Know-How Exchange : Strategy

I'm not going to link to any whitepapers here, I'm going to let you know the kind of thing I do when asked to act as a marketing consultant for a business. When implemented with care, these strategies are stunningly effective. More to the point, it's not about cost reduction, it's about increasing profitability.

Firstly I want to give you an idea of what most telecoms think they provide - quality. Vodafone amongst them. Yet my experience with them was of a company that barely knew how to print an invoice let alone run an international corporation. Their customer service stank to high heaven, one sales representative was openly abusive. I'm afraid that sort of thing simply will not do. It cost me a lot of time and energy. I got my two year contract terminated after the sixth month. I will say that I got more sense out of Vodafone UK than I ever got from Vodafone NL.

If you encounter this kind of thinking in a company, be warned that the managers may not know what's actually going on.

Because my strategies require a manager to know what's happening. Because I deal with the customer interface directly. Improving that will improve performance and profits - not to mention company morale.

All of which have the *appearance* of reducing costs. Which is what the bosses want.

Now: is the company really delivering? At all? Has it any genuine reasons to believe this? My experience is that most companies think they do, whilst not having the first notion. So find out. What are the customers saying - especially dissatisfied ones! Their dissatisfaction may be genuine, and that needs handling. There's no way around this. Just make sure that people who expect this service are told that they won't get it - in bold red letters if need be. I do that myself, consultant I may be, I have no qualifications for it and I make no bones about it. My defence is that there are no qualifications at the level I operate at, and if there were, I'd be on the examining board.

So that's one element out of the way. Just telling people about the deficiencies of a business can do wonders. What's more the company's better customers won't mind this. Your problem here is that your company wishes to be all things to all people - and so the deficiencies must go unheeded. This is a corporate mantra that needs dealing with head on if any significant progress is to be made. No person, business or corporation can supply every human being with exactly the things they need.

That is final.

That they think they can is a major hurdle for people like me - which is why I get this kind of person to remove themselves from my lists before they get hurt.

Because international business isn't for pansies.

Now the other side of the coin is rather brighter, and is the brighter for casting a dark shadow. What's more this is the marketing side of things - and with a business with so many customers the opportunities for an intense campaign are enormous. I am speaking of what Perry Marshall calls "right angle marketing"*. Because dealing with your best clients means offering them what they need - which just happens to be the thing you are best able to deliver. This of necessity means you are targeting, not broadcasting. This goes against much of the corporate mentality. That's not my problem: I deliver results not ego polish. [*I could go into detail, this is only an overview].

We've discussed the first part - who you don't serve. Those you do serve well are those you should target. What's more they'll thank you for it, and come back for more - and tell their friends too. Because that's where the gold dust lies - in the returning customer. Knowing their demographics and targeting that slice of the market will bring big dividends. Plus you can slice and dice this for your various specialties - you've got a big enough business to do this. It's likely that their campaigns wouldn't even interfere, so covering a good proportion of the market with properly focussed targeting.

I've seen it happen in our own family business, and if the corporations had half my courage in turning down a few clients, they'd see the same dramatic results too. The result was that my ex would get home most work days at a reasonable time. That was worth all the effort as it meant our relationship blossomed. Sadly, that's now history and I have another partnership with someone a little more responsive.

Because responsiveness is what this is all about - those who aren't won't be a good client for me. I say this because it's likely that they won't be a good client for you either.

A few examples for you from people I

https://askhowie.com/2009/09/09/porcelain

This goes into my expertise in the Display Network - https://askhowie.com/2012/02/22/how-to-target-pages-on-the-google-display-n...

For their business, it's a wonderful tool - as long as you realize that you're selling to a specific target audience. That means no ego-polish, no grand statements. Just down to earth, sensible thinking that gets itself activated to generate serious results.

This sounds like a student question. If so, can you share your thinking? If not, can you share the context in which you're asking this question?