The Process of Change in Marketing Approaches

The Process of Change in Marketing Approaches

by: Dr. Alvin Chan

In a world economy that is in constant flux and undergoing turbulence, more companies are realizing that their most precious asset is their customer base. An even more important realization is the need to satisfy the whims and fancies of these customers in order to survive in these increasingly competitive markets. Organizations that do not act on this dictum have suffered the loss of market share or worse, total annihilation. Such dire consequences have awakened many organizations to rethink the way they see marketing. Thus, there is urgency for an organization (be it products or service providers) as a whole to develop appropriate holistic customerfocused strategies to ensure that the customer remains at the core of their organizational thinking.

With the rapid advancement of information technology (especially the rise of the Web) and the increasing difficulties of meeting customer’s needs and wants (for example, their expectations of 24 / 7 customer service especially for online transactions), there is a shift from a traditional marketing approach to customer targeted marketing. Many organizations and marketing consultants are emphasizing the need to allocate more funds to apply newfound knowledge of consumer behavior in new products development, build better customer relationships through customer loyalty and retention programs.

This purpose of this paper is to raise the awareness of the need to concentrate marketing efforts towards the customer rather than the inwardlooking traditional productfocused arrangement. And more importantly, the paper will shed light on how an organization could go about in making this important transition in this current competitive market.

Marketing Approaches Explained:

Before I proceed to discuss the shift in the marketing approach, it will be appropriate to explain briefly the two marketing approaches separately for greater clarity.

Traditional MarketingThe 4 Ps of Marketing:

The marketing mix or what is commonly known as the 4 Ps is a framework for marketers to implement a marketing concept. It consists of a set of major decision areas that a company needs to manage in order to at least satisfy consumer needs. According to Kotler et al. (1999), the mix is a set of กcontrollable tactical marketing tools […] that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target marketก (p.8). Hence, in an effective marketing program, all of those elements are กmixedก to successfully achieve the companyกs marketing objectives.

The traditional marketing mix contains four major elements, the ก4 Ps of marketingก. As defined by Kotler et al. (1999):

1.Product: Anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. In includes physical objects, services, persons, places, organizations and ideas.

2.Price: The amount of money charged for a product or service, or the sum of the values that consumers exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service.

3.Promotion: Activities that communicate the product or service and its merits to target customers with a view to persuading them to buy.

4.Place: All the company’s activities that make the product or service available to target customers.

With the rapid changes surrounding organizations, the traditional marketing mix of the 4 Ps has been criticized for being too myopic in this current market situation. The traditional marketing mix has also been disparaged for being too productfocused and for taking an overly inwardlooking strategy with regards to the organization’s resources and capabilities in production matters. This is antithetical to attending to the more important organizational goal of satisfying the desired needs and wants of customers.

In addition, the Web and Ecommerce revolution has played a major role in alleviating customers’ ability to shape their relationships with the company. This has led customers to expect companies to market their products and services in ways that reflect more directly their individual needs.

These changes have prompted enterprises that wish to stay ahead of their competitors to shift their traditional marketing approach to customertargeted marketing.

Customer Targeted Marketing:

In customer targeted marketing, the customer becomes the central focus of the organization’s strategy and activities, rather than the product itself (which is the prime concern in traditional marketing). The organization’s paradigm shift in marketing requires a company to build a commitment to quality and to listen critically to the customer to determine the market needs and how the company can meet those needs more effectively.

One of the major characteristics of the approach is to focus on each customer’s interests and interactions with the organization to deliver targeted, personal messages. This would require the company to be constantly gathering information about their customers in an effort to better serve them and, most importantly, to retain them as loyal customers. As suggested by Peppers and Rogers (1998), the organization would need to use various techniques and strategies (possibly with the help of information technology and the Web), such as focus groups, indepth interviews, customer surveys, attitude testing and so on to obtain information about consumers for more effective marketing of a product or service. With these customers’ data and feedback, the organization will apply the knowledge to develop more customercentric products and services and/ or to improve existing ones. In addition, the information will be shared within the organization to encourage employees at all levels to focus on creating maximized customer value and loyalty.

Why CustomerTargeted Marketing?:

In order to have a competitive edge and to satisfy increasing levels of customers’ desires, companies realized that they have to see their customers as individuals rather a homogeneous mass of similar tastes, values and buying behaviors. Due to such transformation, companies need to be more customerfocused in its overall marketing strategy. This has resulted in organizations adopting a customization strategy to increase customer’s loyalty to their products and services. For example, in banking and insurance industry, there has been a move towards greater customization. Standard products/services have been given way to a varied menu of features from which customers may select their own preferred combination.

