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Learning from the Wins and Losses in Your Business

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Scoreboard-GSIS
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Which arrow flies for ever? The arrow that has hit its mark. –Vladamir Nabokov, “A Russian Beauty

Hitting the mark feels great, but there is also much to be gained when we miss the target. In business we celebrate the wins and mourn the losses, and all too often we do not take the time to learn from either. Conducting a win-loss analysis can yield essential information that ensures that your arrow files forever.

Often companies will hire me to help uncover their brand distinctions and enhance their marketing. Inevitably I find that many assumptions have been made about their existing strengths. The answer to distinction often lies in why current customers have chosen them yet many small to medium sized businesses have not bothered to ask the question.

At the start of a new customer relationship, take time to discover the reasons you were selected. You may uncover overlooked selling points and when done routinely you will have a clear picture of your strengths. When you lose an account, a win-loss analysis can help you identify areas of weakness but can also set the tone for a continuing relationship. When you do not win, be the best #2 you can be as you may have another opportunity to win the account.

Questions to explore in your win-loss analysis:

Reasons for Purchase

  • Business case /need
  • Primary objectives
  • What triggered the timing of the buy?
  • Selection criteria and person(s) involved

Evaluation Process

  • How were solution candidates selected?
  • Who was considered? Who was shortlisted?
  • What criteria were essential in the evaluation process?
  • Who had the best solution?
  • How and where did others fall short?

Decision and End Results:

  • Who was selected and why?
  • At what point in the process did they stop considering other providers?
  • How will yo measure success?

This is by no means an exhaustive list but should provide some guidance. You can conduct a win-loss analysis in person, by phone or even using a survey tool. Implement a system to survey your wins and losses and you will receive a quiver full of actionable information.

Have you ever performed a win-loss analysis? Were you surprised by the results?  If you do not routinely perform these, do you query lost customers to discover why you were not selected?

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10 Do It Yourself Marketing Ideas for Entrepreneurs

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Do-It-Yourself
Image by iamPatrick via Flickr

June is Entrepreneurs Do It Yourself Marketing Month. Many small to medium sized businesses do most or all of their marketing in house. We all need a mix of methods and channels to leverage our marketing efforts. Below are 10 ideas that you may not have tried that you can do completely on your own or you can outsource components of it if you choose.

Why not go out on a limb. Isn’t that where the fruit is? ~Mahatma Gandhi

  1. Let your customers get their deal on with Groupon. Groupon, currently in more than 80 cities offers daily deals from local businesses.  Each day the site offers a featured deal of the day. The deal is only valid if enough people buy it. There is no up front cost to your business, Groupon collects all the payments, issues a coupon and sends you a check minus their fee.
  2. Give an award. A great way to connect with your community is to recognize the efforts of others. Honor an individual or business for service to the community or give a Hero’s Award to someone who did something special. Don’t forget to send out a press release about the award. You may even be able to secure prizes from sponsors.
  3. Create a tips booklet. You don’t have to write a best selling book to take advantage of the written word. Tips booklets are a great way to market your business by sharing ideas. You can give the booklets away to customers and prospects or sell them. Sell single copies for digital download only and offer hard copies in bulk to organizations or businesses.
  4. Do a free makeover. Makeovers are not just for those in the health and beauty biz. You can makeover careers, finances, media plans and more. To add buzz, have people submit an essay or video on why they should be selected for a free makeover. Choose the winner and then chronicle the before and after. The results will stand as a testimony to your services and the contest can boost your brand visibility.
  5. Sponsor a local youth team.  We talk a great deal about community online but offline community is equally important. This is a great way to give back and market your business.
  6. Host a round table. This can be a physical or virtual event. Gather local business owners together to creatively collaborate on solving a local issue. Invite your local press to moderate. Or host a virtual event with other industry leaders to provide your audience with solutions to their problems. You will establish thought leadership and by partnering with others will also gain visibility with their audience.
  7. Remember your current customers. Send cards to former or recent customers. Celebrate customer successes or milestones in your newsletter. Surprise a customer once per month with a free gift or discounted service.
  8. Do a survey and share the results in a press release. Surveys can be an effective way to generate media coverage. You can hire a company to conduct the survey for you or do it yourself using online survey tools. Get ides on questions by researching other surveys. Creative questions can make great headlines.
  9. Market through video. If you are not a fan of being on camera there are many other ways to use video to market your business.  Do “man-on-the-street” videos asking random strangers funny questions that relate to your business. How to videos are very popular. People search online to find out how to do everything from using chopsticks to stopping the hiccups. Video is a great medium for showing others how to do something. If you have a budget you can hire a company to do an online commercial for your business.
  10. Share your expertise with others. Pitch on and offline publications with an article idea (be sure to research the publication and guidelines), get interviewed by others in your areas of expertise, speak at workshops, events or even webinars. There is no shortage of opportunities if you are willing to do the work.

