 |
|
|
Health Check
Wellness Clinic - Provide Budget & comprehensive screening
package
Log in
www.healthcheck.sg for
detail
|
CRM: Strategic Engine or Just Another Tool?
CRM?strategic engine or just another technology tool? How would you answer this question about your company's CRM initiative? It depends on how honest you are in answering some other questions, including: Do your people have real decision-making power to provide great customer service? Do you have the right people with the right knowledge and skills? Are you including people across the board, not just in your customer service and call centers? The bottom line is that people skill sets need to be similar to the technology they are using -- information sharing needs to be fast, focused, integrated. Let's Start With the Leaders For CRM to become the strategic engine, not just a tool that people opt to use when they choose, managers and leaders need to demonstrate the new vision through their day-to-day actions. Leadership is about making a vision happen. If you want your CRM strategy to be the engine that drives growth and profitability, take a look at what your leaders are doing and how they are behaving. The heart of strategic change is when the leadership makes the conscious choice to focus on actions that matter. When an organization undergoes significant and fundamental transition, leaders must be teachers and role models of the new actions and behaviors. Leaders who successfully transition to new operating values and practices are those who recognize they are on a steep learning curve and adopt a personal learning ethic that others can model. What About Everyone Else? Just as any change needs good leaders, making CRM the strategic engine requires good followers. People need to have the knowledge and skill sets that will translate the vision to a seamless customer experience. Having the skill to build personal and professional networks of information and knowledge will allow managers and employees to think and act in less linear ways. There is a need to learn to behave as integrated teams, not individual contributors or functions. Teaming, problem-solving behaviors across job boundaries, knowledge-discovery skills, personal networking outside the department, and building relationships to share knowledge and information are rarely seen metrics on employee performance evaluation forms. Yet these are the skills required to drive the CRM strategic engine. Those skills need to be valued, encouraged, and rewarded by the organization. Don't Take New Roles For Granted To move CRM deeper into the ethos of the company culture, clear and unambiguous roles for leaders and employees need to be communicated. When people have a role beyond that of being an individual contributor, accountability, involvement, and interest in making CRM the strategic engine all increase. The key is communicating what new roles leaders and employees are expected to fill. As social scientists and consultants, it has been our experience that there is always a portion of leaders and employees who can't or won't adopt the new vision. This is why there are always tough people decisions involved in a large system change initiative. Copyright 2002 Dailey & O'Brien, Inc. (c) 2004 TurningPointe Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.
Marketing educator, Kelly O'Brien, is creator of the "Create a
TurningPointe!" Marketing Bootcamp. To learn more about this step-by-step
program, and to sign up for FREE how-to articles and 20-page marketing
guide, visit http://www.turningpointemarketing.com
|
Get Checked Before
Complication Strike Log on to
HealthCheck.sg - All
nationalities welcome to enjoy the privilege and offer corp
price .
|
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Radio Ads That Get Results
Radio advertising can be a small business's best friend. It's relatively inexpensive, very effective, and allows you to target your audience pretty specifically. It's also a level playing field -- your commercials can sound just as good as those of a corporate giant.
A Pass / Fail Test for Any New Market
If you are considering entering a new target market, with an
existing or new product or service, it makes sense to first
systematically analyze the market in question via some
fundamental market evaluation criteria. It is not only
rational but most cost effective to determine if a new market
pursuit makes sense for your company before any significant
resources are further applied to the effort.
Be Prepared for Marketing
For most businesses, making a sale is all important. However, despite the amount of effort and attention given to getting sales, there is often no attention given to developing and effectively implementing a systematic marketing process. There are many things that can go wrong between the point of the customer first developing an interest in your product or service and the time of making the sale. Despite knowing this, very few businesses actually take proactive steps to nurture the progress of a sale. In sales and marketing, as in life, preparation makes a world of difference.
T.E.A.M Profit
As you network and meet other business owners,
keep this philosophy in mind:
"Together Everyone Achieves More Profit"
5 Print Ad Essentials!
Writing an effective print ad, particularly a classified advertisement, requires that you remember five essential points. Failure to implement these points correctly can cost you much in the way of time lost and a sale missed.
The 5 Minute Marketing Plan
If I were to ask you right now, what marketing tactics have
you used, umm, say in the last month, could you tell me?
Your Elevator Speech ? Have You Updated Yours Recently?
Do you have an elevator speech? Does it get people's attention? Do they ask you lots of questions when you tell them what you do?
Coupons that Work
Turn a coupon into a business card (or vice versa).
Top Five 2004 Required Marketing Tips Needed to Succeed
When marketing your practice, as well as designing yourbrochure, web site, business card, flier, advertisement, orother marketing effort, we recommend investing the time andeffort needed to effectively address all these tips. Notone of them can be omitted.
