He was helping a friend set up a new computer.  You’ve been there; all the vendors that paid the computer manufacturer for a shot at pushing themselves in your face.  All the defaults you have to change.  All the opt outs.  All the garbage icons on the desktop.  All the pushing away you have to do.

Godin calls it a “race to the bottom” and that’s exactly what it is.  Especially now.  As things slow down marketers get nervous, then desperate and then, it’s anything goes because they lose all respect for the people they sell to.

Shame on them.  But that’s not the point of this post.  The point: this is an opportunity to differentiate yourself.  To shine.  To find new customers.  Jim Collins (Good to Great, How the Mighty Fail) documents the biggest market share shifts occur in down economies.  Part of the reason is of course because companies go out of business and others pick up their customers.  But I’ll bet you a dollar it’s also because marketers start getting desperate and begin a race to the bottom, chasing away as many customers as they trick attract.

Win the Race to the Top

You know what I mean here.  You work hard to better understand what your customers need (ask them!), improve service, make it easier to buy from you, add value and maybe even change your product.  Your biggest challenge is not another company getting there ahead of you — outdoing you.  In down times the race to the top has few competitors.  Your biggest challenge will be you.  Taking the time and money (yes, it will require some investment).  Fighting the temptation to follow the herd.  Hanging in there when if feels like it isn’t working.

How to Improve Your Marketing in a Down Market — the First Step

There are lots of ways to improve your marketing in a down market.  Stop for a moment and write down the first few things that come to mind.  You have a list in your head — those things you haven’t been happy with.  Those things you’ve been meaning to change when things get better.  Well, you can’t wait this one out, so, get busy.

Then, ask your customers how you can improve your marketing.  Email 10 relatively new customers (not your favorites) and set up telephone interviews.  If you can get five to seven to talk to you you’ll get three really good conversations.  That’s all you need.  Really.

Ask them open-ended questions and listen to their answers.  Ask:

What’s going on in your world right now?

How does that affect the purchase of what we sell you?

How can a vendor like us help you in your current situation?

What criteria were important to you when you were looking for a company like ours?

Why did you select us over the other alternatives?

If you were going to look for another vendor, like us, what would you do; where and how would you find one?

If you were director of marketing for a company like mine, how would you get the word out to more people like yourself?

Asking these questions will start a conversation.  But by themselves, you likely won’t get what you need.  You’ll get “the good stuff,” the answers to your real questions (What’s wrong and how can I fix it?) by listening and asking follow up questions (What do you mean by that?  Can you give me an example?).  For example, you receive this answer to the third question, “A vendor like you can help us best right now by helping us save money.”  That’s fine, but it doesn’t really tell you much.  So, you ask, “Can you give me an example of how we might do that, or how another vendor has helped you save money?”

Next, start brainstorming what you learned and implementing.

Related posts:

Marketing Choices: Truth vs. Manipulation

Transparency as a Marketing Strategy

Smart people invite me into their companies all the time.  They’ve done things I could never do–build a product, patent a process.  And they’re blocked by some aspect of their marketing.  In the process of pushing for a solution they often gravitate down a more complex path,  setting up more layers between where they are and discovering the core of what’s holding them back.

The marketing problems I see as a marketing consultant are simpler than you think they should be.  Simple doesn’t mean easy.  It means not complex.  If the marketing problem you’re facing seems complex, go one level below the complexity, as many times as necessary, until you can state the problem simply.  Chances are good THAT is the problem.  I can honestly say that all the marketing problems I’ve seen can be put into just a few categories.  Trust me, the nuances in each category can be real beefy!  But the problems I’ve seen break down these ways:

People don’t understand why what you sell is better.  They don’t understand early enough in the decision cycle to make a difference.

Your message sounds like everybody else’s message.

You aren’t reaching enough of the right people with your message.

You aren’t reaching enough of the right people with your message often enough.

No congruency.  A little bit of this from two years ago, a face lift over there and nothing really fits together.

You simply aren’t doing enough to break through.  Or you just stopped.

A technology company started up around a patented manufacturing process that was truly cool.  It allowed the manufacture of their product, carriers for processing silicon wafers, to custom specs in low quantities.  Instead of having to order dozens of custom carriers to get a reasonable price, they could sell you five custom-made carriers for the same per piece price you were paying for 48.  At several thousand dollars each, this was an advantage for my client and something they translated into impressive sales growth.  Until their growth slowed.

The problem I found: over time they had muddled their message, making them sound like all their competitors, all of which were far better known and funded than them.

