Seven crucial business thoughts
Thought 1: If you don’t have a customer you don’t have a business.Stating the obvious I would think.
But it’s extraordinary how few businesses really understand this and instead organise themselves around the needs of their shareholders or their staff and management. The purpose of a business is to select, acquire and retain customers. The value of your business is determined by how well you understand this concept.
Thought 2: There are only two activities that add value in a business.
The late Peter Drucker puts it very well:
“Because its purpose is to create a customer, any business enterprise has two – and only these two – basic functions: marketing and innovation.”Every other activity is a cost.
Thought 3: Selling is not marketing.
Selling is convincing a prospect to buy your product; marketing is developing a needs-satisfying value proposition to a selected customer group. The starting point in selling is the company and its needs; the starting point of marketing is the customer. If you have to convince your prospect that he or she needs your product you probably aren’t marketing.
Thought 4: Advertising and branding is not marketing.
In many cases advertising and branding masquerade as marketing. Advertising is communication to customers and branding is your product’s reputation. In fact, most advertising is merely sales support.
Thought 5: Understanding exactly who your customer is.
Not everyone who is in the market for the product or service you sell is a customer and not everyone in your store is a customer. A customer is a person you have selected, studied and designed your value proposition for, and which you have the technologies, people and skills in your company to profitably serve.
Thought 6: Stop telling your customer – start listening.
Recent research published in the States indicates that traditional advertising in which companies tell customers is becoming progressively less effective. Customers are just not listening – they are making up their own minds and getting references from other customers, helped by the internet.
Thought 7: Brands are not built in the media, by promotions or by advertising – brands are built at the customer interface.
You don’t build brands by advertising – you build brands by understanding customers and delivering or exceeding the value they expect from you. The entire focus of the operation must be at the entire customer interface because that’s where the customer experiences your offering. And that’s where your reputation is built – and your brand is your reputation. The better you understand this principle the better you will perform.
Bonus Thought: Power Shifts
The biggest trend in marketing today is the shift of the locus of power from the firm who used to control the customer interaction to the customer, who is empowered with easier access to information than they ever had before. The customer is in control, the customer is informed, the customers can communicate with one another, the customer has options and the customer will increasingly call the shots.
Price for speech: R8 000 booked direct R10 000 with agents commission.
Book directly by mailing Walter Pike directly at walter@pike.co.za or his assistant at info@sussed.co.za
No direct bookings if already provisionally booked by an agent.
All prices are quoted in South African Rand and exclude VAT. Travel costs and/or accommodation may be charged for distances greater than 20km from our offices in Bryanston, Gauteng. Terms and Conditions apply. 50% of the payment is due and payable on booking and the balance prior to the presentation. Cancellations made within 3 days will be charged for in full.
Copyright Walter Pike 2006
