So, how can you get potential customers to visit your website? You need to ensure they know it exists - and that demands visibility. Ensure they know its address, remind them every time you send them a letter, print a promotional pen, ensure the website is mentioned on the bottom of every email.

If you are looking for more business, think about promoting your web presence by using online advertising, such as Google Adwords, to ensure new potential customers know you exist and may be able to provide the goods or services they want. You can't always simply rely on your website appearing top in a search engine - though you'll need to work at optimising your site, too, in order to make that a possibility.

Just as the best companies have sales reps who keep in touch with their regular customers, so you need to plan your online methods of keeping in touch. Email newsletters, updated website content, free guides and advice that can be downloaded all keep those customers in touch, and give them reasons to pay your website another visit.

Your brand needs to be out there, and must appear in a unified way with solid, consistent messages that your target audience can understand. So consider how all the elements of your marketing mix - website, brochures, blogs and Twitter - all act in a concerted way to make your offer clear, and ensure it is attractive to your target audience.

1. Put your company name into Google - and also try Yahoo. Simply enter your corporate name in the search box and see what comes up. If you have a name similar to several others, then think about adding what you do, for example "isocube" and "web marketing". Your own website should rank highly; if not, maybe there's scope for some search engine optimisation.
2. Review the first 20 entries that come up. Check their relevance - are they about your business, and if so what is the context? Pay close attention to any items on forums or blogs; pay them a visit and take stock of comments made, plus who has submitted them - and when they were submitted.
3. Carry out the same review for any products or brands you may own or represent. Use Google globally, as well as refining the search by checking only UK sites (tick the click box on the Google screen).
4. Repeat the exercise for social networking sites. You can do this via Google, and then add a word such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. Using specialist software such as Tweetdeck will make searching Twitter entries more easily.
5. Find out what web presence senior staff have; enter the first name and surname into Google. Depending on how common their name is, it may be appropriate to add the company name too, or a location link such as a town name. Again, use a UK site filter, to eliminate those in other countries.
6. Facebook and other entries will tend to show up on Google, but you should also search in Facebook and other social networks, if you have an account. If there's a picture of a senior member of your team misbehaving on someone else's Facebook entry and you find it, so can your prospective customers. Anything you find should be appropriate for a potential customer to see - if not, you need to consider how to manage the situation.

Websites have moved on, sure, and most of us now realise that a website needs to be a living, breathing part of our marketing strategy. But web strategy now needs to encompass far more, and in a world where thousands of new websites are coming on stream daily, just being seen and heard requires playing in ever more dimensions.

Generic website promotion is still something of a black art, with the main search engines continually refining their ranking criteria. And Pay Per Click has really taken off as an advertising medium, particularly through the recession, as companies realise how it allows them to quickly monitor the results of even small advertising spend; checking, and ever improving the return on spend.

New forms of expression, named social media, are providing new channels for individuals and companies to express themselves. While blogs are increasingly understood and, thanks to some high profile mistakes, we all know how potent they can be, these are now being overtaken by the power of linkages through Facebook, Linkedin, and now the latest internet phenomenon, Twitter.

As an indication of just how powerful these new media can be, it was a "tweet" on Twitter that announced to the world the moment when an aircraft ditched in the Hudson River; and golfing sartorial sensation (though somewhat less impressive with a club in hand) Ian Poulter announced his highly awaited Open outfit with a Twitpic - to more than 250,000 followers.

News, too is increasingly online; with this and TV news now encouraging us all to get in touch and make comments, something that is changing the power of what folk say, and to whom. Love them or hate them, journalists have a code of conduct, something a disgruntled customer might not abide by.

Which leads us to the latest corporate requirement - monitoring the web to see what people are saying about you, your products and services. A ranting forum debate can get out of hand very fast - and damage a reputation just as quickly. Allowing customers a simple way to get in touch, and providing a fast response, is part of the new corporate defence to this instant ability to re-rank your reputation.

The health check, which includes up to two hours of free consultancy, is being provided completely without obligation, and will review every aspect of a company's marketing activities, including their web presence and website, branding, PR, design and corporate image. On request, the health check can take a closer look at specific parts of a marketing plan, too.

"Companies that have maintained their business to this point in the recession are clearly doing many things well," says Isocube director Marcus Potts. "But with marketing budgets tight all round, we are finding clients want to be sure they are getting absolutely the best return they can for every promotional pound they spend. Should they be producing a new brochure, or redesigning their web marketing? Our health check will provide an external check of which marketing exercises will deliver the quickest results for the lowest outlay, and identify areas for improvement."

"Sometimes, our recommendations will be simple things that staff can implement themselves with little or no cost. And if there are areas we identify for action, we provide a to-do list for when budgets allow."

Companies wishing to take up Isocube's offer should contact the company directly to book their consultancy appointment.

