A meeting with a sizable Norfolk based business during the week reminded me of an analogy I have used in the past when running sales and marketing workshops.
Making your product or service appeal to a much wider audience can be a challenge for many, and even seem unnecessary to others.
Niche is king and specialising can be the route to fame and fortune.
But does making that product 'one size fits all' mean you are missing out on extra buyers and profit?
Think for a moment about a flight from London Heathrow to New York JFK.
It's simply an aeroplane that takes it's passengers quickly and efficiently between the two points in order to achieve something beyond the flight itself.
For some it's an essential to their job and the important part is the work at the destination. For others it could be the first part of a very special holiday. It could even be an trip to visit a relative in ill health at an inconvenient time financially.
But they will all travel on the same 'plane, on the same route and to the same destination.
Some of those people will want to make the flight part of the experience and really enjoy it, others will need to relax as much as possible to be fresh for the challenges on arrival, some will need to manage the trip as cheaply as possible.
The mainstream airlines deal with this extremely well by dividing up that metal tube into First, Business and Cattle Class. Each section has it's own level of service, comfort and added value with a price tag to match - but it's still just a flight between the two points.
Understanding your customers is the key.
You probably feel that the vast majority of your customers fit into the 'cattle class' bracket and you may well be right. The airlines allocate more seats to that category than to the others. But they still realise that there is value, and profit, in providing the higher levels too.
Think about your own product and customers. How could you offer a First and Business class variation? Or conversely, if that's where your products are now, how could you offer a budget version - maybe under a different brand so that you don't devalue your current status?
What would that include? What would you need to charge? What would you have to do in your marketing and sales to ensure that those likely, and in a financial position, to take up the offer could see the benefits and value.
And remember that, if you are going up a level, those benefits will not be the ground level result of getting from A to B. They are more likely to be about status, dreams, lifestyle and goals. You need to tap into them.
If you need inspiration visit the website for Bentley cars. That site doesn't sell cars. It's sells the feeling of pride and pleasure you will have from owning one. Then go to Kia cars and see the difference!
If you need help working out how best to sell your products, just ask.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Get yourself found on Google - but differently!
Here's a damn good reason why you should have a clear sign on your business premises.
I have used a local computer parts reseller in Great Yarmouth recently and they were very helpful and friendly.
Looking for an external USB sound card for my laptop to improve the sound quality, I thought I would give them a call to see if they had what I needed to avoid a longer trip into Norwich.
But I couldn't remember their business name or, although I could drive you there, their address either.
A search on the 'net didn't throw them up instantly so I took a trip down Google Streets to see if I could work out at least the road name.
Didn't need to! Their sign was showing clearly on the end of the building. Job done and they got the phone call - not one of their competitors in the town.
How many of us have visited a shop or office in real life and then can't remember it's name later? However you can clearly remember where it is.
If you work from home you may not want to do that, but it seems like a really good idea to me otherwise.
I have used a local computer parts reseller in Great Yarmouth recently and they were very helpful and friendly.
Looking for an external USB sound card for my laptop to improve the sound quality, I thought I would give them a call to see if they had what I needed to avoid a longer trip into Norwich.
But I couldn't remember their business name or, although I could drive you there, their address either.
A search on the 'net didn't throw them up instantly so I took a trip down Google Streets to see if I could work out at least the road name.
Didn't need to! Their sign was showing clearly on the end of the building. Job done and they got the phone call - not one of their competitors in the town.
How many of us have visited a shop or office in real life and then can't remember it's name later? However you can clearly remember where it is.
If you work from home you may not want to do that, but it seems like a really good idea to me otherwise.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Am I to be the next James Bond?
Am I to be the next James Bond?
A deviation from my normal business based blogs today - but interesting.
We all dream but most are forgotten within moments of waking. The vivid one I had last night hasn't gone away (perhaps it was one from the film 'Inception').
I'm sitting in the doorway of an aircraft. A bit like the large sliding door of a rescue helicopter but at 10,000 feet and at aircraft speeds. I have a camera in my hands and I'm taking photographs of the ground. It has a spy feel about it, as though I shouldn't have been doing it.
I'm harnessed so that I wouldn't fall out but feel I'm slipping through. I'm not too worried though as I have a parachute on my back.
