If you grew up in the 1980s, you'd know that double glazing was all the rage. The double glazing gold rush was pursued vigorously and competitively by an army of double glazing sales people who used each and every technique in the book to win those sales.
As their market started to contract, their sales tactics got stronger and more erratic. The consumer affairs programme Watchdog was awash with complaints about strong arm sales tactics, calling on vulnerable people unawares, and generally becoming a nuisance to society.
This kind of sales pest behaviour is well documented, and broadly disliked. But despite that, some organisations and industries persist in maintaining this sales approach.
Take my job, for instance. I'm one of those strange people who spend their life developing and delivering marketing plans. This means I spend time looking at the market, identifying key messages, setting marketing objectives, finding suitable communication mediums, setting budgets, spending them, and delivering against that plan.
I find this delivers results.
Advertising sales people, clearly, assume that I do something completely different.
Judging by their bizarre behaviour, they must think I sit at my desk with a big pot of money waiting on the last minute, must buy advertising opportunity to plonk right into my lap. Relevant or not.
This baffles me.
Some advertising sales people have got it right. Every January I have meeting after meeting with sales reps from outdoor advertising companies and radio stations. They ask what we have coming up for the year, I tell them. They show me the range of their products, they share their pricing mechanisms with me. They give me data on their media and its effectiveness. Occasionally they bring goodies - nothing ostentatious - but my spoils from these meetings have included packets of biscuits, boxes of chocolates, post-it notes and mugs.
They see their job to assist me in the all important planning and budgeting stages. The outcome of this clever and well thought out sales process is very simple: they have a higher likelihood of being included in my marketing plans.
Print advertising sales people (in the main, and there are a few exceptions) seem to respond to seeing other media or adverts and call me. Daily. Incessantly.
And the truth is, they haven't got a hope in hell of placing a sale - because the budget and media plan is already set. They have missed the proverbial boat. And not just by minutes. It sailed weeks ago.
I am not alone in being caught in the grip of the onslaught of advertising sales. Our clients are sick to death of it. As a result, we offer them this promise as part of our service: Let us deal with them.
And we do.
We route all our calls through a call answering service so it's easy to analyse the impact of advertising sales calls on our business.
Last week 61% of the incoming calls we received were from advertising sales people. Each and every single one of them believed they were the only advertising sales person to call me that day.
Only one of those calls was from a sales person from whom I was actively trying to purchase. One person called 5 times. In one day. And refused to leave a message. She will assume I don't know that she called that many times, however our system tells me everything I need to know. Imagine the negative impact on that publication's brand before she even gets through to me.
This erratic and seemingly desperate behaviour is indicative of an industry in turmoil. Readership figures are dropping, prices are increasing and their sales teams are panicking. If they see a poster in a train station on their way to work, they call that company that very day to see if they want to buy advertising. Their not so very clever assumption is that because we have already spent money on advertising, we must have money for advertising.
I know this to be true as, in our plan, we have the "in charge" dates of outdoor advertising sites I've booked, and every time we have a billboard or a poster go up in the outdoors, we brace ourselves for a flurry of advertising sales calls from daily newspapers. It's almost laughable. But it's really not that funny.
Print publications need to sort their advertising teams out and get back to the basics of selling. Know their market, know their needs and meet them. Otherwise they are in grave danger of becoming the double glazing sales people of the business world.
You have been warned.
Sunday, 21 August 2011
Saturday, 20 August 2011
Don't Say you Can if you Can't
My husband recently ordered a room divider for his new office. The website said it would be delivered within 2 weeks.
Almost 6 weeks down the line he is still waiting.
In a fit of growing irritation he's called the company daily for the last 8 days. Various excuses have ensued: the factory is closed for two weeks, it's waiting to be despatched, it'll be with you tomorrow, it'll be with you next week, we're not sure where we are with that order.
That company is now in big trouble:
You can't legislate for intelligence in business. So let's try to keep it really simple:
Don't say you can do it, if you really, really can't.
Almost 6 weeks down the line he is still waiting.
In a fit of growing irritation he's called the company daily for the last 8 days. Various excuses have ensued: the factory is closed for two weeks, it's waiting to be despatched, it'll be with you tomorrow, it'll be with you next week, we're not sure where we are with that order.