In view of these changes, companies that understand the asset value of each customer, and that tailor their marketing efforts (and their costs) to acquire and sustain the highestvalue assets, will win over lessadaptable traditional marketing approach of the 4 Ps.

The Process of Transition:

In order to strategically change from a traditional marketing approach to customer targeted marketing, an organization must be aware of these following areas:

Paradigm Shift. A company must fully understand that customer targeted marketing requires a shift in the organizational mindset, and not just structural organizational changes. They must realize that their sole purpose is to continuously satisfy customers’ needs and wants. Thus, to ensure a smooth transition from a traditional marketing approach to customer targeted approach, an organization must reflect and ask itself questions as to what areas need to be analyzed and to understand the ramifications of such a transition in the organization. On the other hand, an organization needs to realize the negative consequences for not willing to be a more customerfocused marketing organization.

Customer Targeted Planning. As in any organizational change initiative, proper planning is needed. The objective of planning customercentric marketing strategies is to find winwin opportunities with customer and to identify the best mutual opportunities for your customers and your company. This requires the organization to see the issue(s) from the customers’ perspectives and to strategically plan the organization’s resources around them.

In short, the organization’s shift to customertargeted marketing should embrace these three important points:

1.Planning should focus on customer wants and not looking inwardly at company goals

2.Focus on the honest feedback and suggestions through creating different channels of communications. Listen to the customers, rather than forcing them to listen to you.

3.Integrate your customers in every aspects of your business, from new product design to aftersales services and more.

Organizationwide Responsibility. For the approach to be successful, members need to understand the new philosophy of marketing and embrace it organizationwide. Many organizations tend to underestimate the degree to which every facet of the enterprise needs to be involved in the process and to be integrated into the actual customer relationship.

Organization Redesign. An organization has to assess the roles of all functional departments interacting with customers to ensure that they add value to customers instead of increasing the costs. By reorganizing the company with the customer as the focus, many departmental roles and responsibilities will have to be redesigned. And when that happens, the employees will have to adopt new work processes that would be more customercentric in nature.

Human Resource Training. There is a need to develop customerfocused human resource through customer behavior training, across the functional departments. By investing in such training at all levels, the members will be more knowledgeable, more autonomous, and more efficient in anticipating and meeting the needs of the customers.

Use of Information Technology. With the advancement and increased affordability in information technology, more companies are able to collect available data on customer purchase behavior more efficiently. For example, technologies ranging from checkout scanning to Internet cookies are commonly used to track customersก buying behaviors. Companies that employ such technology will be more adept at acquiring new customers, retaining existing customers, and cross selling than those who do not.

Enhanced Customers Communications. With the use of the Internet as a medium for targeted communication, this allows companies to be in touch with customers at less than onehundredth of the cost of more traditional snail mail, brochures or flyers. Communication through emails with the customers is almost free, and the customers can retrieve communications almost immediately. However, this has also resulted in customers having 24 / 7 service expectations of these companies.

Customer Targeted Measurement. An organization must be able to measure and evaluate the success of their customer targeted marketing strategy. In most cases, traditional measurement techniques such as profitability, market share and profit margins are used to measure the success. There should be an added emphasis given to developing measures that are customercentric and which are able to assess the marketing strategy. Customer acquisition costs, conversion rates, retention rates, customer sales rates, loyalty measures and customer share within a brand are some examples of customercentric measures than a customerfocused organization can adopt

Conclusion:

The need for survival has provoked many organizations to shift from traditional to customer targeted marketing. The market conditions surrounding us will continue to change at an accelerating rate and customer’s expectation will continue to rise. Hence, without any doubts, more and more companies will adopt a customertargeted marketing strategy with increased intensity.

About The Author

Dr. Alvin Chan is an Innovation Research Specialist in Asia. He has consulted for and aid in the development of managerial innovations and effective learning methodologies in several organizations. Currently, Dr. Chan is the Senior Research Consultant at FIrst Quatermain Centre of Collaborative Innovation (www.firstquatermain.com).

Please email to Dr. Chan at [email protected] as a courtesy if you are reprinting the article online or in print.

This article was posted on November 06, 2004

by Dr. Alvin Chan

Why Businesses Need to Start Nurturing Collective

Why Businesses Need to Start Nurturing Collective Wisdom

by: Marcus Goncalves

COLLECTIVE WISDOM CAN BE AN effective tool for solving the problem of knowledge deficit, or the underutilization of organizational knowledge. If you are a small, medium or large business, and you don’t have a method in place for harnessing and managing your organization’s collective knowledge, you may be losing opportunities for significant revenue enhancement. According to a study by the Delphi Group, less than 20 percent of knowledge available to an enterprise is actually used. Furthermore,

IDC predicts that Fortune 500 companies are currently operating at a $19 billion knowledge deficit, increasing to $31.5 billion by year’s end.

