In the meantime though, these self same business owners could be neglecting other and more effective, methods of business promotion.

Are you one of them?

Now don’t get me wrong here. I’m a big advocate of any business development technique that opens up new and ideally, low cost; marketing channels for any small business owner and for that I am a fan of social media in many of its various guises.

Neglecting Your Marketing Mix Leads to Ruin

Ticking all the Boxes

Social media ticks many boxes in this respect and does have its place in the modern marketing mix particularly as the learning curve to adapt the necessary techniques to get started is relatively short. Consequently, in some form or other, it’s here to stay.

However, the issue being observed and experienced by many business owners looking to capitalise upon the benefits of social media is that it’s generally not a thought out affair and whilst a pleasant way to spend ones time, many business types are finding that as a method of promotion, it doesn’t really deliver where it should.

Consequently, despite being the new kid on the block that is showered in hype, social media just isn’t paying its way for many and diverts their attention away from other strategies.

Any social media coach and marketer worth their salt will tell you to formulate a plan or strategy for your social media activities. What this plan is, varies from guru to guru, which in itself contributes to the issue for many: but added to this, ask any small business owner if they have any sales or marketing plan and you’ll probably get an answer in the negative.

Therefore it’s fair to say that having one for a social media strategy is going to be even less likely.

So whilst chatting away on Twitter, updating that Facebook Fan Page and trawling through people’s connections on LinkedIn is all fine and dandy, fun and strangely addictive in a voyeuristic, realty TV sort of way, ultimately you have to ask yourself;

Is this working? What results am I getting or do I want to get? Could I use alternative, more productive methods to achieve the same result?

Recently I began working with a business owner who had adapted Twitter as her social media channel of choice for the purposes promoting her largely internet based business. She’d been on a few courses (not mine I might add), downloaded Tweetdeck and was spending many a happy hour chatting with her followers but was seeing little return.

She came to me for advice with the cry;

Where am I going wrong?

In my initial fact-find meeting with this lady, I discovered that not only had she been neglecting her traditional marketing methods in favour of Twitter and her Facebook Fan Page, which whilst being less ‘sexy’ than social media, did work. But I also discovered that her target client just didn’t exist in any large numbers on the social media scene. It seems this client had been swallowed up by the social media bubble and was hooked as well as being ill advised as to it’s potential for her business.

Back to Basics

So it was time to go cold turkey and get back to the basics of marketing with this particular client.

Out of my sessions with this client, I;

• Implemented an effective and regular email marketing campaign which capitilised on her underused (and somewhat large) customer database.
• Put forward a strategy to redesign her website to make it more useable and to improve conversions.
• Scaled down her ineffective social media techniques.
• And are currently planning some editorial and advertising in some specialist national magazines.

It’s still early days, but after the first e-shot to her customer database she received an increase in orders of 20% compared to the previous month and her website visitors went up by 45%. A result in anyone’s book.

Stand Back

Ultimately if you’re using social media for business purposes, whether it’s lead generation, brand awareness or strengthening offline relationships don’t throw all your eggs into one basket at the expense of other marketing activities.

Stand back and measure what’s working. Junk what isn’t and develop what is.

Here endeth the lesson.

What’s your experience of social media as a business marketing and development tool? Is it working for you? Tell us how and why in a comment below.

This has been down to a broken and dislocated right arm (my typing arm), which is now on the mend. So I’m back. Have you missed me?

So what’s been happening?

England World Cup Supporters

Well the UK’s new coalition government is starting to make it’s mark having now had it’s first emergency budget which basically equates to rising costs, wage cuts and decreased public services for most. In amongst this is a planned VAT increase to 20% come next January which essentially means everything will go up. Not unexpected to be honest. As a new government they’re either taking a brave step towards getting the deficit down or we’re going to plunge back into recession.

Either way we’re all stufffed in my book. So will the last one to leave our shores, please tun the lights out!

England are out of the World Cup having been thrashed by the Germans which led to a cloud descending over an otherwise scorching England (note that I say ‘England’ here and not Britain or the UK, as I know my Scottish and Welsh friends were very much in the ABE (Anyone But England) camp and were unfazed by England’s departure). I must admit I’m no football fan, but even I felt the sense of disappointment sweep across the country at the final whistle.