In conversations with customers they kept saying the same thing: they bought because they could get custom-spec carriers in low quantities at standard prices.  Over time, the client had added layer upon layer to their message until the thing that made them unique became one of seven bullet points in their literature, website and sales presentations.  With the other six bullet points also available from better known, better funded competitors.

We simplified their message (custom-spec carriers in low quantities at standard prices) and, as if by magic, sales started growing again.  Simple.

This one almost doesn’t seem fair it was so simple.  A for-profit university for working adults wanted a marketing plan that would drive growth at their out-of-state campuses.  I found the campuses that did the best had either signage on their buildings visible from a major freeway and/or they were led by a business executive, not someone from the academic side.

My recommendations: move to buildings that allow signage and face a major freeway; and hire branch managers, not deans, to run the campuses.  Duh!!  Right?

They did, and had a happy ending.  If I had only bought the stock. . !

My experience after almost three decades solving marketing problems for small business: your problems and the related solutions are simpler than you think.

Simple doesn’t mean easy. It means not complex.  If the marketing problem you’re facing seems complex, go one level below the complexity, as many times as necessary, until you can state the problem simply.  Chances are good THAT is the problem.

Don’s right, and it’s a real problem in many larger agencies: they see their job as selling advertising to clients, not selling their clients’ products.  I’m a marketing consultant, not an agency.  We use freelance graphic designers from time to time so I am open to meeting new ones.  I inevitably hear “What do you want to sell the client?” when I go into a brainstorming session with a designer who’s worked for a large ad agency.  Shame on them!

As soon as a person in my position, a person the client is counting on to have their best interests at heart, starts to focus on selling their services to their clients, the relationship is doomed.  I’m not playing holier than thou, either.   Isn’t it easier to keep a client and do more for a client (read: make more money) by focusing on getting results for the client?

Then why don’t more people like me take the focusing-on-getting-results-for-the-client path?  It’s harder.  Setting out to do an email campaign that gets results is, well, harder than doing an email campaign that looks good.  Although, taking a slight longer view, that’s not true.  It’s easier to keep a client longer, to make more money with a client, by setting out to get results on every project.  You’ll keep the relationship longer and have to spend less time and money looking for new clients.

So, what about you and your customer relationships?  It’s certainly easier to sell what you sell without concern for how successfully it’s used, right?  To put what Don said in context for your situation: Do you sell results, or do you just sell your product or service?

If you’re the latter and not the former, that’s just a bunch of bullshit.  Where’s your passion, your curiosity, your pride?!  That fact is it’s way, way, way more satisfying and fun (yes, fun!) totally committing yourself to your customers’ success.

How do you do that?  I don’t know, I don’t know you or what you sell.  But you can answer that question.  You know the answer.  Yeah, it’s what you just flashed on.  That picture of you doing things differently.  Surprising the customer.  Spending more time and energy, and maybe more money, after the sale.

Now excuse me (lights another Lucky), I gotta freshen this martini.

And no March would be complete for me without recalling the most dynamic motivational speech I have been on the receiving end of: “Gentlemen, if you don’t start hustling up I’m going to run ya til your nose bleeds.”  Today, “til your noses bleed” is better said, but believe me, we all knew precisely what the coach meant.

Each March I revisit the feelings I had many years ago when college basketball was played by those not nearly as fast, strong or tall.  It also reminds me what sports can teach: be quick, but not in a hurry; never quit on yourself; believe in yourself; and don’t be afraid of losing. Silly platitudes?  Today, I know they’re not.

Lots of kids will ride those things to great heights this month.  Don’t envy them.  Pick a few out and ride them yourself. . .

Don’t quit on yourself.  I see so many stalled companies because people quit on their marketing.  They’d try something, it doesn’t work, so they quit on that method and try something else.  When something doesn’t work, it’s rarely because everything about it didn’t work.  Change it, refine it, test, prod, poke, change the price, change your target audience, but never quit.

Be quick, but not in a hurry.  I first heard this from my freshman high school coach (I believe it’s attributable to John Wooden, in the opinion of many the finest college basketball coach ever).  Anyway, in today’s context, be quick to act, but not so quick you get sloppy.  Many owners spend too much time in denial when things slow down.  Don’t you be one.

Hustle.  There’s no substitute for it, and it can make up for so many things.  Teams that get out-hustled usually lose.  So do companies.

