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Rip Off the Band-Aid: Why Prospects Refuse to Be Customers

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You’ll never preside over a thriving business enterprise, be it large, small, or somewhere in-between, unless you consistently recruit new customers—as you simultaneously encourage repeat business, that is! Maintaining a healthy customer list is a balancing act that requires constant attention. When creating marketing strategies and campaigns for your entity, I think it’s safe to say you create content expected to interest current and prospective customers who have at least a back-burner need for your service or product categories.

But as you brainstorm potential marketing messages to fuel your next inbound or outbound marketing campaign, your thoughts could eventually land on a cohort of elusive and reluctant prospects—- noncustomers, who buy little or nothing from either you or your competitors. Who are those outliers lurking at the fringes of your marketplace, you may wonder? Admittedly, Freelancers and owners of small or medium size businesses will (correctly) assume that it’s a smarter bet to direct your time and money to prospects who’ve shown a need for products and services offered in your marketplace. Nevertheless, you may not be able to ignore the silent awareness of noncustomers who may have a latent, unacknowledged need for what you sell. Could they exist in sufficient numbers and hold revenue potential to constitute a niche market for you? Maybe.

The answers you seek can most efficiently be revealed with comprehensive market research, data-driven and available in software like Qualtrics and other SaaS companies to get trustworthy customer intel that helps you make informed decisions. Once you’ve discovered the identities of your noncustomers, guided by the industries they occupy, you can then verify the business case for how your services and/or products could be worthwhile for them.

As you research your noncustomers, you may quickly see that they’re not all alike and that each subgroup has idiosyncratic biases, doubts, concerns, even misperceptions that explain why they’re noncustomers. Research may reveal that for some of them, the decision to decline to buy from either you or your competitors could make sense. That said, your noncustomers, while perhaps operating in different industries and maintaining different perspectives, might share certain similarities—goals, challenges, or concerns, for example, that could give them something to talk about if they all show up at the same holiday party. Subject to an analysis of relevant data that’s interpreted well, you may be able to build on what your noncustomers have in common and discover a potential niche market that you might convert into a few good customers.

Noncustomers categories

The challenge of noncustomers was researched by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, who sought to help companies more effectively understand and, where possible, convert the untapped demand of these inaccessible prospects and in so doing create the genuine demand for a company’s products and services that they named blue ocean. Kim and Mauborgne are professors of business strategy at INSEAD (Institut Europeen d’Administration des Affaires) and coauthors of Blue Ocean Strategy (2005), the book and the marketing theory. The developed an analytic framework used to study the phenomenon of noncustomers and they sorted the cohort into three tiers.

  • First Tier: Soon-to-be

First Tier noncustomers are on the fringe of your market and waiting for an opportunity to leave your industry. They’re not precisely noncustomers; when they must, they’ll buy certain products or services offered by companies in your category but know that they have no love for any company operating in your industry.

What drives First Tier noncustomers? They may be dissatisfied with the available products or services in your industry and hoping for a solution that better satisfies their needs.

  • Second Tier: Refuseniks

Second Tier noncustomers make a conscious choice against your market and deliberately decline to buy your industry’s product or service offerings. These noncustomers have seen the available solutions that might fulfill their needs but have decided against them.

What drives Second Tier Noncustomers? They may find the available products or services unaffordable or somehow inappropriate for their needs.

  • Third Tier: Unexplored

Third Tier noncustomers are psychologically farthest away from your marketplace. These noncustomers have never considered products or services sold in your industry to be an option and so they’ve made no purchases. It’s assumed that the needs of third tier noncustomers are addressed by another industry.

What drives Third Tier Noncustomers? They never viewed your industry’s products or services as a viable option and therefore never considered exploring what you sell.

Marketing messages for noncustomers

Prospects who erect barriers and refuse to be considered are not easy to overcome, as you know. Kim and Mauburgne recommend that those looking to appeal to noncustomers to first, search for similarities that link your various noncustomer subgroups and second, focus on low hanging fruit. In other words, figure out which noncustomer groups you can expect to most easily, quickly and inexpensively communicate with and then create strategies and campaigns to win them over, if that is possible. Spotlighting benefits they stand to receive when using your products or services may be persuasive.

Identifying those similarities shared by your different noncustomers will be a good job for your data analytics software. Once you’ve figured out the landscape, you can then decide which problem or priority to address. After that, you create a marketing message you expect will resonate with your chosen cohort and distribute through channels they can be expected to trust and follow.

  • Neuromarketing: emotional appeal

Some behavioral experts believe that 95% of customers’ buying decisions are made subconsciously and this strategy seems to me like a potentially successful one for reeling in noncustomers. It’s entirely possible that even your toughest B2B customers aren’t using as much logic as they’d like you to believe when they evaluate (or ignore) the possibility of buying your product or service. Moreover, the biggest urge that’s attached to unconscious decision making is emotion. What all this means is if you effectively appeal to your noncustomers’ feelings, you’ll have a better chance of influencing their buying decisions.