Marketing consultancy Isocube has launched a further initiative to help credit-crunched businesses - the Pay As You Go website solution.

As a result, customers will be able to enjoy an upgraded web presence, without the usual need to pay for a new site before it starts generating additional business.

"From soundings we have taken, it is often cashflow that prevents businesses from upgrading their web presence," says Marcus Potts, Isocube managing director. "By removing the worry of a major up front invoice for the cost of the website, we are able to deliver what the client needs. In turn, they agree to pay us in instalments over an agreed period - during which time they will be enjoying the marketing and e-commerce benefits of their new site."

In contrast with some offerings in the marketplace, Isocube's Pay As You Go sites are not
cut price websites built to a limited template. "We are still talking about a fully functional, bespoke web presence, complete with all the features a client needs, built to our normal high standards," says Marcus.

This is the second initiative launched by Isocube to help businesses reduce the stress of working their way through the credit crunch. In March, Isocube's new credit control service, which ensures clients receive cash due to them on time, was launched following successful trials.

>> Enquire About This Service

NEW SERVICE HELPS CREDIT CRUNCHED SMALL BUSINESSES GET PAID ON TIME

Aylesbury-based business consultancy Isocube has launched a new service to help credit crunched businesses across Buckinghamshire - bespoke credit control.

The service is aimed at businesses who want a better control over their cashflow, particularly in the current climate, when banks are less happy to continue to provide overdraft facilities.

Iscocube's service provides outsourced management of credit control, chasing outstanding debts and enforcing procedures to ensure that customers continue to pay on time. As a result, clients have a weekly forecast of incoming cashflow, enabling them to better plan their business, and pay suppliers on satisfactory terms.

The service has been established in response to demand from Isocube's existing clients, and has already been trialled with several companies, to great success.

"At a recent business meeting, we found the question of chasing payments high on everyone's agenda," says Marcus Potts, Isocube managing director. "People hate chasing customers for money, and worry about upsetting relationships and potentially damaging future business prospects. Too often in the real world, small businesses only chase money a few days before they desperately need it, and never send reminders."

Iscube's main business has to date been oriented towards supporting clients on sales and marketing campaigns. Credit control is, however, part of customer management process; a sale is not complete until payment has been satisfactorily settled.

"We're far from the image of traditional debt collectors," adds Potts. "We follow up on a customer's invoices as soon as they are issued, ensuring clients have received them, there are no disputes, and agree a settlement date. We are polite and professional, but being at arms length to the customer, can have a dispassionate view about our task." The service can also include payment collection - preventing the need to dispute that well-worn promise of "the cheque is in the post".

Isocube's credit management service operates a simple costing structure, proving much more cost-effective than bank borrowing, and is more flexible than using traditional invoice discounting or factoring services.

They had been running some Google Adword pay-per-click campaigns, but without the ability to create purpose built landing pages for specific campaigns to maximise conversions, they were experiencing a negative return on investment.

This is a increasingly common request:
"How can we increase the number of visitors to our website, and how can we increase conversions of those visitors into enquires. And how can we do this without redeveloping our website."

Perfect timing, as the answer was - our new web conversion engine.

Over the past few months our web team have been developing this quick to deploy web platform that sits along side an existing web site, specifically designed to attract more traffic, and increase the rate of converstion of visitors to enquiries.

Simply, this is how the web conversion engine  works:

The web conversation engine generates a set of pages (or a micro web site), driven by a content management system, therefore allowing quick updating of content and addition of new pages.

These web pages can either hosted under a new unique domain, or commonly as a sub domain from an existing web site, eg news.yourdomain.co.uk, blog.yourdomain.co.uk or whateveryouwant.yourdomain.co.uk

Attract more search engine traffic

You can regularly publish new content via the web conversion engine. For example, press releases, articles that reflect your opinion on your market place, new product information, testimonials and case studies, tips and hints, or anything relevant to your prospective visitors.

Obviously, the more content you publish, and the wider the range of related topics, the greater chance of being found via the major search engines. Remember, search sites like Google feed off content

We've also built in some unique SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) tools, to increase your chances of being found online.

Optimise pay-per-click and email campaigns

If you're advertising electronically, perhaps via email, using web banners, or undertaking a pay per click campaign - just sending visitors to your home page, and hoping they'll find the correct information or contact form is not enough.

So the web conversion engine lets you create dedicated landing pages for each of your campaigns, this means that your visitors will be forwarded directly to the information or news article they're interested in.

Conversion of visitors in to sales leads

Because each page you created can deploy a number of different conversation techniques, along with multiple calls to action, and on page enquiry forms, you should see increases in the number of incoming leads.

Test and Measure

As your new web conversion engine can sit separately to your main site (branded and customised to uphold your company image), it's easy for you to try different pages, new content, and see what works for you. And by using Analytics you'll measure the effect that different approaches have on your web traffic numbers.

