Accelerating Growth Through Better Sales & Marketing Decisions

The Power of Traditional Marketing Channels

While new marketing channels are probably here to stay, don’t disregard the power of traditional marketing channels. Direct mail with targeted GIS marketing, trade shows, newspaper advertising, radio and television, Email and telesales won’t be out of the picture soon, if ever. 

According to an article on destinationCRM.com, titled Never Underestimate the Power of Traditional Methods, the power of traditional channels is as strong as that of social channels. Written by Paul Greenberg, president of consultancy The 56 Group, he states:

“ the power of traditional channels is as strong as that of social channels. Traditional channels are much harder to measure, don’t scale the same way, and thus are a lot less sexy. As a result, they aren’t given the importance they deserve.”

“Want at least a self-satisfying personal proof? Answer three questions:

1.  If given the choice of being quoted in TechCrunch or The New York Times, which would you choose?
2.  If given the choice of a half-hour video podcast that would be broadcast on a YouTube channel or a half-hour TV show on NBC, which would you choose?
3.   If given the choice of self-publishing a book on the Web or having one done in print by a major publisher, like McGraw-Hill, which would you choose?”

He goes on to say: “The evidence is more than anecdotal. For example, just three years ago, DMG Consulting, run by contact center management guru Donna Fluss, developed a statistic that belies what people believe. Seventy-seven percent of all Gen Yers—the generation that lives on and for the social Web—prefer a phone contact when trying to resolve a problem.

Moreover, traditional channels still represent the bulk of consumer interactions with customer service. Communications software provider Nuance released a study in April that said, “When asked about their preferred methods for receiving customer service support, there was a fairly even split among: speaking with a live agent via mobile phone and/or landline phone, speaking over chat or IM, using a Web site, and sending an email.”

Note that Twitter and Facebook weren’t in the mix. Given that this was a Twitter usage survey, the result is even more eyebrow raising.

Another April study, titled “From Social Media to Social CRM,” by IBM’s Institute for Business Value, revealed that 70 percent of all the participants in social channels do it strictly for personal reasons, and only 23 percent interact with a company’s brand.”

Last, but not least, he states that “Never underestimate the power of offline, traditional channels. They still represent a substantial way to influence buying decisions and solve problems.

What channels are you using?  How are they working to influence your customers and solve your challenges?  We’d like to hear about your current ROI results between traditional marketing and social media marketing.

 

Tackle B2B Marketing Challenges in 2012

Today’s B2B buyers have an abundance of product information at their fingertips and they tend to research their purchasing decisions well before they contact your sales department or reps.  So, with that fact in mind, you must be ahead of the game by optimizing your sales and marketing effectiveness. Items like identifying your channels and filling your pipelines, scoring leads before sending to sales, establishing a process for nurturing leads, and so on.   

For advice on how to convert B2B marketing concerns and challenges into revenue, you should consider MarketingSherpa’s 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report. They surveyed 1,745 marketers on their most effective B2B marketing tactics and saw up to a 50% decline in their overall marketing effectiveness from the previous year.

This report indicates that despite current challenges, B2B marketers are still not optimizing their sales and marketing channels:

• 68 % haven’t identified or optimized their sales and marketing funnels
• 61 % still simply send leads, even non-qualified ones, directly to sales
• 79 % haven’t established a lead scoring process
• 65 % don’t nurture and grow their leads

The last few years have not been easy for most sales and marketing professionals, and I doubt that 2012 will be any easier. What might make things better is to be more effective in your sales and marketing strategies and processes. 

In that vein, I invite you to visit our Sales & Marketing Effectiveness Blog at http://infogrow.typepad.com/  for ideas and advice on how to accelerate your B2B growth and grow profits in 2012.

Excellent Customer Service Drives Business Growth

A recent article posted on Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog, titled Good Service is Good Business, by Ginger Conlon, begins with the statement, “Customers are willing to spend more with businesses that deliver quality customer service.”

Her article points to the results of the 2011 American Express Global Customer Service Barometer. This is an annual survey by American Express conducted to discover customer attitudes and preferences toward customer service practices.

So, how important is great customer service to your consumers? And, just how important is it to you?

According to the survey conclusions, quality customer service is not only important.  It is vital for survival and growth!  Understand why, by reviewing some highlights of the survey results.

   - 70% of Americans are willing to spend 13% more, on average, with
   companies that provide outstanding customer service.

   - The above stats are a great increase from 2010, just a year ago,
   when just 58% of Americans would spend about 9% more with
   companies offering superior service.