Business Cards that Make Them CALL
How would you use
business cards for gift certificates?
Writing A Marketing Strategy
It is my belief that if anyone is to suceed in any type of business then the business needs to be marketed to it's target consumers in an effective manner. In order to do this effectively rather than in an ad hoc, probably expensive, manner I propose the construction of a marketing plan.
This is something you can do yourself quite simply, but it will need some time for research and thought if it is to be worthwhile and achieve results.
10 Powerful Marketing Tips
1. Print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. People read postcards when the message is brief. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your web site and generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.2. No single marketing effort works all the time for every business, so rotate several marketing tactics and vary your approach. Your customers tune out after awhile if you toot only one note. Not only that, YOU get bored. Marketing can be fun, so take advantage of the thousands of opportunities available for communicating your value to customers. But don't be arbitrary about your selection of a variety of marketing ploys. Plan carefully. Get feedback from customers and adapt your efforts accordingly.3. Use buddy marketing to promote your business. For example, if you send out brochures, you could include a leaflet and/or business card of another business, which had agreed to do the same for you. This gives you the chance to reach a whole new pool of potential customers.4. Answer Your Phone Differently. Try announcing a special offer when you answer the phone. For example you could say, "Good morning, this is Ann Marie with Check It Out; ask me about my special marketing offer." The caller is compelled to ask about the offer. Sure, many companies have recorded messages that play when you're tied up in a queue, but who do you know that has a live message? I certainly haven't heard of anyone. Make sure your offer is aggressive and increase your caller's urgency by including a not-so-distant expiration date.5. Stick It! Use stickers, stamps and handwritten notes on all of your direct mail efforts and day-to-day business mail. Remember, when you put a sticker or handwritten message on the outside of an envelope, it has the impact of a miniature billboard. People read it first; however, the message should be short and concise so it can be read in less than 10 seconds.6. Send A Second Offer To Your Customers Immediately After They've Purchased Your customer just purchased a sweater from your clothing shop. Send a handwritten note to your customer thanking them for their business and informing them that upon their return with "this note" they may take advantage of a private offer, such as 20% off their next purchase. To create urgency, remember to include an expiration date.7. Newsletters. Did you know it costs six times more to make a sale to a new customer than to an existing one? You can use newsletters to focus your marketing on past customers. Keep costs down by sacrificing frequency and high production values. If printed newsletters are too expensive, consider an e-mail newsletter sent to people who subscribe at your Web site. 8. Seminars/ open house. Hosting an event is a great way to gain face time with key customers and prospects as well as get your company name circulating. With the right programming, you'll be rewarded with a nice turnout and media coverage. If it's a seminar, limit the attendance and charge a fee. A fee gives the impression of value. Free often connotes, whether intended or not, that attendees will have to endure a sales pitch.9. Bartering. This is an excellent tool to promote your business and get others to use your product and services. You can trade your product for advertising space or for another company's product or service. This is especially helpful when two companies on limited budgets can exchange their services.10. Mail Outs. Enclose your brochure, ad, flyer etc. in all your outgoing mail. It doesn't cost any additional postage and you'll be surprised at who could use what you're offering.
Is It Time To Kill Your Marketing Program?
Ouch . . . sounds pretty drastic I know, but . . .
Client Attraction Technique #1: Niche Marketing
When asked "what business are you in" many business owners often identify an industry, for example, "I'm an accountant" or "I run a beauty salon " or "I own a restaurant." But claiming to be part of an industry is not what attracts customers. Customers come to you because you offer a specialty.
For example, which advert are you mostly likely to respond to:
10 Packaging Tips That Will Make Consumers Buy Your Product
The customer is king/queen. We have all heard this mantra. It's up to you, the supplier, to prove it so. With these ten tips you will be a lot closer to proving that you are on top of industry trends and technologies for the packaging industry.
When Business Cards Arent Enough: Unusual, Unexpected, and Uncommon Networking Tips
There comes a time in every small businessperson's life when common networking practices like handing out business cards, attending various meetings and schmoozing with potential clients only goes so far. Eventually, the same old techniques get overused to the point that they become insufficient.
The Real Marketing Genius
I spend a lot of my time reading books and listening to tapes about business and marketing. I guess that's understandable.
Peek a Boo - We See You -- 7 Trade Show Tips for Marketing Managers
Peek a Boo - We See You
Positioning For Success
According to military historian David Chandler the campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte consistently rose above the expected. For more than 20 years Napoleon showed genius and skill as a general on the field of battle.
There Are Benefits... And Then There Are Benefits
Not all benefits are created equal. Knowing which ones to use when can make a big difference in the credibility -- and success -- of your marketing campaigns.
|