Research also shows that marketing campaigns that have purely emotional content perform twice as well when compared to content that only uses logic. Furthermore, for some unexplainable reason, content that includes both emotion and logic doesn’t connect as well as exclusively emotional marketing content, whether the content features positive or negative emotions. Emphasize emotions in your marketing content when reaching out to customers or noncustomers by including storytelling, humor, music, or other behaviors that resonate with their emotions. Instead of focusing solely on product features or benefits, create emotional content that strives to encourage a personal connection with your viewers.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Getty Images/Ingram Publishing (2014)

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Thoughts on B2B Pricing

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The prices assigned to a company’s products and services are an important element of the company’s marketing strategy. Pricing strategy plays a key role in determining a company’s revenue and overall financial picture and cannot be treated as an afterthought. Those of you operating in the B2B sector especially will note the codependent relationship between product and service pricing and the ability to attract and retain customers. B2B purchases are complex, involving multiple stakeholders, an extended sales cycle and high-value contracts. According to Marketing Chart, 63% of B2B buying committees consist of at least three decision-makers.

Identifying the optimal price range is critical business intel. If prices are too low, it becomes difficult to attain the sales revenue goal; there will be extra work and worry caused by the need to fill the sales pipeline with evermore prospects and hope to convert enough of them into paying customers. Price at a level that prospects find excessive may alienate them and possibly drive them instead to do business with a lower priced competitor. So your mission here is to find a sweet spot price range that prospects will tolerate and become your loyal paying customers.

Evaluate your industry and competition

As you contemplate pricing you will benefit by first identifying benchmarks by investigating pricing norms, in particular, standard mark-ups and the typical profit margin range in your industry. Next, check out the prices of a few competitors. Evaluating these numbers will also reveal whether or not your product and/or service production or acquisition costs are reasonable relative to the typical selling price range found in your industry and used by competitors.

Be advised that while knowledge of competitive pricing will help you determine an acceptable price range for your products and services, it would be ill-advised to merely apply a competitors’ prices for similar items to your line. Let factors that are unique to your situation guide your finalized pricing strategy.

Determine your pricing potential

It’s critical to identify a price range for your products and/or services that aligns with your brand and market position and is also accepted by your target customers. Knowing where on the value spectrum customers classify your products and services is essential information for every business and that knowledge is particularly important for pricing. You’ll confirm pricing potential when you understand customer perceptions of your company value and brand position. You may decide against pricing at either the upper or lower extremes of customer price tolerance but by considering key factors, including acquisition or production costs, competitive pricing intel and knowing the price tolerance of target customers, you can determine which end of the pricing spectrum will be most advantageous for your line.

Remember also that Freelancers and business owners in nearly every industry continue to grapple with the unfortunate effects of depressed wages, which for many have not kept pace with inflated prices that were declared “over” in 2022 but that we can’t seem to outrun. Customers remain cautious with their spending and most companies realize that pricing competitively to attract and retain customers is a must. Here are some common B2B pricing strategies that may help you find your sweet spot.

Cost-plus pricing

This strategy employs an uncomplicated mark-up formula. The business owner calculates the acquisition or production costs of the product or service, adds a certain sum for overhead expenses such as rent, payroll and utilities and arrives, tacks on the desired profit margin and arrives at a price that will cover all costs and deliver the margin. Also called mark-up pricing, this strategy focuses on internal factors like production or acquisition costs rather than external factors like brand reputation and competitive prices. 

Premium pricing

A premium pricing strategy aims for the maximum amount a customer is willing to pay for a product or service, rather than focusing on production/acquisition costs, competitive pricing, or other factors. Selling your product or service at a premium can mean deliberately pricing higher than competitors, as a way of demonstrating to your target market that your product or service is of a higher quality and more desirable than what’s sold by competitors and is therefore worth the additional cost. If marketing and branding activities convey high-end status and particularly when customers and influencers provide good word of mouth, a premium pricing strategy will be a brand-building asset and fulfill customer expectations.

Loss leader pricing

AKA penetration pricing, this strategy is enacted when a business assigns an irresistibly low price to a high-volume product or service with the intent of enticing customers to abandon competitors who sell a similar product or service at a noticeably higher price. The hope is that customers drawn to the loss leader will be motivated by the availability of other desirable items, and already happy with their bargain-priced item, will purchase those products or services that bring in a higher profit margin and make up for the low, or nonexistent, profit margin of the loss leader. Some B2B companies use a “freemium” version of loss leader pricing and allow new users to access a limited version of a product or service at no cost in the hope they’ll convert to paying customers. The strategy can also be effective for lead generation.

Trader Joe’s customers will be familiar with the chain’s quite successful use of loss leader pricing. For 20+ years, bananas at Trader Joe’s were priced at 19 cents each (increased in March 2024 to 23 cents each, as a result of rising transportation and farming expenses). The price of an organic banana was returned to 29 cents each, after being priced at 25 cents each for a few years. Trader Joe’s Markets is a privately held company and does not publicly report income, but it is believed that annual earnings are about 13 billion annually—so loss leader pricing appears to work for them.

