Determining your Customer Perspective – Can you satisfy these customer segments?

 

 

 

This is part 2 of a 3 part series on Determining your customer perspective - Can you satisfy these customer segments?

As I mentioned previously, all customers behave and act differently. The personal contact that they receive from your organization should certainly attempt and make them feel that way. However, at some point and time you do have to segment and organize them. I use the Duct Tape Marketing Hourglass as my guideline in determining that structure. You can read more about that in my Ebook on the Pillars of the Lean Marketing House. In developing your marketing or sales channels, you must also determine if you can satisfy the segments that your organization wants to compete in.

Think about what is important for customer satisfaction. Is it, on time delivery, production cycle time, conformance, warranty clams, etc. Many segments require more hand holding before, during and after the sale. Others may require a little more customization. These metrics are extremely important when you are considering marketing to them. You want to align their expectations accordingly to what you can deliver. Be careful, many times to get the order in these segments you may promise more than you can deliver, never a good scenario for either party.

How much does it cost to market to this particular segment? Will you have to advertise through certain media, attend certain trade shows, additional fewer sales or technical support expenditures? And of course, how price sensitive is this segment? You may find certain segments prefer to buy online, through distribution or even direct. These sales cannot and should not contradict each other but be part of an overall marketing strategy. Without, price confusion, dealer erosion and mixed messages will send alarms to a customer that will certainly if not make it impossible, much more difficult in the sales process. You may be better off excluding a certain market segment.

Channel Management is one of the areas that I find as one of the most mismanaged areas in the marketing process. The particular way you go to market can vary the volume and timing of purchases. It even can effect after sales service and maybe an ingredient that is sometimes forgotten, customer loyalty. Many times you will find that the loyalty is stronger with your distribution source than your product. On another hand, an online purchase will seldom develop deep customer loyalties. There is nothing right or wrong about any situation just be sure you recognize the situation for what it is.

Can each of these segments have a different price for the same product or service? Unless you package the product differently it is very difficult to do that. Also, you have to make sure your distribution structure is compensated adequately. Failure to do so will cause that source to be always on the outlook for another alternative. They may build a need for your product within their clientele and then supply a competitor's product through no fault of their own. Pricing issues must be dealt with before you enter each different segment of the marketplace. Many times by adding services or financing in these segments, you can provide revenue to offset the additional expenses. Don't forget to ask you distribution source for ideas. They may have current financial packages that they would gladly utilize already in place.

Not every segment can be profitable to you. Not every segment is worth the risk. You must remember what allows you to make margin and not try to be someone that you are not.

Related Posts:

Lean your Marketing thru Segmentation

Improve throughput, cut your customers in half!

Have you struggled defining your Ideal Client - Find out how

Determining your Customer Perspective - Who do you want?

Technorati Tags: Marketing Hourglass,Pillars,Marketing Segments,Sales Channels,Channel Management

Six Sigma Marketing Coach recognized with Duct Tape Marketing Certification

Joe Dager, owner of Business901 in Fort Wayne, IN was one of a group of eleven Duct Tape Marketing™ Coaches to reach the Certification level in the Duct Tape Marketing program. This award was presented at the annual gathering in Boulder, Co. this October.

John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing and founder of the Duct Tape Marketing organization developed this initiative and established levels of Duct Tape Marketing Coaching accreditation in an effort to place heavy emphasis on the success factors of the Duct Tape Marketing system and reward those who establish pre-defined levels of success using the Duct Tape Marketing approach, tools and point of view. To obtain this advanced level, there were twelve additional requirements above and beyond the initial level. At this time, it is the highest achievable level within the organization.

Dager says, “It is quite an honor to be recognized with such an outstanding group and would like to thank John Jantsch, the Duct Tape Marketing organization and recognize the other ten coaches that achieved this level; Jeff Bishop, Troy Braithwaite, Scott Campbell, Joe Costantino, Bill Doerr, Fiona Friesen, Adrianne Machina, Cidnee Stephen, Michael Thompson, Liz Walker. I firmly believe in the Duct Tape Marketing Process and to use an old cliché, I not only talk the talk but walk the walk.”

