Here’s wishing all our Chinese friends from all over the world a happy and prosperous Lunar New Year!

How do you increase sales revenue? There are only 3 known ways to increase your business legally:

1. Get more customers
2. Increase price
3. Get existing customers to buy more

Usually, most companies focus on #1 – Get More Customers. This is intuitively the first reaction that any business person will think of. If I have more customers, I will make more money. Simple, straight-forward logic.

#2 – Increase Price seems to be the Freddy Kreuger of most busineses. No one dares to even think about it most of the time. Other times, this is entertained as a nice fantasy before getting on with the real business.

#3 – Getting existing customers to buy more is probably one of the most desired outcome for many business owners. Buy two get one free and other bundling offers is the epitome of this strategy. It is a good strategy, even though it does compromise margins, you make up for the shortfall in the bottom line by increasing the top line numbers. It could work in some cases.

The harsh reality is this – it is really hard to get more customers. It is easy to lose customers. This is food for thought. Let me ask you a question:

“Why does everyone prefer to think about how to do business the hard way?”

We have been taught that it is hard to succeed at business. So, if getting more customers is hard, then it must be the best way to improve business. There is no way that you can improve sales if you do not have customers. That is a given. However, once you are over that initial hump, do you really need to increase your customer base?

Getting existing customers to buy more is a no brainer. That will certainly increase revenue. Because they already buy from you, they KNOW that you provide a good product/service and they are willing to pay for it. They proved it once. They will do it again.

There is one sure way that we can increase price and ensure that customers buy more from us – provide a true and abundant value.

Giving more value than the customer expects is not about giving up margins. It is about buying good will. If we can learn to meet, and then exceed customer expectations, we will increase sales.

The problem is, how?

I wonder about this all the time. Is Twitter over rated or am I just uninformed?

Of course I have a Twitter. Sometimes, I Twit a little too. I might be wrong, some call it Tweet. So far as I know, the sun still rises from the East, I still love chocolates and it still makes me fat.

What then is the purpose of Twitter?

Just like any tool, there are a lot of mis-use and abuse of Twitter. Some people think that just because you have a Twitter account, that makes you the guru of the new social web. Then there is all that spam.

Others think that they can use all these social networks to sell lots of stuff and become millionaires. Yeah, right. I am not a Twitter guru or a professional Twitterer. So, I am going to follow with great curiosity the outcome of my friend Vivienne’s foray into the world of Twitter. You can read about it from her post “Learn Twitter Secrets From A Twitter Pro”

I am not a nay-sayer. I just have a healthy skeptism. But f she does well, I am going to try it too! :)

When I am asked about online stuff, I have learned to keep my mouth shut. You see, when it comes to professional web design services, its a jungle out there. And the wild animals are precisely the people asking about it.

Mostly, managers want to have a nice web site for their products, services or company. Absolutely understandable. The real problem comes in right at that point. That is, all they know, is that they want a nice site. It is as if the words “I want a nice web site” explains it all.

Can someone please tell them, “nice” is not a definitive word.

Several years ago, I embarked on a web revamp project. I was tasked to consolidate more than 22 different urls (those www.something thingies, for those of you non techies). It was a seriously huge project as these sites have grown and taken on a life of their own over a period of several years.

There was absolutely no system to the naming of the sites. Some of them would even challenge the most imaginative person to create any sort of linkage with the company or its products and services.

Obviously, this called for the help of a professional web design company. To cut a long story short, I called for a tender submission, got a few proposals and finally awarded the job for several hundred thousand dollars to a company.

Now, this company sent an ARMY of people down. There were project managers, designers, data entry staff, programmers and a manager or two. It took us, the whole team, plus all the other in-house resources, eleven months to finish the project.

Can you imagine trying to farm out such a project to Uncle Jim’s clever neighbour?

Even simply projects sometimes require professional help.

The key to a great website, is planning. Right from the start, you need to know a lot of things. To give you an idea, you need to (not exhaustive):

• define your audience
• define the scope of the project
• define the roles and responsibilities of people maintaining it
• define your marketing objectives
• define your operational objectives
• define your look and feel guidelines (in line with your corporate look or not?)
• define your budget

You know, that last one is something many people do not do. If you have a few hundred dollars to spend, don’t imagine that you can create a powerful, versatile ecommerce site with all the bells and whistles of Amazon.com.