Competitive pricing

Monitoring competitive pricing is time-honored business strategy. When the pricing strategy is influenced by a close competitor, prices are set relative to rivals and follow the going market rate for similar products and services. Prices may be set slightly lower or higher depending on factors such as product quality, target market and the marketing strategy. Proprietors of relatively new B2B companies often benefit from using this strategy because existing brands have already determined what customers will pay for similar products and services.

Tiered pricing

Most businesses serve a wide range of customers who have different business needs and operate under different financial conditions. Tiered pricing addresses the diversity of customers by offering price points for products and services that reflect the addition of features included at each level. Lowest cost versions include only basic features and highest price versions offer the most, and most desirable, features. Tiered pricing can increase revenue by enabling the business to sell to a wider range of customers.

Tiered pricing can also support the pricing strategy known as price anchoring. By offering three or more pricing tiers, the business can position its premium option as a psychological reference point as the best value for the money and use this story to encourage customers to accept up-sells.

Subscription pricing

With a product or service that requires repeated sales, e.g., access to software as a service (SaaS) or attending a monthly networking meeting, Freelancers and other business owners will turn to the subscription pricing model. Subscription pricing is usually a win-win for both customer and business owner because monthly costs are locked in with (typically) an annual contract. Both parties know the amount of money that will be paid or received each month or quarter. Subscription pricing delivers the advantage of expense (the customer) and revenue (the business) predictability that will encompass a predetermined length of time that also supports business planning for both the customer and the Freelancer or business owner.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©TK Kurikawa for Shutterstock 1457812421

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Survey Finds that Marketing Matters to Freelancers and SMB Owners

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An insightful survey of 1000 small business owners and independently employed Freelance professionals sponsored by printing powerhouse VistaPrint and website builder Wix and conducted in March 2024 conclusively confirmed that effective marketing is as important to small business entities as it is to enterprise companies like Apple and General Motors. Despite the enormous difference in the size of marketing teams and budgets as compared to multinational corporations, Freelancers and SMB owners value the impact of marketing and they’re enthusiastic about leveraging its impact to benefit their companies. The survey findings deliver a persuasive vote of confidence for the power of marketing.

Reaching new customers drives the motivation to market for 46% of survey respondents. It was found that 71% of Freelancers and SMB owners do their own marketing, that 79% feel confident in their ability to function in the role of marketing manager for their company and 77% are satisfied with the results of their marketing strategies and campaigns. However, the majority of Freelancers and SMB owners are realistic about their marketing expertise and survey results indicated that the majority of respondents either have or plan to upskill and learn to market more effectively; 63% reported that they took steps to hone their marketing abilities in 2023; and 76% reported that they plan to do so in 2024.

Though Freelancer and SMBs are happy with the results they’ve achieved as marketers, they are aware that they face challenges. Standing out in a crowded marketplace is perceived as their biggest threat, with 53% worried about standing out vs. competitors. Furthermore, 47% of respondents are concerned about choosing effective marketing tactics to promote their business and 49% wonder if their budget can cover their marketing aspirations. Freelancers and SMBs see their greatest marketing opportunities in expanding their online presence (24%), increasing brand awareness (23%) and launching new products or services (22%).

Experimenting

The inevitability of digital marketing is understood by survey respondents but surprisingly, social media outreach and search engine optimization do not completely dominate their choices of marketing strategies and tactics. Survey results showed that while 78% of respondents experimented with “new” marketing tactics in 2023, achieving a balance between digital and traditional marketing tactics and identifying a mix of strategies and activities that work best for their business is the goal.

The importance of social media and search engines is obvious to them, but traditional marketing continues to resonate most likely because customers still value real-life and face2face interactions and physical touch points, as well as digital experiences. In 2024, 48% of Freelancers and SMB owners plan to increase their spend on newer (digital) marketing, while 30% will likewise increase marketing spend, but will continue with the same marketing mix. 

Balancing

Word-of-mouth will always be an asset to Freelancers and SMBs for promoting brand awareness, but a range of marketing touch points is often needed to raise awareness and persuade prospects to do business. For those reasons, achieving a balance between digital and traditional marketing activities is a goal for survey respondents: 28% allocated their marketing budgets 50-50 traditional and digital, while 40% invested more heavily in digital marketing activities and 32% chose to invest more in traditional marketing. The leading digital 
marketing tactics chosen in 2023 were an upgrade of the company website (60%), social media paid ads (60%), search engine optimization (50%) and email marketing (46%).

Traditional marketing continues to play a key role for Freelancers and SMB owners, with 71% reporting that physical marketing tactics are important because customers still value the experience. Regarding traditional marketing activities, 50% of respondents invested in business cards, attended trade shows and similar conferences, 31% invested in paid print ads and 29% used promotional items.

Locavore

It can feel intimidating to compete with major retailers and corporate giants when doing business, however small entities have one huge advantage—many customers want to feel connected to their local neighborhood when doing business and 78% of customers surveyed reported that it’s important to them to “shop local.” Marketing that emphasizes location, loyalty and community can help keep customers coming back, as reported by 1000 small business customers who also participated in the VistaPrint – Wix marketing survey.

