selling your services – not your soul. marketer extraordinary
TRANSCRIPT
Selling Your Services – Not Your Soul
Marketer Extraordinary
And what a great guy!
Richard Branson is ..
• A dynamic, successful and glamorous entrepreneur and so are Virgin products and services.
• A principled man who not only cares about children and world poverty but is using his wealth and position to do something about it.
And the message is ...
• You can share some of the dynamism, glamour and success as a Virgin customer.
• By buying Virgin, you associate yourself with Richard Branson’s moral values and help him in his charitable work.
The impact is ...
• You choose to spend your money on Virgin products or services
• Virgin companies’ profits rise
• Virgin and Richard Branson’s reputations are reinforced
• You feel good about Virgin
• AND you feel good about yourself!
Why marketing matters
• SDS should mean individual choice
• People are denied choice if they don’t know about you
• Marketing is your chance to tell people who you are, what you stand for, what
you do and how you do it
People first
Market research – about you
• Existing ‘customers’ – what do they really think about your services?
• Do they think your services are high quality and values based?
• Would they go elsewhere if they could?
• Do they know what else you could provide?
Listening to the customer
• Who else might want to use SDS to buy your services? Find out who they are and what they want - and keep checking.
• Is there something else that people want that you could provide?
SDS – obstacle or opportunity
• Do you need to ‘sell’ SDS in the first place?
• What do you know about perceptions of SDS?
• Are there other barriers to promoting your service in the context of SDS?
Planning and integration
• Part of strategic planning
• Agree what identity you want to present – what are your key values, main activities and attributes?
• Agree what you want others to know about your organisation, your services, your issues – what are your key messages?
Make every contact count
• Face to face
• Phone, email, website, publications
• Funding applications, events, stalls & fundraising
• Feedback opportunities
Planned and integrated
• Set out marketing objectives in strategic plans and individual workplans
• Consider marketing issues in the same way as you consider financial, staffing or other issues ... automatically
• Include marketing in staff/volunteer/management group induction and training – produce guidelines
Word of mouth
• The power of personal testimony
• Encouragement by example – overcoming obstacles
• Living the values
• Constantly seeking feedback and being seen to act on it
