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4 Steps to make your Marketing more Effective

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‘How to win at marketing and drive more sales?’: this must be the most frequently asked business question of all ‘How to win at marketing and drive more sales?’time.

  • Every individual and Organisation wants their Marketing to make life easier and drive success to them

Yet time and time again we see massive under-performance in actual results versus prospective results.

So, in this day and age, can we look at marketing in a more enlightened way?

The answer is, of course, yes.

If we stop asking how we can market ourselves better and instead start taking the following four steps, we will definitely get better results:

1. Change our beliefs.  We need to stop trying to market ourselves and start trying to wow the customer: confidently and consistently in the certain belief that, if we do this well and make it easy for customers, they will want to engage with us and buy more from us.

2. Stop designing Marketing systems and processes aimed exclusively at making a sale. Instead they need to be aimed at impressing the customer by harmonising with their real (emotional) needs.

3. Spend our Marketing budget on building relationships through consistent small steps.  Customers hate to be sold to, but love to buy.  They hate it when we try to take large, obvious steps to get their custom but they love it when our systems and processes use small steps to impress and energise them.

4. Have ‘lead’ measures.  Marketing Departments need to stop obsessively measuring reach and numbers.  Instead they need to start using new measures (known as ‘lead measures’) that empower and energise continued improvements in customer loyalty, reputation and relationship.

In short, the answer to how to win at Marketing in the world of the empowered and joined-up customer is to:

  • go slower and turn the Marketing process on its head
  • focus all Marketing systems, processes and actions on wowing the customer and fostering customer trust

In the world of Social Media and the empowered customer, it is madness to assume that we can ‘market’ to anyone.  The customer now chooses their own route to market.

The real winners in marketing are those who realise that by taking it slowly, not trying to sell to everyone, and designing systems and processes across all areas of their business to systematically blow customers’ socks off, they achieve blow your socks off long-term success and profitability.

And that is how to truly win in the long term.

If you like what we’re saying and want to know more, without any obligation, please email support@salesthroughservice.com and ask for our free ebooks on ‘The 7 Deadly Sins of Sales and Service’

Business Karma

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Business Karma

The Dalai Lama writes:

‘The word ‘Karma’ simply means ‘action’. So when we talk about our ‘Karma’ we are talking about our intentional (and unintentional) acts of body, speech and mind. And when we talk about the fruits of our Karma, we are talking about the consequences of those acts.’

The same is true of Organisations (and teams within them). Their ‘Karma’ are their acts, and the fruits of their ‘Karma’ is their reputation in the market (and therefore their customer loyalty and referrability).

So ‘Karma’ is VITAL FOR LONG TERM SUCCESS in today’s world of informed and hyper-connected customers.

How do Organisations usually know what results their Karma are generating? There are 3 ways:

  1. Guessing (the normal way) – resulting in pain and waste
  2. Surveys (the next most normal way) – the same as guessing, but this time with the added complication of incomplete and misleading information thrown in!
  3. Genuine customer feedback and engagement (the rare way) – resulting in genuine knowledge, motivation, reputation, loyalty and referrals

The conclusions are simple and don’t need to be spelt out.

In a world where the fruits of your ‘Karma’ will determine your success, you need to obsessively listen for your ‘Karma’ and systematically work on it bit by bit, until it is consistently and predictably positive.

And then work on it some more.

Please feel free to contact us for free information on how to do this in your team or organisation: support@salesthroughservice.com

How can I develop my management skills?

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How can I develop my management skills?

I would guess that we all want to be better managers – after all, better managers get better results with less effort! So what do you need to do to become one?

Here are a few rules and ideas for you.

  • Remember all employees are volunteers – they need to respect you in order to be motivated by you.
  • Have a crystal clear statement of what you and the Organisation are REALLY about (we call this a ‘customer focused mission’ but don’t worry about the name: if people are hyper clear on exactly what does and doesn’t matter to the team, and the values associated with it, then that’s the job done).
  • Lead the Mission by example, and never deviate (even when times are hard)
  • If you ever do have to deviate, tell your people why and when you’re returning, before any deviation happens.
  • Manage your time effectively
  • Communicate effectively at all levels – win/win thinking and agreements
  • Gather feedback through simple systems and ‘management by wandering about’obsessively
  • Ensure everyone else does the same
  • Use the feedback to understand people’s REAL needs, and Act effectively on feedback, little step by little step
  • Keep going: it doesn’t matter how slow you go, as long as you never stop!

