We use all manor of channels and tool to communicate with our clients. What ever tool you use to generate sales in B2B at some point you will need to contact companies and speak to the decision maker.

This is easy when you have a relationship with individual or the business, however it is the cold call that presents the biggest challenge to us all.

The Gate keeper is charged with keeping cold callers at bay and it is your job to get through  

Here are 10 tips from Andy Dickens on the Start up Donut Blog

http://startupdonutblog.co.uk/2009/06/16/top-ten-tips-for-getting-past-the-gatekeeper/

His blog is great and has lots of useful sales tips

Paul Harvey Marketing Coach

I was away over the weekend with the toys business and did not get time to blog a follow up to the Carphone Warehouse (CPW) post. Following the post I put this following comment on twitter to see what would happen.

“Carphone Warehouse on Twitter http://tinyurl.com/lrvrqv I wonder if they are really listening.”

Marktet_that  Wed 19^th   15:53″

Rebecca Holms replied within minutes (below) her profile reads “I work as part of the HLC Complaints team within CPW. I am here to help!”

 @Market_that - We are indeed becksatcarphone  Wed 19^th   16:00

 @Market_that http://ow.ly/kzSX becksatcarphone  Wed 19^th   16:01

 The second tweet Becks sent is the link to the PR interview on the CPW use of twitter and social media. 

I had another follow up from Guy Stephens his profile reads “Customer Knowledge manager at Carphone Warehouse trying to understand how social media can enhance the online help and support customer experience”

 ”@Market_that Hi there, I wrk 4 Carphone Warehouse. Let me assure you there are lots of real people behind the pictures tweeting away” @guyatcarphone Wed 19^th   16:39

 You can read the full interview on how they are using the medium 

 http://blog.immediatefuture.co.uk/how-the-carphone-warehouse-uses-twitter-for-customer-service/

This is a fantastic use of social media with so many Iphone users on twitter it makes perfect sense for CPW to be here listening to the chatter and helping where they can. When I did a Twitter search on CPW I found a shocking amount of negative comments and disgruntled customers, they are hacked off and twittering how they feel. It became clear that being on twitter for CPW was not an option.

 It is good to see them using the medium to engage with and solve the problems

 @Tamsinator Hi, I work for Carphone Warehouse, sorry to learn of your frustrations, can I help in any way?

There is no better way to improve a business than to hear the complaints and act on them. It is clear that twitter is a great barometer for this. Boy have they got their work cut out, I was surprised they had the time to react to my joke but I guess it was a nice change from the barrage of bad feeling that is being generated by the poor customer service stories.

 Here are a few of the tweets in the stream I have tried to find a balance

 “Carphone Warehouse very helpfull over last couple of days. Would recommend them.”

 “once again my plan to look at getting an iphone today was thwarted by the lack of staff in o2 and carphone warehouse in town”

 “Had the worst lunchtime arguing with Carphone Warehouse. Their customer service is joke. So angry. Still no Blackberry after 4 months!”

 “Raging at horror that is Carphone Warehouse and One Stop Phone Shop. May turn to terrorism”

 “My new and useless 5800 is now at the mercy of some cretins at the Carphone Warehouse.May God have mercy on its broken soul.”

 “@guy1067 how’s it going at carphone warehouse what’s ur take on twitter now that u guys have been using it for a while now?”

 Funnily enough, I very nearly went into my carphone warehouse this morning…Mostly wanted to check out gorgeous Adonis working there…But

@Kimberleyxjx ahh no can do, i refuse to shop at Carphone Warehouse after an 8 month disagreement, it got sorted through twitter haha!

 That last tweet I picked up this morning proves it is working for them

Good luck Twitter Guys at CPW

I was interested to see a blog post this morning on BNET

Carphone Warehouse’s Twitter Strategy

By Richard Young http://blogs.bnet.com/customer-service/?p=171

Carphone Warehouse

It looks at the strategy that the Carphone Warehouse have adopted using twitter. It buys in to my own experience with social media. There is so much excitement about its growth and potential to build huge lists of people and to my mind that is just what they are huge list of people where a small % is really listening

The key that CPW have picked up, twitter is a communication medium for connecting with customers if they are the type of customer that will be listening. They are using it to improve and monitor customer service.

 I think social media in general is a fantastic tool and we are still in the period of research and development, finding new applications and uses for the tool. It is really good to see a big company developing a sensible strategy for it use in the business rather that just banning it as they have in some organisations. 

http://blogs.bnet.com/customer-service/?p=171

Coaching in the sun

It is nice to get out side away from the computer, I saw this post today from search By Erik Qualman, at engine watch  

Look at this fantastic list of social media stats. While the numbers are very impressive and everyone will be on some form of social media within 5 years, are they all going to be our customer.

