A message from Kevin D. Crone, CEO, Dale Carnegie Business Group, Canada.

Good Morning,

So Let’s take a look at getting access to your market….

It is so tempting to be like everyone else, to follow the trends, to follow the crowd.  My son, Kevin Robert, follows his client Bruce Poon Tip through Linkedin and twitter.  Bruce communicates from all over the world because he is the CEO of GAP Adventures. They sell more than 150 million dollars of unusual and unique travel experiences and adventures to over 100,000 customers.

It is clear why GAP is successful.  They don’t try to be like everyone else.  They take people to the most adventurous, exciting places on earth at an increasing rate because they ruthlessly invent themselves.  It is who they are.  They use travel slide shows, have their own TV show, an online travelers forum where clients share their terrific travel experiences with other customers, prospects, and anyone who is interested.  People want to connect to their events…. And they listen.  Not only does Gap Adventures use social sites like Twitter and Facebook, but their social events and extensive post-travel questionnaires drive their innovation and business.  They take listening to their customers seriously and create using this input.

Our goal should be to grow more ears.  Pushing ads does not work as well as it use to.  GAP engages and interacts with their clients, wherever they are.  One day mobile will be a much bigger tool to help us stand out from the crowd.  For now, it is not about how many twitter followers you have.  It will be about how many you actually engage with who share your values and interests.

Right now, it is difficult to measure the real ROI on content and social medial marketing.  Automation will improve and tools will be available so analytics will help you measure.  So far I hear mixed messages on how important social media tools are.  Some say they have been working on it for the last few years and it has produced only very soft, unprofitable leads.  The experts say it is about listening to connect so you know how to talk to the market and build relationships.  I know that Kevin Robert follows Bruce so he can always connect the coaching and training of Bruce’s people with where the company is going and what it is about.

We know that traditional marketing is not going away and there will always be a need for salesmanship.  It pays the bills.  Real salesmanship is about diagnostic skills, becoming genuinely interested in others, listening and being a passionate presenter at the right time.  It is really about helping people/businesses with their problems, not just giving information like websites do.  Salesmanship adds value.  I think we are going to drift back to sales 101 soon, if we haven’t already.  You cannot help people with your product unless someone is helped to buy it.  Effective salespeople are quarterbacks who make your sales systems work and deliver for the customer.

If you haven’t rethought your complete customer retention process, your lead conversion or sales process, your lead nurturing process to keep customers warm until they buy, and your lead attracting process, then you should get at it quickly.  The world has changed.  The internet has caused an overload of information. There are too many choices and prospects/customers are confused and often don’t act quickly.  They are also more picky and hesitant because of the recession.  Your systems have to truly be about your customers’ problems, needs, their sales cycle and buying process.  Find out how they make decisions then provide relevant and meaningful messages and content that drives them through your sales system.  Do not overdo sending out typical messages.  People are bombarded, so don’t add to their problem.  Be relevant, timely and helpful.  Maybe you could find a message writer in your own organization.  An outsider may be a risk.  Create content that builds relationships.

It may be more important for you to think through how your customers and audience can do some of the marketing for you… like GAP Adventures does.  Aim for providing their level of customer support and engagement to inspire your customers to tell the world about you.

Actions

1.   Look into adding visuals and videos to your marketing.
2.   How could you engage your customers like GAP does.
3.   What are your ‘ears’ like now? Do you need to grow bigger ones.  How?
4.   Have you given up on salesmanship?  Get dialoging on how yours is.
Where could it improve?
5.   Consider re-figuring your customer retention, lead conversion, sales process
lead nurturing until they buy process, and lead attraction systems.
6.    Who could write relevant, helpful messages to your prospects/clients?

Remember…. Action is all there is.  Have a great week.!!
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To your continued success,

Kevin D. Crone
CEO
Dale Carnegie Business Group
BusinessNext Inc.
Offering Dale Carnegie Throughout Canada
kdcrone@dalecarnegie.ca