Go even further

As all your content can be added to an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed, you be able to reuse it in the world of social networking and media - when and if you're ready to do so.

So, in a nutshell, we were able to deploy and have operational a conversion solution within days, not just giving new life and direction to a pay-per-click campaign, but offering a whole suit of web conversion tools to the customer. 

Now we're often asked by customers - should a company have a non geographic telephone number, such as 0845, or a local one (in our case Aylesbury numbers start 01296). And from a marketing stand point, how important is it to be perceived by prospective customers as a local company through your telephone number?

Well, it depends on your business activity and your target market.

As you see, our telephone number is 0845 83 82 789, as we work with companies right across the UK it's not so important that we have a local Aylesbury number. In fact it works to our advantage for customers to know we have national as well as local coverage.

If however we were only selling locally to customers in and around the Aylesbury area, for example as a local print shop, retail outlet, or were running local services, then a telephone number that strictly indentified us with our home town could certainly be an advantage.

Generally however, your telephone number is now secondary to your web presence. Rather than searching a paper directory, your prospects are now more likely to hit an internet search engine. And although geography remains important, it's only relevant if you are also able to prove your ability to meet your customers' needs.

One word of caution - if you do decided that an 08 national number is right for your business we suggest either obtaining an 0800 (freephone) or 0845 (local rate), these are generally recognised and accepted prefixes. Avoid 0844, 0870, and 0871 numbers as these carry high charges for the caller.

For more information about 08, and the new 03 numbers, visit Ofcom's website.

You and your team are out there presenting your business to clients.

You spend time and energy ensuring that the text in your marketing collateral is ‘just so'.

But remember - it's not just pre-prepared material that reflects on your company. Every communication generated by your organisation is a marketing message. It has an impact on how you're perceived, whether it's your marketing, sales, customer service or finance department interacting with the outside world.

This means any letter, fax, proposal, press release, telephone call (see our Top Tips for using the Telephone) - and more commonly these days email - impacts on how your business is perceived, and after all that's all part of marketing!

A hurried email or sales proposal, a communication to the press with mistakes or typos, or something written to a customer when the composer is having a bad day, can have a negative effect on the recipient. And once it's sent, it's sent!

Getting the basics right, like spelling and grammar, can go along way in projecting your professionalism. So having a set of guidelines can help maintain consistency and uphold your company image - whilst still allowing for the personal touch and individuality - and can assist you in reaching your marketing goals.

Below are some guidelines on the use of grammar and style. These are neither definitive nor absolute, but may help you when developing a company wide communications policy.

 
Tips on writing style and grammar for today's business communication

• Keep it simple and to the point, and make every word count
• Use short words rather than long words
• Write plainly with familiar words as you would speak. Your email, letter or fax should sound natural when you read it aloud to yourself
• When writing email, style is informal. This means that sentences can be short and to the point.
• Avoid clichés, slang words and expressions, and very technical jargon
• Don't use abbreviations unnecessarily - it is always better to write the word out in full, eg SEO is wrong, Search Engine Optimisation is correct
• Use short sentences, and see how many words you can cut out when you re-read it
• Write clearly, being concise and specific. Avoid being vague, and find out facts which are missing. Check dates are accurate, and phone a company to check the spelling of someone's name or the address, if you are unsure it is correct
• Remove redundant, weak and meaningless words, eg 'at this moment in time' can be replaced with 'now'
• The word etcetera (etc) should be used with caution
• Make definite statements, and don't be evasive
• Stress the positive. Say what you can do and not what you can't do
• Write from the reader's perspective
• Use the second person (you) whenever possible
• Make your emails and letters sound warm and friendly, but not too familiar
• In addition to using the spell checker, proof read it. To proof read an important document or piece of text, a) read it forwards aloud pronouncing each syllable, eg" Cust-om-er Rel-ation-ship Man-age-ment is suit-a-ble for ev-er-y com-pa-ny" (this checks for sense), then b) read it backwards word by word, starting at the bottom; eg "company every for suitable is Management Relationship Customer". You will then 'see' each word for what it is, and not in the order you expect it to be (this checks for spelling mistakes)
• Avoid using the same opening word for successive paragraphs
• In a letter, don't split paragraphs at the end of a page
• Spell out abbreviations and contractions the first time they are used
• Companies and collective nouns are singular, so ABC Company is launching, but the Government has launched ... the two exceptions to this rule are sports teams and the police - England have won, and the police are investigating
• As a general rule give names before description of job or position - Denis Matthews, managing director of ABC Company
• Spell out single digit numbers (one to nine). Use figures for 10 and over. Exceptions to this are where the number is the first word in the sentence, when a number is followed by the words 'per cent', eg 2 per cent or 2%, when fractions or decimals are involved, or in conjunction with units of measurement (7cm, 5 miles)
• Avoid using capitals where possible - the fewer the better. Sentences, names, brand names and proper nouns begin with a capital, eg Denis Matthews, managing director; ABC product name
• Use as few full stops apart from punctuation marks, as possible - UK, mph, Dr, Mrs, ie, eg
• A dash has a space either side of it; a hyphen doesn't. For example
  Mrs Foskett-Smythe has been caught out - but then all of us are fallible
• Speech quotes use " at the beginning and end of a quote. To emphasise a word or title single quotes (') are used
• Use a dictionary and / or thesaurus to check meanings and spellings, as well as a spell checker
• Let common sense prevail.