Integrating new ideas and approaches into your marketing strategies is a great way to get your brand in front of a different audience and revitalize your brand. Develop a plan and execute it consistently.

Resources:

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Hit and Run Marketing

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Dramatic Auto Collision - Don't Drink and Drive
Image by Creativity+ Timothy K Hamilton via Flickr

You know that you must promote your business to succeed. After all if no one knows you exist, you kind of don’t. You read in a forum post that Facebook has millions of users and that every business should have a presence. You create a fan page and write updates for a week. Five people like your site.

The next week you see an article that talks about the value of article marketing. The author shares her success with article marketing and how it drove traffic to her site. You write and upload ten articles to article directories.

You receive an email from a well known marketer that shares the value of press releases. You hire a freelancer to write a press release and upload it to press release distribution sites.

Later that day, you read a forum posting touting the value of twitter for small business marketing. Eager to succeed you immediately sign up for twitter and write your first update – “Trying out twitter.”

At the end of three months, your traffic is stagnant, and you have signed up for so many sites you have lost track of where you’ve been. Yet, the only business you have is the result of old fashioned networking and meeting. You go back to one of the online forums and declare that online marketing and social media do not work. You join the ranks of those who profess that this “social media thing” is nothing more than hype that will soon be exposed for a lack of results.

I tried Twitter but it did not work.

I sent a press release but they didn’t respond.

Social media is nothing more than a time suck.

If you have ever uttered any of the above phrases you may be among the hit and run drivers. None of the above tactics are bad but the only results you will get from a hit and run strategy is a pile of bodies in your wake so deep that you will not even remember the roads you traveled.

The best marketing tactic is the one that you do consistently. You do the work in advance to develop a strategy. Where is your target audience? What is the best distribution channel to reach them? What are you goals? What will you measure? How will you measure it?

You plan, implement, monitor, test, tweak  and repeat. You refine your approach but you do not give up.

Social media and digital marketing strategies are not a replacement for all other strategies but another tactic for your marketing toolbox. Decide how and where it fits into your business and then choose a tactic that you can sustain.

When you commit to a marketing tactic, give it your best. Do it well and do it consistently. A self promotional update on Twitter every 5 days is not a strategy. Think a self promotional piece of drivel labeled a press release uploaded to a free site is going to land you on the pages of the Wall Street Journal? Think again.

You can market your business successfully using the telephone. If that’s your thing and you commit time to do it consistently, it will work.

If you are looking for a magic bullet that will cost you neither time nor money, then you should pack up your marbles and go back to the ranks of the employed. There is always a cost to marketing even when it’s free. However, if you do the work, you will get the results and with more business you can enhance your marketing even more.

How about you? Have you tried and abandoned techniques believing that they did not work? What marketing do you do consistently?



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Social Media: Will the Free World Begin Charging Admission?

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Neon "free" sign
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One of the early attractions of social media was the low barrier to entry. Basic access to all of the platforms was free and many services did not even have a premium option. The accessibility empowered small to medium sized businesses who had felt outspent in other areas of marketing by big business. A small company blog could compete with big business on a level playing field. Video put commercial production in the hands of anyone with a flip camera. Now that may all change.

Ning has announced an end to free. Twitter now offers “promoted tweets.” Many other free services have either dissipated or switched to premium models. There was always a danger in relying too heavily on platforms that we neither owned or co-opted with our dollars. The very thing that drove social media’s growth may force these companies to shift to paying models in order to support traffic and innovation.

While we still likely see free or low cost services available to all, the introduction of premium services may once again mean that he who has the most dollars can gain an edge.