   - Nearly 60% of Americans say they would try a new brand to get
   better service.

   - Consumers’ desire for outstanding service isn’t being met:        

• 20% of American respondents feel their business is taken for granted
  
  
• 60% say that companies aren’t focusing on providing great customer service (an increase of 5% over 2010).  And, a quarter of those respondents feel that businesses are paying less attention to service delivery.    

   - Nearly 80% of American respondents decided against an intended
   purchase due to poor service.

   - American respondents surveyed tell about 16 people, on average, 
   when they have a poor customer experience, but tell only about 9%
   when the experience is a good one.

   - More than half of the survey respondents have lost their temper with
   a customer service rep as a result of bad service.

   - Nearly 40% of respondents whose service experience was bad enough
   to make them angry threatened to switch to the competition.

There is a notable bright spot.  Small businesses.  Four in five Americans (81%) agree that smaller companies place a greater emphasis on customer service than large businesses.

Now, just only consider the first survey stat – 70% of Americans surveyed are willing to spend, on average, 13% more with companies that provide outstanding customer service.  How many dollars could that add to your bottom line?

Mr. Jim Bush, Executive Vice President of World Service at American Express, says "There are many who subscribe to the convention that service is a business cost, but our data demonstrates that superior service is an investment that can help drive business growth."

In addition, he states that "Getting service right is more than just a nice to do; it's a must do."

Amen!  Just what we pointed out last year in our post, Great Customer Service: Not Just Nice to Have – It’s a Must Have which included another great article titled, Customer Service as a Strategic Weapon, by Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog at http://www.1to1media.com/weblog/2010/10/customer_service_as_a_strategi.html#more

So, as this post begins with and confirms the importance of superior customer service, I will end with this thought.  Great customer service is the prelude to long-term customer loyalty.  After all is said and done, companies cannot expect customer loyalty without providing great customer service.  And, isn’t that what success is all about?  Keeping and growing as many customers as you can! 

Avoiding the Trap of Mass-Market Distribution

Mass distributors often determine prices and terms to their manufacturer suppliers because they control how these manufacturers get their products to the end users.

Yet, often, the best way for a manufacturer to brand, market and sell their products is by selling direct to the consumers. Can companies dodge the mass distribution deceit, maximize their sales and profits, plus salvage jobs in the US? 

In a powerful book called The Distribution Trap: Keeping Your Innovations from Becoming Commodities, co-authored by professors Andrew R. Thomas, Ph.D, assistant professor of international business at The University of Akron and Timothy J. Wilkinson, Ph.D, professor of marketing and interim dean at Montana State University, they explain why mass-market distribution can be a problem.  They write:
“Mistakenly, many companies see deals with Mega-distributors as the way to boost sales and market share. In reality, the Megas, as we call them, live by high volume and low prices. The Megas use their powerful leverage to demand price cuts and other concessions from their suppliers.  Companies end up with thin profit margins, and their innovative products and services are often treated as little more than commodities.”

For more information on the book, voted by the American Marketing Association, as best marketing book of 2010 and guidance on how to avoid the mass distribution trap, visit the Distribution Trap site.

Manufacturers can help their Mega and/or non-mega distributors to better target and engage their best customers and prospects through market analysis. Enabling manufacturers’ reps with distributor trade area and market share knowledge strengthens the relationship between distributor and manufacturer.

What distributor doesn’t want to know how to sell more of their product and to whom, regardless of their size?  A manufacturers’ selling no longer stops just by putting out a product through a single distribution channel.  Savvy manufacturers recognize that the amount of attention they get from a distributor is directly related to how easy it is to find prospects and close sales.

I have yet to help a manufacturer understand the trade areas around their distributors and not find countless opportunities to grow the business either through the existing channels, or other channels.  

Find out more about trade area analysis here http://infogrow.typepad.com/sales_marketing_effective/trade_areas then check out our market analysis guides here http://infogrow.typepad.com/sales_marketing_effective/market_analytics/.

 

Catching Bigger Fish

There are many worries a small company faces when trying to land a large corporate account.  Maybe like:

- Do we have enough staff, resources, expertise to effectively manage this account better than our competitors?

- Do we have a solid connection with the decision maker?

- Can we react quickly enough to their possible changing needs, brought on by factors such as the economy and their internal challenges?

- Should we drop price and maybe lose some dollars to gain this account?

- Can we become their “experts” and grow this account?