I don't remember the next 'scene', which is a shame as I would have liked to experienced it, because I must have slipped out of the harness and parachuted down to the ground.
So here I am looking across a very 'Eastern Block' village/small town with a couple of old weather beaten workers toiling in the fields. I approached them and tried to converse in English and then French (my only other foreign language of sorts) but they don't understand and their accent is definitely Eastern European/Russian.
I feel apprehensive. I'm watching carefully for signs of 'The KGB' perhaps?
I have obviously acquired a Babel Fish in my ear (a device used in the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy that enables you to understand any language) as I'm now conversing freely with the farmers.
They seem pleased to see me and invite me to meet the Town Mayor where I'm treated a bit like a hero.
But all the time I'm watching over my shoulder for the arrival of the KGB who will know my real purpose for being here and I fear what they will do to me.
A bell rings and I feel anxious.
Blasted alarm.
Do you think I will see part two tonight? I really hope so. It was just getting exciting.
I've no doubt that those of you into dreams will tell me what that's all about but, whatever it means, I enjoyed it!
By the way, I am available for bit parts and walk ons if anyone is in the film industry. But I do draw the line at walking out of the sea in Speedos.
http://www.roygough.co.uk/
A deviation from my normal business based blogs today - but interesting.
We all dream but most are forgotten within moments of waking. The vivid one I had last night hasn't gone away (perhaps it was one from the film 'Inception').
I'm sitting in the doorway of an aircraft. A bit like the large sliding door of a rescue helicopter but at 10,000 feet and at aircraft speeds. I have a camera in my hands and I'm taking photographs of the ground. It has a spy feel about it, as though I shouldn't have been doing it.
I'm harnessed so that I wouldn't fall out but feel I'm slipping through. I'm not too worried though as I have a parachute on my back.
I don't remember the next 'scene', which is a shame as I would have liked to experienced it, because I must have slipped out of the harness and parachuted down to the ground.
So here I am looking across a very 'Eastern Block' village/small town with a couple of old weather beaten workers toiling in the fields. I approached them and tried to converse in English and then French (my only other foreign language of sorts) but they don't understand and their accent is definitely Eastern European/Russian.
I feel apprehensive. I'm watching carefully for signs of 'The KGB' perhaps?
I have obviously acquired a Babel Fish in my ear (a device used in the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy that enables you to understand any language) as I'm now conversing freely with the farmers.
They seem pleased to see me and invite me to meet the Town Mayor where I'm treated a bit like a hero.
But all the time I'm watching over my shoulder for the arrival of the KGB who will know my real purpose for being here and I fear what they will do to me.
A bell rings and I feel anxious.
Blasted alarm.
Do you think I will see part two tonight? I really hope so. It was just getting exciting.
I've no doubt that those of you into dreams will tell me what that's all about but, whatever it means, I enjoyed it!
By the way, I am available for bit parts and walk ons if anyone is in the film industry. But I do draw the line at walking out of the sea in Speedos.
http://www.roygough.co.uk/
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Reflecting on a life of change
As I work my way through my 60th year (blimey that's scary) I reflect on the changes I've seen in that time. Has this last half century and a bit seen the greatest change in the way the human race lives and works?
When I think back to my very early years, and starting at infants school as it was known then, I was part of a family that had a car and telephone - not because we were rich - simply because my father worked as a local representative for one of the Fleet Street newspaper publishers. They were the tools provided as essentials for his job. Amongst my contemporaries, those luxuries were very few indeed
Our holidays consisted of visits to relatives back in London or in Eastbourne where my Grand Parents lived. You might find this difficult to believe but, in order for us to use the car for our holiday, my Dad had to work some of the time whilst we were away to secure it's use!
I can remember one of my class mates holding us all in awe with his tales of a rare holiday to Brussels to visit the Worlds Fair. He was the only person I can recall ever having a holiday beyond the South East of England.
Dad's area that he covered included across to the Fens, Wisbech and March. That meant staying away from home for several days and neither Mum nor I had any real idea where he was or when he would be home.
The World beyond Norfolk seemed a very long way away and I didn't really know much about what it looked like, other than from books, until we bought our first television in the later part of the 50's.
I used to read the Eagle comic every week and wonder at the marvels of communication and travel that it depicted and assumed that they really were impossible, certainly in my life time.