Such studies that quantify the value of knowledge deficit should give businesses a reason for viewing strategy meetings and other forms of brainstorm sessions (where employees across the organization are encouraged to freely share their own ideas) in a very different light. Such meetings are powerful tools in nurturing collective wisdom that transcends the corporate memory. These meetings should cover areas that are largely determined by the specific needs (gaps) of the organization and may range from developing a corporate quality mission statement to establishing practical methods for empowering employees, creating a new concept for a product or service, and so on.

The main idea is to tap into the collective knowledge of the organization as a whole (memory) and its members, inheriting the tacit knowledge that they carry with them. Unfortunately, most of the knowledge contained in an organization goes unused, and often gets lost through employee layoffs and resignations, even before it is acknowledged and captured, generating knowledge deficits (another form of gap!).

According to TMP Worldwide, it takes 1.5 times an employee’s annual salary to replace that employee. This is due to several factors, one of which is the loss of unrecorded information and data. Lost information may include internal business processes, external contacts/relationships, and proprietary data.

Knowledge deficit refers not only to knowhow, but to codified data as well. Knowledge deficit is caused when employees cannot access:

Databases

Documents

Email communications

Expertise of other employees/outside sources

Internet content

Therefore, as gaps are created and the organization attempts to fill them, employees should have at their disposal searching capabilities that enable them to search for codified data, as well as unrecorded tacit knowledge. Such a process fosters collective wisdom, which in turn fosters innovation, one of the prime goals in tapping into corporate instinct.

Expertise management, as Information Market accurately contends, enables the creation of knowledge superconductivity. For instance, strategy meetings can enable employees with business problems to tap into the minds of those experts who can at the very least add to their knowledge, and may even be able to solve the business problem at hand. However, these meetings should be moderated and include a variety of themes and dynamics that encourage freethinking, commitment, loyalty, and willingness to create.

Hence, these meetings play an important role in ensuring that any effort in developing new concepts, in innovation, is supported by the entire organization, top to bottom. These meetings can include topics such as:

Achieving unanimous agreement and commitment to a new concept from executives and senior management

Creating a comprehensive plan by which a new product or service concept can be implemented and become sustainable (remember, without sustainability, the new concept is only a great idea)

Crisis/contingency systems (dealing with major gaps in times of chaos)

Developing specific tactics by which new concepts and respective plans are to be realized establishing appropriate goals and benchmarks.

As well as these strategic and planning meetings, there are also some less apparent but equally important communication issues which can be addressed during the quest for collective wisdom, including:

Developing highprofile actions that communicate management’s commitment to change (creation of gaps) and innovation (bridging the gaps)

Developing ongoing means for communicating progress of the strategy meetings and developing a collective wisdom process for both internal and external customers

Effectively communicating the collective wisdom to managers, staff, and the entire organization as a whole.

About The Author

Marcus Goncalves, Founder & President, Marcus Goncalves Consulting Group, a MetroWest Bostonbased knowledge, change and project managementoriented international consulting firm, is the developer of the innovative knowledge management methodology Knowledge TornadoTM. Marcus has served as a Senior EAI and IT strategies professional at global market research firm, ARC Advisory Group and lectures at Boston University’s graduate CIS and MBA programs on subjects including Program and Project Management, and Information Systems Management, among others. Author of more than 28 books published on the subject, Marcus is a member of Who’s Who among US Executives and in the Computer Industry, an award conferred by the Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundation. Marcus can be contacted at [email protected]; 5084353087.

This article was posted on January 14, 2004

by Marcus Goncalves

Underestimating the Power of Inhouse PR

Underestimating the Power of Inhouse PR

by: Carolyn Moncel

Do smallbusiness owners always have to rely on large PR agencies to get attention from the press? An entrepreneur recently asked me this question during a networking event for women business owners. Of course my answer was, กNo,ก but not for the reasons one might expect.

Ultimately, I do believe the time comes when a company needs professional guidance from a PR agency be it a large or small one to secure media coverage. But I also believe that a really media savvy smallbusiness owner, or a twoperson marketing team can do a fantastic job in promoting an organization. Hereกs how I know it can work.

A few years ago during the dot.com boom, I worked for a small online publishing company. We had a terrific technical team and staff, two great products, but no one knew the company existed. As a startup, it was crucial for the company to gain awareness through media exposure because advertising was too expensive.

