Education Education Education

Sorry to quote Tony Blair in the headline there, but I suppose he is a great marketer (could you sell the Labour party all day every day?).

This post is about the value of education seminars as part of your marketing mix. It’s not a new idea, but one that I was recently on the receiving end of from a company called CMC Markets. They’re basically a spread betting company that provide a service where you bet on movements in share prices, the price of oil, or any of a variety of other indices.

The product is actually straight forward. You open an account and download their Marketmaker software. The software then enables you to very quickly start placing spread bets and then you’re away. The difficulty facing CMC Markets is two fold: people don’t understand how it all works, and there is a perception of its product being extremely risky – which to be fair it can be. You have the opportunity to make a lot of money very quickly, but conversely you can also lose a lot of money quickly as well.

CMC uses education as a way of countering both of these negatives. It’s education seminars help its clients to understand how to use the software and how to manage their exposure to risk. This helps to sign up customers, but also to increase the life time value of each customer. The seminars also help to dispel the perception of risk, as by increasing understanding, people are less likely to lose the shirt off their back.

So could this work for your business. In a word yes, why not? If you have a product that’s very technical or complex, where you need a specific licence or experience, then free education could help. It doesn’t necessarily have to be class room based, you could produce a small booklet, or better still a podcast, or online demonstration. This stuff is all accessible to even the smallest micro business.

Give it a try, education could easily be part of your multilevel marketing mix.

Online payments

I’m a big fan of buying online. The ease of surfing the web, finding what you want, getting reviews and actually making a purchase is fantastic. I don’t even have to leave my desk. Great for lazy shoppers like me. At this time of the year it’s also perfect for beating the Christmas crowds.

However, for e-tailers, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to compete with the high street. The shops are becoming smarter at competing on price, for example PCs and electronics seem to be almost on a par these days. The little extra you pay at the shops more than makes up for the extra service.

So what can e-tailers do to ensure they remain competitive. Well for me, one of the biggest hang-ups with buying online is the checkout process. How frustrating is it when you decide on a product you want to buy, but the website makes it difficult to buy. Either you have to register all of your details, or you have to go to a different site, or there are hidden charges for delivery, or the delivery options are complex. One of the worst offenders for me here is Midland Main Line the UK train operator. Each time you find the tickets you want you need to login, however, I travel so infrequently I can never remember my login details – after all, I have login details for so many sites it gets a little confusing.

But today I came across an excellent example which I have to share. I’ve just booked some tickets to see Casino Royale, the new James Bond film, at my local Cineworld. I booked online and the process was so easy I actually felt compelled to write this blog. The process was smooth, simple, no login required, the product choice was stunningly easy and I received a confirmation email within seconds. Now that’s what I call great service – check it out for yourselves – www.cineworld.co.uk. This is without doubt a best practice example.

Have a look at your checkout process. Can you make it easier? Actually make a purchase as a customer and examine your experience. Was it positive or can it be improved? Are your delivery options inline with the competition, can they be simplified and so on. At this time of the year you can’t afford to get it wrong.

Free tax advice

To all small business owners. Want good advice on tax issues but can’t afford an accountant’s fees. Then check out the Tax Blagger blog. I’ve found this info resource extremely useful, especially for topics such as tax on mobile phone bills and accounting for car use expenses. There is also a free advice service where you can add questions online. Great stuff Tax Blagger!

http://www.cumulotax.co.uk/

Should training be in my marketing plan?

When you run a small business you pretty much have to become a jack of all trades. You are the HR manager, the PR guru, the product expert, the guy in the post room, the sales manager and so on. This is great for variety, but unfortunately you will have to come to terms with the fact that it’s unlikely you’ll be good at everything.

For example, if you run a computer company you’ll know your motherboard from your RAM and your hard disk from your CD-Rom. But you may not know the difference between your sales funnel and your buying roles, or your MBO and appraisal scheme.

So what can you do about this? Well, if you’re a micro business, one of the best things you can do is some personal development. Depending on your budget, you might like to attend a course, or buy a book that details the latest thinking or concepts. If you’re slightly larger, you could appoint a consultant to manage some of the more specialised roles. Obviously for the larger still you could take on a new employee, budget permitting.

But should this form part of your marketing plan? Well, to my mind, staff development is as valid a marketing campaign as advertising. People are one of the four Ps of marketing (or seven Ps of services marketing). The better trained you or your staff are, the better you will be able to service your customers needs and get those all important sales. For employees, training is a great way to increase motivation, generate commitment and improve performance.

Good marketing needs good people. Therefore training should certainly be an element of your multilevel marketing plan.

Cold calling tips

I just came across this article about cold calling on Business Week’s website.

It makes interesting reading and has five essential tips for getting better quality cold calls. If this is something you’re using to grow your business – and I’d imagine 99% of you are – then these few simple tips may help.

To my mind the most important of which is to qualify quickly. Make sure you know the person you are talking to has the budget, the authority and the need to buy your product or service. If he / she doesn’t, you either need to move on to another contact within that organisation, or to a different target altogether.

