Niche Marketing Matters

The best advice I ever received was to slow down.

Like many rookie sales people, I was anxious for success—so I worked harder and faster than everyone else. While I hit my numbers easily, I also ran out of people and companies to call. Also, I was exhausted.

Watching me with amusement was an older, battle scarred salesman named John Randall. In contrast to my frantic pace was his peaceful approach to selling—nothing seemed to phase him and he was never in a hurry. Yes, he hit his numbers year after year.

One day when he saw that wild-eyed look on my face, he pulled me aside for cup of coffee. “Slow down or you might miss something”. Then he walked away.

Not sure of exactly what he meant, I went back to work and tried to slow down. I found that by slowing down I was making few errors in my proposals. When I slowed down, I listened more and talked less. When I did things slower I felt more in control. By slowing down I sold more.

As Master Kan said in the TV series Kung Fu, “Slow down Grasshopper”.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

“It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to have to paint it.” – Stephen Wright

Yes, the world makes for a big pond to fish in but for most of us it is just too big of a market. Marketing dollars will be quickly wasted in a global market.

Instead, entrepreneurs need to think small or locally by focusing on the underserved or overlooked customers. Abandoned by the giant mass marketers, these lonely customers go begging for offerings that cater to their special needs. They are left to buy poor substitutes which leave them unsatisfied and unhappy.

Yet, when the courageous niche marketer listens and creates specialized products for them, the reward for the provider is customer loyalty. More than satisfied, these happy customers recommend the offering to others like themselves, which is the true measure of loyalty.

Thus, the more customer specificity built into a product or service the greater likelihood of success. Localization enables the entrepreneur to more easily defend his or her position in the market since the big competitors don’t care about the smaller market segments.

Globalization Shmobilization—think localization.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

It seems that many employers in the new economy expect you to work like “your hair is on fire”. This most applies to sales people.

In the era of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, activity is king. Activities include telephone calls, emails, proposals, face-to-face meetings, product demonstrations, etc. The thinking is that if many sales activities are good, then more activities are even better. The message chanted to sales people is to work faster, harder, and longer.

While I am a proponent of activity being the enabler of sales results, I feel strongly the quality of the activity far outweighs the quantity of the activity. Regretfully, many sales managers driven by the need to increase revenue can put too much emphasis on the number of activities and the documentation of these activities.

A few years ago, FedEx had such a mindset about sales activities for their B2B field sales force. Their sales force was put under tremendous pressure to create activities and log them all in the CRM system so that management could track the trends and forecast better. In practice, the CRM system was so cumbersome and time consuming that the average sales rep was spending about 8-10 hours a week entering their activities in the CRM. Ironically, sales were going down instead of up.

While it took a few months to figure it out, FedEx management ultimately determined that their number one sales activity was entering sales activities in the CRM. How brilliant is that? Needless to say, CRM data expectations were later streamlined. Yes, sales increased when the sales force devoted more time to selling.

A better message to send your sales team is to slow down. Make the most of your customer contact by listening carefully and focusing on the customers’ wants and needs. Trust and respect the sales process and you will be rewarded.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

Are you feeling adrift in the “new right-sized economy”? Are you tired of hearing that all decisions are frozen and that all new projects are on hold?

It is easy to get caught up in the dark abyss of the current negativity trumpeted by the print and online media, radio, and TV. So, what do you about it?

First, let’s acknowledge that this economic downturn is real at the macroeconomic level. Yes, nationwide unemployment is up, real estate prices are sinking, and stock portfolios are down.

Still, macroeconomic theory has little to do with you and me. I had a boss who used to tell me that averages are meaningless to the individual. He would say, “Your head can be in the oven and your feet can be in the freezer and on average you are just fine”. What this means is that you either have a job or you don’t—a national unemployment statistic means little to you and me.

Here are a few tips to better cope with our new economy and the “trash talking” that comes with it:

1. Carefully plan each day. Start the day with your calendar and your “to do” list. Decide what is important and focus on the important things first.
2. Schedule time for joyful activities and rest. You deserve it.
3. Call an old friend everyday. Reconnecting will be stimulating and you might find an opportunity just because you reached out. LinkedIn and Facebook are great, but nothing beats a live conversation with a human being.
4. Focus on the future and the life you want to live. Write it down. Tell others about your dreams.
5. Turn off CNN, talk radio, and other sources of negativity. Instead, listen to inspirational music. Or, read a good book.
6. Hang out with positive people. Pass on social engagements with people that bring you down.
7. If you are feeling down, take a break. This is not a good time to make decisions. Instead, go for a walk or ride your bike. Break the negative cycle.
8. Give freely to others. Your gift of your time will help others and they will remember you for it. The other rewards will come later—trust me on that one.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

Do you have a stable network up of close friends with which you can go to for advice or for conversation? Is this network made of friends of convenience or are they handpicked? Are your friends from childhood or from last week?

Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst of Utrecht University in the Netherlands was interested in finding out exactly how much our networks are shaped by social context or by personal preference. His conclusion was that the average person will replace half of their friends every seven years and that much of this is driven by circumstances, along with personal choice.

Work is a major factor for some. While working at a company you can develop a social network that is built on the commonality of work related issues. When you leave that employer, you have less in common. Often these relationships atrophy or just discontinue.

The same applies to friends that we made at school, church, or clubs. As we age and make new choices, the bonds weaken with many of our older friends. We have less and less in common. We lose touch with them by choice or maybe we are just negligent in our communication.

