Your Real Brand Ambassadors Are Not Who You Think

(Guest Post by Volunteer Small Business Counselor Brandi L. Holder)

 

Who are your brand ambassadors? If you think it is your sales people you, my friend, are dead wrong.
Let me tell you a little story about a house renovation project. These are the things that nightmares and divorce decrees are made of. But I don’t think it is because of the reasons generally brought to mind.  It’s not really about the arguing over how to do things, different tastes/styles, or money. I think it is more about the fact that everything in a renovation takes twice as long and costs twice as much as what you planned. It is in these moments of contractors slapping you with a 50% overage on an estimate, incorrectly designed cabinets, and “crown molding costs WHAT a square foot” that you and your partner find ways look the other way during personal meltdowns. Couples that have gone through a renovation can come out the other side with a better understanding of how their partner handles stressful events and how they themselves handle their partners reaction to the stressor.

Our renovation project has been a work in progress for over a year. And now in the final 60 day window we are having a problem getting the kitchen island to look like what we thought it was going to look like. Part of the problem developed when our original sales person was let go and no one at the company contacted us. After days of not hearing anything we had to start over with a new sales person and their interpretation of our concept.  Since we had kept all the documentation and the new sales person had our file, we believed we were still on track.   But lo and behold, there was a miscommunication on the design of the island which is now costing more money and holding up the rest of the project.

Things got even more botched when the team sent to fix the island was not the original team on the cabinet job. My thoughts on how to fix the island were communicated to the sales person, but lost in translation to the production team. When the installer showed up he did not have any concept of what we were wanting nor did he have proper materials to complete the job. This in turn meant that the counter top person could not do their job that day, and as a contractor lost a day’s pay.

And boy does it turn into the shell swapping blame game from there.  The installer, feeling like an idiot, begins trying to explain that the communication at the company is nonexistent and that it is not his fault. When this happens on a consistent basis the person on the front line ends up trashing the team because they feel resentful for being in this type of predicament. Our guy was pretty diplomatic, but it was easy to see that he was left in the dark and therefore left holding the bag when the customer was unhappy.

Proper communication between sales and production would have solved this and kept the company’s reputation intact. All too often a sales force is separated from a delivery team either by physical location or lack of interest.  Sales people have been made to feel like they rule the roost – and at times they should.  If your team doesn’t believe in your company enough to be able to close deals then your company will suffer.  That being said, having a stellar sales force doesn’t mean a damn thing if you fall down on the delivery.  Typically, your delivery takes place outside of the sales floor with an installer, an IT professional, a maintenance person, etc.  THEY are your company’s reputation.  Not the slick sales person.

That story I watched unfold in my half-complete kitchen is the same thing I have witnessed time and time again in the apartment industry.  Leasing agents deliver a slick bells and whistles show stopping pitch only to have things fall apart on the delivery either because the apartment wasn’t pristine or because it wasn’t delivered on time.  This becomes a high hurdle to jump and it adds to the anecdotes we love to tell others and post on review sites.

During my career in the housing industry what made me appear successful to upper management was my ability to connect with people and close deals. What actually made me successful is how I worked hard to develop strong relationships with my maintenance team.  I knew how to negotiate a quick move in, the time it would take to turn a trashed apartment, and how to buy time for work order completion.  I also knew that through the time and attention I devoted to understanding my maintenance team they would help me out.  In the end if I made a mistaken undeliverable promise they’d find a way to get it done or at the very least, back me up instead of trashing the company.
For me, maintenance people are the heart and soul of the operation.  They are the last person in line with the sales promise and the first person in line when the customer is unhappy. Shouldn’t the people delivering your product feel like you’ve got their back? Doesn’t your customer deserve that?

Marketing Seminar to be offered in Perry County

Small business owners today have many marketing opportunities facing them.  With opportunities ranging from traditional to internet to place based to “Johnny” advertising, many owners feel overwhelmed at the choices and delivery options. A class being offered by the University of Missouri Extension Small Business Technology Development Center addresses this concern.

The class is called “Marketing – Think Before You Spend” and is part of the curriculum of the Missouri Small Business Technology Development Program core classes. The class will be held on Wednesday, November 19^th at 6 pm at the Perry County Extension office.

The class will help small business owners define marketing and provide the tools necessary to ensure their advertising message is delivered to the right audience. 

Richard Proffer, business development specialist for Extension in the Southeast Region, said, “It is important for small business owners to realize marketing is not an overnight fix.  This class will help them use their time wisely in deciding what their message should be, how to communicate that message and then measure the results of that effort.”

The class will cover the basics of marketing research, competitive analysis, customer service, pricing and promotions.

Proffer is a twenty year veteran of the marketing world.  He has worked in advertising agencies and then in media helping small business owners maximize the resources available to them. He has worked for companies like Comcast, Gannett, and AT&T handling activities in the advertising, training, research, competitive analysis and marketing fields for them.

The Extension office is located at 321 North Main in Perryville, MO. Anyone interested in the class are encouraged to register early by calling 573-243-3581.  The fee is only $40 for early registration and $50 for late registration after November 12, 2014. Seating is limited.

SBTDC/Extension business programs are also sponsored by the Small Business Administration and University of Missouri and are open to all interested residents. Requests for special accommodations will be considered if made two weeks in advance by calling 573-243-3581 and asking for Richard 

Who Really Are Your Customers? A 4 Step Process

When I was in the advertising business, I would always ask my clients “Who are your customers?” I would quite often get the common response of “Everyone.” Even if I would question further, I got the same response. I finally would start to talk about categories like most frequent customers and those that only came in around specific times of the year and we started to get a better picture.

Those retailers were not unlike many other small business owners. They want to claim everyone as their customer, when in reality, there is only a certain percentage of people who would use that business’s product.

One of the ways to look at segmenting a business’s customers is break them into the users or choosers. Quite often it is not the users who are buying the product but rather the choosers. Both audiences need to be marketed to but in different ways and the business owner must know the motivation to buy or recommend behind each segment so the marketing efforts can be successful. Realize by knowing these motivations, the business increases its ability to drive sales up.

A business owner starts a customer profile by letting go of the myth of “everybody is my customer” and really thinking who are my most frequent buyers. The owner should also know what motivates them to buy or the product’s benefits and features. Here you want to learn about client’s values, attitudes and lifestyles.

The second step in profiling customers is to learn their buying habits. Where do they shop, spend money, spend leisure time or even more important, where are they using your product? Knowing where they are using the product allows marketing to be not place but time specific which increases the results of the marketing the business is doing.

The third step is to determine how many of the ideal customers are really out there in the marketplace. Knowing age, marital status, home-ownership and other descriptive criteria will help in rounding out the picture of the top customer.

The final step is to start using this new found information to better target the marketing being done. Ask the question – “who is my marketing currently reaching and do they look anything like my ideal customer?” If not, then revise your plans and change up a few things so the message is reaching the right audience.

Your local small business technology development center is available to help you in determining the correct audience by calling 573-243-3581.