That company is now in big trouble:
- It's in breach of the UK's Distance Selling Regulations
- It has also breached the Advertising Standards Authority's rules and regulations with making false claims on their website
- And it's clearly in breach of Contract
You can't legislate for intelligence in business. So let's try to keep it really simple:
Don't say you can do it, if you really, really can't.
Sunday, 14 August 2011
Teach a Man to Fish
Marketing has always been, for me, a fascinating subject. Drawing on many academic disciplines from psychology to maths, from art to economics.
At its heart, marketing is very simply the process of buying customers. It's both an art and a science. And much of its motivation is based on a simple theory: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
Maslow was a psychologist whose 1943 paper, A Theory of Human Motivation, suggested that individuals had a simple progression of needs starting with the physiological and ranging to the self-actualizing. The premise was that until one need was fulfilled, the individual had little or no desire to move onto their next priority.
Marketers have traditionally used the hierarchy as a means to communicating product benefits (slimmer, prettier, faster, better) and driving lifestyle choices (fulfilled, happy).
The recent London riots would perhaps suggest that, some 60 years later, Maslow's pyramid may no longer be as relevant.
Just one week ago London, and a number of other English cities, were gripped in a series of so called "consumer riots" which saw thousands of, mainly young people, take to the streets to thieve and loot.
The spoils of their efforts? 42" plasma TVs, shoes, DVD players, trainers, bicycles, alcohol, designer jeans..... the exhausting list of fast moving consumer goods goes on and on.
This was society's poor, we are all being led to believe. Neglected, unemployed, gang-ravaged communities. Their riotous efforts could be, depressingly, understood within that context, even justified.
But this was no modern re-make of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. These rioters weren't starving to death. It wasn't bread and water they were looting for, it was plasma TVs and games consoles. So much for Maslow's hierarchy.
These people have put self actualization at the very top of their needs list. Everything else? Seemingly secondary. The Bishop of Manchester agrees.
But perhaps marketers are partly to blame for this overt, all consuming consumerism? Maybe this is the culmination of all that is fundamentally wrong with capitalism? But can businesses play a part in helping society to change?
When I think about the corporate obsession with perfection, it leaves little room for mistakes and therefore learning. How do these young people get a genuine start in life if no-one is willing to teach them, or give them the opportunities to learn?
I've always felt that businesses have a role in education. I am extremely grateful to those companies and managers who took me on with little or no experience and taught me the skills of their trade. I may not have followed a career in some of their lines of work, but they were willing to take the risk. Now we are so obsessed with perfection in service delivery and efficiency in operations that it's our young people who are genuinely missing out.
So, for all those business owners out there who employ people, this is your broom. This is your opportunity to help clean up our community and make a tangible difference. This is not someone else's problem. And it's certainly not just the responsibility of government. It's our problem to solve. Each and every single one of us.
Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for one day. Teach a man to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime.
Let's get back to basics.
At its heart, marketing is very simply the process of buying customers. It's both an art and a science. And much of its motivation is based on a simple theory: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
Maslow was a psychologist whose 1943 paper, A Theory of Human Motivation, suggested that individuals had a simple progression of needs starting with the physiological and ranging to the self-actualizing. The premise was that until one need was fulfilled, the individual had little or no desire to move onto their next priority.
Marketers have traditionally used the hierarchy as a means to communicating product benefits (slimmer, prettier, faster, better) and driving lifestyle choices (fulfilled, happy).
The recent London riots would perhaps suggest that, some 60 years later, Maslow's pyramid may no longer be as relevant.
Just one week ago London, and a number of other English cities, were gripped in a series of so called "consumer riots" which saw thousands of, mainly young people, take to the streets to thieve and loot.
The spoils of their efforts? 42" plasma TVs, shoes, DVD players, trainers, bicycles, alcohol, designer jeans..... the exhausting list of fast moving consumer goods goes on and on.
This was society's poor, we are all being led to believe. Neglected, unemployed, gang-ravaged communities. Their riotous efforts could be, depressingly, understood within that context, even justified.