How wrong I was.
We think nothing of travelling all the way around the world and feel deprived if we are out of contact with our friends and family, were ever they are, for even a few hours.
Have we seen the greatest ever change in humanity and it's environment?
It certainly feels like it.
Has it been for the good?
The jury is still out on that one, but my feeling, when I look back to those naive and relaxed years, is that maybe there have been as many downsides as there have been benefits.
Let's hope the next generations manage to harness the power we have at our finger tips and use it for the good of us all rather than for just selfish means.
When I think back to my very early years, and starting at infants school as it was known then, I was part of a family that had a car and telephone - not because we were rich - simply because my father worked as a local representative for one of the Fleet Street newspaper publishers. They were the tools provided as essentials for his job. Amongst my contemporaries, those luxuries were very few indeed
Our holidays consisted of visits to relatives back in London or in Eastbourne where my Grand Parents lived. You might find this difficult to believe but, in order for us to use the car for our holiday, my Dad had to work some of the time whilst we were away to secure it's use!
I can remember one of my class mates holding us all in awe with his tales of a rare holiday to Brussels to visit the Worlds Fair. He was the only person I can recall ever having a holiday beyond the South East of England.
Dad's area that he covered included across to the Fens, Wisbech and March. That meant staying away from home for several days and neither Mum nor I had any real idea where he was or when he would be home.
The World beyond Norfolk seemed a very long way away and I didn't really know much about what it looked like, other than from books, until we bought our first television in the later part of the 50's.
I used to read the Eagle comic every week and wonder at the marvels of communication and travel that it depicted and assumed that they really were impossible, certainly in my life time.
How wrong I was.
We think nothing of travelling all the way around the world and feel deprived if we are out of contact with our friends and family, were ever they are, for even a few hours.
Have we seen the greatest ever change in humanity and it's environment?
It certainly feels like it.
Has it been for the good?
The jury is still out on that one, but my feeling, when I look back to those naive and relaxed years, is that maybe there have been as many downsides as there have been benefits.
Let's hope the next generations manage to harness the power we have at our finger tips and use it for the good of us all rather than for just selfish means.
Friday, August 13, 2010
I feel jealous.
Why? Because I spoke to a lady today who knows she is to be made redundant after many years in the public sector and is planning to start her own business when that happens in a few months.
But why should I feel jealous about that?
Most of us in business work on the 'just in time' model.
Sometimes we come up with new ideas, products or directions and they need to be actioned NOW. Maybe because financially we need to, or perhaps it's a small window of opportunity that someone else will fill if we don't act right away.
That means we have little time to make really good preparations and build the confidence building collateral our prospects might look for to justify calling us. So we wing it!
Wouldn't it be nice, just sometimes, to have the luxury of time.
But why should I feel jealous about that?
Most of us in business work on the 'just in time' model.
Sometimes we come up with new ideas, products or directions and they need to be actioned NOW. Maybe because financially we need to, or perhaps it's a small window of opportunity that someone else will fill if we don't act right away.
That means we have little time to make really good preparations and build the confidence building collateral our prospects might look for to justify calling us. So we wing it!
Wouldn't it be nice, just sometimes, to have the luxury of time.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Do you do cold calling?
The quality (or lack of it) of cold calls I seem to be receiving lately is upsetting.
Nobody really likes to receive cold calls I'm sure, so is it not vitally important to excel in that call to make sure you get the result you are looking to achieve?
I had yet another Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) company call me this afternoon.
Without introduction to who they were, they proudly told me that my website wasn't ranking a particular keyword phrase and presumably would have gone on to tell me that they could get it to number one in the Google list within a week.
They obviously hadn't done their homework as the phrase is one of the most competitive on the internet and I have only one sub-page deep in my website targeting it. So the chances of that being sustainably achievable in a short time scale without resorting illegal methods that could potentially get me removed from the index completely - are zero.
Not only that, but they had based their statement simply on the fact that I have, as a short term test at the moment, a Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaign running that targets the phrase.
They didn't ask me what my business goals and plans were and how that keyphrase fitted in with them, nor had they looked at my website to understand what I was really about.
You might get a good idea of how that call ended today. I should have offered to mentor their sales staff perhaps, but I didn't get their company name and when I called 1471 the number had been withheld, surprise, surprise!