In marketing, companies use 'push' and 'pull' strategies to sell their products and services. A push strategy relies on you going out and creating demand for your product or service, pushing it into the market and finding new customers. A company normally knows very little about its end users and rarely has a direct relationship with them.

With a pull marketing strategy, on the other hand, the company actively seeks to build relationships directly with their end customers. In a pull strategy the company builds demand in the marketplace and then customers come to them, looking for information and ready to buy their products.

Technology like the web, email and CRM help companies execute successful pull marketing strategies by using the natural power of the Internet to facilitate two-way communications directly with end customers. As a result, 'push' marketing efforts can be spent more wisely on more highly qualified or targeted leads and prospects.

For successful pull marketing, you should:

• develop strategies that attract qualified prospects to your business
• differentiate qualified leads from the rest of your enquiries
• inform customers with information relevant to them
• personalise the content they are provided with
• transact business in simple ways
• distribute sales leads appropriately throughout your organisation
• monitor your web-based business with up-to-the-minute reporting
• interact and build relationships with every customer
• integrate your technology such as web and CRM with your traditional business processes

Attract

Qualified prospects can be enticed or pulled with automated campaigns such as e-marketing campaigns and personalised e-mail messages. By setting up co-ordinated marketing strategies, your business can increase the number of hot leads it receives while lowering your cost per lead and improving your operating efficiency.

Qualify

You should have processes to qualify all enquiries, saving you time and improving the effectiveness of your sales team. Your prospects need to find easily access to relevant information that they are seeking. You should remember, or be able to instantly recall information about repeat enquires, and simplify their interaction with you.

Personalise

Use targeted content and personalised collateral as part of your pull marketing strategy to build long-lasting relationships with every customer. Learn from your customers and respond immediately. Ensure that your customers are always provided with the information that they are seeking. Create offers based on your customer's account history and activities. A customer-centric approach will increase your efficiency and your sales.

Distribute

Any technology you deploy should work within your existing sales structure. The sales leads should be distributed to your channel partners or your field sales teams using the web and e-mail. Your sales channel should be able to reply to your prospects from anywhere in the world within seconds of receiving the lead. And if everyone is working from the same database, information will always be up-to-date and accurate.

Interact

Building valuable relationships with every customer is a vital part of pull marketing, so you should remain in constant communication with customers or business partners using features such as customised newsletters, reminder services, and personalised content delivery and
e-mails. And your customer service department should interact with the same database as your sales and marketing teams, therefore you'll exceed customer expectations, saving both time and money.

It's been a journey, thanks to all the team, great job!

But as the Champaign corks popped, we asked ourselves. Who really cares that we've spent hours, days, weeks, on this marketing project?

Well, we do of course. We're seeing increased visitor numbers, longer average time spent on the site, more enquires, and greater click through rates from search engines. We've already got a number of new customers as a direct result.

We've also had some fantastic feed back from our regular clients. They love the map concept; after all, when embarking on any journey or project, you've got to plan the easiest and quickest route to your desired destination.

But we can shout all we want, publish as many news releases, post as many blog items as we can about the fact, but, to the outside world, to the new visitor, to the prospect wanting marketing assistance, how important is it? Well, not to put to fine a point on it, they don't give a jot. They just want easy access to information. Can we help or not? Our site is just another website, it doesn't matter how new or old it is, our visitors only care if they connect with it!

We develop websites for our customers every week. So finding the time and resource to redevelop our own was a challenge to say the least, But, it has given us all a great experience in being the customer as well as the supplier. It also gave us a chance to double check our methodologies still stood up from both ends of a project, and they did.

Many customers who what a new website look at the site design as being the first element of the project, followed by words and content. To us, the design should come toward the end of the development cycle.

To start there should be lots of questions like:

• What is the purpose of the site?
• Who will be visiting?
• Why will they visit?
• How will they find you?
• Can visitors make enquiries online?
• Can visitors buy online?

Then we may look at the content:

• What is the content going to be?
• What will it look like?
• Who will create it?
• How will visitors navigate to find relevant content?