The Duct Tape Marketing system allows business owners to create and build their very own marketing system complimented by a coaching system that has proven effective with small businesses for over 20 years. The system is perfect for those who already own a business, but want to make it soar. It's also designed for those who want to start a business but don't know how to get it off the ground." This system will help entrepreneurs build the perfect business establishing a proven marketing system to their growing company. "Why reinvent the wheel? Take a proven process, a package of tools, a trained coach and run with it.

About Duct Tape Marketing: Duct Tape Marketing is a unique turnkey small business marketing system created by award-winning small business marketing expert John Jantsch. Visit Blog, a Forbes favorite for small business.

About Business901: Business901,http://www.business901.com, uses proven methodologies to enable its customers to build applications in a very short amount of time. The result is increased development speed, higher customer satisfaction and decreased time. The simplicity of a single flexible model will create clarity for your staff and as a result better execution. Business901 provides direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma marketing and organized referral marketing. Business901 services and product offerings are implementable systems that work in the real, not enough time, not enough people world we operate in. Joe Dager, President of Business901 is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and a Certified Duct Tape Marketing Coach.. His experience includes numerous start-ups, several turnarounds in a variety of industries to include manufacturing, retail, and professional services to include marketing.

Technorati Tags: Duct Tape Marketing,Small Business,Marketing Coach,Lean,Six Sigma,Lean Sigma

Get Rid of Your Marketing Vision Statement and Address the NEED!

Most organizations try to develop a meaningful marketing vision statement designed to guide their action for today, tomorrow and in the future. The vision statement serves as a platform for all their marketing goals.  Armed with a vision, you establish your marketing goals, which are time-sensitive and detailed orientated. We send the goals through the SMART procedure to make sure that they are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-specific. 

Duct Tape Marketing addresses the marketing vision in the book and further defines it in the Marketing Plan Pro software by using these three components:

· Goals: list the significant personal, business, strategic, and tactical goals of your marketing plan

· Marketing purpose: describe the greater purpose that the execution of your marketing plan and the growth of your business will fulfill.

· Marketing visual: write a paragraph describing a picture of this business as you would like a customer to experience it in a perfect world.

Back in April, I wrote a blog discussing the Marketing Vision, and as I implemented the Lean Marketing House, my thoughts about a vision statement started to evolve differently. I studied the Duct Tape Marketing Hourglass and used it as the Pillars in the Lean Marketing House. I segmented each Pillar based on the different customer channels that were required. However, I kept pondering because it still seemed to be missing a very important ingredient and even formulated the vision that each channel needed. The funny thing was that the answer was there all the time. It was obvious, very obvious.

The problem was that our vision statements are internally focused. Marketing is about the customer, it’s not about us. Your vision statement needs to be a definition of the NEED that you serve for the client. John Jantsch author of Duct Tape Marketing has always defined marketing as “Getting someone with a Need to know, like and trust you. That was further developed and expanded in the Marketing Hourglass to include the other steps of Try, Buy, Repeat and Refer. However, somewhere along the line the NEED disappeared.

The NEED is the vision and for each customer segment or Pillar if you are using the Lean Marketing House. Defying that need clearly takes quite a bit of effort, but I would certainly start by using  the Fishbone Diagram or the 5 Y’s to determine the actual need. It may even get a little more difficult in that and the use of Goldratt’s Logical Thinking Process could be used. However, the NEED must be defined and your ability to solve that NEED must become crystal clear in your Marketing NEED statement.

What NEED do you solve for the client? Put that at the head of the Fishbone and address the different causes. If your customer understands this message, and he should if you do it right(it is his NEED), your marketing may become extremely simplified. Even for the future, you will be thinking about how your customer’s NEED will be changing, and what they will NEED.

So would you rather go to market with a clear VISION or a clear NEED statement?  

Value Stream Marketing: It’s just not about the Value

Applying Value in your Marketing process is not the only thing that is important. In today’s marketing managing the stream is becoming equally more important. I alluded to this concept when I discussed E-mail providers in a previous post. I concentrated on the value and the touch points within your Marketing Hourglass. Just as important though is the Stream or Flow of the process. Without managing this, you will end up creating a great deal of wasted effort in your marketing process.