Since our marketing department only consisted of two people the marketing director and myself, there was a bit of concern within the organization as to whether we had enough inhouse resources available to successfully get the company muchneeded ink. So the companyกs executive team hatched an interesting plan. They offered our inhouse marketing team the chance to bid on the companyกs PR project as if we were an outside agency.

My experience had always been in public relations, rather than product marketing. My bossก experience had always been the opposite. We seized the opportunity to combine our knowledge, skills and research.

Our tiny twoperson team matched PR wits squarely against four established pros including one former White House aide. Guess what? Our ideas prevailed, and the company decided to ditch the notion of hiring a big PR firm in favor of keeping the inhouse team.

Before long we were generating some memorable press for our company. Over a twoyear period we placed stories on our company in more than 100 media outlets from MSNBC and Forbes to the Wall Street Journal and Wired News online. We did it by studying what the big PR agencies did well, and also by using our departmentกs กsmallnessก to our advantage. Hereกs how you can do it, too.

Research your company.

Forget that you own or work within the organization. Really invest the time in understanding your companyกs structure, the executives and their backgrounds, the products and technology, the industry in which your company belongs, competitors and experts, and most of all the target audience the people who stand to benefit most from your product or service. If you know all of this information, then youกll be in a better position to brainstorm ideas on how to get the mediaกs attention. Doing this also helps in flushing out your overall marketing plan which PR is only a part.

Research the reporters who cover your companyกs industry and study the types of stories that they like to write.

Learn their deadlines and how they prefer to be contacted. Introduce yourself by phone and make it a point to speak with them regularly not just to talk about your company, but also about the industry in general. Use those conversations to offer up source materials that will help reporters write terrific stories. If you are able to do this successfully, you will become a trusted source that reporters return to repeatedly, and you will significantly increase your chances of gaining coverage for your company.

Always Return Media Phone Calls Immediately.

Keep yourself and your organization at the ready to receive phone calls from the press. Make sure that reporters know how to reach you in a 24hour cycle. This means they should have your office, cell, home, and pager numbers, as well as a contact email address. If you still happen to miss the call, return it ASAP. Always prepare yourself or members from your organization to conduct interviews from anywhere, at any time.

Conduct proper follow up after the interview.

This is not a call to find out when a story will be published, but rather a call to make sure that the reporters have everything they need in order to write a favorable story on your organization.

Whenever our company executives were interviewed by reporters, one team member would always accompany them to the interview to take careful notes. Alternately, the other team member would remain in the office on standby. If, during the interview, the reporter indicated a need for specific information, an urgent message would be relayed back to the office so that the team member had time to gather the information. Without fail, we always had the requested information waiting in the reporterกs email inbox before they arrived back to the office. This may seem like a small task, but getting it right could really decide whether or not a reporter selects your story, or moves on to a new one.

The important point to remember here is this. Never underestimate the power and dedication of your inhouse staff. Before you make the investment in retaining a PR agency, look at your internal talent first. What you find just might surprise you, and their drive to succeed will become contagious throughout your entire organization. And when the time comes to hire a PR firm, you will have a readymade collaborative team in place to work with your outside agency. Your inhouse team knows your company better than anyone and thatกs where you, as a smallbusiness owner, have an advantage over the กbig boysก at the large PR agencies in getting the mediaกs attention.

About The Author

Carolyn DavenportMoncel is president and founder of Mondave Communications, a global marketing and communications firm based in Chicago and Paris, and a subsidiary of MotionTemps, LLC. Contact her at [email protected] or by phone in the United States at 877.815.0167 or 011.331.4997.9059 in France.

This article was posted on October 09, 2003

by Carolyn Moncel

Have You Sold Your Internal Customers?

Have You Sold Your Internal Customers?

by: John Jantsch

You can make the sale. You know your core message. You know your target market inside out, right?

But if you have even one employee than youกve got another sales job to do. Everyone in your organization must also be sold on the dream you have. Everyone who answers the phone, walks the sales floor, attends that Chamber event, or followup on a sales lead in your company’s name must be sold first.

Let’s start to think of your employees and strategic partners as internal prospects. What have you done to really light their fire about what your company does, about how it is different, about the unique value you can bring to a service relationship?

Most of the time small business owners completely neglect the notion of what might be called ขmarketing training.ข But then they wonder why no one in the organization get pumped up about providing over the top service. Or why no one really has a clear picture of who or what makes a good lead.

I can stress this notion enough. Any person in your organization that comes into contact with a client or prospect in any fashion is performing a marketing function.

