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Create a Listening Strategy to Build Competitive Advantage

30/8/2014

Is your organisation missing out on that vital online resource; Business Intelligence? Have you created a formal Listening Program in your company?

The online conversation is going on 24/7. Are you taking advantage of the online conversations to build competitive advantage?

Here’s what you may be missing out on!

Reputation Management

In today’s viral online community word spreads faster than ever in the history of man. One person with a smart phone who has just taken a picture of one of your staff berating a customer can send it to all his friends within minutes. Uploaded to YouTube or sent across the social networks and you have got a potential viral customer service disaster on your hands.

What could this cost your business? The answer is you will never know because you simply cannot calculate the results of lost opportunities, potential customers turned off your business or existing customers not wanting to trade with you again.

What cost?

Your Latest Product/Service

You may just find that your latest product which you have just spent the last year developing is receiving indifferent views across the social networks, or the online community might love the product but are very unhappy with your after sales service. Being able to get to grips with this immediately will solve a potentially damaging problem in real time instead of allowing it to go unnoticed and creating a perception of your business that produces good products but has lousy after sales care.

Answer that Question!

We are all swamped with thousands of marketing messages on a daily basis, pushing out yet another marketing message on Facebook or Twitter will have little impact. However engaging with your customers and prospects in a different way is much more likely to bring success through loyalty and positive word-of-mouth reactions.

You will add much more value to your customers and prospects when you solve a problem for them. Imagine a scenario where a user on a social platform is having a real bad time with a product and getting no response from the original supplier, (one of your competitors!) given that you have the knowledge, how do you think they would feel about you and your business if you solved the problem, especially as your help was free!

They are going to be putting out positive tweets and posts on their platforms about your business, say someone has around one thousand friends on Facebook, how good would it be if your name was mentioned in glowing terms on all of their friends newsfeeds?

Market Needs and Threats

To be able to respond to the needs of your market you must be in tune with its needs. Monitoring what your market is saying about preferences, new trends and wants is vital information. Having a formal system in place to capture, analyse and respond to what is being said is fundamental to your social media program.

This is real-time information where you are able to detect sentiment towards your products and services, your competitors’ products and services, and market trends. All of which will help you to improve your products and services in the future and identify new opportunities in your market.

Imagine the scenario of you not having a formal listening strategy in place, but your competition has. Just visualise for a moment their staff using their listening tools to capture and analyse information on a daily basis and acting upon that information to deal with any immediate crisis and to develop their products and services for the future.

But you are doing nothing?

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Is your content aligned with your business objectives?

27/8/2014

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The social media marketplace is saturated with content. Most people have a limited attention span when it comes to absorbing yet another post, tweet, blog or an Instagram picture etc.

So how do you maximize the content you put out so that you cut through the online conversation and attract the attention of the audience you wish to influence?

In his book Your Brand: The Next Media Company Michael Brito talks about the need to elevate the conversation above general content marketing and make your content an integral and strategic part of you business by aligning all of your content to your vision and business goals.

Establishing the Why, What, How and Where will give you a baseline from which to develop the internal resources needed to turn your brand into a “content organisation”

See the full post by Michael Brito here

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19 Hard Things You Need To Do To Be Successful

20/8/2014

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Have you ever wondered how those people that you see being successful manage to be so? Well maybe you think most of them got a lucky break just at the right time (maybe some did) or they got a great stash of cash from some benefactor which just set them on their way to an easy fortune.

Some were possibly were born with the proverbial “silver spoon” in their mouth (who cares!!)

However if we are realistic and most of us are, we know in our heart of hearts that the vast majority of successful people get to where they are and achieve what they have achieved by sheer hard work and taking chances that many people would not have done in a million years.

No, we know that the Branson’s, Oprah’s, Gates etc did not get where they are just by “puddling along” There were visions, goals pathways, timelines but most of all an unswerving passion to do what it takes to “make it happen”

I recently came across an article reflecting the same topic in Business Insider which listed 19 Hard Things You Need To Do To Be Successful take a look, are we all capable of that bit more? Of course we are. Let’s try and do at least two of these things next week to start being more than we are.

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The 21st Century Customer

18/8/2014

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It almost goes without saying now but long gone are the days when marketers could bombard prospects and customers with marketing messages to create a demand for their products and services.

Today’s consumers are much more in control and have the tools to decide which organisations are worthy of their attention.

In a recent blog post marketer/author John Jantsch suggests that producing large volumes of content to attract customers is similar to the old methods but just a little more “polished up”.

I would agree, customers and prospects need to be led to place where they are totally comfortable to make a buying decision based upon their experiences over a period of time.

In his post the author lists seven behaviours that buyers want to experience on their way to becoming customers. Know, Like,Trust,Try,Buy,Repeat and Refer.

To read the full article click here

John Jantsch is also the author of a new book Duct Tape Selling – Think Like a Marketer, Sell Like a Superstar

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Is Your Business Still Your Passion?

16/8/2014

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Off goes the alarm, up you get. Bathroom, breakfast, thinking about the things you have got to do today. Can you feel the excitement welling up inside, you just can’t wait to get to the door, you run to the car, ignition on and away to your business premises or if you work from home, running into your office.