To me I find it amazing that the England team, given that we not only invented the game in the first place, pays its players and managers huge amounts of cash to deliver when they clearly can’t; and that as a country we still haven’t come close to winning this global competition of our national game since the year of my birth. Still what do I know?

Bye Bye Yorkshire Forward

In and amongst the bits and pieces of bad news that have been floating around during June, I note that the government plans to axe the Regional Development Agencies (RDA) which manifests itself as Yorkshire Forward in our region. A debate is now underway as to what can replace it. Whilst RDAs like Yorkshire Forward do provide a useful supportive and funding channel for some business and public projects, the government’s decision to axe them doesn’t surprise me.

In my experience and from what I’ve observed over the years Yorkshire Forward seems to be highly bureaucratic and has a tendency to plough loads of cash into projects that clearly won’t work or don’t give a return for their investment when it comes to dishing out public money by the millions. That said, I do admit that YF has invested in some good projects and continues to fund some vital agencies including the all important Yorkshire Tourist Board which is vital to our region for many jobs and small businesses (including a few of my clients). So it’ll be interesting to see what replaces it.

Business Link to be Axed

Business Link, the national business support agency, which is partially supported by the RDAs has a poor reputation for delivering value amongst small business owners and even following a re-organisation some 18 months or so ago, still adds a variable quality of support. Again and I speak as a Business Link mentor myself, it’s a very bureaucratic (and therefore wasteful) organisation which throws money at many a project which hasn’t a hope in hell of taking off. Still, so long as the right boxes get ticked!

It would seem that Mark Prisk, the business and enterprise minister agrees with me and announced yesterday that Business Link was to be axed with it’s services being replaced by a government led online service and the private sector. So it’s going to be interesting times ahead for many people and in particular some of my associates who are currently riding the ‘gravy train’ of business link contracts.

Watch this space for updates and some heart felt commentary.

Yet despite his success he never had any sales training, thought all marketing was ‘kidology’, had no idea what ‘open’ or ‘closed’ questions were and thought that ‘entrepreneurs’ were an American import.

So What was his Secret?

Over the years this is a question that I have mulled over many times with my Mother and those that worked with him and to be honest, the answer was not difficult to work out; although somewhat more difficult to replicate and implement as an aspiring businessman myself.

His secret of sales success wasn’t a new one and continues to be the base instruction of many a ‘sales guru’ or ‘motivational speaker’ in their respective books and presentations. His technique was so powerful that he didn’t need to bother with the hard-sell or ‘the close’ and his conceptual knowledge of ‘adding value’ was zero, even though his dished it out in spades with every deal he made!

Put simply, people had an in built desire to do business with him and as a result, hand over their hard earned cash in return for the pure luxury of doing business with him.

Trust me! As a teenager working for him during the school holidays I saw this technique in action first hand. It was only as I moved into the sales profession myself many years later, that it dawned on me what he was doing.

Okay I get the Idea! What was his Secret?

This was his secret: Dad simply loved people!

He loved to take a genuine interest in their lives and how he could help them for the better either through the use of the services he was offering at the time, or simply by investing his time, experience and knowledge.

The Secret of Sales Success

His attitude to business was never “what’s in it for me?” or “how much money can I make?” but “what can I do for you?”.

Of his customers I visited during my working Summer holidays I found him taking as much interest in the life of the bloke on the forklift truck as he would in the company director he’d just had a meeting with. He knew the names of the cleaners on the factory floor as well as the ages and names of the Managing Director’s kids.

Once he even took the time to sort out a Council housing problem on behalf of one operative that worked in the warehouse of one of his customers.

He wasn’t asked to do it! There was no hidden agenda! His customer wasn’t even aware of it (well not initially anyway). He simply had a genuine desire to help this person out with an issue that was making life difficult for him and his family. That’s just the sort of bloke he was.

Rose Tinted Glasses

This year marks sixteen years since my Father’s passing so there’s an argument to say that perhaps I’m looking back through rose-tinted glasses.

Perhaps that’s true, however I’m also conscious that my Father had plenty of failings which included a level of naivety that was quite childlike when it came to business finances. Naivety that proved to be a recurring thorn throughout his business life. That, and a penchant for dismantling my toys, bikes and later on, car engines; which when re-assembled also resulted in a box containing ‘spares’ that never existed before. However that’s a different story!

