Call: 01225 851 044 | contact us
Robert Craven Website

Time to Focus on Brighter Marketing

If you want to succeed, you've got to be smart in today's competitive age. That means not just being better than the rest - but also being different, says Robert Craven.

 

Take 15,000 owner-managers and managing directors of growing businesses and ask one simple, yet fundamental, question about their businesses.

Ask what aspects of marketing and selling they need to get better at.
Give them the answer in a way that they can actually do things to significantly improve their businesses. Then return after one year and see the results.

It's a recipe for understanding just what makes some businesses succeed - and others fail. Over the last three years I have posed that question to over 15,000 owner-managers and directors at our marketing masterclasses and seminars.

And having asked the question over 100 times, I now have a pretty good idea of the key issues that people want sorted out.   Our Bright Marketing Manifesto sums up the key points.

At its simplest, the questions that audiences wanted the answer to came under one of six headings:

• What works;
• How to communicate/how to get heard;
• How to focus/how to target;
• How to measure performance;
• How to stand out from the rest/how to be listened to;
• How to get more sales with no/little budget.

The manifesto

And so the manifesto was created. Without sounding too grand, a common ‘ology’ emerged - an approach and an attitude that separated the exceptional performers from the average ones. The application of the Bright Marketing (BM) actions creates remarkable results for those who use them in their businesses.

The manifesto is a list of some 23 principles; fundamental approaches that separate the Bright Marketing business from the run-of-the-mill, ordinary ones.  We have listed some of the principles below.  Understanding and adopting the manifesto will help you to be more profitable - it's as simple as that.

EVERYONE LOOKS THE SAME

Your competitors pay similar people with similar qualifications similar wages to use similar software on similar hardware to make similar products that do similar things at similar prices. 

We live in a world of similarity – similarity abounds.  In this world of similarity I can almost guarantee that your competitors have similar, if not identical, marketing materials to yours. 

I expect that most of your competitors claim to be roughly the same.  Most of them employ similar brand or web designers and between them they create very similar websites and brochures that claim (yawn! yawn!) roughly the following:

• We offer value for money and the best price;
• We deliver contracts on time;
• We employ well-qualified staff;
• We have a history of important clients.
• Finally, there is always the line that twitters on about ‘what makes us different from the rest is our obsession with customer service’ or some such similarly empty line.

What absolute garbage this all is!  You will be exactly the same as the rest of your competition if you also try to promote yourself by celebrating these similar qualities.  In most industries there is too much sameness, too much safe differentiation between the various competitors. 

To stand out you do need to be different.

'Think different'

If there’s a choice between better or different, then, to quote Apple's famous advertising slogan a couple of years back, 'Think different'.

Apple is actually a classic example of a company that does just that - it's probably the most innovative company on the planet right now.

Both its software and hardware is different from the rest - they stand out from the crowd. Little wonder sales are soaring.

All too often, small business people are essentially technicians; they are really good at their job (garage mechanic, cook, web designer) and know pretty much everything there is to know about how to do it. 

Unfortunately, they tend to become pre-occupied with doing a better job.  Your customers won’t necessarily thank you or even remember you for using a slightly cleverer technique or technology; this is because what they are buying is a solution to a problem and what they want is the benefit of your work.

For example, most customers are more interested in you getting the car to work than know that you have used computer diagnostics; they are more interested in tasting your delicious food than knowing that you used a 1200w microwave. We are all a bit too much in love with our businesses.

In a world full of mediocre, similar-looking businesses, most of us look identical and most customers don’t really understand how we do what we do.  For instance, I don’t know what really happens at my accountants (yet they might be obsessed with getting the newest software to improve their operations).

So what is to be done?  Take a leaf out of Apple's book. People will remember you for how you are different from the rest, so seek to make yourself (look) different: faster, slower, brighter, more local, higher tech, lower tech, the first  – but please don’t make yourselves look just like the rest. In fact, go for different every time. Of course, in an ideal world I would like my business to be the best and different from the rest.

Why buy from you?

Why should people bother to buy from you when they can buy from the competition? There are four issues here:

• You know exactly what makes your product special/unique/different and deliberately set out to capitalise on these differences;
• You offer a unique set of advantages, but you have never really identified them yourself;
• You offer the client no unique set of advantages and you’re just lucky to still be trading;
• You are about to go out of business because you are virtually giving the stuff away.

Customers are not stupid; they know they can probably buy your product or service from someone else.  In fact they could probably get it cheaper, and maybe even better, from someone else.

So why should customers buy from your business?  Why should they bother to buy from you?

If you can’t answer these questions then you are in real trouble. 

You need to be able to tell potential and existing customers why they should buy from you (so that they don’t buy from the competition) and your staff need to know why you are different from the rest (so they can tell customers).

Ask For The Business

Ask for the business - the customer cannot pick up your enthusiasm to work with them by osmosis alone.

Because we are so much in love with our product, we cannot believe that the potential customer cannot also see how great it is. 

Because we have spent so much time preparing our proposal, we cannot believe that the potential client cannot also see how great it is. 

Because we so desperately need the next piece of work, we cannot believe how unfair it is that the client might consider buying elsewhere.

The reality is that we usually communicate very poorly with our potential clients. 

Most of us are not trained in selling with integrity – some are grossly heavy-handed at selling but the majority are like nervous little mice, too scared that the client might say ‘No’, so we avoid facing them and asking straight questions.

The normal method of presenting a proposal is to post or email it, and only very occasionally to offer it to the client face to face.  Even then, we withdraw as rapidly as possible for fear of the dreaded rejection.  Stop!  Change your tack!  Try asking, yes, asking for the business! 

Why?
Because it works.

Why?
Because so few people actually do it properly.

How?
Quite simply, look them the in the eye and say something to the effect of, ‘In case you are in any doubt as to why I have come over here today, let me explain to you that I am here to make it absolutely clear that this is the sort of contract we would really like to work on… we feel that the chemistry is really good… it is just the type of work we relish and can deliver real results on… and you are just the type of business where our service really excels… so I wanted to make it absolutely clear that we’d love to win this contract… in effect, yes, I am asking you for the business!’  Try it… because very few do!

what's in it for me?

Learning a set of principles or ideas is an entire waste of time unless you do something about it.  The delegates that have really benefited from the Bright Marketing Manifesto are those that have acted upon it. 

Attending a workshop (or reading an article!) is an entire waste of time and money unless you are going to do something different as a result of it – so think ‘WIIFM?’ (What’s In It For Me?).

What are you going to do differently?  What are you going to:

• Do more of?
• Do less of ?
• Stop doing?
• Start doing?
• Continue doing?

If your products are not selling very well, then it is for one of two reasons. Either you’ve got a lousy product - or you’re lousy at selling. What are you going to do about it?

TOP Tips

DO
- Dare to be different.
- Analyse your product or service and decide what it is that sets you apart from the rest.
- Make sure everyone in the team is on board when it comes to getting the message across.
- Try to be both better and different.

DON'T
- Just copy everyone else. It's a recipe for disaster.
- Get sidetracked by what you think are great features but actually make no difference to the customer.

 

About the author

©2007 Robert Craven

publication details

Better Business, December 2007/January 2008