If you are facing this type of challenge, it might be wise to understand what the larger fish fear about swimming with the smaller fish.  

A great article, titled Reduce the Risk of Doing Business with You, and published on the Selling to Big Companies blog, explains why big company buyers might be afraid to do business with smaller companies.

Some excerpts from the article, written by Barbara Weaver Smith, founder of the Whale Hunters include:

Big Company buyers fear four circumstances:

• Change.  Any requirements to do anything differently from what they are doing now represent a big hassle.
  
  
• Conflict.  Any decisions that colleagues or supervisors or other departments oppose are simply too risky to pursue.
  
  
• Work.  If they perceive that your solution requires a lot more work on their part, they will not buy.
  
  
• Failure.  If they choose you and you do not deliver, they will be held accountable for the bad choice.

As the article states, “your job as a seller, then, is to alleviate those fears early in your sales process.”
 
I recommend reading the full article for processes and advice that will help you land more big deals.  Plus, you will get the opportunity to view all of Jill Konrath’s fantastic articles and advice.

What Do Your Customers Wish You Knew About Them?

You know what you need, or would like, to know about your customers. First, basics, like addresses, correct names and titles, phone numbers, company description, and then much more. 

But, the question here is -- do you know what your customers wished you knew about them?  How often do you think about that? If not at all, or never, you better start.

Put yourself into their shoes. What’s important to you, as a customer? Think about that. 

And, while or after, you’re thinking about that, read this thought-provoking article, “50 Things Your Customers Wish You Knew”, posted on Remarkable Communications by Sonia Simone.

Sonia begins with:

“If you knew, really knew, these 50 things about your customers, and acted accordingly, you’d gain their trust and even their love. After all, who doesn’t want to be loved despite all our flaws and embarrassing insecurities? The better you understand both the noble and not-so-noble secrets in your customers’ consciousness, the better you can serve them.

Here are 50 things your customers wish you knew: about them, about how they see you, and about your relationship.” Following are the first five:

1. I don’t need you to be perfect, but I do need to know I can rely on you.
2. Telling me what you don’t know makes me trust you.
3. It means a lot when you take the time to thank me for my business or a referral.
4. You don’t need to do all that much to be a superhero. Just do exactly what you say you will do.
5. A friendly voice on the other side of the phone means more than you can imagine.

Again, I recommend you read the article for some of the best customer advice ever. We all need to be aware of customer wishes, so I would also suggest that any company reading this list, would pass it on to all their employees as mandatory reading.

Great Customer Service: Not Just Nice to Have – It’s a Must Have

In a recent article posted on Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog, “Service as a Strategic Weapon”, the author, Mila D’Antonio, cites some eye-opening results from the new “Customer Experience Report North America 2010.”

The most startling findings learned from the report are that 85% of the 2,217 consumers interviewed said they would pay more for superior customer service.  How much more?  From 5% to 25% more!  Now, that would have a significant impact on any company’s bottom line. 

Just think about it for a minute and do the numbers.  What would just a 5% in additional revenue mean to your company?

For the complete Think Customers: 1to1 Blog article, in case you didn’t catch it from above, visit http://www.1to1media.com/weblog/2010/10/customer_service_as_a_strategi.html#more. 
And, for the complete “Customer Experience Report North America 2010”, click on
http://www.rightnow.com/landing-customer-experience-impact-2010.php

Superior customer service is critical to all companies, of all sizes and in every industry. As Mila D’Antonio so accurately concludes in her article, “It could be the single most important element for a company’s survival going forward.”

2011 Marketing Budgets - If You Haven’t Started Planning Yet, the Time is Now!

Time does fly and now that we’re soaring through the 4th quarter of 2010, it’s none too soon to start planning on your 2011 marketing budget.

I’ll point you to some great advice that will definitely help your chances of getting your budget approved so you will have the resources you need to meet, and maybe exceed, your business goals.

Pat LaPointe of Marketing NPV provides a must-read checklist of 7 items that will help you win your marketing budget proposals.  Following is a brief summary of these tips:

1. Ensure that you are aligned to the proper goals and objectives.  Your recommendations need to be linked to specific ways they will help achieve company goals – revenue, profit, customer value, market share, etc.
   
   
2. Make sure you’ve squeezed every drop from the current spend patterns.  These days, zero-based budgeting is price-of-entry.
   
   
3. Have a plan for how you will prioritize the marketing funds strategically, not just tactically. If you get another $1, where will you put it?
   
   
4. Identify the points of leverage you can exploit. Results accrue when you place resources behind places of competitive leverage.
   