There is also that group of people that cannot do social media they are just not comfortable with that level of interaction.  There is also the time consideration. How much time are we prepared to put into Face book and Twitter.

The post is here http://searchenginewatch.com/3634651

There is a video that repeats the stats to music I have to admit not being in generation Y or Z that I skimmed it and read the stats instead. It is a good production with some clever graphics

Back to those stats. Social media is first a list building process that has to be maintained. I notice that I have put less effort in twitter and my followers drop away. I still have not worked out who is paying for social media because as soon as I need to pay for my FB page I will stop using it as will countless others. Hopefully the ads generate enough money, as for twitter there was talk of a premium service, and would I pay/ per tweet. If there was a measurable ROI then of course I would.

Social media is fun and has some business applications, like good for spotting trouble coming over the hill and measuring business reputation. I still this there are better marketing activities that will generate higher measurable returns relative to the time input.

There are some obvious possibilities where SM works the entertainment and tourism industries are well placed to gain from it as this is about feelings, fun and shared experience.

Selling ball bearings to the auto industry is possibly not so relevant. Now there is a word relevance to be successful a good test is are my customers here, will this conversation be relevant to them at this time.

Are there any companies on social media selling real thing and not MLM systems or how to making £Million using FB or Twitter ebooks.

That is the rant over but consider this if you called 3 customers in 30 minutes and got 2 appointments or you posted on the blog did 4 tweets plus some FB updates in the same time. What would earn more? 

 Here are those amazing stats   

Consider the following:

• By 2010, Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers — 96 percent of them have joined a social network.
• Social media has overtaken porn as the number one activity on the Web.
• One out of eight couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media.
• Years to reach 50 millions users: Radio, 38 years; TV, 13 years; Internet, 4 years; iPod, 3 years. Facebook added 100 million users in less than nine months; iPhone applications hit 1 billion in nine months.
• If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s fourth largest, between the United States and Indonesia.
• Yet, some sources say China’s QZone is larger, with more than 300 million using their services (Facebook’s ban in China plays into this).
• ComScore indicates that Russia has the most engaged social media audience, with visitors spending 6.6 hours and viewing 1,307 pages per visitor per month — Vkontakte.ru is the number one social network.
• A 2009 U.S. Department of Education study revealed that, on average, online students outperformed those receiving face-to-face instruction.
• One in six higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum.
• Eighty percent of companies use LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees.
• The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55- to 65-year-old females.
• Ashton Kutcher and Ellen DeGeneres have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of Ireland, Norway, and Panama.
• Eighty percent of Twitter usage is on mobile devices. People update anywhere, anytime. Imagine what that means for bad customer experiences!
• Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé. Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen in 2009.
• What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook…
• YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world.
• Wikipedia has more than 13 million articles. Some studies show it’s more accurate than Encyclopædia Britannica. Seventy-eight percent of these articles are non-English.
• There are more than 200,000,000 blogs.
• Fifty-four percent of bloggers post content or tweet daily.
• Because of the speed in which social media enables communication, word of mouth now becomes world of mouth.
• If you were paid $1 for every time an article was posted on Wikipedia, you would earn $156.23 per hour.
• Facebook users translated the site from English to Spanish via a Wiki in less than two weeks and cost Facebook $0.
• Twenty-five percent of search results for the world’s top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content.
• Thirty-four percent of bloggers post opinions about products and brands.
• People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services than how Google ranks them.
• Seventy-eight percent of consumers trust peer recommendations.
• Only 14 percent trust advertisements.
• Only 18 percent of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI.
• Ninety percent of TiVo users skip ads.
• Hulu has grown from 63 million total streams in April 2008 to 373 million in April 2009.
• Twenty-five percent of Americans in the past month said they watched a short video on their phone.
• According to Jeff Bezos, 35 percent of book sales on Amazon are for the Kindle when available.
• Twenty-four of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation because we no longer search for the news — the news finds us.
• In the near future, we won’t search for products and services; they will find us via social media.
• More than 1.5 million pieces of content (Web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook daily.
• Successful companies in social media act more like Dale Carnegie and less like David Ogilvy — listening first, selling second.
• Successful companies in social media act more like party planners, aggregators, and content providers than traditional advertisers.

The above statistics and “Social Media Revolution” video tell the story. Social media isn’t a fad. It’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. Please feel free to share with any non-believers!

Erik Qualman’s new book “Socialnomics” from Wiley Publishing will be in stores and available online August 26.

Paul Harvey Marketing Coach

I have been out and about in July and have not caught up with posts, been having lot of great ideas just not getting them on the page.   

I had another conversation about advertising last week; it is tough, as I do not want to see, the regional newspapers disappear. However, a business cannot place ads just to keep the papers running.    

