Marketing Blagger

So what’s been going wrong?

A common problem for many small businesses is simply the inability to turn away new business. I’ve been there myself a few times when I’ve won business, but as a result I’ve had to sacrifice service delivery to other, often higher value clients. It’s a very difficult decision for owners / managers, a balance between bringing on new clients and keeping existing.

What can you do then to ensure this problem is well managed? Well, think about the following steps:

1. prioritise your clients - ensure the highest value clients always receive an excellent service,
2. manage client expectations and push timescales out as far a possible - give yourself a chance to deliver a good product,
3. price appropriately so that new clients pay a premium - if you’re already at capacity you can then afford to take on contractors,
4. ensure you plan for the capacity to cater for new business as far in advance as possible - especially if your sales team is generating lots of leads,
5. keep some time aside as a manager to oversee any work going out for quality assurance purposes - remember people overworked and stressed may make mistakes,
6. direct the relationship with the client at a senior level - be proactive and to take ownership for any errors from the top, don’t let your team take the rap,
7. invest in your staff, give them the skills to provide an excellent service and to keep them satisfied.

Unfortunately this is a case of being too successful. Ultimately you need to provide a quality service if you want to get repeat business, develop a good reputation but also to simply get paid and avoid costly disputes.

I visited a local financial advisor last week and he explained income protection to me. Basically, it’s a service that your bank, building society etc, will provide to help you should you become ill and can’t work.

Essentially, you pay a set amount each month to your financial service provider and in the event you become incapacitated they’ll pay you around half of your expected monthly earnings for as long as you can’t work - whether that’s one month, six months, or the remainder of your life. It’s effectively an insurance policy and the older you are, the more your premiums will be - as might be expected.

However, speaking at business events can be a fantastic way of marketing your services. You only have to attend a couple of networking events to see that those who are most confident in speaking and presenting their ideas grab the lions share of attention. And those that take the step up to presenting in front of an audience, are frequently those tied up with questions from prospects and partners during conference lunch breaks.

There are lots of reasons why you should consider public speaking for your marketing programmes. Here’s a few to get you started:

1. to develop your profile as an expert,
2. to increase your sales and partner network,
3. to gain FREE publicity in industry press and journals,
4. to reach targeted audiences,
5. to raise awareness of your company and its products / services.

And many more.

But you need to be clear about what you want to achieve before you get started. As with any marketing & PR programme, careful planning at the outset can increase the impact of your campaign. For example, do you want to reach companies that might be potential customers, or would you like to influence the investment community to help raise finance? Both can be achieved with careful planning, good research and a proactive approach to finding opportunities to speak.

Once you’ve started to secure speaking opportunities, you need to ensure you can deliver an effective presentation. For this, there’s no substitute for training and practice and more you do it the better you’ll get. Don’t be put off by nerves the first few times, this really will improve with time. There are lots of resources for speaking tips, just search on Google or visit your local book shop and you’ll find numerous.