The loop: experience, marketing and sales

In developing your business, consider the concept of the "loop", with the three elements of client experience (the service you actually provide), marketing and sales moving constantly, with clients, prospects, and "everyone else out there" alighting at some point or another on one part of the loop.

You can't live without each of the three components, and all three must be in harmony for marketing -- and business -- success, but if you are strong at one you can sometimes offset weaknesses in the others.

In other words, if you aren't very good at sales, but have great external marketing skills and create really incredible client experiences, you probably won't have too many problems; if you are really good at sales and marketing, but provide a crappy service, you can stay in business (consider some Tourist Traps as examples of this type of successful business), and if you are really good at sales and provide a great experience, your sales team will probably be able to extract enough referrals out of your current client base to keep things moving along.

But imagine, for a second, you have all three components in perfect harmony. Your marketing uncovers the right clients through systematic processes (you are not "relying" on referrals, your sales team is effective in encouraging them to try out your services, and then your clients find you deliver more than you promised.

Do you think you would have problems surviving even the most challenging recession if you have all three elements in place?

Read More

More on Branding, eh

I borrowed graphic from Marty Neumeier from Patrick Colling's Brand Architect blog. You can view Neumeier's PDF ebook which includes this formula here.

Marty Neumeier has a simple equation for successful branding

T = r + d

Trust equals reliability plus delight

This formula is the essence of successful brand building.

Great branding is not about logos, advertising campaigns, your website, or anything like that, except to a truly tiny degree. (These things are important when you have a really big business, but the time and energy you spend on the "reliability" and "delight" with your current and previous clients should be an order of magnitude greater than the time you spend on your typical "branding" efforts.)

So, to build a great brand:

• Return your calls promptly;
• Deliver "wow" service to your clients;
• Keep your job sites clean every day (and when you are done for the day, especially);
• Contribute to your community in meaningful ways (the community of your clients, of course);
• Respect privacy (if you really wish to canvass, telemarket, or use bulk email, consider the risks before moving forward);
• Treat your employees with respect, as you expect them to treat their clients and peers with respect;
• Send thank you notes;
• Go the extra mile to be thoughtful;
• Have fun with your work (if you do, your clients will sense your passion).

Then you can get your logo "just right", have an effective website, and design advertising campaigns that attract results.

Read More