For most businesses where I start working, advertising is the bread and butter of their marketing programme. I find myself in very deep water when I suggested that advertising is a waste of resource and it takes some convincing to let it go, however there is that old saying  

“I know the 50% of my ads are wasted I just cannot tell which 50%.”

As the average business does  do not measure its effectiveness, advertising can be a waste of money if not targeted, and in many markets findings a suitable publication or paper is a challenge. 

When selecting a target publication it is important to consider the size and demographic of the circulation.  How well do they fit in with the profile of your average customer and will that customers be reading. Some of the segments get so small that getting the target to read it is just luck.

Another aspect that is often missing in adverts is an offer, more than that; it needs to be a compelling offer.  ”James Mackenzie Painter” will not do it unless he is already famous. Think headline and lead with it.

Much of the advertising that I see in papers is flag waving and that is a slow burn process. It does not work unless you have deep pockets and can run the advert over time.

The question that really needs to be answered with promotional activity is. Does the advert get a response and does the response lead to an order. What is the return on the Investment (ROI)

We all have to advertise or the customers will think we have gone under however; some form of direct advertising is far more effective.

Lets compare the two channels.

 Advertising                                                  Direct Marketing

Broad Target                                                                 Defined target

Public offer                                                                   Private offer

Difficult to measure                                                      Accurate measurement possible

Tied to publication dates                                              Can be repeated any time

Limited relationship                                                      Builds relationship

Advertising has it place for an event or service with a broad appeal, but I would always push to find some means to approach your customers or prospect directly.  Social Media, Blogging, Email or Direct Mail. 

Hope you get to enjoy some sun this summer

All the best

Paul Harvey

PS Wordpress had a bit of a turn and put all sorts of space and rubbish in this post I had delet it and start again

A night at the Steam Engine Bar

We were out at Castle Fraser two weeks back with the toy business. The Bon Accord Steam club arranged an amazing rally with 20 plus steam engines and over 50 vintage tractors. The weather was perfect and over 2 days 10,000 people came to see the engines and other attractions. 

As with all of these events once we are set up I wander out and network with the other stallholders. There is always a great supporting spirit among the traders some of them are full time summer nomads travelling from one event to another.

On my wander I met Sabina Smith of Patch clothes; this is her first year at events. As a small business working on a low budget it is a good plan effectively marketing the business through the tourists that visit and take you home to their friends. Very often, it is not the money made on the day; it is the contacts that come back that are important.

The story is as a new Mum in Aberdeenshire she found it impossible to find quality affordable clothes for her children. She discovered “Patchclothes“, bought loads, and kept going back for more. When the owner of the business was looking to move on, she asked Sabina if she would like to take it over.

My wife and I really like the clothes from Patch great colours and designs for 0 to 7 years, all made Fair Trade in South Africa. She is doing a great job the stand looks good and the clothes speak for themselves. You can find them at

 www.pachclothes.co.uk

If I was going to give feedback on the site I would like to know more about Sabina and her journey and why she likes the clothes. To me everything is about the relationships that we develop around us and that includes the businesses and service that we use.

Here is the best bit, my niece was 1 last week and searching for that unique birthday gift my wife thought of Patch as she remembered meeting Sabina at the show. We place our order at 1am Friday, and the web site was easy to use. Sabina phoned at 9.30 Friday to confirm that she had the order and that we wanted a different delivery address. On hearing that it was for a Birthday, she offered to put a card in the parcel.

My brother received the little dress Saturday and is delighted with it. Thanks Sabina this is the kind of great customer service and attention to detail that gets you talked about.  Something that I recommend to all or my clients.  It is the complete opposite to my last blog posting.

I wish Sabina a great summer, she will be at the Forres and Nairn Highland Game check out the range if you are going. If not have a look at the web site  www.pachclothes.co.uk

All the best

Paul Harvey

Our Caravan

Are you or your people letting money walk out of the door, customers are fickle creatures and in this new world they need reassurance. They need to feel that product or service is right and that you are the best place to buy. Back to that mantra “Know Like and Trust”.  

A few weeks back we took some time out on the west cost of Scotland, Oban in particular is a fantastic west coast town. It has a busy port, and is the gateway to Mull and beyond with lots of great coffee shops and restaurants. It is clearly a big tourist destination and close enough to Glasgow and Stirling to be a weekend escape for many people.

We have a little caravan and found a great campsite just out of town down a narrow road; It had amazing vistas of the loch and surrounding hills. We pitched in a perfect place to appreciate the views, drink red wine and have a BBQ during these endless June evenings. (This far north it does not get dark until 11pm)

However, all of this bliss is totally spoilt by that Scottish devil the Midge, I might have wanted to sit out and enjoy the evening but that meant being the main course. Reluctantly we retired to the van, but that did not give much respite as they were getting in through the vents.  

The following day we ventured into town looking for solutions, we were offered creams, candles and coils. However, what I wanted was an electric flytrap, something with the UV light that pulls them in and zaps them.