I’ve been in the sales profession in some form or other most of my working life; yet I still struggle to emulate the mark that my Father made upon his customers, the ease of how he could generate business or build loyalty and trust with them, simply because of his genuine interest in them as people not simply as companies or ‘account numbers’.

His was a rare talent which I’ve seen in only a handful of people over the years and is something I sadly lack, namely; that genuine desire to see the best in everyone and to take an enthusiastic interest in making their lives better.

Yes I’ve come across some great ‘sales closers’ who were great at making one off deals and who no doubt made a great deal of money in the process, however non of them came across as genuinely interested in the well being of their customers as my Father did and as a result, probably found themselves on the constant tread-mill of new-business rather than the easier, repeat-business camp where Dad used to dwell and prosper quite happily.

This surely is the real secret to sales success.

Overseas Call Centres

Now I appreciate that we’re in a global market place where technology has shrunk the planet to the size of a walnut when it comes to transcontinental communications and that global travel (Icelandic volcanic ash withstanding), is an everyday occurrence that allows companies both big and small, to spread their reach into foreign climes.

I understand all that and participate myself! Just take a look at some of my LinkedIn connections to see how my network reaches out across the world.

It’s a fact of 21st century business life right?

Outsourcing

Miscommunication

Now don’t get me wrong here, I’m no xenophobe and I don’t have an issue with products (on the whole) being assembled or manufactured beyond the shores of Blighty.

It’s been going on for years as we all know and looking around my office as I write this, evidence to this effect isn’t hard to find. After all it’s the main reason why people (not me I might add) can buy clobber at Primark cheaper than it costs to wash it when its dirty.

However, where I see foreign imports failing to hit the mark is when intangible services such as telephone customer support and service are ‘outsourced’ to ‘developing nations’.

I can see why this would happen, picture the scenario; big company A in the UK is looking to lower its costs, but wants to maintain their customer service/support! So some bright spark on their board suggests,

“Why not get a bunch of graduates in the Indian subcontinent or eastern Europe, pay them £400 each per month and viola! Job done! We can send a team over there to train them on what they need to know. So much cheaper than employing some Brit in Newcastle on £1500 per month plus benefits! Added to this you don’t get any hassle with those nasty and expensive constraints imposed by employment law, margins will be bigger and we’ll keep our shareholders happy. Just imagine the cost savings?”

Makes sense on any bean-counter’s balance sheet you must agree!

Cracks in the Theory

Now whilst this idea may work in theory, many of those companies are now finding to their cost, that we Brits like to deal with someone on the phone who speaks the same first language as us and understand our little regional cultural differences and quirks.

Furthermore, as a nation we like to speak to someone who doesn’t disagree with us when we tell them that the ‘City of Leeds’ does exist (a directory enquiries conversation) and we like to speak to someone who at least understands the concept of a direct debit (which is a bit worrying when you’re talking to a bank’s representative!).

If you’ve dealt with any UK company for a UK based matter for either yourself or on behalf of your business, I’ll bet you’ve hit a few brick walls or made a good attempt at ‘pulling your hair out’ when dealing with overseas call centres in your time?

So come on! Is there really any one of us here in the UK that actually believes overseas call centre operatives can do a better job than our home grown?

Now you may think I am biased, which I am of course to a certain degree; however I’m acutely aware that I could probably write another ranting post about some of the nupties that I have dealt with from our own UK call centres. So it’s not all sweetness and light for our home grown boys and girls. But at least people in the UK tend to be on the same wavelength on the whole.

Many companies that place their telephone customer services oversea, are now starting to realise their limitations. This is particularly true of the banking sector who have traditionally been great advocates of the “overseas call centre” model over the last few years but are now changing their minds following consumer response by moving their call centres back into the UK. Personallay, for our own business and home banking, it was a primary reason when we changed banks recently, if the point needed further illustration!

Post a comment below with your experiences and thoughts on this matter.

This is a Rant Isn’t It?

Having read this far, you’ve probably guessed by now that I’m have a bit of a rant!

This has been perpetrated by a number of encounters I’ve had with such call centres within the last few weeks which have made my blood boil to the point of evaporation!