The activities that await you are your passion in your business life, everything you could have wished for is about to unfold in another day doing the things that you just love and drive you forward to success.

Or maybe not.

Are you really fired up? Has the business evolved and left you doing things that “have to be done” Or have you stopped doing the things that you really love doing – the reason you started your business in the first place. Is it just not fun anymore?

Has your focus gone away from the things that you know you do best, things that give you fulfillment, energy and passion, when you are in the zone.

Is it not true that the most successful people in life spend most of their time on the things they are truly passionate about? Doing more of what they love brings more success and so the cycle continues.

Sounds obvious, but if you can find a way to focus more time on what you really enjoy doing in your business can you imagine how much happier and fulfilled you would be?

So, what are the activities that will help you to leap out of bed once more? When you have re-discovered them may I suggest you do a lot more of them.

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What is the Actual ROI of your New Product/Service?

9/8/2014

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In a previous post I spent some time on New Product Development and strategy. Lets now assume that you are pleased with the new product or service that you wish to bring to the marketplace, it has gone through all the screening and it is ready for launch. Now is the time to crunch the numbers.

The Business Case

Its time to accurately forecast the profitability of the product in relation to the direct costs (labour/direct materials) and associated costs say, any non-direct labour such as product testing/quality control apportionment. In addition you may well apportion certain overheads to the product such as heat, light etc.

Other costs may also include licences, duties and taxes if you wish to export the product.

Selling Price

Taking into account your previous market analysis, decide upon your selling price and the actual margin you are going to make. Will you have to discount the price initially to create market penetration? What level of sales will be through distributors or to wholesale outlets where margins will be lower? Taking into account the above factors and other costs that may apply to your particular product or market, define your break-even. How many units will you have to sell before you break even on the variable and fixed costs and, the overall cost of the product development.

The Longer Term

Forecasting the life cycle of the product may not be easy, however projecting how long the product will be relevant to your marketplace is essential in order to estimate how many units will be sold. In terms of time how long will it be before you see the Return On Investment that you need. How does this compare with other products in your range, or other investments you could make instead, Does it make sense?

Is your ROI in line with your expectations?

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Is New Product Development a Key Element in Your Business Strategy?

4/8/2014

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Are your products or services becoming a little "old"? Can you feel the pressure mounting from your competitors, here or from imports? Is it price competition or advances in design, functionality or service offerings.

Whatever you are providing to the marketplace, sooner or later someone will introduce something that will take some of your market share. In certain cases, particularly in mobile devices technology the effect can be rapid and almost catastrophic. You only have to look at the effect that companies like Apple and Samsung have had in the area of technology and electronics to see that if a business is not developing continually then bad things might happen. Even with constant monitoring of the market and your own offerings you may still feel the effects of change, however being aware and acting upon the needs of customers and the market in general will at least prepare you for attacks upon your business.

New Product Development

Somewhere along the line your business will have to respond to market pressures and engage in the process of New Product Development (NPD). New products may not be new to the marketplace but they could be new to your business, you will be producing them to meet the needs of your loyal customers to avoid them going to another source (where they may be tempted to look at other products) so to keep them on board with you.

NPD may take the form of completely new innovations that you are introducing to the market or modifications to an exist product or range of products to keep up with the competition.
You may also choose to add products and services to your existing range under a licence agreement where you can rapidly expand your offering to the marketplace and gain a march on the competition, particularly if you have negotiated a period of exclusivity with a licensor.

NPD Strategy

An NPD strategy that is planned effectively will maximize available business resources and save time and money. Your strategy will be the blueprint for product planning, research into market and customers needs, timescales, milestones, availability of finance and the effect on general cash flow for the rest of the business.
Your strategy will also enable you to avoid being overly optimistic regarding your actual manufacturing costs for instance and what the market will pay for each unit. Many new products have hit the rocks not because they were not good, but the market did not see the value in the product at the asking price.

So one of the key issues to avoid is allowing the NPD team to "champion" a product/service that although creates massive excitement internally, just doesn't meet the needs of the marketplace.

Identifying the needs of the marketplace

Do you have a thorough knowledge of the market you are targeting its needs and wants? It is crucial that your NPD strategy is designed to meet the market needs.

Identify how your product/service is different from the current offerings. What is your USP.
Does the market actually "need" what we are developing
What problems does it solve for the market in comparison to what is currently on offer
Will the market pay the price. Is there enough value in this product.

Key Tasks for the NPD Team

Of course, the type of business that you have will be a determining factor in what tasks are needed to bring your product to fruition. Some of the tasks will include;

Brainstorming and filtering initial ideas
Developing and filtering models/concepts
Testing the concepts
Approach to market analysis- sales strategy,promotion/advertising/licensing?
Developing a business plan to include sales forecasts, margins, cash flow for the product
Market testing the product
Bringing the product to market- initial launch vehicles/strategic alliances etc

Have you introduced an NPD strategy into your business? What benefits have you seen to date?

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Create a Listening Strategy to Build Competitive Advantage

Is your content aligned with your business objectives?

19 Hard Things You Need To Do To Be Successful

The 21st Century Customer

Is Your Business Still Your Passion?

What is the Actual ROI of your New Product/Service?

Is New Product Development a Key Element in Your Business Strategy?

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