Only then can we start to plan the site itself. That'll be a rolling cycle of:

• Content creation
• Navigation design
• Testing

Only once these fundamentals start to take shape can we start to look at a design worthy of the site.

And, as a finishing note to this post, just to preserve a piece of the past, below is a little bit of memorabilia from our previous website. It used to sit on our home page.

Drag you mouse across to get the message.

And finally ... If you want something to change, you have to change something!

There are many skills you can learn to help your company maintain its image with the outside world, whether you work in accounts, customer services, sales, technical services, or any other department.

You, Your Attitude and Your Voice

• Enjoy dealing with people over the phone
• Enjoy using the phone
• Maintain a pleasant, friendly voice
• Explain things clearly
• Be a good listener
• Maintain a sense of humour

Many of these attributes depend on having a positive attitude towards dealing with people on the phone.

As an example, your sales people are constantly faced with rejection, they deal with a ‘no sale' result many more times than they win a sale. However, it's not like prospecting for gold, because eventually they will find someone who wants your products, whereas they may never discover gold. In other words they learn to handle rejection and disappointment in order to maintain a positive attitude.

The same is true of your customer services. They spend all day solving problems for unhappy people and often with little thanks, they to need to maintain a positive attitude. Every problem solved is a job well done.

When you transmit a positive attitude, people are naturally more responsive. Here are some suggestions on how to maintain a positive attitude.

• Look the part. The caller can't see you, but if you are dressed professionally you will feel good about yourself and project a strong and confident self-image.
• SMILE. It's impossible to feel negative if you are smiling, and your positive feeling will be transmitted down the line.
• Stand up and move around when you're talking on the phone. You breathe better, and your voice will be stronger and more interesting.

Use your voice as a tool. Don't have a voice - use your voice. Put a smile in your voice so you project a friendly image, your vocal tone can count for 84% of your message.

• Record yourself on the phone and work on improving your voice
• Listen to others who sound interesting; understand how they use their voices
• Ask a friend to work with you to assess and improve your voice
• Read books on the subject

The Do's and Don'ts when working with the Phone

• Do answer the telephone on the 2nd or 3rd ring, never let it ring more than 4 times
• Do smile
• Do start with "Good Morning/Afternoon Thank you for calling Company Name, how may I help you?" (or an appropriate adaptation for your department)
• Don't reverse the statement, "Company Name Good Morning" as the very first part of the call is often missed or inaudible
• Don't abbreviate our company name or product names
• Do ask who is calling before saying whether the person they are asking for is available
• Do take messages, and always e-mail details of the caller to the person being asked for
• Don't apologise for a person not being in the office, it's not their fault
• Don't make statements that convey a negative such as: 

"she's sick"

"he's ill"

"they're on the toilet or having a cigarette"

"I saw him a minute ago"

"she's just popped out"

"I don't know where he is, he never tells us anything"

"he can't speak to you he's dealing with a tricky customer"

"he hasn't come back yet"

"I'm sorry"

or statements that portray our office geography (remember our sales department is on ‘another floor of the building' not ‘upstairs')

"they're not at their desk"

"I can't see him at the moment"

"I think she's in accounts"

"he's downstairs"

"hold on, he's just walked in"

• Do speak directly into the mouthpiece so the caller can hear you clearly
• Don't say, "hold on" or "bear with me", say "please hold the line"
• Don't eat or drink while making or taking a call
• Don't take customer into your confidence, "just between you and me"
• Don't allow external influences to affect your telephone manner. Forget anything that may be making you feel unhappy or upset, it will reflect in your voice, and convey a negative attitude to the caller
• Do everything you can to make it easy for customers to do business with you

 
Positive Language and Questioning

How we speak to customers is often as important as what we actually say. When using the telephone, you only have your voice to rely on for communication with the other person.

Putting a smile in your voice will help project a friendly and helpful image - smile before you speak on the telephone to ‘warm up' for the call.

• Avoid speaking in monotone, make it interesting
• Never speak to loudly or softly
• Match the speed of the caller's speech

There are different types of questions you can use, and each has a different purpose but all will help control the conversation.

If you wish a customer to give you general information, it will be necessary to ask an open-ended question. You may wish to establish their needs or problem at the beginning of a call, or find out more about them and their business. The question must be asked in such a way that a straight ‘yes' or ‘no' answer is not possible.

"What type of problem are you having?"

"How are you currently handling your this issue?"

"What are you planning do about it in the future?"

"What sequence of events precedes this product issue?"

"What is your purchasing process?"

"How do you propose settling you account with us?"

If you want a specific answer, you should ask a closed-question. This is useful to direct the conversation or clarify information.

"Is your computer switched on?"

"When will you be making your purchase?"

"Can you make the decision yourself?"

 "Who else will be involved?"

 "When will you be sending the cheque?"

Statements, Objections, and Questions

It is important you can distinguish the difference between statements, questions and objections. If you can, you will be able to deal with each situation in an appropriate way.