Here me out though, as I challenge you to tell me honestly with hand on heart, by the time you’ve read the remainder of this post; if you think I’m barking up the wrong tree (or just plain and simply, ‘barking’).

Canvas Callers

The other type of overseas telesales caller that fails to float my boat (but often makes me laugh) is the canvas caller whose standard of spoken English is clearly not one of their strengths. This is particularly true if they’ve learnt it from an American school which results in them speaking with a ropey Indian/American hybrid of an accent. So when they end up talking to someone like me who has a North of England accent (Yorkshire to be precise), then it’s a recipe for miscommunication on a Titanic scale!

So in situations like this, particularly with the ones whose language skills are so low that its doesn’t allow them to hold any style conversation that deviates from their telephone script; then the whole episode ends up in a spiralling state of confusion.

You’ve got to feel sorry for them haven’t you? Makes you wonder just what their employers are promising in order to get them to do the job in the first place? After all, cold calling telesales work is not the easiest of jobs in the world even if you’re native tongue is English and you’re based here in the UK, never mind if our Mother tongue isn’t your first language or you haven’t a clue about the country you’re calling above and beyond what’s on BBC World.

Poor sods! Very demoralising.

Let me know your thoughts. Post a comment below.

The event formed part of a “Market Challenge” initiative being run across the city by the Step Up Enterprise team which is a Bradford Kickstart and World Mile initiative. In a nutshell this scheme is one designed to promote regeneration, business understanding and growth in a city which has unfortunately, witnessed a lot of decline and decay over recent years.

The Challenge

The event was held at The Lighthouse Group which is a very pleasant meeting venue in South Bradford at the top of the M606 (must remember that for future events of my own).

Young people aged between 5 and 19 years old were asked to create a product that could be sold on a Bradford market stall on the 5th June in a Market Challenge Day. In doing so, they went through the disciplines of marketing, product development, finance, working in teams, project management and planning etc.

Up for grabs was (is) £2000 worth of prizes for their own school or college.

£100 Investment

Let’s Hear Your Ideas Then!

By the time we the Dragons’ had became involved, student teams had been whittled down to just 15 from various different schools and colleges across the city.

Our job in the “Den” was to listen to each teams’ pitch; quiz them and then rate each one in terms of their product ideas, innovation, approach to their task, their actual presentation style as well as their products “saleability” on the day of sale.

Our objective at the end of the day was to narrow down the choice to just 6 teams who would each receive £100 towards the development of their product.

The session began with the upper school students’ presentations. Students in the 13–17 age range.

Range of Ideas

Teenage teams that presented to us in the morning session demonstrated ideas of differing levels of innovation. Ones that stood out for we Dragons included;

• A creative range of custom, hand-made jewellery.
• A condom holder (I kid you not!) that would appeal to teenagers and encourage use of the product in order to reduce STDs.

The afternoon session, was populated by young kids from junior schools and I tell you what: for children of such young ages (typically 10 years old); there were some belter ideas! Such ideas included;

• An alarm that attaches to the side of a filling bath that sounds when the water level gets too high. A product aimed at elderly and disabled people.
• A range of biscuits with novelty soft toys.
• An innovative recycling bin for the home that would encourage recycling by all family members.

Social Media

What was interesting to note from all of these young peoples’ presentations (apart from the fact that their PowerPoint™ skills were all top notch: including the tiny ones), was their prominent use of social media in their marketing plans to promote their products beyond the planned Market Day in Bradford.

“…we’ll use a Facebook Page to tell people about it…” Dragons’ Den Pitcher, aged 10

“…Twitter will be used to promote our product…” Dragons’ Den Pitcher, aged 15

“…we will make make a video of our product and put it on YouTube to show people how it works…” Dragons’ Den Pitcher, aged 16

Now you’re probably thinking, “These are kids! Of course they’re going to use social media to help market their products.”

Yes, you’re right of course! However in just a few short years, these kids are going to be entering the world of employment, perhaps starting up businesses of their own or working in sales and marketing roles within large companies. By this stage their use of social media will be ingrained, so to use SM as a marketing tool will be a natural and obvious choice.

Embrace Social Media

So watch out you doubting Thomas’. If your business isn’t going to embrace social media as a marketing tool in the future. You can bet your bottom dollar that your competitors, employing today’s teenagers, will be!

Mark my words!