just ask mary
Answers to the most asked marketing, operations and management questions by corporate managers, CEO's, promoters, authors, entrepreneurs and you. Go ahead...just ask Mary
Friday, February 14, 2014
Ever Sold Your Business?
Just finalizing the sale of my consulting business and looking forward to the next adventure! Would love to hear your story!
Friday, October 18, 2013
What Happens After Success?
Many think that success is the destination. I urge you to consider that it is a layover.
Not to rain on anyone's parade who has (finally) achieved success in their business, but I want you to avoid a potential devastating reality that I have seen sneak up on too many "successful" entrepreneurs. Too many times to list, I have been asked to help bring life back into a business that peaked with immense success and then (sometimes slowly) diminished into declining sales and profits.
How does this happen?
I have written before about how this happens and although it is important to know the pitfalls, I think it is critical to understand that once you attain success, the game is not over. Therefore, I offer to you what I know to be important to understand early in the life of your business so that you can maneuver through success to sustained success and continued growth.
A few questions to ask yourself…
- Do you want to continue to grow?
- Do you have an exit strategy?
- Do you intend on selling your business (at any time)?
- Does your passion run hot for new markets or is your vision myopic?
The above questions were really breadcrumbs to lead you to the answers. Trick move —sorry.
If you don't continue to grow your business, it drastically effects your ability to sell your business when you are ready to leave (retire, move onto other things, et al). It will also eventually effect market share. (Yes. Someone else will come into your space and do it better, faster or cheaper — or just with more attention!) Therefore, you must add new markets, new channels, new products, new exposure (entrance) points and new marketing strategies to move past the success phase and to continue to thrive.
This isn't to say that you shouldn't enjoy your success. We all set goals to achieve them. Be proud of what you have done. But please, do not take this achievement as the end game. To use an old phrase, it is a marathon – not just a sprint. Another way to look at it is that it is continuous entrepreneurship. It is not a permanent destination. Success is just a layover onto the excitement of more growth!
So, once you have attained your goals, celebrate! Then, get excited about the future. Don't stop! Build new products. Find new ways to promote. Seek new markets. Develop partnerships and consider prudent, well-suited acquisitions. With a solid understanding that there is a "post success" phase you will be ready for it. You will be ahead of most who believe that success is the destination. Enjoy your layover there, but get back on the cruise ship and take the rest of the journey. When you are ready to move on, you will reap the rewards of being a serial entrepreneur with a sale worthy business that possesses a innate culture of continued growth. Sound life a journey? It is...enjoy it!
Fore reading on the pitfalls that many encounter, here are a couple of past posts to take a look at:
Are You in Business … or Enjoying a Hobby? http://justaskmary.blogspot.com/2013/08/are-you-in-business-or-enjoying-hobby.html
What Does Familiarity Breed in Your Business? http://justaskmary.blogspot.com/2013/02/what-does-familiarity-breed-in-your.html
Happy Entrepreneurship!Mary
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Are You in Business … or Enjoying a Hobby?
I’ve been helping businesses attain challenging goals for
years. Often the challenge is to orchestrate and accomplish a “turn-around”
because the business is declining or has stalled. At other times, it is to implement
a new program, product or deploy a new channel or “make rain” for a new start
up.
Although there are themes in all businesses that cross
industry, size and locale, there is a definite trend in SMBs that I saw 20
years ago and unfortunately, I still see today.
We have all heard of the glorious stories of idea–folk who
start in their garage and end up with a multi-billion dollar corporation. There
are also some SMBs that started this way and appear to look successful…
Until…
·
A competitor comes in and takes away customers
·
A cash flow issue “appears”
·
The tax person comes calling and the business is
in arrears
·
One disgruntled (or justified) employee files a
lawsuit and puts the business in danger
·
The “tried and true” form of gaining customers
dries up or a new way of attracting customers comes along and you missed the
early boat – but your competitor didn’t
·
The founder of the business is the business and s/he is getting older, ill or ready to retire
so sales are declining
·
Focusing on providing superior product or
service has always worked for the business before but now the “numbers” are
declining
·
Technology has moved ahead of your business
processes and costs are degrading margins or the business is not readied for
the technology changes
These are just a few of the trends that I have seen but they
are real and they happen all the time. And, this is when a business either asks
for help or eventually declares defeat. I urge you, even if the above “untils”
loosely describe your situation to ask for help. A good business and marketing
consultant can help you and your business to get ahead of the issues but you cannot wait until the problems are
dire. One too many businesses I have tried to help, waited too long. It
saddens me terribly to see people’s dreams crumble, especially when they could
have been saved.
If any of the “untils” are in your business you are a
hobbyist and that is a wonderful thing. However, most of you wanted to run a
business so get an advisor/business couch/consultant to help identify and
resolve these “fixable” issues for you and learn the nuts and bolts on running
a business not a hobby.