So, now that you know who the first target market is, get out there and start pounding the isles, cubicles, break rooms, and conference tables looking for prospects who are just dieing to to be sold on the vision you have for the business.

What if everyone if your company was made to understand that part of their job, no matter what else they did, was marketing.

Can you imagine an organization with a culture like that?

Picture this. Your head of operation is at a cocktail party and someone asks them what they do for a living and instead of this: ขI’m the head of operations for a small electrical contractorข they utter these words: ขI make contractors look brilliant.ข

Or what if a field technician was confronted with a problem and instead of passing that problem on they saw to it that the problem was addressed and then they called the client back and made sure they were happy and offered to send the client some movie passes for their trouble.

Here’s an idea. Go out and print up new business cards for everyone at your firm that say vicepresident of field operations and marketing fanatic. The marketing fanatic now becomes a part of everyone’s title.

Of course, now you actually have to do the sales job or, like any good selling, the process of educating your internal clients. But hereกs the good news. They want to be sold. They are dieing to be sold.

I suggest you look at setting up quarterly meeting that focus on all aspects of marketing your firm – lead generation, selling, and customer service. Then maditorily invite your entire staff for marketing seminars.

Build marketing training into your hiring meetings and staff orientation. Make it a part of your routine reviews. Write a entire chapter on marketing into your employee manual.

If you meet resistance to this notion it is because you have not made it priority in the past and people will always resist change. The key is that make sure they understand that this isn’t just another chapter from the latest business article you read. You must make the new found emphasis on marketing an expectation and a requirement.

Teach you people who makes a great client, the exact words they should use to describe your firm, how your firm is different, the promotions you have planned for this month and next month, the challenges your prospects face, the goals you have set for your marketing.

Finally, find a way to turn your marketing into a game. If you can find a way to motivate everyone in the organization to help grow the enterprise, think what a machine you could create. And if you find that you have people that don’t want to play the game…do them a favor and get rid of them. Let your folks know from day one that they are part of the marketing team.

Copyright 2004 John Jantsch

About The Author

John Jantsch is a marketing coach and creator of the Duct Tape Marketing System. You can get more information about the Duct Tape System and download your free copy of ขHow To Create the Ultimate Small Business Marketing System in 7 Simple Stepsข by visiting http://www.DuctTapeMarketing.com

This article was posted on October 11, 2004

by John Jantsch

Visibility Equates to Higher Profits

Visibility Equates to Higher Profits

by: Kathleen Gage

One of the greatest challenges businesses face is how to market cost effectively while gaining a good return on investment (ROI). Regardless of what industry you are in, the size of your organization and how long you have been in business, you must continually look for ways to gain and maintain your visibility to your market.
Gaining visibility is one of the most important, and yet often most overlooked, aspect of running a business. Perhaps you don’t run a company, but you are in sales. Visibility applies to you as well.
Before you begin to aggressively position yourself and gain visibility, think about what the vision for you and your organization is. Gaining a vision of what the organization stands for, the impact you want to have on your customers or clients, the quality of products and services, your contribution to your community, and where you want the organization to be in the future is essential as you move forward.
Your vision is your ideal future state. The statement includes what you desire your organization to be like. Again, it doesn’t really matter the size of the organization. Included in the vision are your values. What is really important to you?
Once you have your vision in mind, consider writing it down. This can help you to solidify your thoughts and to stay on track with what is truly important.
Another important aspect of your marketing is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). It is beneficial to actually write down what makes your product or service different from those of your competitors. Whether you are in financial planning, training, banking, the beauty industry, day spas, or technology, take the time to know what sets you apart. In the consumer’s mind, Company A looks the same as Company B in many ways. The same with Salesperson A compared to Salesperson B. To stand apart your job is to help the consumer understand your differences. You can do this in a very positive way without belittling or badmouthing your competition.
A simple formula to clarity your USP is to write down every reason someone would want to do business with you.

Are you an expert in your industry?
Do you deliver in record time?
Do you have a unique location?
What is unique about your business compared to your competitors?
What is most important to your prospects and customers about doing business with you? (If you don’t know – ASK!)
What can only you do that your competitors can’t do?

Once you answer these questions, create a short message to include the key information. Many people avoid doing this type of exercise thinking it is a waste of time. Fact is, when you meet with a potential customer and they ask what you do, you want to be able to concisely tell them. This process is also helpful with your current clients in that they are only one call away from utilizing the services of someone else.
Another challenge people have is once they have created a USP they seem to be married to it. Avoid the trap of having a canned USP. Make it spontaneous according to the situation.
Your USP can be used in a number of different ways; conversations, networking opportunities, on your business cards and letterhead (if it is not too long), your yellow page ad, and in your other forms of advertising.
Periodically, it is helpful to revisit your vision and USP. As you change and your customer’s needs and wants change, you may find it necessary to adjust to those changes. What should drive any change are your core values more than anything else. When you are congruent with your values, success is assured.