Also, there may no substitute for frequency of contact. Staying in touch and being available for others enables friendships to grow and flourish. Conversely, lack of communication can kill a friendship.

A new twist to retaining friendships is the advent of social networks like Facebook and Linkedin. These tools make staying a snap. It may be that retaining older friendships may have just gotten easier to do.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

For many products and services, the field is cluttered with similar or the same alternatives. When that is the case, marketing is reduced to a war of price and delivery—this translates into low margins and fickle customers.

For example, seemingly every real estate agent in the country markets his or her self as the top selling agent in the city, county, or country. They refer to themselves as a “million dollar producer” or the “top agent for 2008”. Besides sending the same message as virtually everyone else, the message is not believable—how can all agents be the top producer?

Instead, market your uniqueness or your special knowledge and skills. If you are a real estate agent and have expertise in horse properties, that makes you very unique. The horse property buyer wants a real estate agent who understands their special equestrian needs such as knowledge of livestock zoning laws, location and access to equestrian trails, and the need for a large, flat parcel (horses prefer not to climb hillsides!).

This specialized message about your knowledge or skills is testimony of your distinctive competencies, which are the foundation elements of your competitive advantage. By focusing on a unique market segment, it actually becomes easier to sell your product or service. In turn, your special skills create satisfied customers who will happily refer you to others. Satisfied customers often will also pay a premium for a great product and service. And, so it goes.

Celebrate your uniqueness not your sameness.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

When choosing colors for your website, a good “rule of thumb” is three colors are best. Three hues are all it takes to create a mood or atmosphere. More colors than that and your site could end up looking more like a kaleidoscope.

For most websites, the goal of color is to help communicate the mood or feel of the website. Rich browns, oranges, and reds make you feel at home. Black makes a dramatic background and has an artistic feel; you will find photography sites using black for this special touch. Light blue and light green make soothing background colors, but this color scheme is over used and has begun to feel pedestrian.

Logos and accent colors will jump off the page if they are red, orange, or yellow. Yellow is considered to be the most intense color and can also be the most offensive color. Be sure to use these colors sparingly.

Bold color schemes use three complementary or opposite colors which contrast each other. For example, the colors red, white, and blue are opposite colors; they use high contrast to create an energetic appeal. White can make a simple background color with red and blue as accent colors; for a good example go look at the Google homepage.

Industry standards may dictate a norm or standard for color use. For example, when we think of natural or organic products, many website will use greens, browns, and tans to communicate earthiness and a back-to-basics feel.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

For some, the sole purpose of social media is ruthless self promotion, if not outright narcissism. At the very least, they consider social media an outbound marketing tool. It is my opinion that that they are missing the point of social media—social media is all about two-way communication.

For example, we all know that Twitter is populated with many vain and useless comments. Still, if you use the search option on the Twitter page, you can “data mine” some very interesting stuff. Essentially, you can use Twitter as a very specialized search engine within your own personal network.

Facebook and LinkedIn allow you the ability to ask questions of your network. Call it basic market research. Depending on the size of your network and their response rate, the results could prove to be significant from a statistical perspective.

Maybe the greatest benefit of social networking is the opportunity to help others. You could help a colleague find contacts for a job search. Or, you might be able to recommend a solution for a problem that someone is having with their email marketing campaign. When you help others, you will be remembered and rewarded some time in the future (OK, maybe the afterlife).

Social media allows for a dialog that might not happen in traditional communication channels. Turn down your personal volume and listen to your social network.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

Talk about a high-class problem. You have delivered a specialized solution in a niche market while doing all the right things. What happens? You land an elephant for a customer who has an insatiable appetite for your product or service. By comparison, your other customers look like mice. You hate to admit it, but this customer has incredible influence over your day-to-day decisions, as well as your long term plans for the firm. Secretly, you live in fear that you might lose this giant customer overnight and find yourself out of business.

This is hard one for a small firm. I have seen many small firms prisoner to the revenue stream from one key customer. The reliance on a huge customer can impact the small firm’s cash flow and control its day-to-day decisions, if not its destiny. If the big customer does not pay its bills on time, the firm can struggle to make payroll. When the big customer becomes too dominant, it can direct the day-to-day scheduling of activity, which might sacrifice the needs of other customers. At some point, the small business seemingly has no control over its destiny since the big customer is calling all the shots.

A general rule of thumb is that no one customer should account for more than 25 % of your sales. If a large customer abruptly drops you, you can still right-size your operation until you can find other sources of revenue. Even 25% makes me shudder, but in most cases, you can still adjust to the loss of this dominant customer. It will hurt, but the firm could still survive, presuming that you moved quickly enough.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

What promotion strategy should you use: push or pull? The answer might be both.

A pull strategy is defined as managing your promotional mix to encourage your customer to demand the product from the distribution channel such as a store or a distributor. The pull is driven by things such as advertising, coupons, or even publicity; thus, the customer is persuaded to buy the product.

An alternative to pulling is “pushing”. Push strategies are used when your target is the market channel itself. In this case, you direct your promotional mix toward the channel to encourage them to order and stock your product. Thus, a push strategy helps the channel “push” the product to the customer. This is achieved through a variety of techniques including personal selling, discounting, or special inventory incentives.

You may wish to reach both your customer and your distribution channel with a combination of push and pull promotion strategies. For example, Coca-Cola advertises to the consumer about the many benefits of Coke using television advertising. They also will push the retailers to stock Coke on the best shelves with special wholesale pricing. With both push and pull strategies at play, a lot of Diet Coke gets sold.

Promotion strategies have a common goal—to sell more products.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.