Customers of SMB and Freelancers surveyed reported that marketing tactics that help them find SMBs and Freelancers to do business with include social media (54%), search engines (44%) and print ads (26%). Furthermore, 41% of small business customers reported that a primary reason they choose to shop small business over big is to support local business and 46% say they actively seek out such companies. These customers value knowing the owner and staff where they do business and those relationships are a motivation for shopping local. Click to read the full report. https://smb.vistaprint.com/_files/ugd/3121be_d99794458cee45079ba421dbb61ed1d2.pdf

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Santulan Architecture Denver, CO

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Rapid Response: Being Agile

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Throughout history, human beings have learned that unexpected circumstances can bring instability to your life or your work and cause you to abandon plans you assumed were carved in stone and adapt to a new reality. Pragmatists are aware that disruption of one kind or another is inevitable and destined to visit your life if you live long enough.

Business owners and leaders, including Freelancers, recognize that in order to successfully navigate uncertainty, it’s possible—-but probably not easy—-to shift gears and make the necessary adjustments. There may be sleepless nights, but you can regain your footing. Agile strategies are the way to make it all happen.

You can trust agile strategies to become your go-to crisis response plan, the roadmap that guides you when the ground is shifting beneath your feet. An agile mindset and strategies will help you to rationally assess how the changed business conditions impact your organization, recognize factors in your organization that must change in response to the new scenario and figure out how to effectively operate within your new business landscape—-and in a timely fashion.

When the tide suddenly turns, agile strategies offer a useful alternative to the typical long-term planning outlook and instead encourage you to devote the upcoming 12-18 months to wrestling with the obstacles your company now faces and, ideally, discovering whatever unexpected opportunities the altered business environment presents. Below are practices to keep at top of mind as your new reality unfolds.

Always-on strategy

  • Adaptability in a rapidly changing environment. Freelancers and small business owners usually operate in dynamic environments. Often able to access only limited resources, these entrepreneurs need strategies that can support their evolving circumstances. Agile strategies enable flexibility. They allow business owners to adjust plans and actions in real time, based on customer feedback. Weekly strategy assessments are a useful way to monitor the success (or weakness) of interventions that were enacted and facilitate making refinements as needed.
  • Innovation and competitive advantage. Innovation is a driving force of business success. Agile strategies encourage creative thinking as they challenge the status quo and lead you and your team to explore new opportunities. By baking innovation into your strategies, you can discover or create competitive advantages and build a loyal and lucrative customer base.
  • Focus on high-value opportunities. Agile strategies help business owners focus on the most critical challenges and high-potential/ high-value opportunities. Your resources are not infinite and it’s imperative that you invest time and money into areas that can be expected to yield the greatest ROI. By identifying these key opportunities, you’ll maximize your chances of success.
  • Agility and speed in execution. Small and medium-sized businesses often have the advantage of being nimble and agile. Agile strategizing facilitates quick and objective decision-making, as it eliminates the tradition of lengthy planning processes and empowers teams to swiftly analyze, plan and execute. When your business climate changes, a timely response to customer priorities and preferences is essential.

Smarter strategy

As you acclimate to the practices of always-on strategizing, promoting creativity and innovation, engaging stakeholders and becoming intentional about your company’s strategic direction are among the benefits you will enjoy. You’ll discover the rewards of smarter strategy — AKA agile strategy. Clarity, coherence, focus, adaptability, innovation and action are the guiding principles. Invite agile strategies to become the engine that moves your organization forward.

  • Focus on the most critical challenges and highest-value opportunities.
  • Address challenges you expect to encounter in the next 12 to 18 months, instead of relying on the usual three-to five-year planning cycle.
  • Bake innovation into strategies and let go of benchmarking against your competitors. What they do may no longer apply. Instead, find the courage to think outside the box and always A/B test to confirm your assumptions.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Academy Award winner George Chakiris (Best Supporting Actor, 1962) as Bernardo Nunez in the film adaptation of West Side Story, released by United Artists in 1961.

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More than Noise: PR Takes Your Brand to the Top

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There are several ingredients in a recipe that results in the creation of a successful business and a good reputation is surely one of them. Reputation, more commonly known as the brand these days, is also comprised of several ingredients and a savvy public relations strategy is one way you can influence the perception of your entity’s brand reputation.

A well-conceived and executed public relations campaign has long been recognized as one of the most powerful strategies available for building a successful brand reputation. The goal of PR is to shape and manage a brand’s reputation and credibility by employing selected media outlets to reach target audiences and cultivate a favorable impression of the brand. Because the perception of a company’s brand influences the degree of success that it achieves, a favorable brand reputation will help position a company to grow and prosper.

Launch a PR campaign for yourself and/or your company by contacting selected media outlets and sending information about an activity in which you (and by extension the company) will participate, or another story line that may interest the outlet’s readers, viewers, or listeners. In a written document known as a press, or news, release, include the basic facts of your story, a brief bio of yourself and your company and a professional-looking photo of yourself. In a day or two, follow-up with the recipient of the press release to gauge the interest level in the story and the possibility of its inclusion in a future issue or broadcast.