Statements

If the customer makes a statement, simply acknowledge it in an appropriate way, and move on with the call.

A statement can sometimes be misinterpreted as an objection or a question, which can lead to unnecessary and destructive discussion.

Statement

"The product doesn't work in the way I thought it would"

Response

"I'm sure you'll get the hang of it in no time. May I have your account number?"

Objections

When a caller makes an objection, acknowledge it and deal with it immediately. It can be tempting to ignore an objection, hoping it might go away.

Objection

"The product doesn't work"

Response

"Well let's see if we can find out what the problem is"
Some open-ended questioning would probably follow this response.

Questions

Answer questions immediately. If you don't they may assume you haven't listened to what they are saying, you don't know the answer, or you don't wish to acknowledge and answer the question for some reason.

Question

"Can I change the temperature output on the product?"

Response

"Yes, you have complete control over the temperature functions."

Statements, objections, and questions offer an opportunity to turn around a customer's negative attitude. They should be welcomed as a way of finding out our customer's views on your products and services.

Tricky Customers

There are many reasons for customers being difficult. They may have a genuine complaint against you and feel they have to be difficult to get it fixed. They may have been treated badly by another company. They may simply be having a bad day.

If difficult customers are handled correctly, they can often become your biggest advocates.

• Avoid letting customers upset you - stay calm
• Be courteous and patient
• Avoid arguing and don't use words that antagonise them
• Offer sympathy and understanding
• Reassure them and let them know that you will do your up most to resolve the problem
• Advise the customer of what action you are going to take to resolve their problem
• Do your up most to resolve the problem

Advocates
The top rung of the loyalty ladder. Customers who become advocates for your company and its products and services. These customers give unpaid advertising for your business, via word of mouth, giving you testimonials or by taking part in your Customer Success Stories and Case Studies

Regulars or Repeats
A loyal customer who buys from you more than once. Often this will be as a result of them upgrading to a newer or better version of your product (up-selling) or buying a complimentary product or service (cross-selling).

Customers
Those who buy your product or service.

Prospects
Someone you know has a need for your product/service. For example, someone who pays attention to your promotion, makes a request for further product details, pricing, or delivery information.

Suspects
Individuals or companies you suspect have a need and are able to pay for your product/service. Someone who reads or hears your ad, visits your website, looks at your brochure or encounters some other type of promotion is a suspect. Suspects are typically people who are similar to your existing customers.

Try asking yourself the 12 questions below. It may help give you an indication of how good (or bad) your customer management processes are, and could help you identify areas of your business which can be developed to win more customers, develop existing customers and provide enhance customer care management programmes.

0. If managing relationships with customers is critical to your business, do you believe that you can do this as well as your customers need?

    

0. Does your company always have a full and clear view of the previous interactions you have had with your customer, whether they be emails, phone calls, orders or meetings?

    

0. Is your ability to manage customer interaction better than your competitors?

    

0. Can you deal with the same customer requests quickly and efficiently; offering them a rapid response or self serve option?

    

0. You are sure that incoming emails are dealt with professionally, quickly and systematically with response geared to importance and customer care?

    

0. You are very clear about how much enhanced self service could save your business in direct and indirect costs?

    

0. Can customers and prospects get information easily from your company?

    

0. Do your customers buy from you because they enjoy doing business with you?

    

0. Do you continually develop your customer offering and service based on feedback from your existing customers?

    

0. You can readily identify customers likely to be positively affected by a particular sales message?

    

0. Could you initiate and execute a marketing campaign within 24 hours based on a detailed understanding of your customer base?

    

0. Do you have a defined plan to retain and develop existing customers and win new one

    

Here Michael McCafferty gives us his very forthright answers to our questions which cover just a few of the issues faced by owners of small businesses. Michael describes himself as a serial entrepreneur. "I like to build successful businesses out of nothing. It has been that way for a long time" he says. With his early career successes in the software industry, Michael has since helped to take numerous small and startup operations to high levels of success. He now dedicates much of his time sharing his knowledge with others, and mentoring business owners. That's when he not shooting pool, racing cars or flying planes!

