Starting Dialogue

by Craig Killick on July 2, 2009

in Marketing & Sales

Have you ever had a customer turn around and say, “I never knew you did that”?

I went to an interesting round table yesterday about public sector and charities engaging with business (and vice versa). One specific comment in particular raised was the need to speak in a relevant language to “the other side” and how to begin a conversation in the first place.

Simple fact though is that many companies simply fail to start conversations in the first place, which can lead to the question at the head of this post.

With Blogs, email, Twitter, etc. there is no excuse for SMEs to not engage with their clients and the world in general. And then there is the telephone…

What if, as a small business marketer or sales person, you committed to contact one person each day, just for a catchup maybe, or to listen to what’s happening with them.

And, to make it easier; make that call with no sales angle. Just a simple catchup and chat.

It’d be interesting to see the results over a month.

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Grudge Buying

by Craig Killick on June 14, 2009

in Customer Service

I only use O2 because I want an iPhone. Their in-shop customer service is less than consistant to put it mildly.

So, for me wanting an specific Apple product, I have to ‘reward’ a telecoms company for poor customer service and poor product knowledge. Does that make sense? Of course not. It’s a contractual grudge purchase.

No doubt, when this contract ends and Vodafone et al. get their hands on the iPhone, O2 will lose customers. And, off course, they’ve taken full advantage of the exclusivity and tied people in for up to 24 months.

But, for all the fancy Sean Bean adverts on TV, is it a great marketing to have such poor customer service?

Recently when trying to buy our second iPhone, my business partner got told different information on three occasions about what was needed when purchasing. Although I already had a business account for my phone, we had to prove the business again.

After the third visit, I took my computer so we could clarify figures and print off a Purchase Order there and then. They wouldn’t let us. Conversely, the nearby iStore let me print it, even though I wasn’t buying (although I have in the past).

When we asked about the new iPhone, the O2 guy denied there was a new one coming out… a week before it was announced.

So, who am I going to moan about and who am I going to champion? And I know I won’t be alone.

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Business Flexibility

by Craig Killick on June 9, 2009

in Business, Marketing & Sales

A few business models have come into my awareness in the past few weeks. Like this logo design company and this guy applying Photoshop filters to photos and selling them back as canvases. Both aren’t ‘the right way’ of doing it according to many of the people I speak to. Why is this? Not highbrow enough?

To me, they both sell a product that has a market: A market that may not have even been there five years ago. I’m not saying these two are both good business models – they are just different.

Selling to the market

Last week, I spoke with a commercial litho printer about his workload and current trading. We spoke about how he could leverage a platform like Twitter by repackaging his traditional product. Rather than one-off jobbing, why not take a risk and sell space on four-colour print-runs, or even auction them? It doesn’t play to his current business model, but it plays to the marketing platform and could create a new stream of revenue.

Sometimes you just have to redefine your market… or THE market.

Look at how Apple redefined the way we buy music and how they are changing the mobile phone market rapidly with a device which is so customisable that the phone part is becoming rather small.

Or what about Easyjet and Ryan Air? Love them or hate them, they have changed the way people buy flights by selling at a very low cost and then adding supplements, rather than an “all in” cost.

My own challenges

When I take a look at my own business I can see the changes coming… and coming. What I can also see is that the the guys that were the new different five years ago are still that same different now, so it also gives me hope in terms of my own flexibility.

Some examples please Craig:

  • When we first started The Escape 12 years ago, 70% of our revenue was print. It’s now about 10%
  • Cost of entry into the design business allows for thousands of freelancers with a lot less overheads. The web gives them the opportunity to market just as hard as our business. These guys are competition not to be overlooked.
  • In 2006, we spent six months developing an e-commerce solution. You can download Open Source products for free that do the same thing. These will constantly improve, so do I need the extra development cost or people who can develop within this solution?
  • Three years ago SEO was a bit of an unknown. Now, there’s even a dummies guide.

I could go on but I guess you get the point.

Me, I always remind myself that sometimes the safest bet may seem the riskiest at the time.

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Social Profiles and Personal Brand

by Craig Killick on June 5, 2009

in Social Media

Yesterday I gave a seminar about social media marketing and the question of personal profile or company profile raised it’s head. Should I go online as me, or as my company?

Larger companies and consumer products/services probably need to lead from the brand, but in the world of small business B2B, people buy people, so I tend to advocate the use of personal profiles for the individuals.

But, here comes a dichotomy for me. With my personal brand online, such as this Blog and my Twitter profile, my personal traits have a tendency to rear their heads… I can sometimes be blunt, impatient and defensive. Questions is, if I suppress these, am I not being genuine?

My problem (and this may be a good thing) is that I don’t. If someone asks a question, I may choose to offer an opinion in my field of expertise, even if it’s not what they want to hear. If I am battling for a cause, I will stand my ground and debate.

When everyone has a voice online, you are bound to get clashes due to styles of engagement. For instance, I hate people selling on Twitter. And, sometimes, even if they think they are doing nothing wrong, the sales person shines through, it’s in their nature: Like the serial networkers of BNI and Ecadamy, et al. It may work for them, but it certainly does not float my boat and the guard goes up.

Although they are closely linked, marketing is not sales, and I think this point sometimes loses it’s way online. In a social environment, do people want to be sold to?

I once overheard an ‘old school’ gentleman say something at a gathering and although the context is different, it sticks with me. “They are not our kind of people” he told someone about another family (it wasn’t a bigoted remark BTW).

With the number of people on the social media channels, you will obviously get people you like and people you don’t like and perhaps the less vanilla you are the more likelihood you will engage with the people who really ‘get’ you.

Of course, a great part of the whole social media machine is control… you just switch off the ones you don’t connect with. And, if the boot is on the other foot and I am not your bag, I’m sure you will be switching me off too.

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