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Hello again!
Thank you for subscribing to The Marketing Edge which continues to provide you with powerful and practical suggestions for getting the most out of your marketing and customer service efforts. So far we have helped you to: Get great response to your marketing efforts by having a great ‘Call to Action’ (Vol 1 issue 1); How to network more effectively (Vol 1 issue 2); and How to get more clients without cold-calling (Vol 1 issue 3). We’re doing it again! Our feature article this issue is: Resolving the dilemma of Ethical marketing.
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Last issue we extended a special invitation to subscribers: CLICK HERE FOR A REMINDER OF THE DETAILS for the VIP Reception at Business South 2008, on Wednesday 5th March 3:30pm at St Mary’s Stadium Southampton. Spaces are filling fast and the RSVP deadline date is next Thursday: 14 February! It’s FREE and you can bring a guest if you register promptly…..
Resolving the Dilemma of
Ethical Marketing
Many service professionals will tell you that the words ‘ethical’ and ‘marketing’ don’t belong in the same sentence. While you’d be opening another can of worms by asking for a precise definition of ‘ethics’, let’s just say for the moment that often marketing leaves us feeling a little dirty, or sleazy if you prefer. One marketing guru summed it up by saying that marketing and sales are the world’s second-oldest profession – and often are indistinguishable from the first! Is that how you feel? If so, you have a problem (and you didn’t need me to tell you that!) That’s because without marketing you’re on the fast-track to retiring from a dull middle-management job at a faceless, heartless corporation. Not much in the way of choice, I hear you say!
Well, perhaps there is a third way. Let me say that a little more positively: I KNOW there is a way to be as successful as you choose to be at marketing without feeling like you need a hot shower and a scrub. Let’s take a few moments to explore the marketing dilemma and see if we can unravel it.
First, let’s acknowledge that not all of us would do anything for a quick buck. Most of us (certainly the professionals I work with) went into professional services because we really believed that we could do things better if we weren’t hamstrung by corporate red-tape, and that by doing things better we could better serve the customers whose dollar we were on. Has that changed? Not for me – and I doubt it has for you either. So at its heart our business exists because we believe it helps those we do business with as much as – if not more so than – it does ourselves. Many professionals remember this simple fact by carrying a Vision or Mission Statement which says so. (Without intending to get off track, I cannot recommend highly enough that you regularly reconnect with the reasons you went into business in the first place. Our Marketing Mindset process helps our clients to do just that.)
Second, let’s agree that sometimes we really need to close a deal in order to survive. We’ve all had months when the taxman was calling, the bank manager was refusing to extend the overdraft and the kids were expecting to be equipped for university like Shackleton was for the Antarctic! Some of us have had more of those months than we care to remember! At times like that it doesn’t help to hear some smart aleck say that if you really need the money, you shouldn’t do the deal. They may be right – and if so we’ll have our nose rubbed in it later when we’re trying to untangle from a customer whose expectations were way too high but whose commitment was close to non-existent. But in the heat of the moment it’s human nature to do what we have to do in order to survive, so we do and say whatever it takes to get the signature on the proposal.
Clearly then, there are times when our commitment to a customer doesn’t closely mirror our overall vision for our business. And if we have too many of those, we start to question our vocation. You may not realise this, but you should: Getting to feeling like that is a GOOD THING! It means that your profession still means something to you; that you still want to be better. You want to be better for your own sake, and you want to be better for your customers’ sake. If you ever lose that desire, you’re in deep trouble and I’m not sure who can help you!
However, that scenario should not be the norm for service professionals. All too often, though, it is. Why? Because we neglect the necessary chore of regularly prospecting for customers until the urgency is great enough to force us out of our comfort-zone. Or, to put it another way, we don’t do any marketing until we’re having ‘one of those months’ – the type that make us unethical marketers! Are you sensing the pattern here?
Finally, then, lets discuss how to break the cycle that leads to ethical misdemeanours. It seems too obvious to say, but plainly it’s not: Do more marketing more regularly, and you won’t have many of ‘those months’. Of course it’s one thing to say it and quite another to do it. How do we market regularly? What does that involve? How do we get the most bang for the buck? We are busy people, so only the most effective marketing activities should be in our portfolio or else we’re wasting time and money, right?
Many years of testing and sifting have demonstrated to me that there is nothing that even comes close to Relationship Marketing in terms of effectiveness for service professionals. As I define it, Relationship Marketing is about building trust with and demonstrating credibility to prospective clients before initiating the crucial sales conversation – letting them get acclimitised to you and plying them with information about your services so that when you ask for their business they have little hesitation because they already know they’re going to get value-for-money. And for it to work successfully on a consistent basis, you have to have a game-plan for it.
Put in a nutshell then, a good Relationship Marketing game plan well-executed is the cure for the ethical marketing nightmare. So what are you waiting for? Make sure NOW that your marketing strategy is focused on building relationships – not just when you’re desperate for new business but every week and every month. Your conscience will thank you later!