I'm occasionally asked to run call campaigns on behalf of my clients, often targeting very high powered individuals within global industries who have an even shorter fuse than me! But I get through and get the job done because I take the time to research and find out what they are up to and what they really need.
Every business needs to do some cold calling at some point and if it's going to be successful it needs care and thought to get good results.
http://www.roygough.co.uk/
Nobody really likes to receive cold calls I'm sure, so is it not vitally important to excel in that call to make sure you get the result you are looking to achieve?
I had yet another Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) company call me this afternoon.
Without introduction to who they were, they proudly told me that my website wasn't ranking a particular keyword phrase and presumably would have gone on to tell me that they could get it to number one in the Google list within a week.
They obviously hadn't done their homework as the phrase is one of the most competitive on the internet and I have only one sub-page deep in my website targeting it. So the chances of that being sustainably achievable in a short time scale without resorting illegal methods that could potentially get me removed from the index completely - are zero.
Not only that, but they had based their statement simply on the fact that I have, as a short term test at the moment, a Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaign running that targets the phrase.
They didn't ask me what my business goals and plans were and how that keyphrase fitted in with them, nor had they looked at my website to understand what I was really about.
You might get a good idea of how that call ended today. I should have offered to mentor their sales staff perhaps, but I didn't get their company name and when I called 1471 the number had been withheld, surprise, surprise!
I'm occasionally asked to run call campaigns on behalf of my clients, often targeting very high powered individuals within global industries who have an even shorter fuse than me! But I get through and get the job done because I take the time to research and find out what they are up to and what they really need.
Every business needs to do some cold calling at some point and if it's going to be successful it needs care and thought to get good results.
http://www.roygough.co.uk/
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Don't make it difficult for your website visitors
Tolerance levels are low. Patience is short. Not accepting that in our prospects can ruin the chances of a sale.
This morning I found a great system to help people with their web marketing. Really impressed with it, I searched around the site to see if there was an affiliate program for me to recommend it onto my contacts and clients.
Then I encountered - 'The Form'
It was lengthy and had a fair splattering of agreements that I had to agree to, which I had expected when money is involved. But, each time I tried to complete the process, it threw up messages saying that something was missing.
OK, that's reasonably normal, but what I hadn't noticed was a message in small type at the top pointing out something else I'd missed in addition to the main error it had highlighted. Not only that, but each time I had to re-accept all the agreements by ticking a bunch of boxes again.
After five attempts to say I was getting exasperated would be an understatement and just about to ditch the whole thing. It's a good job it was a damn good product otherwise I would have been long gone! I do wonder how many potential affiliates they lose?
It strikes me that they hadn't asked someone outside of the business to fill in the form as a test. If they had, it surely would have come to light.
Do you have a form or your site? Have you really looked at the messages that appear if something goes wrong? What about the page that they get taken to once completed? Is it clear what will happen next? Is it clear that the process has been successful?
Website visitors COST MONEY to attract - don't throw that money away.
If you need help or advice on your website marketing contact me via my website here:
http://www.roygough.co.uk/
This morning I found a great system to help people with their web marketing. Really impressed with it, I searched around the site to see if there was an affiliate program for me to recommend it onto my contacts and clients.
Then I encountered - 'The Form'
It was lengthy and had a fair splattering of agreements that I had to agree to, which I had expected when money is involved. But, each time I tried to complete the process, it threw up messages saying that something was missing.
OK, that's reasonably normal, but what I hadn't noticed was a message in small type at the top pointing out something else I'd missed in addition to the main error it had highlighted. Not only that, but each time I had to re-accept all the agreements by ticking a bunch of boxes again.
After five attempts to say I was getting exasperated would be an understatement and just about to ditch the whole thing. It's a good job it was a damn good product otherwise I would have been long gone! I do wonder how many potential affiliates they lose?
It strikes me that they hadn't asked someone outside of the business to fill in the form as a test. If they had, it surely would have come to light.
Do you have a form or your site? Have you really looked at the messages that appear if something goes wrong? What about the page that they get taken to once completed? Is it clear what will happen next? Is it clear that the process has been successful?
Website visitors COST MONEY to attract - don't throw that money away.
If you need help or advice on your website marketing contact me via my website here:
http://www.roygough.co.uk/
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