But this was no modern re-make of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. These rioters weren't starving to death. It wasn't bread and water they were looting for, it was plasma TVs and games consoles. So much for Maslow's hierarchy.
These people have put self actualization at the very top of their needs list. Everything else? Seemingly secondary. The Bishop of Manchester agrees.
But perhaps marketers are partly to blame for this overt, all consuming consumerism? Maybe this is the culmination of all that is fundamentally wrong with capitalism? But can businesses play a part in helping society to change?
When I think about the corporate obsession with perfection, it leaves little room for mistakes and therefore learning. How do these young people get a genuine start in life if no-one is willing to teach them, or give them the opportunities to learn?
I've always felt that businesses have a role in education. I am extremely grateful to those companies and managers who took me on with little or no experience and taught me the skills of their trade. I may not have followed a career in some of their lines of work, but they were willing to take the risk. Now we are so obsessed with perfection in service delivery and efficiency in operations that it's our young people who are genuinely missing out.
So, for all those business owners out there who employ people, this is your broom. This is your opportunity to help clean up our community and make a tangible difference. This is not someone else's problem. And it's certainly not just the responsibility of government. It's our problem to solve. Each and every single one of us.
Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for one day. Teach a man to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime.
Let's get back to basics.
Monday, 8 August 2011
Word of Mouth Marketing: The Holy Grail
We’re often led to believe that word of mouth marketing is the very best kind. Reliable, effectives and free, it spreads like wildfire and costs the company nothing. But marketers often miss out on two vital components of word of mouth marketing: it must first be believable, and everyone needs to be saying it.
We live in a cynical age, where integrity appears to be lacking and even the most well meaning claims are subject to scrutiny.
Several months ago I switched supermarkets. I ditched the weekly Tesco shop in favour of “luxury” food market Marks & Spencer. In one simple move I saved time, money and improved the quality of the food we eat.
But, and here’s the interesting part, everyone I’ve told about this amazing money and time saving move hasn’t believed me. They’re just not convinced. It’s not just any food, it’s Marks and Spencer food. Surely it must be more expensive.
The cost of my weekly shop has dropped by almost 40%. The time I have to spend shopping has been halved. I can’t argue much with figures like that. But everyone seems doubtful that my information is correct.
“Try it for yourself!” I suggest.
My suggestions fall on deaf ears. I’m the only crazy woman I know making these claims. Remember: word of mouth only works if everyone else is saying it too. This is one of the indisputable laws of marketing. A demand curve that first demands that there is a slow burn of early adopters.
This is true for almost every product or service ever launched. Unless you are Google+ that is.
When I consider the number Facebook or Dropbox requests I suspiciously ignored before I finally gave in (mainly to the sheer volume) then I guess it’s reasonable to assume I’m not one of the world’s early, early adopters.
In the early adoption stakes, Google+ has played a blinder launching as an “invitation only” – there’s nothing more alluring to word of mouth early adopters than something they can’t get access to. Claiming the fastest social network launch in history, and well on its way to 20 million members, the sheer volume of people talking about Google+ is enough to guarantee initial success.
By jumping the demand curve, and putting early adoption above everything else, Google+ may have missed one crucial thing: if all the early adopters abandon the network after failing to find anything interesting in it, they’ll have to work twice as hard to continue to grow. After all, who wants 20million early adopters saying it’s not worth it? Better to have a smaller number of early adopters giving you useful feedback on how to improve. and develop. That’s what’s behind the success of Facebook. And Marks & Spencer.
We live in a cynical age, where integrity appears to be lacking and even the most well meaning claims are subject to scrutiny.
Several months ago I switched supermarkets. I ditched the weekly Tesco shop in favour of “luxury” food market Marks & Spencer. In one simple move I saved time, money and improved the quality of the food we eat.
But, and here’s the interesting part, everyone I’ve told about this amazing money and time saving move hasn’t believed me. They’re just not convinced. It’s not just any food, it’s Marks and Spencer food. Surely it must be more expensive.
The cost of my weekly shop has dropped by almost 40%. The time I have to spend shopping has been halved. I can’t argue much with figures like that. But everyone seems doubtful that my information is correct.
