Sobel Co. LLC Business Blog

As the new year unfolds there is still plenty of time for you to reinvigorate your marketing and business development initiatives and get 2012 off to a good start! Someone recently asked me to sum up, in a nutshell, what the most critical marketing information is – in other words, they wanted me to identify the key activities that they really need to focus on to build their brand.  I thought it was a great question, and I share my response with you all:

1. Know what you do – be crystal clear across your entire organization regarding your core competency.  Once you know who you are, it is much easier to identify your audience, your competitors and your strategic alliances!

2. Write a plan and include a timeline for implementation and a projected budget.  A written plan gives you structure, helps you stay focused, and with a timeline and a budget, makes it practical and realistic to execute your ideas.

3. Identify a niche and do your best to ‘own’ it.  Understand your customers in a unique way that your competitors don’t or can’t.  Serve their specific needs and become somewhat famous for your expertise.

4. Establish a presence.  If you are going to sustain growth you need to attract and retain quality  customers over time. To do this, you need to build a brand that is well regarded and respected. You do that by being active in the community you select as your target audience. It takes work, commitment and time to establish yourself and your company as a leading player but the results are worth it. You gain a competitive edge by being acknowledged as a leader in your industry and especially in your niche market.

5. Build meaningful relationships. Your network of connections across the business community, with the local media and with other influencers is one of the best ways to have an impact .  Successful word of mouth marketing combined with the ability to create top of mind awareness  can provide you with a unique advantage over your competitors, and this is often accomplished by building powerful relationships.  This is a very different concept than networking because I am not referencing superficial interactions and business card exchanges (although those may work for some people), but rather I am talking about the power of meaningful relationships, founded on trust, honesty and mutual benefits

I am pretty confident that if you embrace these five tips  your  company will benefit! Do you have others to share with us?

We recently highlighted one of our clients in a monthly newsletter we publish at our firm.  The reason the client was so interesting was because they are just about to celebrate their 40th anniversary and the most important characteristic is their family’s strict adherence to core values.  They live by the words, “Do the right thing” and as a result customers, suppliers and employees are loyal.  All too often we lose sight of the fact that the people in our business community have a hard time distinguishing one company for another. (Especially when everyone makes the same promises of excellent service and competitive pricing.)

The challenge for anyone in business is to be able to really distinguish the company by doing more than talk about client service – but all too few companies really put their promise in motion.  It is easy to post a mission statement or a Client Bill of Rights on your website, but often very difficult to let those words be the very foundation of your company.

It can be risky to train employees to put the customer first; it can be unprofitable to do the right thing; but you really never lose when you embrace values and stick to your principals.  When you do the right thing, you will be creating a strong bond with customers, vendors and your staff – a bond that once forged becomes hard to break, making it harder for competitors to gain access to your customers.

I would love to hear from you.  Tell us what extra services you offer or what attitudes you display that make your company unique. How do you show your customers that you are willing to do the right thing?  How do you remain competitive in a crowded field?

Listening to John J. Galiher, CEO and President of Preferred Freezer Services, this morning at an event for Association for Corporate Growth discuss the process he went through in order to discover which employees are most valued in the organization – and to understand why they are so valued.  To accomplish this he asked his senior leadership team to pick the employees they thought typified the best in the company and (not surprisingly) they  over lapped on several of the names.  This meant that they all agreed on who was a valued employee;so  the next step was to determine the common characteristics shared by these special employees.

They noticed that the traits that all the top employees shared were: a willingness to consistently over perform, unwavering integrity, a desire to help others, and acceptance of a role as servant/leaders, meaning they found ways to ‘serve’ others, such as through coaching and mentoring.

What are the critical factors that help you measure your best employees? Do you recognize the traits they share – and hire for these attributes?

During a newscast I heard today on the radio, a business  journalist was commenting on a trend he has observed occurring with greater frequency in  small -t0 – mid size companies regarding their marketing efforts.  These enterprises are digging down deeper, gaining experience and traction in some of their niche areas. Rather than spread themselves out, offer a range of products or services, they are focusing on their core competencies and getting more immersed in areas that are critical for them.  Their ability to establish a presence in a niche, and to gain customers and retain customers as a result of their developing a more powerful reputation as the niche leader, is making their efforts worthwhile.

If you have  identified some key target markets or industry segments that work well for you and are profitable for the company, consider drilling down and re-focusing on a vertical rather than a horizontal approach!

Whether you are using paid Internet advertising (such as a program like Pay per Click) or not, you need to ensure that your site is designed to attract visitors.  Ilene Greene, President of MarketShare, spoke at Sobel & Co.’s Executive Women’s Breakfast program this morning, shared words of wisdom on how to get consistent exposure on the Internet.