I mean, take a look at this set of ecommerce case study and you can see that the variety of sites that are possible is really quite wide. Just because a friend successfully installed and used an OsCommerce site does not mean that it is suitable for you and your business.

I guess what I am trying to say is, careful planning is essential for a successful web implementation. Even if you have a great idea, or your products are a natural for online sales, if you do not plan your website, you will be wasting more money re-doing your site again and again, then spending it by working with a professional partner.

Sorry, this is so totally off-topic, but you guys really really gotta see this!

Transformer USB

One of the most interesting aspects of sales and marketing, and also the most difficult, is to get more sales. Others might say that the more difficult part of it is not to just sell, but to find loyal customers.

When you think about it, it is all true. It is hard enough trying to get a new customer, then losing them and trying to win them over a 2nd time is going to be even more difficult.

Customer loyalty is priceless. But we all need to be accountable, hence, the birth of “Total Lifetime Value” of a customer. So many concepts, so many ideas.

But I just came across a very interesting article over at the Corporate Eye – Disney’s Discount Slight of Hand that has put a new spin on a lot of these ideas.

You see, one of the bright ideas when it comes to pricing is this whole area of psychological pricing. You know, where ninety-seven cents is better price for sales conversion than ninety-nine?

An extension of this is small increases in prices of small items go un-noticed and can allow you to give big discounts on big ticket items to make the top level appeal so much stronger.

But as Susan pointed out in her excellent article, that could very well back-fire on the loyal customers. Those who know every item that is on the menu at your restaurants, those who know the names of every staff, those who know which days are “Specials” day; you cannot fool them.

So, the next time you plan your marketing, do take this into consideration.

I just saw this very interesting post over at the Versa Blog. It was talking about some sales guru who appeared to have the monopoly on great sales technique… I’m a skeptic, but if Vivienne feels it is good, then there must be something to it. Go read it at Meeting the Heart Sales Guru

Times, they are bad indeed. So I guess any boost that you can give to improve sales would be an improvement. Right?

Isn’t it interesting that “marketing” and “measuring” are such poor bed partners?

Accountability is an area of management that is looked upon by many as a necessary evil. You see, these people are usually employees. Measuring simply adds another list of things to do. After going through all the sweat and toil, they now have to write reports, do up some charts and be accountable.

Marketing is one area that is notorious for a lack of accountability. It is hard to measure. To some extend, it is true. But to a large extend, it is an excuse. Now, when times are bad, economy is slowing down and there is a “crisis”, suddenly, everyone wants to know how well they are doing.

It is perfectly possible to measure your marketing results. You just need to use the right methods to fit the right objectives.

Quantify your objectives, decide how you will measure them, collect the data that you need to meet the objectives, establish a baseline, gain commitment to the measurement plan, and, finally, measure.

Quantify your objectives

You must be able to state in a measurable format, your objectives. For example, “We want to get more sales lead” is not a good quantification. The word “more” is ambigous and unclear. A better objective would be “We want to have 200 people sign up for our newsletter”.

What and How you will measure

When you measure, you must pick a measurement that is going to be relevant to your business. Following up from the above example, how will 200 people subscribing to your newsletter affect your business? If it has minimal impact, why measure it at all? It is difficult for marketing campaigns to be linked directly to sales, but it is possible. For example, discount coupons can tell us who made a purchase as a result of which promotion. The method of capturing your data is important. Coupons can be counted, but not always reliable. But discounts are accounted for through the sales receipts and will be an excellent way to counter check.

Establish baseline

A baseline is important so that you will be able to tell whether you are doing better or worse over time. If you already have a baseline, good. If not, you need to create one. For example, if you have 5000 coupons redeemed at the last promotion, that could become a baseline. Or you can have an average over several promotions and you know that any marketing that falls below that is “below average”.

Gain commitment

Everyone must be committed to measuring your marketing success. If the sales people feel that it is not important, they might not bother with the coupons, or they might not submit the subscription forms. Worse, everyone is doing their best, but the boss ignores the efforts.

Collect Data

Collecting the data is as simple as establishing a procedure by which it can be done. Once this is briefed and everyone is trained, it is then up to the whole team to make sure that the data is duly collected and used.

Marketing is all about results. Everyone knows that. But until you start to measure it, then anything and everything you say is nothing more than words.