Q. Michael, what do you believe are the main or most common reasons for small business failures?
A. The typical answer is "lack of capital", but the real reason is because the business did not get the Sales it needed to offset expenditures. It's really that simple. The essence of success in business is success in Sales. Of course, there are many other reasons why a business might fail even if Sales are good (embezzlement, fraud, partner disputes, poor management, lack of financial controls, and more). Another major reason for failure is giving up too soon. Success requires perseverance. Another major reason for failure in business is lack of planning. (See Commandment #4)

Q. Is the customer always right, or are there times he is plain wrong, and should you tell him?
A. Yes to all 3 questions. The customer is almost always right because what they are telling you is how they want to do business with you, and it's always a good idea to listen to customers with an open mind. However, on rare occasions a customer will be absolutely wrong, but if their attitude is good and the amount is (relatively) small, you write it off as goodwill. However, sometimes you get a customer who is so wrong (chronic complainer, rip-off artist, etc) that they should be terminated. Firing a bad customer is some of the most fun you can have in business. It's therapeutic! (See Commandment #3)

Q. What does the word 'change' mean to you?
A. It is eternal and omnipresent in all aspects of Life, and that includes Business. It is Newton's second law (Entropy). Basically, it means that everything is always falling apart. Ignore it at your peril, but more importantly, embrace it for the Opportunity it contains! (See Commandment #10)

Q. What are the main traits that all successful businesses share?
A. Continuous sales increases. Motivated employees (See Commandment #6). Financial controls (See Commandment #8).

Q. What are the early warning signs that all is not well in your business, and what can you do to avoid the point of no return?
A. The really bad news is usually delivered in a phone call by the bank manager. That's when things start to get desperate. But before that happens, you should have seen it coming, in your monthly financial statements. However, if you focus on increasing Sales, and focus like a junk yard dog, the only call you will get from your bank manager will be to take you to lunch, his treat.

Q. What is the most effective form of lead generation when a business has limited funds for marketing?
A. Use the internet for networking, search for customers and new markets, email broadcasting, newsletters via email, website content creation, free offers (white papers, e-books, etc.

Q. Many business owners find it hard to measure success, what advice would you give?
A. The true purpose of the business is to support the owner's chosen lifestyle. Unfortunately, many owners find themselves slaves to their own business. You are not your business! It is a separate entity which you control from the top of the pyramid rather than buried under it. Delegation is essential for success in business.

John has used, implemented and overseen more CRM systems than he would care to admit to, as a salesperson, sales manager, sales director, COO and CEO. It was when he was CEO of CRM vendor Oxygen Solutions it was reinforced that the key to successful CRM implementation was very little to do with technology, but all to do with getting the users to use it the system properly, and the key to getting people to use it properly was to make it as easy-to-use and fast as possible. It was off the back of these experiences that he saw the gap in the market for a simple, straightforward hosted CRM system that was aimed specifically at small and medium sized organisations.

Q. When selecting and deploying a CRM system, what benefits would you expect from an implementation partner that you could not reasonably achieve alone?
A. The main benefit is their experience of having done it many times before, and of having seen what works and what doesn't work, even if the customer thinks they really need that feature.

Q. What do you believe are the main or most common reasons for CRM failure?
A. By far the commonest cause of CRM failure is the sales people falling out of love with the system, and then the system falls into disuse, and then people blame the system and think that their problems will be solved by installing a new shiny CRM system, only to see the same cycle repeat itself four years later. Too many people wanting too many features that other users don't want is the usual cause. Close behind that is senior management not using the system themselves because they are too important or busy: it sends precisely the wrong message to the troops.

Q. Is it more important to get the pre-implementation strategy right or does it work to develop plans as you progress with your chosen application?
A. It's important to get the pre-implementation strategy right for you what you implement on day one, but don't try to implement and roll out the whole system in one go, let it evolve. That way you can start simple and then gently add new features as you grow. You may find that what everybody thought they couldn't live without on day one becomes less important as time goes on.

Q. When do you think CRM is not necessary in a business?
A. If the sales people can remember all their customers' names, and who they have to call today, you can survive without a CRM system. This can happen if the company is dealing with a few high value customers.

Q. What should you do if your CRM implementation is not going to plan?
A. Don't panic! There will always be minor problems rolling out a new system. But if you think that the system will never work, or never be adopted, then you have to think again. You could get consultants in, but first ask around your friends/customers/suppliers in similar sized companies if they have had the same problem, you may find the answer there.

Q. How will you know when you have finished?
A. You've never finished. CRM systems rot if they aren't periodically refreshed with new ideas, new uses and continual data cleansing and motivation of users.

 
About Really Simple Systems
Really Simple Systems Hosted CRM is aimed at small and medium sized organisations with between 5 and 200 people who want a straightforward hosted CRM sales, support and marketing system. The hosted model is particularly suitable for companies with multiple locations and people who work remotely or at home. Really Simple Systems is the largest United Kingdom provider of hosted CRM systems and has offices in the UK and Australia. Users include the Royal Academy of Arts, the British Library, Citicorp, Serco, Information Builders and the Department of Health as well as hundreds of small and medium sized companies.

Low Cost Strategies that Work!

It is about building and maintaining an advantage over your competition by using your particular strengths to help customers who value them and want you to supply.

Cconcentrate on providing the lowest possible cost marketing techniques, but that have the highest impact on your business.