   
5. Demonstrate an understanding of how the business environment has changed. Even if you have clear leverage opportunities, the business environment is powerful enough to neutralize just about any unilateral effort a given company might make.
   
   
6. Proactively assess the risk of your plans. As marketers, we plan like matadors, but have the track record of the bull.
   
   
7. Propose “good” benchmarks and targets for your intended outcomes.  Every recommendation should come with expected performance outcomes.

For the full details of each above item, read Pat’s article, How to Get the Budget You Need.

Are you planning on next year’s budget yet?

GET HUNTED

For decades, we’ve hired sales reps to be hunters instead of farmers. We’ve even coveted our neighbors’ (competitors) hunters. Perhaps this recession, along with more effective gate-keepers, (receptionist and voice mail), and the “Walmartization” of buyers, shows us that hunting has become too tough and expensive. 

Today our hunters are having a harder time opening doors. Middle managers have disappeared and “C” level executives are too busy running from meeting to meeting, since they have fewer middle managers to sit down with our hunters.  Our sales reps – our hunters - are not getting a shot at engaging a decision-maker in a solution selling approach.

Maybe we need a different approach. GET HUNTED!

How?  Marketing needs to pay more attention to being hunted by ready buyers.  Yes, it might not have the same long term value as nurturing a prospect along. Then again…how many of our nurturing efforts have not played out the way we hope when our prospect leaves, or the company is sold?

Being hunted means that we position our www site and direct marketing efforts to be found, easily. It means working harder to make our target markets even tighter for finding those who are ready to buy.  Our marketing message and value proposition must be simpler and clear with a strong call to action for our targeted buyer.  Our www site must become a lead generation engine where our SEO is more effective than ever.  Most importantly, our lead follow-up must be unmatched in our sector.  As marketers, we must get our hunters hunted. 

Your thoughts . . . 

Fire A Major Client? In This Economy? Am I Nuts?

Well, that’s exactly what I decided I had to do for the good of my company.  I’m not crazy, unless looking at the “big picture” makes one bonkers. 
  
I know, after operating a successful business for over twenty years, that some clients are just not worth keeping. Devoting time to an unprofitable and high maintenance customer was draining our resources and tech staff moral.  I have resigned a few smaller customers over the years but, to say goodbye to a major client representing a good chunk of my company revenue, especially in this economy, took a lot of thought. 

 It took a number of sleepless nights, plus building a firm strategy and commitment  to redouble new business development and best customer loyalty efforts to make up for the lost revenue.  It was not an easy decision, but I know it was the right decision. 

Although, breaking up is hard to do, it is sometimes the best choice.  Here are a few signs of when it is time to think about saying goodbye to a customer:

• After signing the final contract, including the Scope of Work (SOW) and Change Orders schedule items and you’ve started the work, the client repeatedly comes back with requests for more changes and expecting those free of charge.  You are surprised to learn that they never really read a word of what you provided, even though they signed off on every page.
  
  
• They consistently don’t send the critical data as requested on time and, if they do, it is often incomplete, yet they blame any resulting problems on you.
• They change their minds constantly and blame you when the project is falling behind schedule.  Your team is drained, demoralized and sometimes verbally abused. 
  
  
• While you are working with many other clients every day, this customer feels they are your only client and constantly takes up support time with items that have been answered before.  Even when they have already been trained and retrained by your team, they prefer to tie up members of your senior support team rather than get their processes in order. They don’t understand that you, also, have a business to operate and employees to pay.
  
  
• The client is consistently 90 days + past due on payments.  Sure, you call time and again, just to be told that it is on somebody’s desk somewhere – oh, God, they went on vacation, or there is a new person in that position, so you will have to wait, but you will get it sometime fairly soon.
  
  
• They don’t have a contract for extended technical support, but they call your people (and you) constantly, even after hours and on the weekends, expecting answers right now. 
  
  
• They threaten you with their boss, a competitor, their legal department, or just simply, that they will have their IT people write a better application. 
  
  
• Your repeated attempts to manage the relationship, resolve any open issues, and even change support personnel, usually only buys you about two weeks of their grace. 

Bottom line, if a customer exhibits these types of behaviors, they are not worth keeping.  The fact is that not all customers are created equal.  These types of customer behaviors are holding you back, draining resources, causing team member burnout, and endangering your relationships with your best customers. 