Of course when I start discussing flow, I am going to start discussing Theory of Constraints. In your marketing process, you will have numerous constraints but Goldratt claims that at any given time, there is only one constraint. That constraint is much like the neck of an hourglass and will limit the entire system. Actually, if it is well managed you could throttle your process accordingly (We only wish we could that). Simply doubling the efforts in a constraint could be the easy solution and may just move the constraint to another area. However, we operate in a more complicated world than that. Something else usually cases something else to happen.

What is that something else? It is the marketplace. What we see in our constraints may not be problems but indicators. If we treat the perceived problem without really determining the root cause we just may go in a merry-go-round. It would be like just adding sales people. You could double your sales capacity and that may or may not increase sales. In fact, what typically happens is additional responsibilities are given to salespeople and you off-load other stages of your Marketing Hourglass to them without increasing sales. You did not find your root cause. The good or bad part is that your indicator will return because the constraint really never went away.

David Armano just wrote a blog post on Dynamic Signals for Business and how rapidly dynamic signals are transmitted and received. He discusses how Google has organized the Web by figuring out who has authority, but now the real-time Web behaves differently. It is about trending topics, and SEARCH JUST CAN’T REACT QUICK ENOUGH. He goes on and discusses how he receives trending information, and what they mean to him.

So marketing today has to address value and the content they are distributing. However, as importantly, they have to address the time or the stream of their marketing system. The acceleration or throughput is extremely important. Creating systems within our process that are efficient and propels customers through the Marketing Hourglass or Sales Cycle is imperative. Our days of leaving non-responsive customers on our mailing list, online or offline are ending. Creating advertising to the masses and expecting a reasonable return have already ended for small and maybe even medium size businesses. These statements are not meant to say that we only market to someone for 90 or 120 days and that’s it. It is more inline that we have to create interactive platforms that allow our customers to interact at their leisure, their timing and at their discretion. A good description of pull marketing, but how do you manage a stream?

You must understand your Marketing Stream well enough to have a throttle. You must know here your constraint is, maybe even on a seasonal basis. You must address indicators that are built into your process and not built into month-end reports. I look at my Google analytics daily. If I see web traffic dropping from referral sites, I realize that I am spending too much time pushing my message versus participating with others.

What are the real-time indicators within your business? Do you have a monitoring system that lets you know? Do you adjust your marketing message accordingly? Are you improving your stream with better information to qualify yourself to the customer? If you are proving a higher value of information to the customer, does that propel them through your marketing hourglass?

If you believe that your referral process is a sub-standard or your constraint, it may be a way to create an immediate impact in your process. Applying a couple of these principles to the bottom of the Duct Tape Marketing Hourglass in the refer stage. If you worked in this area alone and increased testimonials and referrals, what would it do for you? Could you reduce the time spent in your hourglass? Do you give every customer the opportunity to refer and to provide testimonials?  Try a few of ideas and see if you can get a handle on your throttle.  

P.S. I have a Lean your Marketing thru Referral Power Group starting soon!

Technorati Tags: Value Stream,Referral Flood,Duct Tape Marketing,Marketing Hourglass

Gathering Information For Your Plan

Affiliate Post By Palo Alto Software, Inc.

A common problem people encounter when writing their business plan is finding information about their business industry and competitive companies. Fortunately, in recent years the Internet has made information gathering simple and easy, but sometimes the best information is found much closer to home, with real people, in real time.

Always take a look at other businesses similar to your own, as a very good first step. If you're looking at starting a new business, you may well be starting one similar to one you already know. If you're doing a plan for an existing business, you are even more likely to know the business well. Even so, you can still learn a lot by looking at other similar businesses.

• Look at existing, similar businesses

  If you are planning a retail shoe store, for example, spend some time looking at existing retail shoe store businesses. Park across the street and count the customers that go into the store. Note how long they stay inside, and how many come out with boxes that look like purchased shoes. You can probably even count how many pairs of shoes each customer buys. Browse the store and look at prices. Look at several stores, including the discount shoe stores and department store shoe departments.

• Find a similar business in another place

  Find a similar business far enough away that you won't compete. For the shoe store example, you would identify shoe stores in similar towns in other states. Call the owner, explain your purpose truthfully, and ask about the business.

• Scan local newspapers for people selling a similar business.

