particular market sector - any trends, issues, challenges which are impacting on them.

2. Specific issues to them within their organisation relative to the are we’re researching - their opinion, understanding, experiences in order to build a full picture of the challenges they are facing.

3. If they are/were a customer, an in-depth, warts-n-all look at their take on the client in question. Here it’s important not to shy away from asking any questions which may elicit a negative response. A client needs to be able to respond to all feedback, positive or negative. It’s surprising how many clients who perceive no real issue with their current service offering find out just what their own customers really think about them when they talk to a third party! Painful but necessary stuff.

And there you have it - hopefully an honest insight into how a particular customer perceives a product or service. Armed with this information, we can then set about interpreting just what this means for our client. But without this information, any strategy  development would remain a meaningless, academic exercise with very little chance of successful implementation in the real world. And that’s from our own research, not just a wild guess!