Change Conversations

May 3, 2012

I chuckled to myself and thought, “This is good old-fashioned social media in action.” This parent was demonstrating the power of social media only without using any technology at all—just word of mouth. And you can’t get much more social than that. Kind of refreshing in this day and age of technology overload!

Getting and Keeping a Customer

We use a certain company to have our septic tank pumped. And I probably will never switch—even for a better price. Why? Because the last time I called our company to have our tank pumped, the guy told me it was too soon. He remembered two years earlier when he was at our house. He remembered that we were having our kitchen remodeled and new roof put on at the time. And he remembered the location of the trees on our property. We weren’t due until next year he explained.

Whoa! What happened here? In that quick exchange over the phone, this company not only demonstrated their honesty, and established great trust, he also showed that he knew a lot about us and our property. I wasn’t just some potential customer calling and asking for an appointment. I was a customer he remembered.

This exchange didn’t happen over Facebook or LinkedIn or some other social media platform. But it could have. And that’s the point.

Are You Listening?

Français : Oreille humaine sous forme graphique English: Human ear icon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Social media is a great way to share information about your company and its products and services with current and potential customers. But it can also be much more than that. It’s an avenue for having conversations (like the one I had with my septic company on the phone), for listening to and learning from your customers and potential customers and for demonstrating that you know and understand their needs.

So whether your company is in the business of pumping septic tanks or providing a service, social media can be a powerful thing—if you use it correctly. Sure, it’s a great place for sharing news about your company, but don’t limit these channels to just that. Your customers and potential customers don’t necessarily enjoy hearing (or reading) about you and your company all the time.

A good rule of thumb on social media: share your company news about one-third of the time; share industry news and items of interest another third of the time; and strive to engage with your followers and friends the other third.

Yes, social media provides you with wonderful ways to share information about your company, but it’s also a great way to listen to and engage with your customers.

Are you listening?

Related reading:

10 Questions To Ask Customers To Boost Your Sales

Apr 5, 2012

What is collaboration?

Pat wrote some time ago about the differences between collaboration and consulting and how people’s perceptions of the two terms can vary.

To some the difference between the two may seem small. To our firm, the difference is immense.

Collaboration is defined as:

“…working together to achieve a goal…a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals…”

Whereas, in my mind, serving in a consultant role is more reactive, based on providing advice from time to time or reacting to something that has already been decided or created. It’s more project-specific or shorter-term in nature. This type of relationship often lacks context or a sense of the bigger picture. How can one provide effective counsel without an understanding of the “big picture”?

Synonyms for collaboration include teaming up, uniting, cooperating, working in concert—terms that suggest a process that results in an outcome far greater than if one were working on their own.

Imagine listening to a musical piece played with only one instrument versus that same piece played by an entire symphony. Which experience is richer, more powerful?

Marketing power and effectiveness comes from both the client and agency working together, pooling their resources, experiences, backgrounds and knowledge to create something better.

Who knows a client’s customers best? The client, without a doubt. And who brings a wealth of marketing insight, research, objective analysis and best practices to the table to help develop a solid marketing strategy? The marketing firm.

Drawing a line in the sand

When we begin working with a new client, they want specifics on what we do, who does what, how much does it cost, etc. While these are certainly important questions, the process piece that describes how we work is equally important. I find that trying to draw a line in the sand between who does what, can be difficult.

Our firm has always prided itself on getting to know our clients, working with them closely to learn everything about their company, their team, their culture, their products or services, what they’re all about and forging a mutually rewarding partnership based on collaboration. It’s a give and take process, but both sides are always working toward that shared vision and making something better, whether that is a marketing plan, a tagline, an ad campaign or new brochure. As an employee, I find this a much more enriching and satisfying process than what I had experienced before.

Of course, not every agency approaches its work in such a collaborative manner. Certainly the first ad agency I worked in was more of a consulting agency. We did projects driven by the client’s request, with creative direction from the agency’s president. Our work was not necessarily based on having a deep understanding of the client’s customers or mission. Interesting to note that the firm isn’t around any longer.

The consulting relationship is more like the one you may have with your hardware store, quickie mart or dry cleaner. You, the customer, tell them what you want, they give it to you and you pay for it—nothing more, nothing less. But in a truly collaborative relationship there is more–much more.

So when I am asked what we do for clients I first touch on process and how we do it, talking about how we follow a collaborative approach to develop a solid marketing strategy for them.

Sure, there are days when we are asked only for our input or to carry out certain tasks, but for the most part these occasions are few in number. Our clients realize that real marketing effectiveness comes from a collaborative process with a trusted business partner that knows you and your business goals inside and out.