Joanne S. Black, creator of No More Cold Calling®, puts it best in her article titled, “How to Say Goodbye!”.  Joanne calls these difficult customers PITAs, standing for “pain in the ass” customers.  She points out, quite accurately, that PITA customers are never happy, are emotionally draining, use up our valuable resources, and too many PITAs will dwindle our profits.   

I’m sure most readers are thinking of their current PITAs, so I fully encourage you to provide some comments or advice on how you are managing your PITAs.

How do you tell them thank you, but goodbye?   

Golden Customer Rules

First and foremost, treat them as you would like to be treated. 

There was a great article published in the January 4th edition of the Akron Beacon Journal, titled “Customers appreciate Golden Rule”, contributed by Akron Ohio’s SCORE chapter. SCORE is a partner of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

Although geared to small business, the advice from this article is definitely applicable to businesses of all sizes. It provides many valuable suggestions of how to focus on your greatest asset of all – your customers.

Some excerpts of this article are:

• Sometimes we get so caught up in the mechanics of doing business that we forget the reason we're in business in the first place. You need to incorporate customer service into your business culture.
• Customer service should be as routine as paying your bills or ordering office supplies. It doesn't have to be elaborate to make an impression.
• Put yourself in your customers' shoes. Ask yourself how you would like to be treated and then act accordingly.
• Keep your customers apprised of the status of their accounts. If an order is held up, let the customer know as soon as possible.
• When dealing with customers or clients over the telephone, try not to put them on hold for longer than a minute or two. If you expect to be tied up for longer than that, take a message and respond as soon as possible.
• Thank customers for their business. If customers regularly visit your place of business, make them feel welcome. Be sure to introduce them to key members of your organization.
• Finally, when you sit back and ask yourself how your business is doing, be sure to ask your customers as well. Send them postage-paid response cards or make a questionnaire available in your place of business.

Customers are our greatest asset. Without them, there is nothing – companies simply don’t exist.  In keeping with that fact, I would like to direct you to an old post that covers what happens when you don’t treat them like your greatest asset.   

How are you treating your customers?  Are you following the golden rules? 

Shopping for E-mails

E-marketing is fast becoming one of the most effective, low-cost marketing vehicles of choice. But how do you find those e-mail addresses to expand your efforts?

Guest Author – Kristy Amy

 
The answer is tricky. More and more list vendors are working to add e-mail lists to their service offerings. Vendors like infoUSA.com, edithroman.com and termedia.com do have lists for sale.

But before you start emailing, you need to fully understand the legal aspect of the CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) Act of 2003  and the subsequent modifications / clarifications made to the Act in 2008.

The Act specifically tells you to whom you can send e-mail. For instance, you can only send commercial e-mails to individuals that your company has a relationship with or is currently engaged in a transaction. It also prohibits sending to harvested e-mail lists, meaning you can’t cherry pick addresses from various Web sites and add them to your list.

But there is a gray area. The law does not specify regulations related to purchasing an e-mail list. When you buy a list, you don’t technically know the individuals on the other side, nor do you know how the list was harvested in the first place.

Bottom line, the best way to expand your e-mail marketing is to simply build your list one address at a time. Collect everything you can from customers and prospects. And make sure to allow everyone the opportunity to opt-in to your e-communications.

There are few other issues you need to watch out for related to the CAN-SPAM Act.
Unsubscribe:
    * Include a visible unsubscribe mechanism in all e-mails, and make sure it works 
    * Hone consumer opt-out requests within 10 days
    * Use opt-out lists, also known as suppression lists, for compliance purposes
Content Standards:
    * Design accurate “from” lines describing the sender that doesn’t mimic others, including “friendly froms”  
    * Create relevant subject lines, meaning that it accurately describes the body of the e-mail 
    * Provide a legitimate physical address or a PO Box registered to the USPS
    * Label adult content

E-mail marketing is powerful, but without these standards in place, you may be walking a fine line—fines can soar into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. So definitely utilize e-mail communications, but fully understand the legal and technical complexities.

For more information, feel free to contact:
Kristy Amy / President, OnMark Solutions
kristyamy@onmarksolutions.com or call 440-463-2183
Also, visit their website at http://www.onmarksolutions.com

InfoGrow Turns 20! Join Us in Celebrating!

2009 marks our 20th year of success and commitment as a leading sales and marketing solutions provider. This fantastic achievement is due to a combination of my dedicated employees, loyal customers, supportive business partners, along with our mission of being central to all of our clients’ sales and marketing success. 

