rand reference the outstanding customer …€¦ · we hope you find the ideas valuable, and...

THE HEART

AND SOUL OF THE MATTER

BRAND PREFERENCEOUTSTANDING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENTMARKET LEADERSHIPCUSTOMER KNOWLEDGEPROFITABLE CUSTOMERSSTRONG SALES PIPELINEGREAT ADVERTISINGSMART DIGITAL MARKETINGTHOUGHT LEADERSHIPOPTIMUM PRICINGPRODUCT AND SERVICE GROWTHSUCCESSFUL ROI

CUSTOMER KNOWLEDGE

WHY UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMER IS THE HEART OF MARKETING AND SELLING

CUSTOMER KNOWLEDGE EBOOK © 2016

BRAND PREFERENCE

OUTSTANDING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

MARKET LEADERSHIP

CUSTOMER KNOWLEDGE

PROFITABLE CUSTOMERS

STRONG SALES PIPELINE

GREAT ADVERTISING

SMART DIGITAL MARKETING

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

OPTIMUM PRICING

PRODUCT AND SERVICE GROWTH

SUCCESSFUL ROI

Marketing Director Centre uses a 12 Goal approach for best practice Strategic Marketing, Lead Generation and Business Growth led by an experienced Marketing Director

GOAL APPROACH FOR BEST PRACTICE

FOREWORD

Have you ever wondered why some companies manage to sell boat loads of stuff at twice the price of anyone else, while others can barely sell anything at half the price? We deal with this issue in the first of our books. Marketing and selling has changed a lot in the last few years and the parameters are now different, and yet? The old issues still remain, for some, the message you are talking to your customers about is just not what your customers want to hear. If this rings true, then all the blogging in the world isn’t going to bridge that disconnect. You need to really understand your customers.

At Marketing Director Centre, it is the very heart and soul of what we do.

There are customers who may love your product and there are likely still plenty out there who probably would also love your product but just don’t know about it. A new website, a branding exercise, more social media; none of that is likely to fix the problem without first putting in place the foundations of really understanding your customer - which is why we have put this little book together.

In our global companies, Marketing Director Centre, Sales Director Centre and iGoto, we see hundreds of businesses every year. The universal request we receive is “how do I grow” and the universal problem is, people look for growth in the wrong place – they rarely start with their customers.

We also recognise that marketing (and sales to a lesser extent) is unanimously presented in a complex, usually incomprehensible manner by most marketers. Why we can’t speak plainly to people is baffling! The result is that most people are unsure of what marketing is, or what it should be as a discipline.

So, to resolve this we have written a small library of key marketing topics, hopefully skewed such that plain speaking people who are in everyday businesses can understand the important themes.

We hope you find the ideas valuable, and welcome the opportunity to tell us what you think. Call us, write to us or simply post a comment in one of the vast array of social media sites that are around today.

Most of all though, we hope that you can use the ‘common sense’ approach found in this series, to help build your business. Please let us know how you go.

Michael Butler



If you want more customers to hear about your business, and more customers to really love you, then this book is for you.

MARKETING DIRECTOR CENTRECMO CENTRESALES DIRECTOR CENTREiGoto

YOU SHOULD READ THIS BOOK IF;

1 You want more customers, faster

2 You want better customers who write you nice testimonials, unsolicited

3 You want your business to earn more money

This is not a “how to” book for your business. Your business is most definitely too diverse to adopt a one size fits all approach. Nobody could do that, and in fact if they promise that, run a mile. No, this is a book, part of a series of books which has some ideas that might be useful in helping you develop a marketing framework for your business. In particular it’s the framing that is going to help you engage with your customers.

GOOD REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS EBOOK


When I started my sales and marketing journey, I used to work with plumbers. Believe it or not, some plumbers are complex businesses, and they are certainly in a competitive environment. There are thousands of plumbers around today. Studying the marketing habits of plumbers is a useful exercise in how to market to plain speaking people.

The collective messaging of virtually all plumbers is based around the ‘leaky tap’. “If you have a leaky tap, call Phil the Plumber - We’ll be around to fix it”, is the message we usually hear. Then, almost as an afterthought there comes the refrain - ‘Quality and reliability guaranteed – we won’t be beaten on price.’

These are the messages plastered across every plumber’s van in the country, with the graphic of a big leaky tap, and a drip just about to drop from the faucet. Sound familiar?