It's often said that an individual or a company has marketing flair. The implication is that there is some sort of natural ability that is in-bred, that hasn't been learned. But like the natural salesman, the natural marketer is a figment of the imagination. The essential skills of marketing are well within the grasp of every executive and small business operator - and we can show you simple processes to follow.

Acquire - Interact - Manage

Marketing is not just advertising. It‘s everything that you do from your initial business concept to the delivery of your products or services. It encompasses the entire customer lifecycle, form the first touch point to ongoing contact through to building lasting relationships with your best and satisfied customers.

Customer Loyalty

Some of your most valuable assets are your satisfied customers. Often businesses focus much of their time, energy and budget on finding suspects and prospects, and turning them into customers, whilst putting little or no investment in to their satisfied clients. It can cost a company anything up to six times as much to attract new customers, and 30 times as much marketing investment to attract a new customer via traditional forms of advertising as to have a satisfied customer find new customers for them.

Customer Management

There is more to CRM (Customer Relationship Management) than winning new business. It's purpose is to capture, keep and develop profitable customers.

You may be using a computerised CRM system, but unless customer management principals have been properly adopted within your organisation, you may well be losing opportunities, without even knowing it.

Established in 1989, Hewson became perhaps the best known CRM analysts in Europe during the nineties. In the last five years Hewson Group has re-inforced its reputation for accurate market size and trend information and has been involved with some of the worlds largest vendors for both strategic advisory work and for Merger and Acquisitions assignments

Here we quiz Nick Hewson about the challenges businesses face when choosing and implementing a CRM solution.

Q. When selecting and deploying a CRM system, what benefits would you expect from an implementation partner that you could not reasonably achieve alone?
A. I think there are two answers to this. Firstly, a good partner is likely to have a lot of experience that is going to make the whole process go faster and better. There is nothing worse for a business than trying to go up a steep learning curve alone on such an important issue. Why would you want to do that? Secondly, if I was the managing director of a small to medium sized business I'd want somebody to sort the problem out for me. I wouldn't want my business guys messing around with problems that they don't have core skills in. Having said that, I'd also want to be convinced that I was giving the problem to someone who actually understood it better than we did.

Q. What do you believe are the main or most common reasons for CRM failure?
A. Pretty much a failure to identify the business issues correctly and to see what technology solutions are appropriate. We are seeing a lot of RFP's issued which are predicated on a wrong premise. If the technology appears not to deliver after that it's probably not a technology failure. I think visualization is really important. The ability to see how a combination of IT, process and culture change can transform an ability to execute a business strategy.

Q. Is it more important to get the pre-implementation strategy right or does it work to develop plans as you progress with your chosen application?
A. Well, I think it's fortunate now that technology is far more flexible and adaptable. It was critical only six or seven years ago to get it right first time (which most people didn't). Now there's more room for adoption which is correct. We all work in dynamic business environments where we have to change ideas and strategies. Having said that I would refer to my earlier answer about good visualisation at the start.

Q. When do you think CRM is not necessary in a business?
A. It would be facile to think that all businesses are dependent on some sort of CRM related technology for their survival or prosperity. I can still think of some that could get by without. Relatively few though. At the same time there are an increasing number that are totally dependent. Any e-business for a start. Also, any business proposition that needs to make sure the customer experience is as good as or better than the competition needs to take a hard look at their customer management infrastructure.

Q.What should you do if your CRM implementation is not going to plan?
A. Have a good look at what you were trying to achieve and why. Is the problem a company one involving change or process or is it the technology? If you have the technology choice nearly right then it's probably a first principles issue.

Q. How will you know when you have finished?
A. I'm afraid to say the answer this is obvious - you never finish. Market dynamics, customer expectations, product positioning, whatever. These things are always going to be in a state of flux. Adapting and surviving or winning is an ongoing project.

About Hewson Group
Established in 1989, Hewson Group became perhaps the best known CRM analysts in Europe during the nineties. Amongst its publications were The Impact of Computerised Sales and Marketing Systems (1991); Emerging Information Technologies (1993 with Professor Malcolm McDonald and Dr Hugh Wilson); Towards Excellence in Marketing Strategy (with W Hewson, Professor Malcolm McDonald and Dr Hugh Wilson). The Business use of the Internet (1997). Also established were the Sales Productivity Benchmarking Group with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Sistrum - a Europe wide CRM forum.

In the last five years Hewson Group has re-inforced its reputation for accurate market size and trend information and has been involved with some of the worlds largest vendors for both strategic advisory work and for Merger and Acquisitions assignments.

In 2001 Hewson Group became involved in leading edge work in two areas: Public Sector and Corporate Reporting standards. Hewson published CRM in the Public Sector in 2002 followed by Towards a Citizen Centric Authority: Beyond CRM, E Govt and the Modernizing Agenda ( W Hewson, A Meekings; May 2004)

Visit the Hewson Group website