  Contact the broker and ask for as much information as possible. If you are thinking of creating a shoe store and you find one for sale, you should consider yourself a prospective buyer. Maybe buying the existing store is the best thing. Even if you don't buy, the information you gain will be very valuable. Why is the owner selling? Is there something wrong with the business? You can probably get detailed financial information.

• Always shop the competition.

  If you're in the restaurant business, patronize your competition once a month, rotating through different restaurants. If you own a shoe store, shop your competition once a month, and visit different stores.

It takes a little hard work but by using the Internet and doing some research at local businesses, you should be able to gather all the information necessary for your business plan.

Technorati Tags: Marketing Plan Pro. Marketing,Finding information,Duct Tape Marketing

Can I meet you at the AME Conference?

I will have the pleasure of assisting Systems2win at the upcoming AME, Association of Manufacturing Excellence, Kentucky 2009 International Lean conference to be held October 19-23, 2009. Systems2win is a supplier of Lean Six Sigma software tools and will be highlighting their Value Stream Mapping/Management system and their Standard Work template. The AME event celebrates their 25th anniversary at this annual event and will provide the most powerful way to gain an unbelievable amount of knowledge in this short a time.

Also assisting Dean Ziegler, founder and owner of Systems2win at the booth will be James Lewis, author of Story of a Lean Journey. These 2 individuals posses a world of knowledge about Lean and more specifically Value Stream Mapping. I hope to have numerous discussions on their mapping philosophy and how best to apply them in the world of marketing.

I choose attending the AME Conference because I felt it represented the highest level of Lean thinking assembled under one roof. I have scheduled several other appointments through out the conference with some leading Lean experts to get their opinion on the best alternatives for applying Lean in the marketing process. This translates into fast implementation of the new marketing solutions that I have learned.

The AME Conference includes 60 world class best practice presentations:

Value Stream 1: From Lean and Green to Building Sustainability for the Economy, Society and the Environment. Learn critical best practices on purchasing, energy management and packaging, from development to customer.

Value Stream 2: Building and Sustaining the Lean Culture. See valuable lessons from practitioners, who have moved beyond implementing Lean tools to a culture that lives and breathes the values of a Lean.

Value Stream 3: Lean Supply Chain. Here is your opportunity to learn how leading practitioners are drastically reducing the time to design, develop and deliver new products and services.

Value Stream 4: Next-generation Lean and Six Sigma. This promises to deliver the most creative and innovative sessions delivered at an AME Conference. How will we apply Lean practices in the future?

Value Stream 5: Lean Enterprise Leadership. Learn how to define the future-state, while addressing today's environment. Gain insights into how to ensure leadership filters throughout the entire organization.

Value Stream 6: The Fundamentals of Lean. Hear how to build a Lean program that transforms a company into a world-class organization. Learn how to get a proper start from the people who have been there and done that.

If you are attending, please stop by and introduce yourself. I would enjoy the conversation.

Related News Release

Technorati Tags: AME Conference,Lean,Value Stream Mapping

Marketing Idea of the Week!

I was reading Success Coaching U Blog and Joe wrote an article about Ready, Aim, Fire. Good headline, you already can guess what the headline is about, Target Marketing. I remembered a piece of advice I received from another Duct Tape Marketing Coach on targeting your direct mail, which I call the Machine Gun approach. For obvious reasons, I won’t disclose the source, but the following statistics were shared:

I don't have a success story, I have a sobering story. Here it is:
   Number of pieces mailed: 10,000
   Response rate: 1%
   Number of inquiries: 96
   Number that you manage to reach by phone to qualify: 70
   Cost of qualifying by phone, per inquiry: $30
   Number who turn out to be qualified leads (20%): 14
   Total cost of qualifying ($30 X 70): $2,100
   Campaign cost of $10,000 + phone qualifying cost = $12,200

Total cost of $12,200 divided by 14 qualified leads = $871.42. In other words, you must spend $871.42 to get to each lead who needs your product or service, can afford it, has authority to buy, and is ready to buy now. Not so good for a small business....

