The Role of Marketing is to...

Make selling as easy as possible.

But Rod, we don't have a sales team in this business, well then it sounds like you're the sales team. Aren't you?

Is selling hard for you and your business, then it's not sales skills you need, it's marketing skills.

Let me explain, I speak professionally, yes people book and pay me to speak. Now, if they just want a speaker then it's a challenge to sell me as opposed to some TV personality. However, if my marketing has hit the mark, they don't want any speaker, they want me. They want Rod Sloane.

So the question is why should somebody want you, above your competitors or looking for an in-house solution?

That's the purpose of marketing to make it as easy as possible to make those sales.

Focus on your marketing and remember be different, not better!

Shoptalk

I heard on the BBC, this morning, the statistic that 3 million are employed in the UK retail sector and most receive no or little training. If you work for one of the big boys you probably will undergo training, but all the smaller independent shops are left to their own devices. Hence, the announcement today of the Retail Academies for specific training in that industry.

So, what training goes on in your business, you know the simple stuff like how to deal with clients over the phone. How do you cope with complaints and calls that come in after reading your website and blog? How about some simple presentation skills training? Most employers often assume staff just knows what to do. Why not give them some help?

There is plenty of help out there from both the private and public sector. You don’t have any real excuse, do you?

Give your staff the skills and confidence and they just might hit those KPIs that you give them.

Spend More Time with the Queen!

I like stamps, no I'm not a philatelist, I'm not looking for a Penny Black. What I mean is that I don't use a franking machine or Smart Stamp from Royal Mail for the mail I send. I like to use stamps with the Queen's Head on. OK, I'm not a Luddite I do use the self adhesive stamps that come in packs of 100.

So why do I like stamps?

It's the personal touch, I would much rather receive a hand addressed envelope with a real stamp. It might be coming from a real person not some marketing department.

This means that I am more likely to open it, first, if it's a person-to-person message.

Do you like being treated as a number, a transaction?

No neither do I.

It's all bout probability, can you increase the probability of the recipient picking up your letter/ postcard opining it up and reading it. Make it personal.

OK, the real reasons I enjoy queuing at Post Offices and I like the blue of the 2nd Class stamp.

Heads Up and Look that Prospect Squarely in the Eyes and say…

It’s just too easy to be focused internally at the moment.

Watch that cash flow, debtors and creditors, but there is another important group you need to keep your eyes on.

Clients and prospects.

How can you help them at the moment?

Are you going out of your way to engage with them more than ever?

Are you putting on more events just for them?

Are you surveying them?

What’s happening?

What’s the story?

Go engage with them, ask them, help them if you can or point them in the direction where they can get the answers they need.

Be a resource, this is an ideal time to grab the high ground in your market.

Go! Run!

It’s a land grab…stake your claim

Your List

In 1949 David Ogilvy made a list of the clients he most wanted. The list included General Foods, Lever Brothers, Bristol Myers, Campbell Soup and Shell .Within ten years they were all clients of Ogilvy & Mather. He also picked up the likes of American Express and IBM along the way.

Now he did some spectacular work for these clients, but Ogilvy was proud of his list, so much that he wrote about it in both of his books.

So, do you have a list of target clients?

If you do, how is your business focussed on winning those clients.

If you don't start your list now, today.

It's that simple, decide what you want, write it down and organise your business to go after them.

Sorry if this upsets any MBA types, but this stuff is NOT difficult.

Do it now, today, no more excuses!

You get one chance, don’t blow it and there are no excuses.

If I visit your restaurant and the food and service is below average then to me it’s a lousy restaurant.

If I email your furniture repair service and it takes you four days to get back to me than I judge you as slow and useless.

If I phone my account manager at my bank and I get this voicemail message “Your call cannot be taken and you cannot leave a message, so please call later.” I assume you don’t care. And yes I heard that message today, from my bank. You know the one that lost all the money!

As Sam Silverstein says “no more excuses”. I don’t care how good you are the other 99% of the time if you suck when I interact with you then; you suck all the time to me.

Consistency is often our biggest challenge both in marketing and operations. It’s easy being a good on the sunny days, but can you still be the same when the clouds come over and the wind picks up. It’s not about being the occasional hero; it’s about your average being better than the rest. Lots cannot, if you can you will stand out.

Be ruthless and work on this every day.

David Ogilvy and who you want as clients

When David Ogilvy started Ogilvy & Mather New York in 1949 they were a tiny back street advertising agency. This inexperienced Englishman was competing with the giants of Madison Avenue and Chicago. Yet within twenty five years had grown to one of the top four agencies in the world.

How did he do it?

Well David Ogilvy has written two books were he explains all about his advertising techniques and ability but he did two other things, one of which is so simple that you and I could do it.

He simply wrote down the top ten clients he wanted to work for and within a dozen years he had them all as clients including giants of the day such as Shell. He carried that list with him at all times.

Do you have a list of the top clients you want to work for?

Could you give me ten now?

Is the list written down?

Do you carry with you at all time?

This isn’t difficult is it?