November 6, 2009 is the official date, but we are going to CELEBRATE all year long.  In the spirit of celebration, I invite everyone to take part in, and enjoy, our monthly Anniversary 20/20 Trivia Contest.  Test your trivia knowledge and get the chance to win a great prize. 

Oh, by the way, categories change each month, so you have many chances to win.

HAVE SOME FUN!

Application Hosting – What it is and Why Use it?

I’ve often had clients and prospects ask me what exactly does hosting an application mean?  It is a fairly easy concept, but not so easy to explain given today’s technologies and rapid change of definitions, so here goes my try at explaining it. 

You may know it as Application Hosting as ASP (Application Service Provider), SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), On-Demand software, or simply Outsourcing.  Though all of these terms are closely related to each other, they are not completely interchangeable, but the concept is the basically the same and fairly simple. 

What Does Hosting Mean?

Hosting is a software application distribution system where your application - CRM, Location Intelligence/ Mapping or others, are maintained and managed by a qualified service provider and made available to you, as a service over the WWW.  Essentially, this means that an application resides on the provider’s servers instead of your in-house servers. The application can be instantly accessed and shared by your sales/marketing and other company staff, through a web browser. In most cases, this means that the hosting provider is responsible for support, maintenance, installations, upgrades and security on a 24x7 basis. 

What is a Qualified Provider?

Generally, a qualified service provider is a company that has either developed the application and/or is certified by a software manufacturer, such as Microsoft.  Qualified Providers have worked extensively with your application and understand all the ins and outs.  They know exactly how to make the application work and are able to support you with best practices.

What are the Highlights:

With a good hosting service, you should experience the following

• No loss of data security or control
• Quicker implementation and quicker ROI
• No steep learning curves, plus ease of use
• Reduced Sales, Marketing and IT support
• Lower software and hardware costs
• 24x7 maintenance and support and security
• Automatic and frequent upgrades
• Ability to implement enhancements on an ongoing basis

What are the Benefits:

The biggest benefit is that you are sharing and accessing vital information with all your sales and marketing teams, instead of it all residing on your separate desktops.  In addition, you should get:

• Sales & Marketing on the same page, sharing the same information all the time
• Enhanced company image and customer loyalty
• Reduced costs and increased revenue and ROI

Bottom line is: You get to concentrate on your core competencies, and increase your sales and marketing effectiveness.   

What Companies are Using Application Hosting? 

CRM Magazine’s January 2009 Special Supplement, Best Practices Series: Software-as-a-Service said, “according to Analyst Perspectives, 55 percent of businesses based in North America will have deployed at least one SaaS application by the end of 2008.  They further stated that, “in fact, if industry forecasts can be believed, by 2012 nearly 30 percent of business software will be deployed and delivered via the SaaS model”.
 
So, do you now have a better idea of what hosting is?  Are you using it?  If so, what are the results?  If not, are you considering it?  I welcome you comments. 

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Hard Times Require Hard Work

I’m sure many of you have heard that phrase before.  For real marketers, that should mean more marketing and smarter marketing. A slow economy shouldn’t slow your  efforts.

As pointed out in his recent post, “Now Is Not the Time to Hide”, Lewis Green, Founder and Managing Principal of L&G Business Solutions  said "When everyone else is being super-cautious, this is the time for business to move from good to great. When everyone else is pulling their heads in, poke yours out. Get noticed. Rise above the pack."

His post provides some great suggestions for smarter marketing in these tough economic times and is well worth a read.

Yes, economic conditions are bad, have been for quite a while, with no real solutions in sight. We’ve all been flooded with blog posts, articles, newsletters, email and editorial opinions on how this puts a brake on marketing.  But unless you’re working in a progressive, marketing-oriented company aren’t you, in essence, used to working in a slow economy in your very own company?  How many of your companies are suffering their own internal recessions?   

Budget cuts, staff cuts, idea cuts, along with increased demands for proving ROI, aligning up with sales, and trying to explain to your CEO and CFO why marketing is valuable – isn’t this the norm for marketing people? Isn’t that our every day, own internal recession? 

At the first of the year, On February 26, 2008, I wrote a post addressing the issue of marketing during a recession. In that, I offered some advice on what, I believe, might help all of you live out the storm successfully.  The storm still builds around us. 

Again, you are on the brink of another year and also on the brink of possible major economic disasters, but unless you are anticipating that the bad economy is going to drive you right out of business, then you better plan on driving your marketing strong and in the right direction. 

Marketing is the push and support that drives sales.  And sales are what drive economies – all economies - yours and the world’s.  

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