A plumber fixes a leaky tap – so what? Isn’t that what plumbers do? Leaky taps and blocked toilets.

So, guess what happens when one plumber comes up against another plumber, and both of them are saying the same thing to their prospective client? What does a client judge them on? The one thing left available to them of course – price! So, plumbers compete against each other, allowing their customers to judge them on the only thing left, price, which provides the impetus for the race to the bottom. Who will go out of business first?

This is a situation we find so often. We have found it in ASX-listed companies and simple corner stores. Customers judge us on price, because we don’t address their issues. They are not the centre of our business.

THE LEAKY TAP Customer Knowledge Case Study



This plumber, discovered that his customers hated most of all– can you guess – that plumbers are always late, and lie about this to their customers so they can win the business. They say “I will arrive at 9am on Wednesday”, knowing full well it is unlikely they will be there before 4pm on Friday. In the meantime, their customers take time off work, and sit around watching reruns of Neighbours.

The CLEAN PLUMBER in Sydney offers a simple guarantee that says, “if we’re late, you don’t pay”. Such simplicity of message, that addressed the greatest client frustration.

WE FOUND A PLUMBER WHO TELLS A DIFFERENT STORY


The Clean Plumber in Sydney offers a simple guarantee that says, “if we’re late, you don’t pay”

TIRED OF ALWAYS DEALING WITH COMPLAINTS AND OFFERING REFUNDS, HE WENT TO HIS CUSTOMERS AND ASKED THEM A FEW SIMPLE QUESTIONS:

• Whatisyourbiggestfrustrationwhendealingwithaplumber?

• Whatdoyouhatethemost?

• Doyouunderstandwhataplumberactuallydoes?

• Haveyouanideawhytheychargewhattheycharge, andwouldyouliketoknow?

One by one they then proceeded to eliminate all the other objections customers had about using them. Most plumbers leave an almighty mess when they leave and most customers don’t understand what they are being charged for; all of these issues were addressed and the story told. Needless to say, customers love them because they stand out in a crowded market, and they used those happy customers to tell that story to others.

It’s really marketing for plain speaking people, and yet so few ever bother to implement the real fundamentals, preferring instead to waste thousands on illogical Facebook campaigns that deliver little, and are impossible to measure.

Plain speaking people running a business need some smart thinking, and it is usually the most obvious things that are lacking.

• Findoutwhatyourcustomersreallywant,notwhateveryoneelsethinkstheywant. Try asking them

• Findoutsomeofthethingsthatreallyfrustratethemintheirbusiness,andthen address those issues upfront

• Whentheytellyoutheyloveyou,useittotellothersaboutyou

• If90%ofbusinessesinyourindustryarefightingonprice,beware!Somethingisgoingtogiveverysoon,butitalsoprovidesyouwithanopportunity

WHICH LEADS US ON QUITE NICELY TO THE ...

WHAT CAN YOU TAKE OUT OF THIS?


Ever wondered what people really think of your product? Try asking them one day, it is a fascinating exercise. Be prepared for some surprises as well. In our business we deal with lots of companies, large and small. Some come to us for technological help and answers, others come to us to discuss branding or to tell a story to their customers. But in every instance, we always try to start with asking our customers certain things about how they feel about themselves, their business, their people, and their company.

It’s the very first step in the entire process of discovery. Some people call it research, which it is. But just that research sounds so mechanical, and “tick-box”. We prefer to use the term Customer Intelligence.

You can get people to fill out a questionnaire, you can ring them, and you can do it on your website with some of the tools provided by Marketing Director Centre. However you want to do it though, we suggest you do it.

Apart from finding out how well you’re doing as a business, there’s an underlying reality in research, and that is, what are the messages? Almost every company we ever meet, with few exceptions, fails to communicate with their customers the way their customers expect or even want to be spoken to. There’s a disconnect, or a gap.

We say, “Our tyres last 100,00kms before you need to change them,” Our customers want, “will they keep my kid¬s safe when they’re driving the car?” We say, “We’ll do your tax refund and only charge you $99.” Our customers want, “If you took more care and charged more, could you find more things I could claim back?” Very few bother to go through the exercise of really finding out what their customers want.

