Future-proof your business from sales slumps

The current market is proof that there are cycles of highs and lows in business. The key to a successful business is ensuring the lows do not go as deep, and the highs last as long as possible. As part of this business sustainability, you need a marketing plan to keep your sales momentum going. In reality though lack of time, resources and cashflow mean that this ideal scenario is not always possible – but it can be.
A marketing plan should not be treated as just a cost of doing business, but as an investment to straighten out the dips in your business cashflow and regarded to be as necessary as a business plan to keep you on track.

In fact, your marketing plan should work hand in hand with your business plan as it’s objective is to help you achieve your business goals. As a result, the following should be applied to both your marketing and your business.

Firstly, put away the shotgun!
That is, a shotgun approach to business, marketing and advertising. ‘Shotgun marketing’ is typically a business owners reaction to a quiet market. But by only acknowledging the need for marketing when you need it or have time to do it (that is, in the quiet patches), you are forcing yourself to spend money when it is at it’s most scarce. In effect you’ve finally decided to be proactive about getting business at the time when it hurts the most to do it. By it’s reactive nature, a shotgun marketing approach only provides a short-term solution without regard to the future goals of your business and is mostly ineffective and a waste of precious dollars.
The other shotgun promotion, ‘shotgun advertising’, is a splatter gun approach to advertising. The human brain can only absorb a few things at a time (when switched on, even less when it’s not consciously looking to find your message) and if you try and cover every aspect of your business, for fear of one being left out, in your advertising your advertising will be watered down, resulting in having little or no impact at all. Alternatively, if your business has focus then your advertising message is clearer and has a better result.

Think of the ‘F’ word
This is a word that Gordon Ramsay is synonymous with. But there is another more important ‘F’ word that he applies in his television show Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares – Focus.

In the show, the seasoned, successful chef is called in to help flailing restaurants. The restaurants in question are trying to appeal to every man woman and child. His formula for their success is simplicity and focus. In fact the first thing he does is help them identify what they should stop doing.
By identifying what products and services are making the best profit in your business, and by trying to sell more of the same, you’re actually not risking less sales, but you’re giving yourself more time to focus on the more profitable sales and have the time for these better sales to increase before you need to resort to the reactive approach.

When you can produce a focused, consistent message about your business and when the fear of not being everything to everyone is less than the fear that hard times that will come again, you can finally start to iron out those sales slumps.

Published Canterbury Today Issue 92, November/December 2008

More sales from better clients

Imagine if every customer that walked through your doors knew your service was better than the competition, and their only question was “How soon can you deliver?”, and not “How much is it going to cost?”. Here is a little insight into how you can get more sales from better clients.

If you were to think in terms of opposites, you’d think that branding was at the opposite end of the spectrum of business to sales. I recently went to a workshop on ‘Closing the Sale’* to learn more about the world of sales. Expecting to learn how to become the sharp salesman and having an answer for every ‘no’ that I would encounter in business I was surprised to find that it was actually a session on branding. We discussed our 60 second elevator pitch (what can you say about your business to capture a persons attention in 15 seconds, much like a headline should grab attention) and what we could say about our business to leave them wanting to know more. It was also about you helping your customer to buy off you and not how to create a pushy sales pitch at all! Fantastic! Their approach was that your business is solving a problem? And isn’t this why we got into business in the first place — we discovered a problem that we had the answer to and built a business around it. The further we get away from why we went into business in the first place the harder it is to get great clients.
I’ve already discussed the importance of focus in your business (see Blog Successful business, or branded business?) but I believe there is something other than the perceived risk of saying no to work that may be holding you back from focusing your brand (and your business): If you make a promise to your customers you then have to deliver.

Put your money where your brand is.

“Companies that put their money behind their brand and not their business fail to realise that the business is the brand.”

John Moore, author of Tribal Knowledge, Lessons learned from working inside Starbucks.

It’s all very well being told how you present your business, how to advertise, and what to say, but now you’ve made a promise, you’ve got to keep it and that falls on you, the business owner. The thought conjures up visions of complaining customers, 12 hour working days to keep up the demand and the fear that your staff may not deliver the same level of service as the owner.
This won’t happen – if you do it right. Ideally you should be working on your brand at the same time as your business. As you find focus in your company and discover the clients you really like to work with your brand will grow alongside. If you provide focused products or services along with your focused branding, and “say what you do, then do what you say”, you cannot fail to meet your customers expectations, and your staff will have a clear understanding about what it is that makes your business unique.
As John Moore states in the quote above, your brand is your business. Simply throwing money at your design and advertising is not enough to build a strong brand, but in keeping your brand promises you will create a better brand and a better business.

Published Canterbury Today Issue 91, September/October 2008

Successful business or branded business?

Business success and brand success go hand in hand. In fact for the rest of this article, you can replace the word ‘brand’ and use the word ‘business’. Go on, try it. I’ve even italicised them to make it easier to find.
When we discuss branding, and use examples we tend to use the big guys to get our point across. I know this because I am the most guilty of all. The problem with this is it automatically says “branding is only important for the big guys, so I’ll worry about it when I’m big”. WRONG! Every business that is a household name has grown their business through two rules of branding – focus and consistency.

Brand success rule number one: Focus
Three words that make me shudder – One Stop Shop. The concept of a one stop shop is great. You are thinking of the benefit to your consumer, and saying if I was a customer I wouldn’t want to trudge around town looking for new tyres, an oil change and a cut and polish, what if I could get everything I need for my car in one place. Unfortunately you cannot please everyone. If this really was true then the tyre specialist, car wash cafes, oil change stops would never have opened their doors (and kept them open). You have only to go to an Australian mall to prove this. The malls are full of stores that specialise. They only sell vacuum cleaners; or electric shavers; or popcorn; or magazines; or storage containers. It would be a step backwards for the shaver store to have a customer come in and buy a vacuum cleaner while her husband shops for a razor? Or the popcorn store to start selling confectionery because a few people asked for it? In the short term the store would increase their turnover (not to be confused with profit), as more product is being moved, but in 5 years what will that brand stand for? What about department stores? Their focus is still not about catering to everyone, but specialising in a certain level of goods. David Jones’ philosophy is to have every top brand under one roof. The Warehouse is “where everyone gets a bargain” and right of return. These store types sell consumer expectation, each at a different level.

Brand success rule number two: Consistency
The best way to avoid brand confusion is to say what you do, then and doing what you say! Simple. Then do this over and over. The power of repetition is incredible. If you do something once a day for 30 days, you’ve created a habit! If you hear the same thing every day it penetrates the filters of the mind and embeds itself into the subconscious. Can you finish these sentences: “It’s moments like these…”; “Kiwi kids, are… kids”; “go for g-…”? No doubt you’ve got the jingle stuck in your head by now? So imagine how powerful it could be if your business was not just an audible repetition, but that every time someone dealt with your company they got the same experience, whether they are reading your website, or talking to a staff member. The difference? With repetition of television ads you know you are being advertised to and the consumer puts up barriers, with consumer and brand consistency it’s a whole lot more influential – and believable.

If this sounds too easy, you need to know it only works if you actually follow through and do what you say you will, exhibit a focused business, and have a great product or service. Then you are planning to succeed.

Published Canterbury Today, Issue 90, July/August 2008