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Tale of Two Clients
"It was the best of times, it was the worse of
times.......
it was the season of Darkness; it was the
spring of hope,
it was the winter of despair".... - Charles
Dickens
Can you believe that these words ring true 150 years after they
were written. What does that tell us? A couple of
things really. First, the economic downturn we are
experiencing is nothing new. Recessions, and indeed even
depressions, have been with us since the beginning of time.
Second, we will recover. We always have. We have to
in order to progress. And many have never stopped
progressing. Lastly, there is opportunity where others see
only despair and suffering.
Ok, so you have heard this ‘opportunity in recession’ business
before, but you are not sure how to see the opportunities or
take advantage of them. I don’t blame you, after all most
of what we are presented with, especially by the media and often
some so-called consultants are nothing but sound bits.
Which does not change the fact, that the opportunity exists.
Let’s take a look at two real marketers. These are real
people with real examples of what they did. Of course, I
have changed the names in order to protect the guilty.
Sarah has a graphics arts business. She is rather good at
what she does, but not that good at marketing. As a result
she is not as successful at getting the word out about her
business. And true to form, even when she takes a foray
into marketing, she doesn’t do it very well.
Jack has a network marketing business, that primarily sells via
his internet site. As with any network company, product
sales are critical, but so is recruiting. Both of these
talented people took the same short, day long course in
marketing and came away with some totally different points of
view, and they got some dramatically different results from
their marketing efforts.
Sarah took from the course that during times of economic
downturns, she needed to get more aggressive about getting the
word out about her business. She designed some ads which
basically listed what she does and even gave a website of some
of her examples. She sent over 500 letters (both used
postal letters rather than email, as suggested by the marketing
course,) and virtually got no response. None.
Needless to say, she considered the course and the effort an
abject failure.
Jack, on the other hand, took a different approach to his
letters. He realized that with the economy in a very slow
state, that most people are looking for two things. The
best price they could find on products and services and an
opportunity to increase their own income during the recession.
His letters focused on those aspects of his business. He
discounted prices of some products, he used loss leaders on
others and he always had a small liner in his letters about
increased income. His results were totally different than
Sarah’s. He got over 50 responses to his letters and made
20 sales, easily covering his campaign cost and giving him an
opportunity to make secondary and repeat sales.
As
with anything else, the right approach is vital when marketing
your own products and services. If you are selling
insurance, highlighting lower prices is good. Telling
people about insurance that won’t abandon you if you lose you
job or income for a couple of months is better. If you are
in the automobile service business, then offering a 15 point
safety check, and actually fixing something without charging (as
long as they don’t cost you hard money) will garner you more
good will than all the discount priced oil changes in the world.
Discount prices will only get you customers until someone beats
your price. And it doesn’t take much to do it either.
Giving free advice to customers or potential customers is a
great way to bring them closer to you. Don’t just try and
sell something, rather try and cement the relationship. It will
work better for bringing in the money, now and for years to
come. |
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