Another way of uncovering these gaps is to look out for industry research. It doesn’t cost much to buy, and there is a lot that is free on the internet that can be useful, you just have to dig around a little. You will find research about your competitors that can be extremely useful as well. Again, look for market gaps.

CUSTOMER VALUE PROPOSITION AND KNOWLEDGE


Market gaps are unmet needs. They are also unmet by your competitors as well. They happen because nobody bothers to ask people what they really want.

There’s a third process you can undertake that will enable you to see how you can fill those gaps, and that is a simple SWOT analysis. Everyone knows what a SWOT is, they’re old hat now. A SWOT is best handled by an external party as it allows everyone involved to speak freely about each component of the SWOT without fear or intimidation. You can still undertake it effectively, it just means that you will have to be completely open about allowing everyone their say (there are no wrong answers in a SWOT).

You should now be able to see a picture developing. What we hope to arrive at is the derivation process of creating a headline for your company. It is a headline that is unique in the marketplace that nobody else can fill, and it creates a real personality for your company. We call it a Unique Selling Proposition or a Value Proposition. It is much more than a strapline or a mission statement; it is a statement that absolutely defines who your company is and what it does.

WANT TO SEE A REALLY GOOD EXAMPLE?

A SWOT analysis tells you what your company can achievethatotherseither aren’t or can’tachieve.

SWOT ANALYSIS



No comparison really. The second one is [at best] some type of a mission statement. It is not a headline for your company - it does not define what your company is, what it stands for, why it is different from the competition and any actions it will take on your behalf. Worst of all, it aligns itself with thousands of others in the same category.

In the first instance, the company headline or value proposition totally defines that company. Dominos Pizza is now a household name. They went to market, and made some amazing discoveries about their customers - they discovered that when mum and dad come home from work, and haven’t had time to cook dinner, they want something fast. Dominos is as much a delivery company, as it is a pizza company. Their value proposition defined an entire company culture. Once they worked out what their customers really wanted (they asked them extensively) they were able to put every ounce of energy into meeting that need. The whole company stands behind it and it is one of the most valuable value propositions in the world.

“Hotfreshpizzadeliveredtoyourdoor in 30 mins or it’s free”COMPARE THAT TO “We want to be the best Italian pizza company in the world”.


SO JUST TO RECAP...

• Askyourcustomerswhattheyreallywantfromyouasanorganisation

• Useresearch,industryresearchanddirectresearch(we’llorganisetogetitdone for you if you need us to)

• Thinkaboutthemessagesyouneedtobetalkingabout,fromtheirperspective

• Getveryspecificwithavalueproposition(wecanreallyhelpyouwiththisaswell)

• Andplease–stayawayfromgeneralisations,suchas‘quality’,or‘reliability’

• UseasimpleSWOTanalysiswithyourteam,whowillknowasmuchasyoudoabout your customers, because they probably talk to them

• Findthegapsinyourindustry-trytofindouttheneedsthatarenotbeingmet

If you want to know where to start defining or redefining your business, hopefully these simple ideas will give you a place to start. Marketing Director Centre has its own process of walking our customers through defining their own company value proposition, and in some instances we create different propositions for different customer types, within the same company.

If you don’t get this right - if you do and say what everyone else says, and assume that your customers will just get it, then you will miss the opportunity, and even go out of business. Even in a competitive industry, such as pizza delivery or plumbing, it is exceedingly possible to differentiate yourself from others. The good news for all our customers, is that few people ever take the trouble to start at the beginning, and this is where we start.

IT IS ALSO WHERE YOU SHOULD START. YOU MUST GET THIS PART RIGHT.

Here are a few of our useful tips about really understanding your customers, and then how to act on them;

If you would like some help with any aspect of your business, then please call us, or visit us on this landing page (so we can see how many of our friends really like us – yes that’s you) and send us a contact and we can follow up. You can also call us on 1300 784 133 as well. Or you can visit us at our website.

If you have any questions about anything, then please contact us. And don’t be upset if we call you and you really don’t want to talk to us - just tell us and we’ll go away. Who wants to sell something to somebody who doesn’t want it or need it anyway?

Talk to us soon.

WEB ADDRESS www.mymarketingdirector.com.au

EMAIL [email protected]

TELEPHONE 1300 784 133


WHERE TO FROM HERE?

rand reference the outstanding customer …€¦ · we hope you find the ideas valuable, and...

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