About The Author

Kathleen Gage is a business advisor, keynote speaker, and trainer that helps others gain market dominance and visibility within their market. Call 801.619.1514 or Email [email protected]. Get Gage’s FREE 4 day online marketing course by visiting www.kathleengage.com.

This article was posted on July 11, 2004

by Kathleen Gage

Keeping Control of your Brochure Making

Keeping Control of your Brochure Making

by: Maricon Williams

A printed brochure will never go passé because it is something every company needs. It is an avenue to keep customers coming. Brochures can be simple as black and white copy on a trifold sheet or it can be complex as text uses full color graphics and photos on a glossy paper. Convenience of brief, targeted messages to prospective customers is the benefit of brochures. Another is that customers can easily pass the information to another, therefore, it is a builtin advertisement.

Generally, there are two types of brochure. The first one is the calltoaction brochure. It is usually meant for the general public or a large group of people. The other type is the informative brochure is usually made for a specific audience.

A calltoaction brochure needs a brief history of the organization or business. This type of brochure is normally broad in scope. The aim of this is to inspire a group to either join the organization or bring their business needs to you. Informative brochure, on the other hand, is used to educate the audience about a specific function or product.

If done correctly, both types can be very effective. To do it correctly, we must bear in mind the following rules. Keeping general information will extend the shelf life of your product. If you think the dates and numbers may change in the future, then don’t include it anymore. Keep your brochure brief and striking. Bold fonts and colorful graphics catch attention, you can use it to ensure that your material will be read.

If in case there is a conflict between a piece of information and a picture which entails powerful emotion, go for the picture because it is where we base our purchasing decisions.

Play with the words and try to captivate customers through positivism because optimism sells. The focal point of advertising is the benefits that will accrue to the customers. Always stress benefits greater than features. Tell them what they’re getting from their decision.

Print enough copies so you can cover all the bases. Place them in conspicuous places – commercial buildings, offices and other establishments. Your brochure will do the talking for you so be sure that it has he necessary information like your address, phone number, website and email address so that you can be easily reached. Wherever you go, always carry some copies with you. Better yet, affix a business card to your brochure so you are prepared anytime of the day.

You must be sure that all elements of brochure support its purpose – from the contents to visual elements to distribution plan, they must be anchored to your objective. With that you can be assured of a booming organization or business!

About The Author

Maricon Williams

I love reading. Give me a book and Iกll finish it in one sitting. Reading is the chance to be transported to a different world and so is writing. Iกm more enthusiastic about writing however, since you can relay your ideas to someone else. I can only imagine that feeling when I hear a complete stranger talking about my ideas which read on an article somewhere. To relay my message to as many people is the same as touching people with music. Only mineกs less harmonic. I try to make up for it with the color I bring with words. And most of the time, it’s more than enough.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 07

by Maricon Williams

Determining Visitor Types

Determining Visitor Types

by: Susan Friedmann

The trade show floor is full of different types of people with different agendas. Some people have specific goals for attending the show; others do not. As an exhibitor your observation and questioning skills will be your key to determining who may be a viable sales prospect. Familiarize yourself with the various visitor types likely to frequent the tradeshow floor.

1. Definites. If you have done a thorough job of preshow marketing, definite prospects and customers will visit your booth.

2. Demonstration Junkies. Watch out for passersby who are attracted to your booth by a demonstration or other activity. These could be valuable prospects or time wasters. Ask a few short, openended questions to find out.

3. Curiosity Cats. These types could be curious about anything – what exactly your company does, a graphic, who designed your booth, and so on. Do not spend too much time with someone who is just interested in the design and construction of your booth or intricate details about your graphics.

4. Paper Lovers. Some people love to collect literature or just take any piece of paper no matter what it is. Are they attending the show to research the market for a boss? If so, they may be an influencer worth pursuing.

5. Eyeballers. These types are usually extremely friendly; they smile and their whole body language says, ขplease talk to me.ข Questioning will determine whether or not they are prospects worth pursuing.

6. Jeopardy Gigolos. Winning contests is their passion. They are always ready, willing and able to drop a business card into a fishbowl for any kind of drawing. Contests that require more than just a business card to enter will help deter these types from finding their way onto your followup lists.