“Try it for yourself!” I suggest.
My suggestions fall on deaf ears. I’m the only crazy woman I know making these claims. Remember: word of mouth only works if everyone else is saying it too. This is one of the indisputable laws of marketing. A demand curve that first demands that there is a slow burn of early adopters.
This is true for almost every product or service ever launched. Unless you are Google+ that is.
When I consider the number Facebook or Dropbox requests I suspiciously ignored before I finally gave in (mainly to the sheer volume) then I guess it’s reasonable to assume I’m not one of the world’s early, early adopters.
In the early adoption stakes, Google+ has played a blinder launching as an “invitation only” – there’s nothing more alluring to word of mouth early adopters than something they can’t get access to. Claiming the fastest social network launch in history, and well on its way to 20 million members, the sheer volume of people talking about Google+ is enough to guarantee initial success.
By jumping the demand curve, and putting early adoption above everything else, Google+ may have missed one crucial thing: if all the early adopters abandon the network after failing to find anything interesting in it, they’ll have to work twice as hard to continue to grow. After all, who wants 20million early adopters saying it’s not worth it? Better to have a smaller number of early adopters giving you useful feedback on how to improve. and develop. That’s what’s behind the success of Facebook. And Marks & Spencer.
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Not Sure What to Call this One so Let's Just call it "Sorry"
On Sunday I wrote my blog. Nothing unusual about that: I've been writing every Sunday for months now.
Except this one turned out to be different. It was to be my first ever Huffington Post submission.
"Write about something topical" they suggested. But as a writer on business related topics, that's not always so easy.
News that Amy Winehouse had just died on the Saturday was prevalent. A terrible tragedy of a talented life cut cruelly short. Forgive me, but I really do see a certain symmetry here with small business owners, many of whom fail to succeed for a multitude of different reasons.
So that became the topic of my blog. Big mistake.
Within minutes of being published on the Huffington Post, my blog started to attract comments - most of them negative.
Within hours, my blog was being blogged about.
In less than a day, other bloggers had started to blog about me and my blog post. I note, in this world of uncensored journalism that not one of them contacted me for a quick interview.
I apologised online for any offence I had caused. Still it didn't seem to make any difference.
In a public pillorying reserved usually for just the rich, famous and political, I got the equivalent of an online roasting.
Then some of the criticism turned personal. Idiot. Bigot. Narcissist. Reprehensible. Insensitive. The list, regrettably, goes on.
In a McCarthy-esque turn of events, people began to hunt me down. Huffington Post didn't publish their comments so they turned to Twitter to harass me. Others got to me on facebook. Some tried other routes.
So here's the deal (without trying to sound too much like Bill Clinton in my defence):
I did NOT mean to offend anybody. I did see the analogy. I'll take on board the points about sharpening up my writing. And I appreciate that many will have found the content to have been in bad taste. For that I am truly sorry.
I did NOT write my blog as a deliberate link bait. I wrote it because I write about business and, as a Huffington Post submission, it was recommended that is was topical. Inadvertently I seem to have seem to have "link baited" - a terms I didn't even know until Sunday night. It was never my intention. Who would want attention like this anyway?
I DID protect my tweets and my facebook pages. And I make no apology for that. These pages are mine to protect.
I DID initially try to respond to people's comments individually. However when things turned nasty, and I hope you'll forgive me, I decided it was better not to engage in further conversation. Tasteless blog or not. Bullying of any kind, on or offline, is unacceptable. And bullying includes name calling.
And finally, without wanting to sound too cynical here, the Huffington Post small business section is a relatively new area of their site. Most of the other articles, from what I can see, have less traffic, less interaction and less standing in google.
Which really does leave me wondering if I was, naively, the bait.
Except this one turned out to be different. It was to be my first ever Huffington Post submission.
"Write about something topical" they suggested. But as a writer on business related topics, that's not always so easy.
News that Amy Winehouse had just died on the Saturday was prevalent. A terrible tragedy of a talented life cut cruelly short. Forgive me, but I really do see a certain symmetry here with small business owners, many of whom fail to succeed for a multitude of different reasons.
