Avoid the “Hammer and Nail” Approach to Growing Your Business

Marketing is a confusing topic to most small business owners. The process is not well understood.  Owners want more customers to buy more of what they provide – simple.  The word “marketing” itself is looked upon skeptically. 

Much confusion stems from the fact that communication tools are evolving at a rapid pace.  Social, digital and mobile platforms are taking the place of traditional selling and advertising. New subject matter experts promote magic bullet solutions to finding new customers.  Beware – if bad choices are made, lots of time and money can evaporate.

The Hammer and the Nail

When listening to advice from a marketing service provider, remember Maslow’s comment “to a person with a hammer,  every problem is a nail”.   Website designers pitch new websites as the best way to get more customers. Social media gurus suggest the latest social tools (Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, etc.), and on it goes, leaving the small business owner confused and vulnerable, worried they are missing the boat entirely, because each expert sounds convincing.

 

“Marketing Strategy” Needs a New Name

A good friend of mine who successfully coaches small business owners gave me a sage piece of advice: “Bob, if you are looking to attract small business owners as clients, the moment you use the words “marketing strategy”, small business owners become confused.”  As I pride myself on helping companies get their marketing on the right track, I confess that I use the terms frequently – and have seen that look of confusion.   

The Most Important Factor for Personal Success

If there is a single trait that successful people possess, it is the ability to see opportunity in situations where others do not.   What is just another day at the job for some, others see tremendous new business opportunities.  What is just another conversation with a colleague, others see as a networking opportunity, or sense that person’s fit in a new role.  When an unhappy customer calls, some see it as an opportunity to learn what went wrong and strengthen that very relationship. 

Like most truths regarding success, seeing and believing in opportunity is no secret.  During tough times, when one might feel less opportunistic, this ‘vision of sight’ goes against our natural wiring. Most people don’t intuitively see problems as opportunities.  We fear failure more than we embrace change and success.  We seek relaxation by switching off when the task at hand is done.  It may be how our brains are wired, or how we were programmed from those around us when we are young. 

This ability to see opportunity all around is a state of awareness that can be developed – here are 3-simple steps:

1. Surround yourself with like minds and people who demonstrate this ability. Negative thinking and lack of ideas are far more prevalent in your environment than you may think.
2. Clear your mind from clutter and fear - become aware of opportunities.
3. Practice everyday – starting with simple, non-threatening situations first.  Keep a list of new ideas, change your own negative comments to idea building comments.  Soon it will become second nature. 

Sensing opportunity is something that can be learned and can contribute greatly to your success.  But, it must be practiced until it is the the first path of thought.   When you look around your life, what do you see? 

How to Provide Feedback to Creative Ideas

One of the most uncomfortable but important moments for marketers and executives is in evaluating and providing feedback to creative ideas.  Whether the idea is advertising, media, web designs, packing or a promotional concept, – or any idea for that matter. 

After an idea has been presented by an agency or internal team, many times, the feedback is not constructive. It can be a long running commentary on the personal likes and dislikes of the idea that are not fully thought through and lack a clear point of view and direction.  Even worse, the feedback can be too short, too negative or disjointed if there are several people commenting.  Also, great work is great work, it should be seen and accepted as such without endless small nitpicks on improvement.

Good feedback takes practice and is an art to handle correctly.  But there is a very simple framework approach that makes the process easy and productive if followed in a step-by-step fashion.  Having sat through hundreds of these presentation, and still learning, I find this simple approach most effective.

5 Key Steps to Providing Feedback on Creative Ideas

1. Sincerely thank the people that worked hard on the idea – really, the presenters have poured a lot of time and energy.  You would be surprised at how rarely this is done
2. Point out first what is working well  given the brief objective.  What is inspiring?  What connects with you personally?
3. Which idea best communicates the key consumer idea identified in the brief, regardless of your personal liking.
4. What areas could be improved and what is missing – was anything unclear, confusing, etc.  Be specific as to elements you with which you are having problems.
5. Do not try to fix the creative with your specific suggestions – this will backfire and leave the creative team uncomfortable, uninspired and confused with what to do next. They are the creative group you have hired for their expertise, not your own.

By the way, I have also seen marketers take a short break and compose their thoughts before providing feedback against these points.  This is a perfectly acceptable approach and the creative team will appreciate your well-constructed feedback. 

This 5-step approach is perfect for feedback for any creative presentation and can be adapted to fit your own personal style.  It is simple and keeps comments focused, clear and useable.  The creative team will be more likely to hear the feedback and and feel inspired to take their work to the next level if needed.

Should You Outsource Your Marketing?

Outsourcing, for the small and mid-sized company, can be a very effective strategy to gain access to skills, and services at a fraction of the cost of hiring employees.  There is an adage that a company should outsource everything that is not a core competency.  For years, firms have taken this on in the areas of payroll, IT, distribution, and logistics.  Certain functions, such as sales, marketing, R&D, etc. have been held close within the organization as core competencies due their strategic ability to grow the firm and their intimate knowledge of the growth levers of the business. 

The time to reassess this practice may be here.  One of the largest components of any firm’s costs are in the compensation of its staff.  Even a small department of 2 – 4 people can cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation alone, not to mention computers, phone and rented space.  This expense is also not flexible when topline sales may be temporarily weaker than normal.  What does outsourcing deliver?

1. Access to top talent
2. Latest thinking in the field
3. Methods and processes built and tested over time in other organizations
4. Ability to contract and pay only for services needed, rendered 

What About Marketing?

Marketing’s role in the organization is to first set the correct marketing strategy for growth.  Marketing will then take on any of a number of functions in the marketing mix (see insert) depending on the needs of the organization.  Marketers should understand and build the consumer insights that feed communication, and product development.  Marketing’ will also develop and execute the outbound functions of the communication with the customer.  This includes public relations, advertising, social media, market research, promotions, and provide customer and consumer direction for the company’s innovation pipeline.  Marketing staff typically handles even the tactical customer presentations, logos and letterhead, trade shows etc. Smaller organizations do not need all of these areas covered at any one time.

There is a small, but growing, field of contractors that specialize in the area of marketing and can assist management in setting strategy and developing programs typically handled by an internal marketing department.  They will develop these programs or work with outside agencies ensuring that each resource is delivering against the plan.  

Many small firms go directly to a PR, ad, or web design agency to fill the role of a marketing department.  There are drawbacks to this approach.  First, agencies tend to specialize in an area of execution.  This area may or may not align with the strategic needs of the company.  PR agencies will offer great PR programs, advertising agencies will look to advertise, web and social media will provide social media solutions.  Second, agencies still have a vested interest in you spending as much as your budget allows, where a marketer should only be interested in effective spend, flexibility and growing the bottom line of the company.

Many smaller- to medium-sized businesses must keep a keen eye on the day-to-day managing of their business.  Marketing can become a distraction taking up valuable time and energy away from the operational side of the business.  For many firms, outsourcing can be a very cost effective way to gain access to top notch skills to get the results needed.