I found a hardware shop and went up to an assistant at counter who was looking busy not serving. After explaining what I wanted, we are in a caravan etc. He said. “No we only have 240v ones over there.” (Pointing at a shelf across the way)  Where? He reluctantly came around the counter took us to a shelf and quickly walked away.  Although the product would not work on the van battery, it would be fine while we were on power hook up.

Sadly he has successful planted the seeds in my head that this was not suitable; they also had a solar powered version which he did not mention. His lack of interest gave my wife had the impression that it was not a good product as he did not draw it to our attention to. So we left the shop with nothing.

That evening the smoke coils we bought did not repel enough of the blighters to make a difference.  It occurred to me while drinking my wine and swotting insects   that the sales assistant let a £20 sale walk out of the shop. Had he engaged us d shown some interest in our problem, he could have had a sale. He could have talked us through the options show some empathy.  When the trap was not in the van, I could have used it at home may be.

This was poor customer service and poor salesmanship; I have talked customer service on this blog before the last case was rude behaviour. In this case, it is poor relationship, we both lost out, the business lost £20.00 and I had to contend with the midges with nothing to protect us but smoke.

For the business, this is much more serious I am just one customer, how many £20s left the store on that day through apathy.

 Know like and Trust  

Engage with customers make friends with them, be helpful ask questions and smile. Make the interaction interesting and even if they do not want what you have, wish them well and suggest somewhere else they might try. It is simple stuff and so often missed.  Our assistant was not being likable he did not take us on the sales journey. 

If you have, sales or retail teams train them to engage with people good customer service costs nothing and earns so much more.

The art comes first

I was asked recently to put together training for artists and performers looking to market themselves. I jumped at the chance to make the marketing material that I use accessible to the artist.

 It was then that I realised that any artists is wonderfully place if not better prepared to bring alive what it is that they do. Like anyone, that I meet in business there seems to be some common threads. We are all-good at what we do and are blind to things that we do not see.

 The plumber and joiner offer us tangible products and as customers, we get that physical gratification of hot water or well hung doors.

The artist gives us feelings, a sense of the journey they have been or explored. This can resonate with us in terms of our own path or it can be something where we empathise.

The joiner builds a reputation as some who is reliable completes his work on time  and build recommendation and returning customers.

Just as in any other professions the artist also has to build reputation and this process is key to bookings and continued work or success.

I call this “The Artist Time Line”© at one end is the on the left is the work pictures, songs or poetry. At the other end of the line on the right is any publicly famous artist that you can thing of.

The Artist Time Line

On the left customers buy the work because they like it for it pure value the artist or designers is not relevant.    

 On the far right the person is more important than the work, anything that the produce or do in of interest.

At some point on the line there is a flip or switch from the work to the person as an artist that is the point when the career takes off.

The marketing skill is how to bring this point closer down the time line preferable while the artist still alive and young enough to enjoy the process. This is the same for all of us, create a following that is interested in us for who we are and what we do. This build reputation following and long term customer relationships.

 Once the training is complete I will release some products about the process for the artist in all of us

 All the best to you and your business.

Paul Harvey

Call me now to discuss how to grow your business through effective Marketing and Sales strategies:-

There is nothing to loose and you get 20 minutes free and even that will make a difference promise.  

CALL 020 3287 6962  or  EMAIL paulh@market-that.com

Paul Harvey Marketing Coach

I listerned to a call a few months back about mobile marketing it is amazing when you consider the stats that there are about 4billion mobile phones in the world. That is a scary number, what is clear is that that there are some people that want nothing to do with the phone unless it is an emergency and there are others that cannot put the thing down.

Prior to this new life in Scotland I owned a mobile brick and it spent more time uncharged than on. “The phone was for my convenience not for those that want to phone me.”   However ”Coaching” requires a different mind set and availability and I am as delighted as the next phone geek with new bell and whistles on my touch phone and yet it is still not quite there as a web device. I have become very aware of the IPhone / Blackberry debate and even tempted fate on Twitter by asking what was better.

Beware marketing man making a prediction. The next 18 months will be the beginning of the mobile boom as the new phones with ever more apps and functions hit the market. These hand sets will open up an opportunity for marketing that has never been seen before, imaging the possibility to communication with your customer when ever they are awake.

I am looking into a range of products and service that will be possible and will be blogging my research and launching new service soon so keep in touch.

This will mean new strategy and new concepts much faster response rates to campaigns and promotions if you are interested in  being at the front of this curve lets work together give me a call 

All the best to you and your business

Paul Harvey

 Tel 00 44 203 287 69 62     Time in Scotland is presently GMT+ 1 

 Or Skype  Market-that

PPS Social media is ideal for spreading infomations hence the buttons below and comments are always appreciated it enriches the conversation and builds your credibility