I do not believe that we should abandon the tools but it is imperative to develop strategies that are not dependent on a specific platform or current day business model. Let us not forget that free also means lack of control. The recent issues with Twitter illuminate this fact.

We must have plans and contingency plans and all should hinge on the non-negotiable asset in all marketing – your customers. Relevant, quality messages will survive any delivery method. The ingredients are the magic not the plate on which they are served.

And yes, we must watch for those telltale signs of change and be ready with a plan should our tactics need adjusting. Change is one of the constants of this digital age.  The one thing we cannot do is build a business or marketing strategy on the foundation of free, at some point, we will pay the price.

Have you ever used something that was free and then moved to a premium model? Did you continue using? What impact did it have on your business or life?

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Do I Need Social Media?

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twittermarketing
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For new clients, I routinely do a quick brand report that includes an assessment of social media mentions. The report identifies strengths and weaknesses and helps me to prepare customized solutions. I shared this report with a new client this week who serves the senior market and his response was:

“This is interesting but 60% of our customers being 50+ baby boomers, why is “social marketing” relevant to us? Most baby boomers that I know may have a facebook page to find old girlfriends or college mates – but not much else.  What am I missing here??’

Since this is a common question, I’d like to share my answer here.

This particular client report showed that there are brand mentions. Conversations are happening about the brand with or without their participation.  In this new age of media, everyone has access to a publishing platform.  You may not start every conversation but it is worthwhile to show up and be part of it!

Word of mouth referrals and brand discussions are nothing new but now those conversations are taking place on and offline. Brands have an amazing opportunity with new media that did not exist previously – the opportunity to listen in and participate in those conversations.

Effective marketing is targeted, relevant and visible. Traditional advertising allowed us to reach a broad cross section of our market but it was (and is) largely one dimensional. Social media allows us to engage with our audience in the places that they gather.

Don’t ever make assumptions about your market but validate your thoughts with research. According to a January 2010 report by emarketer.com in 2007 30% of Boomers (46-62) and 10% of Matures (63-75) maintained a social networking profile. In 2009 those numbers increased to 46% for Boomers and 36% for Matures.

There are many roles in the buying process; your approvers may not be using social media but what about the evaluators and the influencers? In my client’s example, referrals may come from family members, physician offices, hospitals or even pharmacists. Consider all of the people in each of those categories – think any of them are online?

I am not banging the drum and telling everyone to rush out and sign up for Twitter, but I do advise understanding where and how your market is utilizing social media and incorporating it into your marketing strategy.

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What You Can Learn from the Leno Shuffle

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Laura Bush makes an appearance on The Tonight ...
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Jay Leno hosted daily nighttime talk show, The Tonight Show for 17 years. Like previous hosts before him, he retired and passed the torch on to a successor, Conan O’Brien. There was however, a twist. Leno was not going to retire to a life of leisure and golf but to a nightly hour long variety show that would air 1 1/2 hours before his “old show.”  NBC thought that Leno’s new show was a bold move that would change the 10 pm viewing hour instead a mere 4 months into the new show, it is being pulled.

The latest news is that Leno’s show will be revamped as a half hour show that will air at 11:35 pm, and The Tonight Show will move to 12:05.  I have a feeling that someone at NBC will be in the job market very soon.

The Leno/Tonight Show saga is not unlike what happens in corporations. Fresh talent and new leadership is brought in but the old regime does not step aside to let them build their audience. NBC falsely assumed that the popular Leno could usher in a new format in the final primetime hour. The network would have a much cheaper show to produce and would leverage Leno’s brand to win viewers. Poor Conan O’Brien never had the opportunity to rise or fall on his own merits. He was given the spotlight and then left to meander in the shadow of the former host.

Passing the torch cannot be a half-hearted move. You must make the change and stand by it allowing the new team  to make the “show” their own. They may fail as they find their way but you guarantee their failure when you hamstring them from having their moment to try.

When it’s time to step aside, pass the torch graciously and then get out of the way. The new team will not do things in the same way or make the same decisions, but isn’t that the point? A great leader not only knows when to step up but when to step down.

Have you ever had to pass the torch? Was it difficult to hand over the reins?

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