An effective PR strategy

By using a strategy of targeted messaging campaigns designed for print media, digital outlets including webinars, videos, or podcasts, speaking engagements and other personal appearances, plus the interaction encouraged by social media engagement, companies and individuals have numerous options for enhancing the perception of their brand within the target audience. Effective and consistently orchestrated PR campaigns create conditions for brand awareness and loyalty to take root over time.

To structure an effective PR campaign specific objectives, messages that resonate and media outlets that are trusted by the target audience and appropriate for your campaign messages and objectives, are critical factors. Knowing target audience motivations for using your company’s products or services provides the campaign talking points. You can tailor PR messages around themes that align the brand narrative with important concerns of the audience. Make sure that your PR messages are clear, concise and consistent across all media outlets used.

A persuasive brand narrative

An important feature in a successful PR campaign is developing a brand narrative that engages your target audience while also differentiating your company (and you) from competitors. To be persuasive, the brand narrative must be perceived as authentic. Drafting a persuasive brand narrative requires that you first identify and define the core values, vision and mission of your organization and second, that you understand what target audience members expect to achieve or solve when they use your company’s products or services. Showcasing the unique qualities and value proposition that distinguish the company, individual, or product from competitors is also integral to developing a persuasive brand narrative.

Again, the brand narrative must feel authentic to the target audience. Authenticity in PR messages enables the development of lasting relationships by building trust through communications that reflect the individual’s or organization’s values. A consistently communicated brand narrative can eventually come to embody the brand reputation. In that way, effective PR becomes the secret sauce that enhances your company’s reputation and renown in a noise-filled, hyper-competitive business landscape.

What is newsworthy?

Regardless of the size of your business, obtaining (positive) media attention is possible and highly recommended. Editors, publishers and hosts choose the stories or guests they’ll spotlight based on who and what can be expected to generate an audience. The best way to determine newsworthiness is to consider the media outlet’s audience and what might be of interest to them. Will your story or information grab their attention? Below are typical factors that impact editorial decisions.

Impact. A story or person that appeals to many readers, viewers, or listeners and is therefore expected to attract a sizeable audience or many clicks is considered impactful. Estimate the impact that your story will have on the media outlet’s audience.

Human interest. Connecting with the audience emotionally is an effective way to bring attention to a story. A story or guest that is relatable has the power to attract a good audience.

Relevance. How important will your story be to the audience? In your press release and in the first sentence of your talk or article, can you share one or two surprising, if not shocking, facts that will grab audience attention?

Prominence. If prominent people or organizations do business with you and your company, media gatekeepers may assume that their audience wants to learn how you captured the attention of VIPs and that could lead them to include your story.

Timeliness. Your information or story will be more readily accepted if the action will either take place in the near future, or happened recently.

Scale PR for small business

The best PR can’t be bought (without a generous budget), but affordable and effective PR strategies and tactics can be designed to fit within most budgets. Social media has found a place in PR because the medium allows brands to interact directly with the target audience, encouraging an immediacy and relatability that audiences find authentic and conducive to building sustainable brand loyalty.

Be advised that incorporating social media into your PR campaigns is most effective when you follow regular posting schedules designed to keep fans and followers engaged and informed with meaningful content. Your postings may include updates on a talk you’ll give, a webinar you’ll host or participate in, best practices updates for your products or services, your most recent blog or newsletter post, or your thoughts or experiences about trends in your industry.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © Ron Galella. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and celebrity photographer Ron Galella on Madison Avenue in New York City (1971).

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Pulling Out of A Slump

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It can be argued that periodic downturns are endemic to the business cycle. Companies large and small will eventually suffer through a downturn, a slump, in sales revenues and profit. A slump is always worrisome but some are seasonable and therefore predictable. That means you can prepare.

Landscaping services expect the demand for lawn and garden maintenance to drop during the winter months. To supplement cash-flow and position the company for year-round customer value, owners of landscaping concerns are known to retool for snow removal when gardens are dormant.

But for most businesses, unfortunately, a slump will occur unexpectedly and for no immediately obvious reason, such as the appearance of a competitor or a difficult economy. If the struggling business is to survive, corrective action must be taken soon. Reversing a sales trend that’s negative or flat is a formidable challenge, a high-stakes test of the resoucefulness and strategic vision of the company leadership. A turnaound, rather a bigger deal than a pivot, may be needed to turn the tide. Or not.

Freelancers typically do not have the financial wherewithal to bring in a management consultant to diagnose the problem and recommend solutions. Freelance consultants need a Do It Yourself remedy and that’s what we’ll talk about today. As usual, the solution you seek will probably be found in data and knowledge you already own and have access to. Your company’s Key Performance Indicators (determine which ones tell the story) and revelations shared by your customers will most likely steer you to both the correct diagnosis plus cost-effective strategies to halt the slump and stimulate revenue.

When to respond

A slump may be a sudden or gradual phenomenon and caused by any number of factors, including a national or regional economic downturn, the introduction of a compelling new technology, a large-scale health crisis, even a vote in your state legislature. If your top line gross revenues show a decline of 10 % or more (or flatline) for three consecutive months and you are unable to understand why revenue is dropping, recognize that your business is in a slump and you cannot ignore the problem.