Remember, there’s not a lot of difference between ‘a great manager’ and ‘a bit of a prat’ … focus on small things done brilliantly … by the inch it’s a cinch, by the yard it’s hard.

There’s your answer to ‘How can I be a better manager’?

 

For free resources and help with leadership and management systems that actually work, please drop us a line at support@salesthroughservice.com and we’ll send you our free ebooks on this subject.

 

 

How can we measure success?

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How can we measure success?

How can we measure success? Is this not the most important question in the universe?

After all, what gets measured gets done.

So, really the answer to this question lies in another question: what does ‘success’ mean to you?

If success just means ‘as much money as possible’, then the measure is easy … you just ruthlessly measure money (and be sure not to measure the number of people you upset as you trample all over them in this ruthless request for success).

Does this situation look somewhat familiar in some of the business activities all around us?

If, however, you want to think a little deeper, and perhaps have a slightly more mature attitude to success, you might consider that: ‘money is important, it helps me achieve what I want to in life, but I also need clear purpose and passion, and, besides, I’ll only ever be truly great at delivering what turns me on’.

So, in this case, a measure of progress and passion (and how others perceive this) will be your primary measure, followed by a measure of money, to make sure it’s also taking you in a positive direction (as a strictly secondary measure).

The first measure is a long term measure of deep success, that you will leave a lasting legacy with those around you on. The second measure is just a short term measure on beans … ‘do we have enough beans to keep doing what we’re truly great at?’

Please contact us at support@salesthroughservice.com for more information on lead and lag measures, and how to use measures effectively to generate true long term success at all levels.

success

Measures

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There is an old saying: ‘What gets measured gets done’

… and it’s completely true.

  • When the NHS in the UK started measuring patient wait times, the wait times went down (Hooray!) … but patient health (and death rates) went up!
  • When Continental Airlines started measuring on-time performance (and offered a small incentive to all staff to improve it), they went from no 7 to no 1 in a matter of months
  • And look how scoreboards motivate players on the field of sport!

So, accepting that measures are SO important, isn’t it bizarre that if you ask 95% of employees how their Organisation (or even themselves) are doing, they will invariably answer ‘I don’t know’.

Imagine how a football team would play if they didn’t know the score?

They often say something like: ‘I know I’m doing Ok if no one is shouting at me’

Imagine how a football team would play if the crowd never cheered, but only hurled abuse when something went wrong!

And, when organisations Do have measures, they are usually unbalanced. What is usually measured above everything else? Money, of course.

We are back to the same problem encountered by the NHS: if you measure too narrowly, you’ll get your results, but usually at the expense of something else.

Please note and remember this: if you ONLY measure money, you will get money, usually at the expense of something else. What may be sacrificed at the altar of money … to get the measures right? Well, perhaps it’d be quicker to list what would not be sacrificed!

Does Ratners the Jewelers spring to mind, or perhaps ‘Payment Protection Insurance’?

It’s time the business world started to get real and have some balanced measures: sure, money is important (without it the system won’t work), but it needs to be balanced out with longer term measures, measures of:

  • Customer Experience
  • Customer Loyalty
  • Reputation
  • Referrals
  • Loyalty

So that, if ALL (and I mean ALL) the balanced measures are moving in the right direction, then it’s highly likely the Organisation is in good health for both the short AND the long term. let’s face it:

  • Any fool can generate money at the expense of Customer experience (and many fools do … on a daily basis)
  • Any fool can also deliver great reputation without any profit (which is also a pointless exercise)

The key lies in balance in your measures (as in all things), and a focus on the long term measures FIRST (customer experience) and short term measures SECOND (money).

Why?

Because the long term actions, produce the short term results.