The critical component is for you to do the things that enhance Search Engine Optimization (SEO), making it easier and more likely for the search engines (web crawlers) to index your site and consider it worthy of mention when key words and phrases are used by someone conducting a search .  To gain the attention of the search engines (which operate on a mathematical, logical logarithm that helps them seek out key characteristics) your site needs to be:

-Relevant

-Updated regularly

-Easy to navigate

-Connected to social media – linked to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and a blog

- Able to quickly demonstrate your authority in your field; able showcase your company as the experts

-Equipped with long tail words and phrases

While it is still important to offer nicely designed sites, in today’s world content is king.  The more relevant information you share the better it is for your organization.  It is estimated that people remain on a site for about six seconds – unless they find something relevant that holds their attention. Ilene’s final words: Leverage what you do best to attract search engines and always remember to invest in your audience. provide the critical, timely information they want and need – and they will come back.

When Joe Connolly from the Wall Street Journal was speaking today on the 8:00 am  news, he mentioned a trend that he has observed. According to Connolly, business owners are working harder than ever at finding new methods for communicating with existing customers while at the same time identifying opportunities to begin a dialogue with prospective customers. The one way that small to mid-size companies have to distinguish themselves is through their customer service, which starts with good communication between the customer and the company.  Whether you use personal phone calls, emails, customer feedback surveys (written or electronic) or some other form of communication, the key for you is to leverage a variety of interactive tools that enable you to have ongoing and meaningful outreach to your customers.

When did you last talk to your customers?

In his newest book, “The Business of Cause Marketing,” Chris Rosica reminds the corporate world – companies of every size and across every sector – that their customers want to do business with companies that they can connect to emotionally.  Instead of focusing on profits and shareholder value, business leaders need to think about how they can engage in more socially responsible behavior, getting vital media coverage for their efforts and motivating customers and employees at the same time by adopting such a positive approach.

Chris calls this “cause marketing” and he says: “Cause marketing is a powerful but rarely seized opportunity for a corporation to strategically associate itself with philanthropic involvement and, in turn, to emotionally and intellectually connect with its existing ad propsective customers. A pitiful 5% of charitable dollars are raised by corporations, a figure  that demonstrates the need for corporate giving and points to a compelling reason for business to engage in cause-marketing partnerships.”

Think about it – what does this mean for you and your company? Start 2012 off on the right foot and consider aligning with a local nonprofit organization so that you can  help each other and the community in which you live and work.

In the recently released book on Steve Jobs, one of the lessons learned is about the three characteristics he believed contributed to a successful company. I am happy to share them with you- and would ask that you think about how your company addresses these important concepts.

1. Empathy – for Jobs this meant having an intimate connection with the customer; understanding their needs and producing the products they would love.

2. Focus – this meant staying targeted on what you can do well, eliminating any unessential or unimportant services and products in order to deliver exactly what you do best.

3. Impute – for Steve this was all about making an immediate favorable impression on his customers.  He wanted to give them the best product of the highest quality that they would really value so they could form a good opinion,” imputing” what the company is about from their first interaction.

These are critical concepts – and they are the building blocks for a well-run, standout company. What’s on your strategic plan for 2012?

Most of you are owners of a middle market, family-owned or closely-held, company.  As such you have responsibilities as the leaders of your organization to inspire your employees, to connect well with clients and customers and to develop trusting relationships with your vendors, professional advisors and suppliers.  Being a successful business person or entrepreneur is not always synonymous with being a successful leader.

Working with others, and finding ways to get the best effort out of everyone, is a challenge . but the good news is that great leaders are not always born – they are taught over time. If you are looking to develop the basic characteristics that are common to well regarded leaders, you can find a number of books and research done on the topic. But most importantly, the key for you is to feel comfortable in your role, to understand your company’s culture and to learn to be an engaged listener and an excellent communicator.  The more you hear and understand the people you work with and for, the better  you can influence behavior and create an environment that is passionate, energetic and people-focused.

Being self-aware is an important component of the best leaders. They have the distinctive ability to see themselves clearly, recognizing their own shortcomings and being sensitive to the positive and negative impact they have on others.

Good leadership is essential for your company to flourish today and to move toward an effective transition tomorrow.  Provide inspiration, direction and support – be a role model and lead by example – challenges others to do their best and give them the tools to reach their goals -and you will be the kind of leader that makes a difference.

As the year draws to a close, this is a terrific opportunity for all business owners, large and small, to consider what their unique selling proposition may be.  While it is important to be flexible and to be prepared to re-tool and re-position as needed, it is equally as essential for the company to recognize its strengths and leverage what is most unique about its products and service offerings.  if you have nothing unique about your company – not even the way you answer the phone, remember customers’ names, or the refreshments you offer in your waiting room, then you have no key way to differentiate yourself from your competitors except on price.  That can be a slippery slope for you, as you may not always be the low cost provider. If that is your distinctive advantage, then you can lose it when your own costs rise.

Instead, sit down with employees, vendors and top customers and use the new year for some strategic planning based on what you do very well – what you do better than most others in your field. Knowing your USP (unique selling proposition) helps you make laser-like decisions to promote your company to your targeted market. Without knowing what you do that is exceptional, you run the risk of having a weak and ineffective marketing position.  Talking to others, conducting a 360 degree analysis that includes a range of perspectives, can help you gain clearer insight into how you add the most value.

If you have ever tried this approach, please let us know how it has worked for you.