Killing
Your Competition with (Client) Kindness
by Maribeth Kuzmeski, Author of …And The Clients Went Wild
Once
upon a time customer service meant more than pressing 2 to wait (and wait and
wait) for “the next available representative.” Companies valued those who
bought their goods and services and went the proverbial extra mile to make them
happy. Today we’re more likely to hear about a company that’s ripped off its
customers.
Failing
to make your customers happy is more than a shame. It’s slow-motion corporate
suicide. If you want to make it in today’s crowded, recession-wracked market,
you absolutely must create clients and customers who rave about your company
the way they would their favorite sports team.
Obviously,
making raving fans out of your clients is easier said than done. If it were
easy, then corporate giants that have plenty of money to throw at such a
concept would be overrun with happy customers.
Following
are five core marketing principles for getting clients to go wild about you!
1st
Principle: What Are YOU Doing That No One Else Is Doing? In
order to gain exposure, it helps to be or to offer something unique—or do
something that no one else dares. It’s true that standing out from the crowd is
probably the riskiest of the five principles. However, it may be equally risky
to run a conservative, “under-the-radar” firm these days—you risk becoming an
anachronism. While successful firms stick to their values, they also find ways
to be so exciting that people don’t have a choice but to pay attention…and buy.
2nd
Principle: Focus Your Marketing on Benefits, Results, and a Call to Action. Another
way to gain success is to ensure you are answering the question, What’s really in
it for me? for your clients. Too many businesses accentuate the features of
their products or services rather than the benefits—what your clients really
care about. “Open 24 Hours” is a feature. Benefits are value statements about
the features of a product or service, with an emphasis on what the customer
gets. For example, a benefit might be that a product makes you look slimmer or
saves lots of money on gas. Too many companies leave it up to their prospects
to figure out the benefits of their products or services.
3rd
Principle: Go Viral! A viral message is an idea, notion, or
practice that’s transmitted from person to person through speech, gestures, the
internet, email, or other media. It ignites and motivates people to move the
message. Most viral marketing programs give away valuable products or services
to attract attention—free benefits, information, software programs, or
downloads. It’s essential that you do everything possible to make it easier for
people to access information or material that may go viral.
4th
Principle: Leverage Your Business Network for Incremental Growth. It
takes a plan, but using your network—business and otherwise—can be the miracle
alternative to the typical grind of cold calls and prospecting. A productive
business network is filled with respected, well-connected, influential
people—called “Centers of Influence”—that share your target market and have a
complementary rather than a competing service or product. You can capitalize on
these connections by creating strategic alliances or by simply sharing your
networks and making referrals.
5th
Principle: The Ability to Execute Is Critically Important to Your Game Plan. In
today’s fast-moving, completely networked world, superior execution is clearly
driving success for business. Small business owners are great at adopting many
new marketing ideas. What they are not so great at is finishing. The best
marketing strategy is the one you can pull off completely.
Perhaps
more than ever before people want to do business with those they feel they can
trust. They are attracted to businesses they feel will go out of their way to
provide them the absolute best products or services available. And the absolute
best way to elicit that trust in prospects is by having clients who cheer you on
at every turn. So, don’t waste another second waiting to develop a marketing
plan that will influence your clients to go wild for you.
Maribeth
Kuzmeski, MBA, is the author of five books, including …And the Clients Went
Wild! (Wiley, 2010, www.AndTheClientsWentWild.com) and The
Connectors (Wiley, 2009). She is the founder of Red Zone Marketing, Inc, which
consults with businesses from entrepreneurial firms to Fortune 500 corporations
on strategic marketing planning and business growth. She is an international
keynote speaker and regularly speaks to audiences on topics relating to
business development, marketing, and sales strategies. She is also a member of
Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and is a regular media contributor appearing
on Fox, ABC, WGN-TV, and in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The
New York Times, Entrepreneur, and Forbes.
Maribeth
graduated with a degree in journalism from Syracuse University and has an MBA
in marketing from The George Washington University. She lives in the Chicago,
Illinois, area with her husband and two teenagers.