The cause

If you’re in a slump, it’s important to identify the cause (single or plural). Did something happen in the industry, or in the local or national economy (like a widespread or a war)? Has business been adversely impacted by the shift to Work From Home, because your customers are no longer in the office five days a week and connecting with them has become difficult? Whatever the cause may be, it’s important to know what went wrong and decide if a work-around would make sense, or if a fundamental change should be made. In some cases, it will be necessary to assess your entire operation. It will be wise to consider the following possibilities:

  • Evolving customer tastes or priorities
  • Business model weakness
  • Powerful competitor
  • Economic factors

The cure

You will likely find that customer feedback is essential to the discovery process. Seeking out the wisdom that your customers can provide will guarantee that you’ll develop a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the marketplace and that understanding will lead to an effective solution. A more nuanced understanding of the marketplace can also help you to develop products and services that customers actually want and need.

When preparing to reach out to your customers, make contact through various channels—emails, call-outs in your blog or newsletter, calls-to-action posted to your website and social media platforms. Customer surveys and invitations to join (30-60 minute) conference or video calls can yield a wealth of boots-on-the-ground insights and you’ll be almost certain to obtain actionable information. Reddit, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are ideal venues for this type of research. For example, Twitter Spaces is a feature that allows users to create a chatroom-like environment with a group of people.

Keep in mind, however, that while customer feedback can be very helpful as you search for the cause of your business slump and can as well be very useful as you engineer a pivot or a turnaround for the business, blindly following customer suggestions is not recommended. The customers’ money is not on the line and neither do they see the big picture of the business and its challenges-—you do. Have the confidence to use your own judgment and expertise to make what you interpret as the best decisions for your entity.

In sum, good KPI data and customer feedback should be essential components of any business’s intention to understand and resolve a significant business challenge. An assessment of business conditions, industry trends and customer feedback re: their priorities, goals and preferences can inform any tweaking of products or services you might undertake, the pivot or turnaround you may follow to pull the business back from the brink and position your venture for the greatest success its ever experienced.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: © AF Archive/Alamy. John Dimech (as Daud) struggles to escape quicksand in Lawrence of Arabia (1962).

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Fix the Flaws in Your Tactical Plan

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Look at it this way—if every time you and your team develop goals for your organization all of the goals are achieved every time, take it as a sign that you should be more ambitious. Goals should challenge! Working toward goals should test you and make you grow.

But if the opposite happens and it becomes clear that your strategies and actions are not moving you toward success, you’ll need to stop and discuss. You must understand why things aren’t happening and decide what you can do about it. For sure, a change will have to be made, but how might you figure out what to change?

Today we’ll break down the elements of working toward goals — the actions taken, the strategies, which are pathways, and finally, the goals themselves. Our objective is to recognize what part of the plan is fatal and what is fixable. Spoiler alert–everything is connected. Each component of your plan must support, and be supported by, the other components.

Actions and strategy

It makes sense to start by examining actions—closer to ground level. Every action you or your team takes should be devised to align with and support a specific strategy. All actions should have a purpose that is readily identifiable as a cog in the wheel that carries out a strategy. So if the wheel stops turning, it will not be too difficult to pinpoint the problem and make whatever necessary adjustments.

You may also benefit from rethinking the metrics used to monitor the efficacy and progress of the actions. Are you tracking and measuring the right data? Does the data provide an accurate picture of how your action items contribute to reaching the goal? If not, reevaluate and substitute more meaningful metrics.

Strategies and customer priorities

What matters most is that customer preferences and priorities are tied to and reflected in your strategies. If you’ve analyzed your team’s performance and your actions are on target as regards the plan, then the problem may well lie in the strategy, the wrong path. Perhaps it’s no longer viable?

Or maybe you’ve overlooked other data that indicate customer needs and interests are evolving? If that’s the case, you’ll need to update to ensure that your strategies align with what matters most to customers. You may not need to revise your goals but rather, revise strategies.

Verify the alignment, or lack thereof, between your tactics and strategies. Remember that your actionable tasks are designed to further a certain strategy. It is therefore essential to confirm that you’re using the right tactics to impact the strategy.

SMART Goals

If you’ve taken a cold, hard look at both the strategic and the tactical plans without pinpointing an opportunity for making a timely and productive shift, then it’s time to reconsider your choice of goals.

The problem with your goal may be situational — i.e., what was a valid, realistic goal has lost its luster. The world has turned and now you need to play catch-up and align with the current environment and market. Or it could be that there’s nothing wrong with the goal itself; you just haven’t fully identified, defined and fleshed it out. Reality test your goals by asking yourself the following questions:

SPECIFIC: Specific means “Show a revenue increase of $X and growth in profit of Y% by the end of the current fiscal year,” and not “show an increase in revenue and growth by the end of the fiscal year.”

MEASURABLE: What are the metrics you’ll use to document your progress (and why are they relevant)?

ACHIEVABLE: Is your goal attainable and realistic both in the absolute sense and within the resources—-time, expertise, money—-you can devote to its achievement?