Happy Marketing!
Thursday, July 11, 2013
What Can You Learn from the Housewives Franchise?
Whether you are hooked on
reality TV or not, you have to respect the empire rendered by the Housewives
franchise.
Why is that?
This very popular TV
franchise has struck a chord with viewers. It manages to take you on a journey
and allows you to feel an array of emotion; everything from luxurious fantasy
to vile loathing.
This is important for
marketers to pay attention to. Not just for the obvious reasons regarding
popular pop culture and its impact on consumer behavior, but the subtleties of
why these shows are so popular and subscribed to across the offerings.
Emotion. These shows make you
feel. As said earlier, the ‘feelings’ range and are varied, but each episode is
usually a roller coaster ride, taking the viewer along to love and hate and
fear and protect all in one episode.
Good marketing does the same
thing. But I caution that just evoking emotion is not enough. There must be
content and branding.
I am certain that you can all
cite examples of commercials you recall or remember but do not know who or what
the Product or Company is associated with the spot. This is poor marketing.
Good branding is like the
Housewives franchise. Each episode, across the various versions, evokes
emotion, provides an experiential ride and continuously delivers consistent
branding in imaging, format and content. While flipping channels and landing on
one of these shows, you know it right away and you know the ‘real’ Housewives
shows versus those that are spin offs or replicas. That’s good marketing.
So as the characters … um
real people… in NY, OC, NJ or BH are sharing their lives with you, pay
attention to the consistent display of emotion, format, branding and content. Then ask
yourself how you can inject this consistency into your marketing across
channels, venues, media, etc.
Happy Marketing!
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Big Data…Where to Start?
I have recently been discussing “Big Data” with savvy technology
professionals who amaze me more and more with the fascinating realities of what
we can do now, what we are so close to doing and what we will do in the very
near future.
As a marketer and operations professional, I have utilized
data to look for patterns of what was going right, wrong and trending for a
very long time. (I once developed an entire inventory, transfer, buyer data and
reconciliation system from an old 10 key cash register that had 7 “department”
numbers and the ability to randomly enter numbers – which I used for SKUs!)
Fortunately, I have also held positions where I managed unbelievable marketing
and technology talent and we did some very sophisticated loyalty, affinity,
acquisition, share of wallet, launches and target market development. So, for me
data has been the breadcrumbs that have lead me to implement some very
successful strategies.
What I seem to sense in marketers is a misunderstanding about
“Big Data”. I recently attended a seminar on the issue and folks asked
questions like, “what is it?” It is
not something new. It is just more
data from additional sources such as social media, additional transaction and
web browsing data and the like. I look at it like just more toys in the toy
box! These bright shiny new toys, along with the old ones, are great tools that
can help lead to educated decisions on consumers’ and business’ propensity to
behave or purchase or donate, or whatever your goal or question is.
And this brings me to
where to start. Start with your
biggest questions or challenge the embedded beliefs about your market. Don’t be
afraid to start with an old exercise of a quadrant analysis and then match all
existing data to each record. Once you have done this, what conclusions can you
draw about your market? Are your best customers who and what you thought they
were? Do you see opportunities in your Q2 data that suggest that if you market
to Q2 in new areas or ways, they are very likely to shift into Q1? Test it and
find out.
As you begin to actually see what data (big and small) you
have to work with, you can begin to develop new theories, see new patterns and
receive direction from the data that will lead you on a journey to devouring
data to help you succeed and make ‘wins’ faster and with higher ROI than ever
before.
With this, I close with Happy and Fun Marketing! Enjoy your new toys!
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Has Your CRM Failed You…Or Are You Failing It?
There are many flavors of CRM and many uses, but for our
purposes today, let’s start with a simple united definition.
As a goal oriented person, I’ll cut to the chase and define
it like this:
A method by which one can improve customer
service and increase revenue.
Sounds like great
stuff, right? Who doesn’t want to achieve those two goals?
Are you achieving
those goals with the CRM tools that you use?
·
Or, has
your tool become a chore to you and/or your employees, so it goes unused?
·
Or, is
your tool used sporadically and therefore does not reflect the level of detail
that allows you to provide exceptional customer insight?
·
Or, are
you too “busy” to use the tool when you are engaging with your customers?
·
Or, do you
or your employees not really understand how to utilize the CRM tool so it feels
like a waste of money?
·
Or, are
you pretty savvy with your CRM (Or hired someone to do it for you) and you have
pre-set triggers that send emails, reminders and offers to customers? (This one can be the MOST dangerous if you
have done something wrong to a customer and then they receive a reminder to
come visit you again, or a ‘canned’ 10% offer on their next visit. This is a
HUGE turn off to customers. You have probably lost them if you do this without
precautions in place.)
