Discover the Do’s and Dont’s of competitive intelligence.
Collecting information about your competitors makes good business sense. However, you must do so in an ethical and reasonable way. Competitive intelligence from public sources, customers, and third parties can help businesses anticipate market opportunities, trends and competitive strengths and weaknesses.
These guidelines provide a step-by-step guide for acquiring the information you need without crossing the line.
Do you have customers that leave suddenly? You’ve been doing this outstanding job for them, lavishing them with excellent service and yet they’re gone without a word?
Something went wrong and you know nothing about it. No matter how successful your business is, you will always have scope for improvement. Best of all, you will always have complaining customers. Don’t deny the fact. Accept it, welcome it and then do something about it! If you can rectify a complaint over and above that customer’s expectations, you have a customer for life. If you brush the complaint under the carpet, think how much you have lost from the lifetime value of that customer – not to mention the negative publicity they will generate for your business.
Professional services are intangible; they don’t have a defined shape or physical characteristics and no intrinsic colour, texture or flavour. More importantly, they don’t have a set of clear expectations which come with them. The actual composition of a service is more or less unknown until your communications are able to give it substance and make it real. Continue reading
Impulse buys make up a significant part of retail revenue – whether its due to the product placement, the promises it makes or the promotion its part of.
You know the kind – think of a product you bought that you didn’t really need? Impulse buys are usually low value, low risk and disposable items often found in the aisle displays or near the cash registers.
There are six strategic steps that are essential for effective negotiation. You are the supplier and you have to have faith in your product or service, but you also need to know where the other party is coming from.
As you go through each step, seek to improve any areas where you know you may be weak.
Anyone who does business development activities needs to be prepared for a prospect asking them this question.
I’m not trying to point out the obvious but seriously if you are asked this question do not launch into a list of your services as if you are reading from a brochure or your website – they asked what you can do for them, not what you do!
Jay Conrad Levinson introduced the concept of Guerrilla Marketing many years ago and it is now a huge brand in its own right. They challenge typical marketing methodology and adapt delivery to fit the Guerrilla process.
According to the principles of guerrilla marketing, thinking in terms of ‘economising’ your marketing spend doesn’t necessarily mean trying to save money. Rather, the focus is more on trying to achieve the greatest possible return on what is spent on your marketing.
Business Planning is essential
Understand what marketing is
Many start ups use the terms marketing and advertising interchangeably. Advertising is only a small part of marketing as a whole and to market yourself effectively you need to decide which elements are most suited to your needs (PR, direct mail, networking etc). They all form part of your overall communication strategy and it is important to consider the validity of them all.
In a previous post we discussed steps to strategic negotiation, here we simply give you some areas of potential negotiation to consider.
Think about your business, your customers and your products and / or services. What are you prepared to negotiate on and what is an absolute no-no for negotiation?