More reading:
http://www.marketingprofs.com/8/tackling-marketing-accountability-patterson-kushner.asp?adref=znnpbsc598

This is like Atlantis. Everyone has heard of it, but no one seems to be able to find it.

I really want to clarify something. You see, I have been hearing many people speak of Zero Cost Marketing; and that is so very wrong. By all the laws of nature and of commerce, how can there ever be anything of value for free? There is no such thing as Zero Cost Marketing.

Having said that, you must also know that there is such a thing as Zero Dollar Marketing. You see, it is possible to get things done without spending a single cent. How is this different from Zero Cost?

Your time, your staff’s time, talents and efforts – these are all “costs”. To get anything done, you need to spend time and effort. You might not need to spend dollars. In that sense, it is possible to have Zero Dollar Marketing, but certainly not zero cost marketing.

Why is this interesting?

As more and more corporations move towards greater accountability, Marketing Metrics have become more important. Measuring the returns on your marketing efforts is the new cool. You can no longer hide behind the “… it won an award” thing to justify your campaigns.

More and more, managers and business owners look at performance. They try to measure what is spent vs what results are generated. Simply put, an ROI model that divides results by marketing dollars spent will look fantastic when the dollars are very low. And as you Maths teacher would tell you, it will “tend to infinity as it approaches zero”.

Zero Dollar Marketing is even more important today because:

• Marketing is now more accountable than ever before for solid returns
• Marketing is under more pressure than ever before during this economic downturn
• Marketers need to demonstrate positive contribution
• Companies and businesses need to save every dollar they can

Do you or your company employ Zero Dollar Marketing techniques?

You know, one of the most silliest, stupidest piece of “wisdom” I have given over the years, was that people should be spending more marketing dollars during a recession as that was an opportunity to quickly win ground.

Well, we are all slipping and sliding down the merry slope of one of the worse recessions in recent history. Eating my words seem not as bad when compared to the disaster I would be facing if I failed to learn.

Reading Vivienne’s “Farmer or Hunter During Economic Winter” post, made me realise how silly my lofty thoughts actually were.

In winter, the bleak weather forbids us to do anything. We cannot go out with impunity, no matter how warmly we dress. Even well prepared, it is dangerous and life-threatening to step out. Farmers take winter time to rest, make repairs, enjoy quality time with family and friends. There is no point going out to sow. The ground is too hard to till. There is no point in doing anything much. All they can do is conserve their energy and resources and be ready to hit the ground running when spring comes around.

So, how do you do marketing in a recession? For sure, you cannot just stop everything. But prudence is definitely required. You cannot afford to squander your resources and your marketing strength. Yet, to hide away until winter is over is not right too. One of the best parts of winter must surely be the festivals that go on in and around the villages. The Christians celebrate Christmas, the Celtics the Yule festival, Chinese celebrate Dong Zhi and there are many more such festivals created around farming communities.

Back to what we should be doing. Knowing what we now know, we need to conserve our resources. Sticking to our famer analogy, repairs need to be made, relationships need to be rekindled, preparations need to be under way for the coming of spring.

Translated to marketing talk:

- Customer Service needs to be maintained. This means that you should not cut back so much that your customer service excellence is compromised
- Communications need to be maintained. While you may no longer wish to run full page spreads, periodic advertising is still needed. Other methods of communications like a web site, a corporate blog, or a corporate newsletter would also work.
- Plan your next campaign. Good marketing campaigns take time and effort. Most of the time, in the heat of the battle for market share and business, we rush through it all. This is a good opportunity to take time to hone your next marketing campaign.

If I were a poor farmer, I might not have that much spare cash to do a lot during winter, but all of the above can be done to some extend. Especially the online marketing stuff, they can be done for little or no cost and it would be a crime to neglect them.

Yes! I am off to my Christmas Party! See you guys after my hangover week!

This post is not about marketing, good leadership, customer service or any of the usual stuff we talk about. It is about survival.

My friend Vivienne over at versacreations.net has written a post, almost an appeal, over at her blog about Achieving a Better Bottom Line.

I think, if you are in the area, you might want to give some serious thought about attending THE BOTTOM LINE. I took a peek at some of the testimonies, and they seem pretty genuine to me. Not quite the polished, almost perfect presentations that you would be used to seeing in many online “testimonials”. They look like real folks to me.

Go see.