We are doing something very special in this issue of The Marketing Edge – we’re giving away FIVE free Marketing Strategy Review sessions with Yours Truly. The full retail price of these sessions is £250 plus VAT, but five quick-fingered subscribers will get this seventy-five minute boost to their marketing effectiveness free, gratuit and para nada. During this session we will clarify your motivating vision for 2008, understand the vital milestone goals on the path to that vision, bring to light the challenges and obstacles to you achieving your vision, and lay out a seven-step process to delivering on that vision. Contact us as soon as possible by clicking here or give us a call to book yours!
(If you're unfamilair with the concept behind Front2Back 2Front please go here to read the explanation in our launch issue.)
In this issue we are sharing a lovely real-life story that was told to us by Jay Coldren, in the Washington DC area:
‘I worked for a few years at a really posh five star inn and restaurant way out in the country in Virginia. I remember an episode when I first started that totally blew me away and changed the way I think about service.
A couple from Pittsburg were checking in for a three night stay to celebrate their 25th anniversary. They had been planning the trip for a little over a year and they were really excited to be there. They had their car waxed for the trip, planned a picnic for the four hour drive, read the restaurant's cookbook, and had planned out nearly every second of their visit. As the staff unloaded the luggage, the wife says to her husband ‘Don't forget my hanging bag.’ Well, her husband looked into the trunk and came up with a real 'uh-oh' look on his face. Apparently, she had put her bag next to the car in their garage at home assuming he would pack it - he never saw it! When the lady saw the look on her husband's face, she completely lost it. The poor woman was checking into one of the most expensive places on the planet (with celebrities, world leaders, afternoon tea - the works) with nothing but the clothes on her back!
Anger, accusations, screaming, and, finally, she ran up to her room and began sobbing - she had built the whole trip up so much in her mind that she was totally distraught.
As the doormen and I tried to figure out what to do to make this couple happy, one of the staff who had been there a while drove up to the front of the inn in the company car. I looked at him oddly and he just smiled and said, ‘Get me their keys and the address, I'll be back before dinner.’
I was floored. No one asked him to do this and there wasn't a moment's hesitation his part. He was so much a part of the service culture that he just knew the exact right thing to do. He was halfway to Pittsburg before the lady actually believed that we were really going to get her luggage at her house. Needless to say, he drove 8 hours straight and made it back before their dinner reservations at nine. In the next few months we experienced an amazing increase in first time guests coming from Pittsburg. I'm still astounded by that one.’
This was such a delightful experience to share – showing that there really are organizations out there that put as much focus on keeping their clients delighted, as they do on looking for new customers.
 Do you have an uplifting customer service story to share? Particularly of a business that has made such a great impression on you, that you will travel further, pay more, and remain a loyal client of theirs.
Click here to send us your thoughts, using 'SoapBox' as the subject. Alternately you can email us at info@zee2a.com. If we like yours it will appear in an upcoming issue of The Marketing Edge.
Last month we posed the question: What experience have you had of customer service initiatives that had unexpected consequences?
Here’s what Saumitra Yadav in Gujarat (India) shared with us:
"I share one experience which had a very bad effect on me. Some years back a representative of a leading bank in India telephoned me & asked for me addressing me as Miss rather than Mister. As my name is a little confusing , I did not mind & asked her to address it properly, she insisted it's a lady name & i should call the lady."
Wait! It gets better. Mr Yadav tried explaining until he was blue in the face, that their records were inaccurate and should be corrected. The lady on the other end of the line refused to listen:
"Without paying any attention to what I said, she said it is showing in her record…"
To cut a long story short, what started out as a courtesy call, resulted in an irate customer (who was perfectly happy to begin with!) who ultimately closed his accounts because of discourtesy from an employee!
Thank you to all the people that attended our presentation at the Slug & Lettuce in Winchester Last Thursday. We had a phenomenal response to our presentation, and will be meeting with many of you one-on-one in the next few weeks to complete your Marketing Strategy Reviews.
Would you like a Marketing Strategy Review? There's a special offer for subscribers in the Feature Article. Act now before it's too late!
So when & where is the next workshop?
Tuesday 12 February at Tootsies Bar & Grill at The Oracle in Reading. What’s more – the workshop itself is FREE with only an £8 charge to cover the cost of breakfast and something hot to drink! Arrival is 10am for networking & a prompt start at 10:30. The session will be over by 12:30 when you can go back to the office and immediately put in to practise some of the tips that you will have learned during the morning. How’s that for a bargain? Click here to register.
A selection of other networking events that we’ll be attending in the next few weeks:
- Monday 11 Feb – NHCCI Farnborough Breakfast Club (David & Vanessa)
- Monday 18 Feb – Ladies That Latte Networking in Basingstoke (Vanessa)
- Tuesday 19 Feb – NHCCI Networking Lunch at the Basingstoke Country Hotel (David & Vanessa)
- Wednesday 20 Feb – Business Link PGL event at the Red Lion Hotel in Basingstoke (David & Vanessa)
- Thursday 28 Feb – BNI Vistor’s Day in Fleet (David & Vanessa); and at 6pm we’ll both be attending the Wired Wessex Networking event in Winchester.
DON’T FORGET: there is only just a week left to RSVP for the Business South Show (DETAILS AT THE TOP). We’d love to meet you – please do attend if you can!
If you would like David, Vanessa, or both of us to come and talk at one of your upcoming events, training sessions, or board meetings, please give us a call or drop an email to info@zee2a.com. We still have some availability in March.
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