7. Keepsakers. Any kind of giveaway attracts these types. They may even want more than one for family, friends and colleagues. Keen questioning will ascertain if this visitor has potential.

8. The Disinterested. Some people in the crowd will simply not be interested in what your organization has to offer. They often let you know in no uncertain terms through their body language; for example, walking by purposely avoiding eye contact or chatting with a colleague. Waylaying these types will only upset them.

9. Hawks. These people attend shows for the sole purpose of selling you their products or services. Publication advertising representatives are a prime example. They are unlikely to be prospects, but you never know. If floor traffic is slow, it may be worth asking a few questions, if only to find out who they could refer you to.

10. Job Seekers. Trade shows are an excellent place to network and look for organizations who may have present or future job openings. As with Hawks, you may want to spend time with them during slow, unproductive periods.

11. Nonentities. These types could be underlings in their organization sent to do some specific research. Never underestimate them. They may be extremely strong influencers. In addition, they probably know whom in their organization you need to contact. Time spent with them could be invaluable.

12. Snoops. Beware of the competition! These types often give themselves away by knowing too much or asking precise questions. Make sure that you do more questioning than talking so that you lessen the chances of giving away valuable information.

About The Author

Written by Susan A. Friedmann,CSP, The Tradeshow Coach, Lake Placid, NY, author: ขMeeting & Event Planning for Dummies,ข working with companies to improve their meeting and event success through coaching, consulting and training. Go to http://www.thetradeshowcoach.com to sign up for a free copy of ExhibitSmart Tips of the Week.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 26, 2004

by Susan Friedmann

Find Out Where Your Firm Stands in Today’s Custome

Find Out Where Your Firm Stands in Today’s Customer

by: Hank Brigman

Looking For Ways to Improve Sales and Customer Relationships?

Find Out Where Your Firm Stands in Today’s Customer Touchpoint Management (CTM) Revolution by Taking the CTM Quiz

(San Rafael, CA) What could be more important than improving sales and your customer relationships? Today, there is a fast growing movement, a revolution, among organizations interested in improving their customercentricity through a better understanding of customer interactions, or ขtouchpoints.ข Called ขCustomer Touchpoint Managementข (CTM), the goal of this new movement is to improve customer experiences, and as a result, improve customer relationships. By improving customer relationships organizations improve market share, sales, and both customer and employee loyalty and advocacy.

But what exactly is a ขtouchpoint?ข Touchpoints are all of the communication, human and physical interactions your customers experience during their relationship lifecycle with your organization. Whether an ad, Web site, sales person, store or office, Touchpoints are important because customers form perceptions of your organization and brand based on their cumulative touchpoint experiences.

Savvy organizations realize that customer relationships can no longer be considered exclusively the domains of sales and customer service. If the accuracy of invoices, or the professionalism of installers or cleanliness of your store or office is lacking, then the relationship can suffer no matter how well the salesperson or ขownerข of the relationship performs. Savvy organizations know that they can best enhance relationships with customers by improving touchpoints across the entire enterprise.

In fact, improving your customer relationships can deliver powerful results to your organization. For example, through a comprehensive Customer Touchpoint Management (CTM) program developed to understand and improve key customer touchpoints, Avis gained market share in key travel markets and became a leader in customer loyalty and satisfaction as measured by Brand Keys and JD Powers.

So, where does your organization stand in the growing Customer Touchpoint Management movement? Take the following sixquestion CTM Revolution Quiz to find out if your firm is a CTM Observer, Follower, Leader or Visionary. If you want to see how your organization compares to others, take the quiz online at http://www.tpmetrics.com/tp_quiz.asp.

CTM Revolution Quiz (Circle your Yes/No answer)

Does your organization know…

1. All of its points of customer interaction (called touchpoints)? Yes No

2. Which touchpoints your customers highly value? Yes No

3. Your customers’ views of the effectiveness of highly valued touchpoints? Yes No

4. Your customers’ needs in each stage of their relationship with your company? Yes No

5. The most common sequence of touchpoints prospects encounter as they consider your offerings? Yes No

6. How your current customers classify themselves (for example: as dissatisfied, satisfied, loyal or advocate)? Yes No

Add up your ขYesข answers to find where your organization is positioned in the CTM revolution:

0: CTM Observer. While your firm may be doing well, there are opportunities for dramatic improvement in the customercentricity of your organization. If your approach to better understanding and improving customer touchpoints has been to observe or monitor customer service trends in your industry, you may be finding it more and more difficult to compete. New clients and strong sales may be masking poor customer satisfaction and retention issues, which could lead to a serious problem down the road. You know that improving customercentricity will help, but your organization may be having trouble getting its hands around just how to accomplish this – you’re not sure exactly where to start. Previous efforts to improve customer experiences have generated mixed results. As a consequence, staff are highly skeptical of new programs and their ability to truly effect change. A change of culture may be required to dramatically improve customercentricity, and you probably need third party assistance to accomplish this.

