Know-How Exchange : Strategy

What made you decide on PPC? What if the smaller business doesn't have a website (strange q I know!)

Is there scope for nationwide (drop shipped) sales from this regional hub? If there is you might want to connect with the producers of TV home improvement shows, even if you wind up giving away product to the show in exchange for visibility.

The visibility this could generate then positions you as the logical, "go to" company for flooring.

If you can drive traffic to a dedicated landing page connected to this kind of show, and if you can deliver orders overnight or within a few days AND have tools online that make the whole process of ordering and installation a breeze, you empower buyers before they commit. Follow this up with a class act in terms of customer follow-through and fulfillment and Robert could indeed be your mother's brother.

In answer to your questions

(1) What made you decide on PPC? - - - PPC is relatively inexpensive and it's fast. Above all, you get responses FAST. You can split test to your heart's content, refine taglines, headlines, copy and imagery - all in a weekend. If you're doing a mailshot, you can split test almost everything to max the result of the way more expensive medium. The point is to test your advertising first - radio for example is really difficult to measure the effect of. Running it through a PPC campaign first will eliminate most of the critical issues - and make it considerably more effective.

(2) What if the smaller business doesn't have a website (strange q I know!) - - - there are a lot of businesses that don't have one, or have an extremely basic one. I live in the Netherlands where a lot of work is still found by word of mouth - or by cold calling (heaven help them!). Most businesses will have some kind of representation on the web, through directories that use data from the chambers of commerce. You could use those at a push. With today's free website services (wix, wordpress, etc) it's the work of an afternoon to set one up. It won't be very good, but that's not the point, it's there. Making a start is one of the biggest hurdles - and a one-page website is a million times better than none at all.

Okay, so if it's full of spelling mistakes and terrible photos ... only, if you've got some good customers you'll be able to focus it on them, and once they've realized you're speaking to them, they'll read. If only because they like your company.

Does this help any? It's really late here in Europe, I'm off to bed. zzzzz

Moriarty is pointing you in the right direction, IMO. The key is to really understand the target audiences and develop marketing plans that recognize the unique needs of each market. Do what's right for each one, and let any synergy be your "secret" to generate extra profit. If you start by focusing on the synergy, you will almost certainly sub-optimize in one or both markets.

I think one of the issues here is that one business sells to trade and one to the individual so I'm not sure the two different clients would have as much in common in terms of sales trends.

Also how would you be losing money with customers? How would you market to the world that you are selling through these individual businesses that have no link to eachother?

Sorry if I sound a bit dense!

How would the two sales people come into it?

Is this your business?

No it's all purely theoretical. Sometimes I find it hard to understand questions I over analyse I think. Even if I know the answer I always think there's more to it so I wanted to see it from the perspective of someone who really knows the industry and see if how I interpreted it is anywhere close before I have to sit down and answer other questions.

Hi again.

You asked a few questions earlier - and I'm going to try and give a sensible answer before anything else.

1) You ask "Also how would you be losing money with customers?" - this isn't a dumb question at all. It's not easy to determine either as it needs you to look at your accounts with a magnifying glass. Now we ran a building business in Cirencester and we had clients who complained. They'd phone at all times of day and night - want speedy service and weren't grateful. A friend of mine is an accountant, he has customers who want their accounts done without any fuss and no difficult questions. But they always leave things too late. That means there are always problems that need tidying up real fast - deadlines approaching! Why are deadlines approaching - that's because they filed with him too late.

You can take two things from this (1) these clients are demanding things they cannot reasonably expect and (2) they do not like you coming back on them - that is to say, using your superiority of expertise to wield your authority. This goes for any business, anywhere on the planet.

In broad psychological terms it means they want to boss you about, determine things and generally get their way. They'll also hammer you on price. This is general and it's panoramic. When I took over the office, within six months I'd realized that these guys were causing my family misery. My ex was getting home late and I'd had enough. When they asked us to tender for a contract I'd put in one that was simply outrageous. Usually we lost them.

Going nicely to plan then ...

our turnover dropped 25%. Ouch!

Only ... our profits went up 15%. Work out who these people are in each case (each business) and you'll find out who you're losing money on. Or making only marginal profits. This applies to almost any business on the planet. I know their type so well by now that they're kicked out in the first stage of my sales funnel. Usually reading them the riot act is enough - that is to say, give them a run down of your terms and conditions and if they counter you, say they're not worried about the details, talk about cash jobs, do not proceed.

***Your better class of client will deeply appreciate the fact that you're demonstrating one aspect of your professionalism***. After all, it's what they're hiring you for (= hiring you as a supplier of high quality flooring).

(2) "How would you market to the world that you are selling through these individual businesses that have no link to eachother?"

This is a little trickier, but they are selling the same stuff to people with the same needs - something new/better/prettier under their feet. They also like the warm colouring, the natural variance of the colours and the generally pleasant atmosphere that wooden flooring gives.

After all, they're not buying chipboard to put down in the attic, are they? This is a deliberate choice based on what they like. My guess is that in both companies, these are commonalities in the customers' purchasing decisions. This is where I start, and work out from there, finding out what each company does to meet these needs. Whilst this is awfully general, focussing in on what your business(es) do and how they do it will tie these two together - and just doing this will usually lead to some other revelations.

That these two businesses are in different places wouldn't phase me. In any case, your salesmen are selling to humans. Or should be!

Which brings us to your first thought "one business sells to trade and one to the individual so I'm not sure the two different clients would have as much in common in terms of sales trends".

Well, of course this is the problem. There will be commonalities, as mentioned. There will be divergences. Work out which these are, find out if they are actually as effective as you would like them to be. For example, one company's using magazines. Put a coupon on the next ad and see what the response rate is. It'll give you the clearest idea of real interest. You can do this with your other business too. Again, information only. Sure, you'll make some sales the real issue here is "does it work at all???" Which is why PPC is so important - it's way cheaper than an ad and way faster too.

I digress.

Ask the salesmen working for your biz to find out what they like, who they like. Ask them about the things your customers object about when they're trying to close a deal. All of these are valuable insights into what your customers are thinking.

Does this help any? Sorry for not answering earlier, I was in Rotterdam for the day and had to catch the first train.

You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar, thank you so much for the insight Moriarty!

Thankyou for your kind words; however you'll find that if you pop over to my profile you'll find that I'm a girl. Never mind that, I do have some cred as a scholar ...

none of which makes any difference whatsoever.

It's down to you to find out how to apply these things effectively in your business. Marketers tend to waffle on and on with long technical words - and you simply can't see how it relates to the business you run. Hopefully we've given you some useful pointers that you can put into action and see results and returns from.

After all, why else bother?

Ha ha my narrow mindedness as the character was a fellow, never mind I say the exact same phrase to female friends also. Thank you so much for your help and enlightenment.

We all look the same on paper, don't we? The misunderstanding was no narrowmindedness in my book.

What's more important is to put it to good use.