Specialise your way to the top.

Today I was reading a post from the Brazen Careerist blog by Penelope Trunk. Even though she writes mainly about corporate career issues, Penelope has some very good insights into dealing with people, and the way people interact with each other. Useful stuff for service business operators to know about.

About specialising...
It's often the case that businesses need to specialise in order to be more successful. It's ironic that to get more clients, often you need to focus on a specific target audience. In reality specialisation usually brings in more business - even though you are potentially excluding some clients who are outside of your area of speciality.

Penelope's blog post today mentioned research that showed movie stars actually benefit more from type-casting than they are disadvantaged by it. Why is this so?

Let me put it my way. Basically people want to make safe decisions. The bigger the decision, the 'safer' they want to be. They want to know that the person they are relying on to do a job, can actually do it.

This goes for movie stars as well as for service providers.

In most cases people - and that means your potential clients - want to deal with a specialist.

Movie stars don't rely just on the script. The most successful movie stars are paid well because they can put their own style and 'life' into the role. Nicole Kidman tops the ladies list at the moment earning $21 million per film.

How do you put your own 'life' into your role as a service provider?

Don't rely on your script - your technical process, or your products - to be a success. Inject your own style and let your clients experience your service. Maybe even give them some popcorn while you're at it!

CRM systems - are you 'strip mining' your client base?

How much is 'too much' contact with clients? Do you use 'strip mining' tactics designed to get every last ounce (or gram) of business out of your clients. Many CRM programs help you to easily contact clients time and time again. But these days, do the Customer Relationship Management systems actually help you?

In this article the writer says:

Customers don’t want to be managed, controlled or sold to. They want to be understood, have their needs met, and receive value.

The article quotes research that 76% of companies have a CRM system, and that 80% of clients stop doing business with companies because of a bad experience. In this case the bad experience might be caused by 'strip mining' tactics.

This can be a contentious issue, as we all receive much more information these days than we used to. How much of it did we consent to? Who can remember?

In business we need to be flexible. And we must be flexible in the way we look at communicating with clients. The 'strip mining' analogy is quite accurate. Rather than just treating all clients the same, how can we differentiate our services - and our clients experience with us?

... the quest continues...

Who do you blame - client or service provider?

Who is to blame when projects don't work out as intended? It's easy for the client to blame the service provider. And it's easy for the service provider to claim the client got it wrong. In this report about bungled IT projects at the Australian Defence Force, the deputy chief executive officer of the ADF's procurement arm, Kim Gillis claims...

"The reality is the people who actually got it wrong are the industry participants who are actually providing the services"

On the other hand, in support of service providers, they can often claim clients:

• Change the objectives midway through the project.
• Don't provide all the details at the start.
• Don't follow through on key recommendations affecting other aspects of the project.
• Don't communicate in a timely or effective manner.

But in reality it is a two-way street. Both client and service provider need to go to great efforts to make sure communication is clear and unambiguous. And, as a service provider myself, I take it as part of my role to help make sure clients understand what and how they need to be communicating so we don't end up with a communications breakdown.

Bottom line... In my view it is the responsibility of the service provider to lead the client in how to best communicate, given the task at hand. That's part of the skill-set a professional service provider brings to the client.

Small can be successful - see this example

Sometimes - for new or smaller businesses - it is easy to think that we cant make a start on new marketing tactics because our business is too small. Think again! This report features a small Human Resource consultancy whose founder has achieved 'expert' status. It all started by communicating his knowledge to a close group of family and friends. From the initial list of 40 people it has progressed to the point where he is now hired for speaking engagements.

All this from using a regular email newsletter that features information that potential clients will find helpful. The discipline to write and publish does pay off.

Most B2B buyers expect pricing but don't get it

Some data about 'industrial/B2B buyers' - 85% use supplier web sites; 91% use the internet to find components and suppliers; buyers spend 6-8 hours a week online searching for products; 91% of buyers also use a catalogue in addition to the web site.

And from a study by ThomasNet (a major industrial information source) they find that 74% of buyers expect to find pricing information on a web site, but only 23% of sites actually do that. And 72% of buyers expect tech support details, but only 38% of sites provide that.

The clear message is that many industrial/B2B web sites still have a long way to go when it comes to delivering what buyers want.

These figures come from this article from MarkeingSherpa. Fantastic reading.

As you might know, I mainly work with service businesses, not manufacturers. But the same theme applies. As a service business or professional firm, does your web site actually deliver what your clients are looking for to help them make a purchase decision?

FACT: Online is the place for B2B business

More recent reports (see chart below) have shown that businesses large and small are moving more of their marketing budget to the web. There is 20%+ increase in online ad spend every year! I know I've said this before, but you really need to give priority to your web site - and how you use it as an integrated component of your marketing program. Your clients are there. Are you?

Even if you are not advertising online (pay-per-click, banners etc), use your website to generate leads by having the right content and a suitable page structure.

Of course, I'm not saying you should ignore other B2B promotional tactics such as trade shows, industry publications and personal contact. They are still excellent tactics as well.

Top tips for getting more business from PPC ad's

Even though I write and consult on marketing, there are many good sources of information. This article by Catherine Seda gives a simple, yet solid, rundown of how to get better results (more sales) from your Pay-Per-Click advertising - like Google Adwords. In fact, these are the same tactics I discuss with clients.

If you don't use any pay per click ad's, you should read this article to see how easy it sounds. And it can be very easy to get started, and get results. For little cost as well.

Mice, jet-lag, death... nothing to do with marketing

Excuse me if you think this is frivolous, but a strange morsel of information came across my desk today. How can you live without knowing? This article from researchers at the University of Virginia explains how the jet-setter lifestyle may really be the death of you. One of the key findings:

Tests on more than 100 mice showed that old mice forced to live on a confusing schedules of light and darkness, simulating rotating shifts or international travel, died sooner than those on gentler schedules.

It's all about the experience.

Over the weekend we had a rare family get-together at Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast (see picture). I went for walk on the rocks, smelt the ocean, and listened to the waves. And I remembered.

What I remembered were experiences. Mostly good experiences from my childhood holidays at the beach. Fishing, sunscreen, music ...

What would you like your clients to experience when you work with them? What will trigger a good memory for them in the future?

Maybe it is the way you speak with them; or something you give them. Even if you don't do anything, your clients will attach a memory to the experience of using your services.

What do you want them to experience?

Plan your client management processes so you create the impression you want to. Don't leave it to chance.