by Tom on February 9, 2009
We all like them, as long as we don’t have to give them. Discounts. An easy, short term way of boosting your sales, but a sure way to get a headache.
From a customer’s point of view I can understand the logic. If I bought something for $15 and the next day it’s on sale for $10, I’d be pissed too. The company should inform me better if they’d planned on giving discounts, especially when I’m a loyal customer. They could charge $10 from the start. They could give good customers an early discount.
Customers see discounts as a way to reward their loyalty, while in most cases they aren’t. It’s just an easy way to solve a problem. The problem being overstock, a new shipment coming in, low sales,… There are going to be few marketingplans that have ‘discounts’ in the marketingmix from the start. First they’re trying to sell at the normal price and if it doesn’t work… discounts. Someone who already bought the product feels cheated, starts to complain, loses his trust in the company and in the end delays any further purchases to the very last moment, just in case there’s a discount around the corner.
As a result, companies have a hard time predicting how sales are going to evolve and if they’re going to make a profit. If lots of customers keep waiting they’ll get what they want, a discount, but at the cost of the company, who sees no other solution but to dump everything desperately trying to salvage what remains.
It’s not that companies don’t want to announce discounts, it’s just that they don’t know if they’re going to need them. It’s not a sign of ill-faith, bad customer relations or anything else, just trying to make a living, like anybody else. Giving discounts is a sure way to do a few things:
Create a short term succes
Give a long term headache
by Tom on February 5, 2009
Sometimes it’s disguised as useless ’smalltalk’, sometimes as being to straightforward or arrogant. But however you look at it, questions are a great way to open doors. And funny enough, it’s something we don’t ‘learn’ in school of from our parents. “Don’t be nosy!”, “Stop being so curious!”,…
We’re trained not to ask questions, because it might bother people, it might scare them away or it might give the wrong expression. But people don’t hate answering questions. Questions are a great way to make the other person feel important. And that’s what you have to remember. If you’re going to someone to ask questions (unless you’re a journalist or something) is that you’re inferior, the other one is more important than you, otherwise he/she would’ve come to you.
Ask open ended questions. If there’s one thing you should really try to do is to avoid questions where you can just answer with ‘yes’ or ‘no’. When people feel uncomfortable (and they will) they have an tendancy of giving short answers.
One question at a time. I get it, you meet someone who’s on your favourite list. It’s hard to cool down and act relaxed. But give the guy/girl a break! Firing of a tornado of questions will tell him two things for sure. 1. You’re interested in him/her and 2. You’re a nutcase. Breath.. relax…
Always be prepared. You don’t have to ’study’, but at least be interested in what the other person is doing, why would you bother him/her if you weren’t?
KISS. Keep your questions simple. You can adjust according to the person you’re trying to meet without asking childlike ‘Who’s been a little good CEO?’-questions. Just don’t start with asking questions that require a lot of thought. Keep those for later, when that bottle of scotch is on the table. By the way, when that happens… you sealed the deal.
Feelgood. Remember to let the other one shine. Especially if you want something from him/her. There’s really no need to try and outshine someone by parading your knowledge. If you’re really smarter than him/her… shut up!
And that’s what I’m going to do right know. See you next week.
by Tom on February 4, 2009
Every morning when I open Outlook people tell me I should buy Viagra, ‘bang’ her harder and that some things could be taller (how do they know right?). Fact is I spend about 15 minutes every day to delete everything that isn’t important from my mailbox, and I guess I’m lucky compared to other people.
I don’t have anything against e-mail marketing, but it’s just too much. Even companies I signed up with for a reason start spamming as soon as company targets aren’t met. It makes sense, it’s cheap, it’s fast and it shows results, so why wouldn’t they? And I even think that we wouldn’t have a problem with unsollicited e-mails as long as they met a few basic needs. Inform. Trust. Moderation.
Basically it all comes down to making promises and keeping them, that’s it. So I did a little experiment. For an event we hosted I had to send a lot of information to the participants combined with some extra promo. I had to send 6 e-mails over the course of two weeks, all about the same event. Lots of people would find that annoying. In the first mail I sent, I told them I would send 5 more mails. I even gave the exact dates when they would arrive. No-one complained, I even got some positive feedback about the way we handled the information flow towards participants.
Expecting something makes it more acceptable. If you really can convince people to sign up for your newsletter, and you told them they would receive it 3 times a week. They may unsubcribe if the content isn’t up to par, but at least, they won’t get tired of it. It’s important to keep your promises and create value even if you just want to make a sale.
by Tom on February 3, 2009
Sometimes all it takes is a little list to notice what we are doing wrong. We all get frustrated from time to time… This list is for those precious moments.
1. Please treat me like an idiot. I like feeling like the most stupid guy in the store because I don’t know the difference between Intel and AMD.
2. Use a lot of jargon I have never heard about. You’ll sound like a total genius and I will feel, again, like a total idiot.
3. Don’t know your product. And give me every bit of useless information about how dogs can really appreciate the sound of my soon to be new cd-player.
4. Doubt your own product. Because if you’re not totally convinced, I will for sure!
5. If I made a wrong purchase in the past, and you have just the thing I need, please rub my nose in it.
6. Give fake excuses. In fact, they don’t even have to be fake. Delayed delivery dates, shipping of wrong products, end of the line stuff,… It’s all good.
7. Don’t be trustworthy. Because everything is like fast food right now. The customer in the shop is what counts… as soon as he’s out the door and spent a lot of money, he doesn’t exist anymore. I buy, therefor I am.
8. Treat me like dirt. Especially when I have a problem afterwards. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when I have to call for three hours to get the answer to a question I didn’t even asked.
by Tom on January 28, 2009
A lot of people start networking because they think the people they meet are possible prospects, possible new clients, new revenue. But the real power lies in referrals.
Everybody knows the power of referral marketing, the power of word-of-mouth is still one of the best ways to promote your product or services. But it has an ugly face… trying to force positive word-of-mouth, but in most cases, that doesn’t have a happy ending. But because everybody wants to get the most out of their time, it seems like every contact has to be a sale… remember the ‘always be closing’-line from the movie Wall Street? It’s probably the most misused idea of all time. If you always try to make a sell, you’ll never get a relationship to a next level. That doesn’t mean you have to invite clients at your daughter’s birthday dinner, it just means crossing the line from contacting each other when you want something to contact each other when you want to share something.
Remember details. If you drank a good Riesling wine together, order it the next time. If you know his wife is three months away, call him to congratulate him when the baby arrives,… Small things you do for your friends, that make you ‘that great guy’, why not doing that for a client? You don’t have to make a database loaded with information about possible clients… that would be a little too Edgar Hoover, something small will suffice.
When it comes to company - customer relations you have to behave like a woman (cheers to the women out there and good luck to the men). That means remembering details, figuring out what to do when there’s a birthday, birth, death, wedding,… coming up. Most women know what that means… men don’t have a clue, but please learn. I know I have to learn a lot… heck I’m lucky I’m surrounded by women who remember those details for me… It’s something in their gene pool and it’s working for them… Live and learn gentlemen… live and learn!
Men vs. women / 0 - 1