I will call this method the Machine Gun Marketing. Another method of Machine Gun Marketing is the Marketing Idea of the Week.  You have an Ad Rep call on you and they have this special 3 for 2 deal. Plus they have this even that they will be attending and handing out another 1,000 pieces of whatever they are selling. Oh yeah, you will also be exclusive to your area of expertise and we will even create the ad. What a deal! But….you will have to do something by Thursday, this being Tuesday. Sounds like a great idea?

If it is not part of your overall marketing strategy, if it not targeted, and I mean really targeted, and you have extra cash in your marketing budget that you were just clueless on how to spend it and you have no collateral material supporting it and you cannot create the ad yourself(a two-step ad, by the war), and you already know how you are going to measure it and….. I have asked Ad reps, that I do not respond to this type of marketing, many have stopped calling. I wonder why…has their machine gun jammed or just ran out of bullets? 

 

Technorati Tags: Target Marketing,Ideal Client,Direct Mail,Advertising

Public Relations Marketing

I have access to so many good articles as a result of my affiliate status and seldom use them as often as I should. So who better to start the series out with than with Palo Alto Software and Tim Berry.

Excerpt from On Target: The Book on Marketing Plans by Tim Berry and Doug Wilson

Public Relations involves a variety of programs designed to maintain or enhance a company's image and the products and services it offers. Successful implementation of an effective public relations strategy can be a critical component to a marketing plan.

A public relations (PR) strategy may play a key role in an organization's promotional strategy. A planned approach to leveraging public relations opportunities can be just as important as advertising and sales promotions. Public relations is one of the most effective methods to communicate and relate to the market. It is powerful and, once things are in motion, it is the most cost effective of all promotional activities. In some cases, it is free.

The success of well executed PR plans can be seen through several organizations that have made it a central focus of their promotional strategy. Paul Newman's Salad Dressing, The Body Shop, and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream have positioned their organizations through effective PR strategies. Intel, Sprint and Microsoft have leveraged public relations to introduce and promote new products and services.

 

Similar to the foundational goals of marketing, effective public relations seeks to communicate information to:

• Launch new products and services.
• Reposition a product or service.
• Create or increase interest in a product, service, or brand.
• Influence specific target groups.
• Defend products or services that have suffered from negative press or perception.
• Enhance the firm's overall image.
• The result of an effective public relations strategy is to generate additional revenue through greater awareness and information for the products and services an organization offers.

Goals and Objectives

Good strategy begins with identifying your goals and stating your objectives. What are the goals and objectives behind your public relations strategy and can they be measured and quantified?

Each of these areas may reflect the goals your public relations campaign may seek to accomplish.

Press relations
Communicating news and information of interest about organizations in the most positive light.

Product and service promotion
Sponsoring various efforts to publicize specific products or services.

Firm communications
Promoting a better and more attractive understanding of the organization with internal and external communications.

Lobbying
Communicating with key individuals to positively influence legislation and regulation.

Internal feedback
Advising decision makers within the organization regarding the public's perception and advising actions to be taken to change negative opinions.

Source: Articles on bplans.com

Technorati Tags: Palo-Alto-Software,Tim Berry,PR,Public-Relations,Marketing

Lean Transformations and Real-Time Performance Analytics

Tom DeForge discusses Lean Transformations and Real-time Performance Analytics. I first became acquainted with Tom because of the work he did in the Lean Turnaround that took place at PAS Technologies. Bob Weiner, CEO of PAS spoke very highly of Lean Value Solutions International and the role that LVSI played in the successful implementation of Lean at his organization. Tom also discussed a new software package designed for “Driving Lean Behavior through real time analytics.

Lean Value Solutions International (LVSI) is the destination for organizations seeking results-based partnerships that require rapid results - whether the assignments are strategic or tactical in nature. Regardless of the size of your organization, the fundamental obstacles to implementing a Lean strategy are fundamentally the same. LVSI provides the expertise and infrastructure necessary to help you implement strategy and align culture, processes and execution to achieve a series of quick results along a roadmap that is focused on achieving sustainable competitive advantage.

 

Lean Value Solutions -

Related Blog Posts:

Lean Value Solutions Podcast

Lean Transformation Discussion

PAS Technologies CEO, Bob Weiner discusses a Lean Transformation

It takes guts, to start with lean training in a turnaround!