So that became the topic of my blog. Big mistake.
Within minutes of being published on the Huffington Post, my blog started to attract comments - most of them negative.
Within hours, my blog was being blogged about.
In less than a day, other bloggers had started to blog about me and my blog post. I note, in this world of uncensored journalism that not one of them contacted me for a quick interview.
I apologised online for any offence I had caused. Still it didn't seem to make any difference.
In a public pillorying reserved usually for just the rich, famous and political, I got the equivalent of an online roasting.
Then some of the criticism turned personal. Idiot. Bigot. Narcissist. Reprehensible. Insensitive. The list, regrettably, goes on.
In a McCarthy-esque turn of events, people began to hunt me down. Huffington Post didn't publish their comments so they turned to Twitter to harass me. Others got to me on facebook. Some tried other routes.
So here's the deal (without trying to sound too much like Bill Clinton in my defence):
I did NOT mean to offend anybody. I did see the analogy. I'll take on board the points about sharpening up my writing. And I appreciate that many will have found the content to have been in bad taste. For that I am truly sorry.
I did NOT write my blog as a deliberate link bait. I wrote it because I write about business and, as a Huffington Post submission, it was recommended that is was topical. Inadvertently I seem to have seem to have "link baited" - a terms I didn't even know until Sunday night. It was never my intention. Who would want attention like this anyway?
I DID protect my tweets and my facebook pages. And I make no apology for that. These pages are mine to protect.
I DID initially try to respond to people's comments individually. However when things turned nasty, and I hope you'll forgive me, I decided it was better not to engage in further conversation. Tasteless blog or not. Bullying of any kind, on or offline, is unacceptable. And bullying includes name calling.
And finally, without wanting to sound too cynical here, the Huffington Post small business section is a relatively new area of their site. Most of the other articles, from what I can see, have less traffic, less interaction and less standing in google.
Which really does leave me wondering if I was, naively, the bait.
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Amy Winehouse's Untimely Death is a Wake Up Call for Small Business Owners
It would be terribly remiss of me not to blog about the untimely death of the 27 year old British singer Amy Winehouse today.
Unlike others, I won't be picking apart her chosen lifestyle, nor will I be judging her. She made her own choices and, although it would appear that these choices ultimately led to her death, they were hers to make.
For small business owners there is, however, a lot to be learned from Amy's untimely death.
Although rarely referred to as such, most musical artistes and celebrities are businesses in their own right. In fact, for all those detractors out there that say that being"self-employed" is not a "proper" business, think again. This successful business model is one that has been proven time and time again.
But whether you are a pop star, a plumber or a business consultant, the same rules still apply: you ARE the product. And if that's the case, you are going to need to take really good care for yourself if you want your business to succeed.
Amy got off to a great start. She had the raw talent and the skills to write and perform. She trained herself, brought the right people around her and she made it to the big time. And quickly.
With five grammys and a Brit Award to her name, you'd think she was untouchable. But, like every fledgling, fast growing business, Amy lost control. Her "brand" became driven by her record company. Her "image" was tinkered with, and her relationship with the media resembled more of a cat and mouse game (where Amy was the mouse), than a strategically managed campaign. Little by little the public saw a young, healthy, talented girl, slim down to just a shadow of her former self.
At first, she was talented enough to get by. Live performances, although slightly edgy, were strong enough to forgive the fact that she'd obviously had a few before she went on stage. But eventually, even this all proved too much for her adoring fans and just a few months ago, the quality of her performance was so poor she was booed off stage in Serbia.
There are so many parallels here in business. A young business starts well, and gets busy. The business owner frequently ignores their own health, swapping trips to the gym for an extra couple of hours in the office, eating takeaway dinners instead of healthy home cooked food, scrimping on sleep and generally running themselves into the ground.
This cycle of personal abandonment all leads to poor decision making in business. Recruiting too many staff (usually the wrong ones) too quickly. Missing deadlines. Not responding to Customers. Falling behind with the business finances.
And then the wheels fall off. This is the business equivalent of being booed off stage.
Clients complain, or worse - walk, and businesses are left in a spiral of decline that, in some cases can be irreversible.