Believe in yourself.  We all need an extra boost in this area now and then.  Most don’t have the luxury of a coach whose job it is to pump up that belief.  Well, find an executive coach or be your own.  But you might as well believe in yourself, even when it gets tough to do so.  Especially when it gets tough.

Losing is part of the game.  If  you are engaged, hustling and moving forward — “in the game” — you’re going to make mistakes, you’re going to “lose some.”  Losing has to be okay or you’ll stop pushing.  If you’re afraid of losing you won’t win as many.

So hitch up your guts, get out there and get it done!

I owe a great deal to the coaches who influenced me.  Thanks coach:

-Ben McGrady, elementary school; taught me the connection between hard work and success.

-Darryl Franz, freshman high school basketball; taught me how to play on a team.

-Royce Youree, high school varsity basketball; taught me it is possible to achieve things you never, ever believed you could.

-Royal Brown, college basketball; taught me basketball is life, not a game.

-Jon Ericson, college reasoning, logic and persuasion; showed me excellence and passion at the highest level and challenged me to pursue them.  He was the professor every parent wishes their child finds.

–Bill Wallace, my dad; taught me hard work and honesty are enough.

You know, the guy on TV who yells at you as he sells those amazing products that are NOT AVAILABLE IN STORES!  It started with that silly shammy (But they hold all that water!), or was it Oxy Clean?  And now, OMG, drills, window cleaner, wall hangers, health insurance and that garden drill-thing I have no idea what it does.  His latest product and most poignant expression of the absurdity that is Billy Mays?  The five burger slider cooker.

I don’t hate Billy Mays because his commercials are the most obnoxious on TV or, arguably, the most grating in a decade.  I don’t hate Billy Mays because the claims he makes are over the top.  I hate Billy Mays because I imagine him “laughing all the way to the bank” as we marketers toil away in the belief that presenting the benefits of our clients’ products and services in ways that are consistent with buyers’ expectations is the right thing to do.

Maybe Billy isn’t such a bad guy after all.  Maybe I was just jealous.  Maybe we can learn from him:

• Like your message has to cut through the clutter to be heard.  Maybe we don’t yell, but you’re right Billy, we have to find a way to cut through.
• Like you have to demonstrate the benefits.  Bang, bang, bang.  Don’t get to esoteric or ramble.  Simple and direct.  Okay Billy, good point, thanks.
• And you have to give people an incentive to act.  Yep, right again Billy.

I guess I don’t hate Billy Mays after all.  In fact, I’m growing to appreciate him.  After all, he has become a cultural icon, just check out YouTube (parodies and remixes!):

[youtube] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tyct9l-fD8 [/youtube]

And clearly the biggest compliment of all, parodies:

[youtube] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L673I9ute30 [/youtube]

It’s something I care very much about because: marketing, as practiced today, bloodies many ethical boundaries.  And, as a result, I use truthfulness as a powerful tool (imagine that?!).  In fact, it’s my “secret weapon” for my clients.  And yes, that paints a rather dismal picture of the level to which most marketing rises. . .because. . .well, it is a rather dismal picture.  Bad for them, good for us.

Here’s what I believe-

• Connect with what’s important to your audience.
• Set realistic expectations.
• Treat people with respect.

Here’s what I mean in the context of “truth in marketing”-

 
Connect with what’s important to your audience

If you do this, you don’t need those bombshell claims that fuel the perception that marketing is somehow dishonest (because many of them are).  Show me a hard-to-believe-way-over-the-top claim and I’ll show you a lazy marketer.  Why not take the time to understand what’s really important to your audience and talk about that instead of some stupid claim you think will really stop ’em?!

 
Set realistic expectations

So. . .have you ever heard of the concept of word-of-mouth marketing?  Obviously not, if you’re the type who pushes every claim to the edge.  Expectations not met means bad word-of-mouth.  People feeling tricked means bad word-of-mouth.  And since the opposite is also true, why wouldn’t you want to set realistic expectations, meet them and create an army of salespeople out there who will tell their friends good things about you?

 
Treat people with respect

I”ll assume you’ve heard of the internet since you’re reading this.  Why, then, would you try to push people into making a decision — to CLOSE them?  Prospects have the control, you don’t.  Whether it’s face-to-face, on the phone or on the net, people don’t like pressure.  Don’t pressure them, treat them with respect, and you’ll win more business.

The conversation about truth in marketing is less about ethics as it is about simply doing what works.  I believe, no, I know, being honest with people is a better strategy over the long-term.

So, all you lazy marketers out there, keep shoveling the crap.  You provide the contrast that helps my clients stand out!