Your Business Strategy 2010
By Andrew Ferguson MA Oxon Chartered Marketer FCIM FIBC
Strategies for 2010 are no different from strategies for any other year. It's just that the financial meltdown reminds us of the need for superb relationship marketing and service (a forgotten art), excellent delivery and intelligent spending.
Your emphasis must be on serving your niche customers … impeccably, and only spending on things that enhance your ability to deliver excellence to them.
Your clients and customers are your clients and customers for a reason - they like you! They like what you do and the way you do it. They value you and want to use you if you give them good reasons.
They also know you, so you have completed with them the 2 - 5 year process of getting to know and trust each other. Especially when things are tight, they are where your marketing strategy begins … and ends. Take care of them; stay in touch with them; give them more than they expect. They will refer you on to others, and that's the best marketing there is.
They have a need and they reckon you meet it better than anyone else. We must remember that the sole purpose of business is to meet needs, specifically the top priority needs of niche customers.
Customers' needs will have changed with the changing times. We are all cutting out unnecessary spend, and ensuring we get the best value now. And our priorities are different and clearer. If something helps us do our work or hold on to a job, we're likely to go for it. Anything that keeps us fit for the fight goes to the top of the list. The same goes for helping your customers do things for themselves eg make their own cosmetics; take care of each other; make green savings etc.
It will be crucial to keep stressing what good value you deliver, and continually make yourself irresistible. Reinvent yourself!
None of this is revolutionary, as I hinted at the start; the meltdown has just made it a no-brainer, and not before time. During The Madness - the 30 year debt-fuelled spending spree - one didn't have to try so hard; old-fashioned service was replaced by formulaic "robospeak" regardless of the price one paid. Mediocrity thrives in the 'good' times; but there is no room for it when the going gets tough. Then only excellence will do.
Good service makes you stand out. Real personal attention and genuine, authentic interest are a gift.
Now is also a good time to check whether you are still passionate about what you do, and whether you still love your customers. Now could be a good time to start something new … something that meets people's revised needs and crucially gets your own juices flowing. If it doesn't inspire you, it's going to bore the pants off them.
There is a free 7 Step LifeShift Programme you can sign up for on www.lifeshift.co.uk I've even done it myself recently, and it's really rather good! You get a new 'step' every 3 days, which just jogs you along with a short, sweet structure. And you'll find all the detailed answers in the 5 LifeShift Books downloadable from the same website.
Community is the great new buzzword for 2010 - teaming up, joining in and creating wider communities. Team up with other 'parallel' businesses to cross-fertilise customers – where better to find them than Holistic Local?! Think how this will change your approach.
A little more on spending: question every item of expenditure - does it pay its way? Have you made the most of it? Have you been wondering why you still do it? Have you felt genuinely taken care of by the supplier? Does it stay or is this the time for it to get the elbow?
Are there things to actually spend more on … if this attracts, serves and retains customers better?
I know myself how email admin and infrastructure interfere with the more important jobs. I think the thing to do is to make at least one real telephone call to a customer, prospect or networking contact, and do at least one other top priority task before even opening email or disappearing into the endless admin. And then find the 1% of your email which has any value at all and do that. This is tough for conscientious old-school people like me and perhaps you, but we simply have to delete 99% of the email, in the knowledge that it was almost certainly sent as a mass mail or tossed off without much thought or commitment. Single out the stuff that counts.
To summarise:
Focus on current niche customers' new needs
Strive for excellence and irresistibility
Relaunch yourself with passion
Engage with community
Spend to enhance service
And as the saying goes "When the going gets tough, the tough get going!"
Andrew Ferguson is an Enterprise Coach with a strong small business marketing background. He has recently created an Online Forum for grown-up, responsible entrepreneurs and experienced business advisors to meet and support each other.
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