Technorati Tags: Lean,Six Sigma,Lean-Transofrmation,Software,Performance

Deliver NOW

If you want to be successful in today’s market consider using this tag line. What reminded me of this is discussions I have had with Jeff Slater of Sonoco on the Supply Chain, Bob Sproull, author of The Ultimate Improvement Cycle and this recent video on the American Express Open Forum, Delivering What the Customer Wants.

Customers are demanding shorter Supply Chains and more customization. Their trade-off is that they are willing to wait for a very short-on-time delivery and the faith not that the product or service will be perfect, but that it will be supported and corrected if there is a problem.

The internet has made people accustomed to buying things sight unseen if they have trust in the people and organizations behind the product. Does anyone mind when the product says Beta on it?

However, how can a company make money with customization and supply chains being the 2 biggest drawbacks to efficiencies?  The first thing I would let go of is the word efficiencies. That seems to me an out-dated word still being used by cost accountants. The Theory of Constraints utilizes measurements using the term of Throughput which I believe has a lot more bearing on the health of a company. Most companies also fail to realize that the “asset” of inventory actually penalizes you in your supply chain and typically reduces your time to market. 

Delivering in the Immediate Moment is typically not about production time, it is about policy constraints and having a supporting system in place to support that goal. Building a Value Stream Map can clarify many of these issues. However, first things first, remove the word efficiency and add the word throughput to your vocabulary.

Related Posts:

Theory of Constraints + Lean + Six Sigma = Ultimate Improvement Cycle

Lean Six Sigma applied to Supply Chain

Application of Lean Six Sigma to the Supply Chain

Technorati Tags: TOC,Theory of constraints,Value Stream Mapping,Efficiencies,Throughput

Need an internet presence, but don’t have the time

First let's answer the question: What do you have to do?

Get Found Online: To run a successful online business, people need to be able to find your website. You must improve your visibility.
Improve Your Traffic: You must use customized SEO and Social Media tasks that help you boost the number of visitors to your site.
Make More Money: Improving traffic, rankings and brand visibility will generate more sales from your website.

I found a nifty tool that I have been using the past month called Lotus Jump. When I first started using it, I thought it was really nothing more than a spreadsheet telling me to do the things I do to get my website found. However, after using it for a month, I found that it put me places that I have not been before. It did give me additional insight into place that I should be and links that I should be creating. All I have to do is allocate 30 minutes of my time or someone else time that can post content to create a web presence. It is simply not enough to have a website anymore you need a web presence. Read this case study about a simple Flower shop or watch a demo!

This fits into a very nice into a Standard Work Practice for developing an Online Presence. Or, it can be used as a brick in the foundation of Lean Marketing House.

Technorati Tags: SEO,Social-Media,Web-Traffic,Internet-Marketing

Do your Map your Value Stream backwards?

In the book, Learning to See by Mike Rother and John Shook, they recommend a mapping tip of beginning the Value Stream Mapping process by walking downstream from the customer end. This way, they say you will begin with the processes that are linked most directly to the customer. As I was reading, actually re-reading the book, I thought how simple and intelligent that statement was. Starting at the end of the process should be the logical thing to do if you are considering developing a pull system. It is the beginning. This is very similar to my thoughts I expressed in my Mirror Marketing E-book.

Mirror Marketing E-Book

In a marketing perspective, how often do we really consider what our customer is real needs are. I find it interesting in a recent study by Rain Today they cited that the number one reason that most professional service sales are lost is CLARITY! I think it might also be said for many product opportunities. It might not be directly, but if your product or offer was fully understood before the purchase decision was made, would that improve your closing rate?

So do things become clearer walking backwards? Try this old golfing trick, walk your favorite golf course backwards. Does the out of bounds, elevations and other danger seem entirely different? Why not put yourself in customer shoes? In Six Sigma perspective, we call this process Voice of Customer but do we really consider the metrics of delivery performance, number of defects, invoice accuracy and other views that the customer is experiencing.

If you have a customer that will take the time with you, try having him draw a process map of your product. Or just blue sky the different experiences that he has with your organization. How accurate are they? After that, have them draw a future state. What would they like to see from your organization? Are you willing to deliver that experience?

Technorati Tags: Value-Stream-Mapping,Lean,Mirror-Marketing,Marketing