Is Your B2B Company at Risk?

The greatest risk facing B2B companies might surprise you.

Many believe that it is technological changes in the industry. Other think that it’s trends in the marketplace. The real reason is losing customers.

Gallup reports that 71% of customers are ready to find new vendors.  A mere 46% of customers think sellers deliver on their promises. Only 52% feel proud to be a customer to their vendors.

You can remedy this by understanding your customers perceptions of your company. Get feedback via surveys, chat boxes, and comments on your blog. You can also email customer rating reports.

Bring customers new ideas. You can help your customers run their business better with ideas about how to operate, market, and strategize.

Create a wonderful customer experience. This requires an understanding of the customers and creating a memorable experience for them. This involves great customer service and making the customer feel valued.

Remember, it costs your business more to gain new customers than to create new ones.

Professional Copywriting – because the message matters.

Why are business models necessary?

The Importance of the Business Model

The concept of having a business model came into vogue during the dotcom internet boom era. Most assumed that if you had an internet presence, you had it made. Profits would beat a path to your bank account, customers would go out of their way to buy from you, and your firm would prosper.

You know those dreams never materialized. Remember the dot com bubble burst?

The reason for the collapse was not that these companies had an internet business model. It was more likely that they had a faulty business model. Business models matter and it’s best to create the optimum one for your business.

Having a business model is akin to pre-writing a biography for your business. You may have an innovative idea, a new product,  a product or redux, or a renovation of your company.  Business models also help you align the right resources with the right projects at the right time.

Your business model requires sound analysis, good judgment, and forward thinking because it outlines the way you will earn money.

Not only do you need to know a lot about your business, you need to understand the clients, each customer segment, and the environment in which you will operate. This requires accurate appraisals and assumptions about each.

This requires analytical thinking and design skills as well as a healthy dose of creative thinking. If you’re renovating your current firm, you need analytical and recreation thinking. Out with the old and in with the new if you like.

A business model is the foundation of your enterprise.

 

Customer Experience of the Worst Kind

Have you encountered any horrible customer experiences lately?

If not, you may be visiting different places than me. Lately, two outlets for major chains have taken to playing some pretty terrible music. The singers have weak voices and this requires that the recordings be overproduced. This is to cover up the fact the singers really can’t sing.

The issue is that they play the music very loudly. This is worse due to the early morning hour.

It’s not just me. Many of the regulars at these two locations have the same complaint. Think about the word-of-mouth impact this will have on the business. I used to go to one of these locations two or three times a week. Now I go maybe twice a month.

One of the companies sent me a survey, which I filled out advising of the negative experiences. They answered (surprise) with an apology, A couple of days later, they urged me to return.  When I did, the music was blasting. I walked out remember the cold food that was supposed to be hot and the weak coffee.

This is akin to the cumulative experience a customer might have over a number of visits.

Don’t businesses create competitive advantage by giving customer a positive customer experience?

Have you had any experiences like this?

 

How to Make Marketing Soup

Do you own a small business?

If you do, then you know that this is true. Marketing is an integral part of your business. It’s the process of understanding, reaching, and satisfying your customer. It’s placing the concept of your value proposition in the minds of your clients. Marketing is like making soup. You need to get the right ingredients and mix, slice, and prepare them in the right way.

In other words, marketing is getting your message about your products and services to the right market with the right words. You deliver value to prospects and customers. You employ marketing research to detect any unfilled needs in the marketplace (No easy task.) Next, you try to create messaging that appeals to the market segment to which you are marketing.

Once you have the right message, you select the right channel to reach the desired segment. When the right message reaches the right segment of the market, a sale is made.  The marketing soup is complete.

It all sounds so easy, but we know it requires a lot of effort and thought to get this done properly.  One way to make it easier is to remember the basic ingredients of marketing that you want to keep in mind when create a marketing program.

 

Marketing Soup Ingredient List

Segmentation	Positioning	Needs
Wants	Environment	Brand
Demand	Competitors	Programs

 

 

 

Marketing for You

It’s been a long time since my last posting because I’ve been involved with other projects. They became larger than life for me. I completed the last one two weeks ago. It was on time and under budget, and the client was thrilled.

Now, I’m getting back into the flow, and it looks exciting. Since my last offering I have become a certified Business Model Specialist and gotten back to writing copy. These are nice, useful additions to my offerings.

Offerings

• Business Modeling
• Value Proposition
• Copywriting

Business Modeling

The business modeling helps get your new business or your renovated business up and running on the right track.

Value Proposition

The Value Proposition informs your customer why it’s a good idea to do business with you.

Copywriting

The copywriting helps you get the right message to the right people at the right time to create more revenues and greater profits. It’s the written portion of your offering that help buyers make a decision to buy form you. It increase the customer’s awareness of your brand and provides reasons why they will benefit from doing business with you.