Business Week – cold calling tips

Can partnerships help?

When you run a small business, it’s always time for individual achievement. Isn’t it? You have to keep yourself motivated to make sure you deliver quality products and services every single day. And of course you need to sell every single day – which makes us all salespeople by the way.

But what happens when your customer asks for something you can’t deliver well on your own? You have three options: to turn the business away, to deliver a poor product, or to work with a partner.

Now, I’m a big fan of turning business away if you can’t deliver a quality product. Poor products or services have the potential for creating irreparable damage to your business, both in the short and long term – particularly in professional services where quality product and strong lasting relationships are essential. So could partnering be a sensible solution?

For an example, consider a web designer whose client asks for help in writing a marketing plan. Now the designer’s core skill is in building websites, but he doesn’t want to turn the work away. So, he cobbles together a marketing plan, with a range of traditional advertising and online tactics which he thinks will do the job OK. Fair enough, he can charge a little extra for the marketing plan, but will he have delivered a quality product that will delight his customer? It’s probably unlikely – after all, marketers these days are degree educated, with specialist qualifications and often lots of valuable experience.

So how do you know which option to take? Forget about profit for a minute and ask yourself ‘what’s best for my client?’. If you need to work with partners to deliver what your customer needs, then that’s best in the long term, even though it may mean you lose some margin now.

To develop a good network takes time and trust, but the harder you work at it the stronger the relationships you’ll build. Write some standard terms and pricing schemes and importantly ensure your network shares your values on service quality.

Partnering, where possible, is surely always better than turning business away.

Upselling – what’s that I hear you ask?

Are you looking for a marketing tactic that won’t cost a bomb. Well here’s a cracker which when applied well can work wonders. It’s called upselling and is basically when you try to sell additional products or units at the point of sale.

For example, you walk into a burger restaurant for lunch:

You: I’ll have a Big Mic meal please.

Cashier: What drink would you like?

You: Cola please.

Cashier: (and here’s the upsell) would you like to make it large for an extra 30p?

It’s as simple as that. The restaurant adds 30p to your bill, a dozen more fries and a lot more ice to your drink, and there’s an extra slice of revenue straight into the cash register for very little extra cost.

So how can you do this? Have a think about complimentary products you can offer. If you’re an architect, can you sell photographic services to clients to record their newly completed home on completion? If you’re a café, can you offer a meal deal for a sandwich, drink and bag of crisps for slightly less than the individual items. As a book vendor, how about a discount for multiple purchases?

And this leads nicely onto a whole new marketing topic – joint venturing. You don’t necessarily only have to offer products or services you can personally deliver. How about partnering with another company to deliver the upsold services? This may reduce your margins, but think about all of the other potential advantages it offers.

Writer’s block

Wow, it’s finally happened. After writing my blog pretty much everyday for 6 weeks, I’ve finally ran out of things to say. Well, sort of, I’ve got a case of writers block. Fortunately this in itself is a good topic to write about.

But as I’m no expert, I’ve been searching the internet for some guidance. After trawling through several sites selling ebooks, I found this page with some free advice. Check it out, it has some interesting ideas for getting over writers block (and a soft sell for some software).

http://www.mantex.co.uk/samples/writers_block.htm

(By the way, I’ve also noticed my posts getting shorter and shorter. I suspect this is also linked to the writer’s block).

Networking

I attended a networking event last night. It was very interesting, as these events always tend to be, but I was reminded of the need to:

A) qualify people quickly to ensure your time is used effectively,

B) move away from people who don’t represent potential new business – after all, you are there to find new customers, not new friends.

If you get it right, networking can be a very good marketing and new business tool. I came away with 3 strong leads yesterday and a larger network of potential partners and advocates. Great value for money as the only expense was the travel costs – about a fiver.

I found the event through Business Link for London – an organisation I strongly recommend looking up if you’re a new or start up company looking for advice.

Exhibitions and tradeshows

Exhibitions and tradeshows can be a very effective tool for generating new business. But, they’re expensive. You have to pay to attend, to resource the stand in man hours, to provide all the materials you need on the day etc etc. It is not a cheap marketing vehicle that’s for sure.

So it’s very important that you plan your participation well. Have a look at this article on the Small Business Brief website by ‘The Tradeshow Coach’ Susan Friedmann. Susan has written 27 top tips for making the most of tradeshows:

27 Exhibiting Do’s and Don’ts

To add my top tip to Susan’s 27, it would be to plan your participation at trade shows at least a year in advance. Put a calendar of the major events in your industry together, attend any you haven’t been to before and make sure they reach your target audience – sometimes the sales hype you hear doesn’t accurately reflect who you are likely to meet.

Once you know which show to attend, get your budget organised and book on to the priority shows. Always negotiate with the vendor, you may be able to get a better price if you ask.

And finally, on the day remember you are there to talk to customers, not chat on the phone or collect emails – this always looks terrible and will certainly turn potential customers away from your stand.