RELEVANT: Does your goal make sense? Does it align with your values and mission of your organization? Does it get your company closer to where you want it to be, in market penetration, referrals and repeat business, revenue earned, or profits made?

TIMELY: Is the time right to pursue and benefit from the attainment of this goal? Also, do you have a clear starting point and metrics targets or deadline date to assess the final result of your initiative?

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: ©Winslow Townson, Associated Press. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in the huddle at the December 17, 2017 game against the Steelers at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, PA

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Networking in the Next Normal

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We are on the cusp of a new era (but you know that). Can we agree to name the period before COVID-19 normal, the business-as-usual drill with which we’re all familiar? Where we are now, the present, is commonly referred to as the new normal and maybe for you the term is already getting old. But time moves forward and we will soon enter the true post-COVID-19 era, the next normal. If you expect your business venture to survive and thrive in the fast-approaching future, the time to prepare for the next normal client is now.

Preparation begins with devising strategies to recover revenue lost to the 2020-2021 shutdown. Your plan to encourage and support client acquisition and increased revenue may include upgrades to the company’s digital presence, more sophisticated and targeted content marketing, greater use of marketing automation, greater attention devoted to financial management and post-pandemic next normal networking activities.

Networking is one of the most important business development activities that a Freelance consultant can perform. Networking can have a significant impact on your ability to meet potential prospects and build your client list. In the post-COVID environment, you would be wise to put your networking energy into building relationships and not blatantly hunting for a sale.

In your travels, where networking can organically happen anywhere and need not be limited to formal meetings or conferences, set your sights on meeting people who you find interesting and enjoy getting to know. Should the subject of business comes up, listen for ways that you can be helpful.

While conversing with a new colleague in person or online, you may eventually find an opening to talk turkey and slip into LeadGen. Whether you meet your new colleague in real time or by digital means, the smart networking strategy is to use finesse as you steer the conversation to the next level. Don’t risk undoing the effort you’ve invested with a clumsy approach.

  • Ask the right questions: Be politely curious and actively listen as you encourage your new colleague to talk about him/herself and their business. Focus on getting to know those whom you meet.
  • Be a resource: Marketing is the new sales. Offer insights based on your experiences and/or offer to send a link to additional info that spotlights your expertise and grasp of the goal or problem that a would-be prospect needs to address.
  • Don’t be afraid to play the long game: You’re not going to marry someone on the first date and you’re probably not going to reach your LeadGen goal in the first encounter. Start networking conversations by asking questions and actively listening, to learn more about the potential prospects. Build trust as you invite him/her to do what they like best—-talk about themselves! It can also be an excellent strategy for building relationships and finding clients.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: The the networking is in full swing in a scene from an unidentified circa 1930s Hollywood movie.

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Go Agile

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Life brings change and it seems as if change occurs at a much faster pace these days. Then again, the same observation was probably made in the Middle Ages or even when the pharaohs ruled. The world continues to turn and every day is new and brings a unique set of circumstances. How we respond to fluctuating conditions has a big impact on our fortunes in life.

The ability to move quickly, whether to take advantage of goodies that unexpectedly appear or dodge something unpleasant, is a skill known as agility and it is worth cultivating. In business, the ability to incorporate agility into strategy, management and culture enables company leaders and team members to facilitate smart decisions that enable beneficial changes that can be instituted quickly and efficiently. This capability delivers a number of advantages, often making a business more competitive, sustainable and ultimately, more profitable. During periods of generally adverse business conditions, agility often makes the difference between keeping a business viable or presiding over its failure.

Benefits of an agile business 

  • Responding to new market conditions or competitors. Every business will at some point encounter a wily competitor or challenging market conditions. When agile practices are baked into your organization, the leadership team will be better prepared to adjust to evolving conditions. You expect change—you monitor the Key Performance Indicators, you pay attention to the competitive scene, you follow industry developments that help you anticipate what might impact your organization, for good or ill. You are accustomed to making decisions and changes to accommodate new realities. The agile business is resilient.
  • Solving and responding to problems. The pandemic shutdown has been Problem #1 for most of us. Hollowed out industries, disappearing clients, supply chain delays and difficulties in finding help thanks to the stimulus payments that have made staying home more profitable than working for some. These and other disruptions can prevent you from efficiently serving your customers. But leaders of agile businesses have been training like a prize fighter, giving the entity quick reflexes, effective offense and defense strategies and stamina to weather the storm. You’re able to recognize what may become a problem and proactively institute alternatives that will soften the blows and limit damage. The agile organization is prepared to defend itself and prevail. 