1 2: CTM Follower. Your organization is making progress on improving customer experiences and is generating some positive feedback as a result. However, you are still following the Customer Touchpoint Management leadership of others. You appreciate that you are more customercentric than some of your competitors, but worry that you have significant hurdles to overcome to catch up to the customer service leaders in your industry. You are proud of the improvements made to date and you want to continue the organization’s positive momentum. You realize that you may need outside experts to help the firm get to the next level.

3 4: CTM Leader. A Customer Touchpoint Management revolution leader, your organization is benefiting from being ahead of the customer experience curve. You excel in comparison with the majority of your competitors. Your sales are increasing, and you have improved the retention of both customers and employees. Customers who advocate your offerings are helping to fill your sales pipeline and employees who advocate your company are helping to attract outstanding staff. You are committed to continuously improving touchpoint performance through a dynamic Customer Touchpoint Management plan, and have systems in place that enable your organization to surface and apply touchpoint best practices. Not satisfied, however, you continually look internally and externally for opportunities to improve customer touchpoints in order to improve your customercentricity and to stay ahead of your competition.

5 6: CTM Visionary. Your organization is the inspiration for the touchpoint revolution both within and outside of your industry. You have established benchmarks and best practices for developing and implementing a comprehensive Customer Touchpoint Management plan. You have developed a system of twoway communication that encourages ongoing and honest feedback from both customers and employees. Based on customer and staff input, you have established touchpoint standards and manage to those standards. Your customers consistently experience excellence in every touchpoint they encounter. Outstanding talent is clamoring to work for you and your competitors covet your employees. You are able to charge a premium for your products or services, and your corporate leaders are invited to speak about the customercentricity of your organization. Happy to share your CTM story, you know that your success is based on an ingrained culture of relentlessly looking for better ways of understanding, improving and measuring your customer touchpoints in order to strengthen your position as a customer service leader, and to further distance yourself from your competitors.

We are in the early stages of the Customer Touchpoint Management revolution. If you find your organization positioned as a CTM Observer or Follower, it is not too late to learn from the Leaders and Visionaries and to apply the concepts of Customer Touchpoint Management to improving relationships with your customers. The benefits are powerful, creating happier customers, employees and owners.

About The Author

Hank Brigman is author of the upcoming book ขTouchpoint Power!,ข and President and CEO of Touchpoint Metrics (www.tpmetric.com), the research consultancy that pioneered Touchpoint Mapping™. Based on their proprietary methodology, Touchpoint Metrics delivers data, insights and recommendations that serve as a foundation for Customer Touchpoint Management efforts. Hank can be reached directly at 415.258.8524 or via email at: [email protected].

This article was posted on October 20, 2004

by Hank Brigman

Common Website Mistakes

Common Website Mistakes

by: Tony Valle

Is your website ailing?

It used to be that simply having a website meant that your organization was ahead of the curve. Those days are long gone. Today more that ever, organizations need to fuel business and their bottom lines through savvy internet tactics.

What separates the savvy from the just getting by? If any of these symptoms are true of your organization or your website, you may need to rethink your strategy, or better put, start using a strategy in the first place.

Symptoms:

You cannot quantify your website’s traffic statistics even in general terms. This should be as common knowledge as your last year’s revenues or your mission statement. How can you make smart decisions about internet marketing dollars if you don’t know how much traffic you are getting?

Your website has not changed in any way in 6 months. If this is the case, it probably indicates that your site is not an active part of your marketing plan. Be careful not to neglect your site to the point that potential customers will be turned off by a lack of attention to detail.

Your site is not generating leads of any kind. Does your site provide an easy way for customers to contact you? Can they submit questions online? Are you in the habit of asking walkins ขhow did you hear about us?ข

Your site is rarely, if ever, mentioned in meetings and planning sessions. This one is pretty selfexplanatory. Is your site the big white elephant in the living room that nobody talks about?

If your organization displays any of the above symptoms, don’t despair. But do commit to doing something about it. Many times the best way to begin is to find sites that you do like and incorporate the best qualities of those sites into your own. Now get surfing!

About The Author

Tony Valle is owner of Promethius Consulting, LLC a web design and marketing firm since 1998. Learn more at http://www.promethiusconsulting.com

This article was posted on January 19

by Tony Valle