If you answered yes
to any of the questions above, you are failing to properly use CRM within your
organization and should immediately seek help to develop a strategy to solve
this harmful problem.
Why is this so
urgent? Competition has never been
greater. If you are a brick and mortar company, you are literally dying a slow
death (sometimes, not so slow). If you are an Internet based company, your
customer is only one click away from using someone else. This is reality.
There is such great opportunity available for you. If you
are in a leadership role in your company, you must engage with your customers by using your CRM tool properly – or
don’t use it at all.
How do you do this? Here
are three basic actions to take that will make a vast improvement in your
Customer Satisfaction:
·
Be certain every employee is trained thoroughly
on the system.
·
Ensure there is a mechanism to send unique and
special apologies, offers of SPIFs, etc. when you have had a bad transaction
with a customer. Be certain that the ‘canned’ reminders and offers do not reach
your customers before you have completely reinstated and repaired your
relationship to their satisfaction.
·
Demand
that your employees use the system. This is especially important if you have
a Call Center environment or Customer Service staff. Nothing frustrates
customers more than trying to repeat the problem they are trying to remedy over
and over again. In contrast, a customer likes to hear, “Thank you for calling
Ms. Smith. I’d like to review your notes on the problem that you reported so
that I can assist you properly. Is that ok?” Then confirm the problem and get
the customer’s confirmation that you understand – and then solve their problem!
The potent thing about CRM is that if used correctly, you have the data to view
your most reported problems and then fix
the issue before the problem occurs. You also have the data to see what resolutions
pleased the customer most times and empower and train your staff to resolve the
issue with the most likely remedy. (This requires integration of your CRM and
your Script Writing Team in your Customer Relations / Call Center Department.
It is critical!)
CRM is an extremely powerful aid when used properly. (I had
a client who increased share of wallet 4X over in less than 9 months!) However,
it can also be extremely harmful or a
waste of money if not used properly. And the best advice I can give to
those who are administering the tool themselves is to implement the features one
by one, test results (seed your CRM database just as you would a DM list), make
adjustments as necessary and then implement the next best feature for your
customers, repeat.
Most importantly, do
not flood your customers with emails, newsletters, offers, etc. This will get
you on a junk folder status before you can say CRM!
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Are You Getting ROI From Your Marketing Strategy?
A recent conversation with a business owner proved to be
very interesting. When I asked the owner what the marketing approach was for
the business, he returned a blank stare.
Our conversation was initiated because the owner had
expanded products and services and the new offerings were not producing as
expected.
The business had been operating with primarily price point
marketing strategy that was appropriate for his industry. The new products and
services were higher price points and his operational approach and “selling”
and promoting approach to these items was the same as the price point product.
The well-known approach was resulting in disappointing sales for the new
offerings. What went wrong?
Let me back up…..When you use a price point marketing strategy,
the process is simple. Keep operational prices low and prominently advertise
your low prices. This is a good approach for commodity type items. As an
example, grocery stores use this approach and a lot of retailers utilize it on
“specials” to get attention and traffic and then rely on other tactics to
upsell. It is a tried and true strategy but it doesn’t work in all situations
or industries.
In the case of the business owner I met with, the price
point strategy was not the winning approach for their expanded service and
product line. It was failing, so in came a “consultant” (not me at this
juncture). The consultant went full throttle with the price point model and
began slashing operating expense to make each item sold more profitable. Not a
bad approach in some cases, but the wrong one in this case.
The items being sold were high quality, specialized and leant
themselves towards customization. Reducing costs and customization rarely go
together and in this instance, cost reductions eliminated customization. Sure,
there was more profit in each item sold but the number of items drastically
dropped, rendering net profits to almost null. What to do?
I explained to the owner that although he had been very
successful with price point marketing in his primary business, the new items
required a different approach. They required relational marketing.
Relational marketing requires you to build relationships
with your buyers and to cater to them. This is one of the most solid
differentiators in marketing. As an example, if you sell coffee to commuters,
what makes people buy from you over the plethora of other providers? In most
cases, it is because of how you treat them. You allow them to feel special,
make special requests and if you are good, you know their name and have loyalty
programs. This will keep your customer coming back and it will make them choose
you over price point almost every time.
For this business owner, he is now in the process of
repairing those relationships with lost customers and building new
relationships with new ones. It is an uphill battle, once you have lost
customers, but it will work if you can act swiftly and are persistent. It is
important to note that sometimes your marketing strategy is not a one size fits
all. You may have several strategies needed for your company. Choose wisely!
When all else fails, consult a professional with years of
experience who knows the correct strategy, tactics and tools required to make
your business thrive.
Happy Marketing!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)