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Oct,
2007
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you to see the last episode (10/4) of The Office? It's the one where the
company, which has lost 7 of its big clients in the last year, has promoted
Ryan, the young up and coming manager from Scranton to try to bring the
company into the digital age to win back the business they have lost. Michael, the threatened overlooked old manager embarks on a quest to show that the old methods still work best. He decides they are going to win back the business by dropping in on their past customers and personally bring them fruit baskets. Michael has been the manager for years and is absolute when he says, "Business to business the old fashioned way - no blackberries, no websites… people to people. I'd like to see a website deliver a fruit basket!" As you might have expected, each of their past customers has a similar response, saying that the competitor has a website that is so easy to use and it saves us time and money. Michael is incredulous that these customers don't appreciate the good old fashioned customer service. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE!" What do they say about comedy coming from real pain? The first principal in Marketing 101 is "know your customer". If you start and end your marketing plan with your customer in mind your marketing plan should be a success. Then why do so many marketers fail? It is because just like Michael in The Office, the unsuccessful marketers are relying on old information. To be fair to many small businesses, the CEO, Sales Manager and Marketing Manager are all the same person and to even consider changing means devoting precious hours they just do not have to learning new marketing techniques. It is easier to spend their limited marketing dollars sending out another brochure to the same mailing list or go to the same old trade show. Study after study tells us that the tide has changed and companies don't want a phone call, lunch date or fruit basket. B2B buyers want you to make their busy lives easier. EASY to find detailed product information - EASY to compare product information - EASY to get a price and EASY to order and they want it online 24/7. Sounds EASY... doesn't it. If you find yourself saying, "Our market is different. They don't care about the internet." You might want to take closer look! If you are curious about what happened to all those fruit baskets. They are underwater inside the car that Michael accidentally drove into a lake when he ignored his GPS system!
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I always appreciate your feed back. If you have any questions about this article or your ThomasNet program, feel free to contact me at mary@trconn.com or (860) 601-0150. This article was written by Mary Dykas MVP representing ThomasNet |
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