Tools of an agile business

  • A Robust data streams. Agility won’t help you unless your decisions and actions are based on 1.) objective data and 2.) you measure what it makes sense to measure. Accordingly, your first goal should be establishing credible and relevant streams of data for key aspects of your business. You should consistently measure your performance in every department, and across the entire business. Analyzing and interpreting the data will help you figure out which actions to take next.
  • Fast decision-making. Agile businesses are capable of making important decisions quickly. That capability requires both preparation and courage. If a problem arises, a quick decision can mitigate its impact. If a competitor emerges, your agile business may be able to pivot in a matter of weeks, instead of months. This usually means avoiding the development of slow, bureaucratic systems in favor of those that support decisiveness and action. Good data, especially in the form of well-chosen KPIs, is essential, as is the willingness to act on it.
  • Flexible systems. Flexibility is crucial for agility. If your technology infrastructure and operational workflows can’t accommodate rapid-fire changes or expansion, they’re not going to support agility.
  • Innovation. Your organization also needs a mechanism and encouragement for innovation. For agility to be effective, it needs to foster and support novel ideas, including ideas for new products and services.

Practices of an agile business

  • Encourage entrepreneurial thinking. If you’ve built a good team, you’ll be able to extend to them a degree of autonomy. Empower your employee in to develop a sense of ownership and behave as if a steward, a stakeholder, of the enterprise. Encourage them to solve their own problems and allow them to make their own decisions whenever possible. The more autonomy your employees have, the faster they’ll make decisions (and the more agile your business will become).
  • Foster clusters of small teams. Big, hierarchical organizations have some advantages, but they’re inherently unagile. Instead, it’s better to work closely together in small teams. Try to avoid becoming overly bureaucratized.
  • Avoid becoming too accustomed to anything. Don’t get too attached to anything in your business, including people, software, workflows and even the company culture. You need to remain flexible and willing to incorporate new ideas.
  • Cut whatever isn’t working. Whether it’s a new tactic or a strategy with a long history of producing results that at one time pushed the company forward, you need to be willing to cancel whatever isn’t working. If it doesn’t provide an objective benefit to your organization, get rid of the dead weight.
  • Check in regularly. You should have reliable metrics to inform you of your progress and check in with them regularly. While you’re at it, ask for feedback from your employees and ask how they think the organization could be made even more agile in the future.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Olga Korbut, superstar gymnast from Minsk, Belarus (formerly USSR) at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, (West) Germany. Korbut won four gold and two silver medals at the Games.

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Defensive Marketing

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In sports and in business, well-planned and executed strategies and tactics are necessary to win the day. Some sports or business plays or strategies come from the Offensive side. Those strategies are proactive—-the opening salvo, aggressive and attacking, putting out a direct challenge to the competition.

Introducing a new product and all the activities related to the launch are an example of Offensive Marketing. One might also think of push marketing tactics, e.g., email marketing that announces a new product or service.

Your company is in expansion mode, perhaps entering a new market or geography and battling for the attention and support of new customers.

In contrast, Defensive Marketing strategies and tactics, on the playing field or in the board room, are designed and utilized to protect your turf. Tactics and strategies are reactive. When responding to an attack, whether it’s the other team positioning itself to chip away at your lead or a competitor cutting into your market share, assume a Defensive stance and take steps to protect what has been achieved. Position your entity to maintain or reestablish dominance.

When a Defensive Marketing strategy is required, the company objective is to retain clients and market share, to refine product positioning messages, strengthen customer relationships, or enact other reparative therapy. Crisis communications, i.e., the response to a public set-back or scandal, is a classic Defensive Marketing move.

Depending on what a business needs to achieve, marketing strategies that work from an Offensive or Defensive stance can be employed separately or simultaneously. In the coronavirus business climate, that our politicians seem inclined to prolong, Defensive Marketing rules the day.

Everyone is hunkered down, if not outright shut down. Nevertheless, those businesses allowed to operate are doing just that, even if employees are working from home. The companies have budgets. Some are hiring Freelancers.

Just because many companies have curbed their spending doesn’t mean that they don’t have a modest budget available for certain types of high-value projects, as owners and leaders define it.

Put on your thinking cap—-What might motivate your clients to spend money these days? Chances are they’re working hard to protect what they’ve built up over the months that preceded the shutdown. It’s likely that your clients are shoring up systems and resources and reaffirming relationships with their customers. Your clients are probably positioning their organization for long-term success.

The question is, how can we Freelancers package, describe and promote our organization to effectively communicate to current and prospective clients that we can assist their Defensive Marketing campaigns?

To predict how your services might fit into the picture, take time to think objectively about the client’s business and what could be considered logical long-term objectives that could reap benefits over the next 5 or so years.

Nurturing and promoting their most important, biggest selling products or services is a safe bet, as is protecting and/ or upgrading business continuity processes and also insurance, disaster recovery systems in nearly every stripe, from hardware and software to the physical plant. However, some organizations might go on the Offensive and begin making some surprisingly aggressive moves as they pursue customer acquisition.

Keep in mind that scaling back on what is considered spending on nonessentials should not be mistaken for the cessation of spending. The organizations could be merely reflecting the economic or political climate and allowing their expenditures to reflect the new normal.

Good customer knowledge and relationships, along with agility and adaptability, will support proprietors of Freelance consultancies as we respond to yet another set of difficult business conditions. Our clients are either thinking of what must be done today to get their business back in motion, or looking at how the distant future might look and how they can engineer safe passage. Defensive Marketing strategies will predominate.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Photograph: Kim Clark. The Boston Common tennis court.