So, my advice to small business owners (and pop stars) is this: your job is like a marathon, not a 100m sprint.
You need to train for it. Moreover you need to maintain your own health and fitness first because if you are at the core of the business. You ARE the brand. Start eating healthily, stop scrimping on sleep and start going to the gym.
It may sound simple. But it works. You will benefit. Your customers will benefit. Your business will benefit.
And today, in honour of Amy Winehouse, I am going to go to the gym. For the first time in about six months. She's just reminded me why I should.
Unlike others, I won't be picking apart her chosen lifestyle, nor will I be judging her. She made her own choices and, although it would appear that these choices ultimately led to her death, they were hers to make.
For small business owners there is, however, a lot to be learned from Amy's untimely death.
Although rarely referred to as such, most musical artistes and celebrities are businesses in their own right. In fact, for all those detractors out there that say that being"self-employed" is not a "proper" business, think again. This successful business model is one that has been proven time and time again.
But whether you are a pop star, a plumber or a business consultant, the same rules still apply: you ARE the product. And if that's the case, you are going to need to take really good care for yourself if you want your business to succeed.
Amy got off to a great start. She had the raw talent and the skills to write and perform. She trained herself, brought the right people around her and she made it to the big time. And quickly.
With five grammys and a Brit Award to her name, you'd think she was untouchable. But, like every fledgling, fast growing business, Amy lost control. Her "brand" became driven by her record company. Her "image" was tinkered with, and her relationship with the media resembled more of a cat and mouse game (where Amy was the mouse), than a strategically managed campaign. Little by little the public saw a young, healthy, talented girl, slim down to just a shadow of her former self.
At first, she was talented enough to get by. Live performances, although slightly edgy, were strong enough to forgive the fact that she'd obviously had a few before she went on stage. But eventually, even this all proved too much for her adoring fans and just a few months ago, the quality of her performance was so poor she was booed off stage in Serbia.
There are so many parallels here in business. A young business starts well, and gets busy. The business owner frequently ignores their own health, swapping trips to the gym for an extra couple of hours in the office, eating takeaway dinners instead of healthy home cooked food, scrimping on sleep and generally running themselves into the ground.
This cycle of personal abandonment all leads to poor decision making in business. Recruiting too many staff (usually the wrong ones) too quickly. Missing deadlines. Not responding to Customers. Falling behind with the business finances.
And then the wheels fall off. This is the business equivalent of being booed off stage.
Clients complain, or worse - walk, and businesses are left in a spiral of decline that, in some cases can be irreversible.
So, my advice to small business owners (and pop stars) is this: your job is like a marathon, not a 100m sprint.
You need to train for it. Moreover you need to maintain your own health and fitness first because if you are at the core of the business. You ARE the brand. Start eating healthily, stop scrimping on sleep and start going to the gym.
It may sound simple. But it works. You will benefit. Your customers will benefit. Your business will benefit.
And today, in honour of Amy Winehouse, I am going to go to the gym. For the first time in about six months. She's just reminded me why I should.
Sunday, 17 July 2011
Pride: In the Name of Love
I'm definitely a messy pup. In absence for a full time cleaner my house is, at the best of times, in need of a good and thorough tidy up.
My workplace, however, is a very different story.
While it occasionally dips into chaos (more often than not following several coinciding print deliveries) it is, in the main, a bastion of tidiness and order in which we take great pride as a team.
We're currently working with some businesses who have let that pride slip. Battered down by the ravages of two years' recessionary sales, they've taken less and less care of their appearance and it's become a major problem for them.
Team members no longer really care about how things look, placing items here, there and everywhere. And as the level of clutter increases, the sales figures fall at a similar pace.
So we've suggested something revolutionary to help them kick start sales: tidy up.
Have a good clearout. Hire a skip. Dump it all. Un-deck the halls. Make some space.
We did the same thing ourselves a few months ago. I stopped procrastinating, hired a storage facility and we spent a weekend archiving and shifting boxes. Interestingly we seem to be busier with more client work than ever. A coincidence? I don't think so.
The impact on one business we're working with is equally positive. The business owner is beaming with pride. They have started making plans for the future. They are excited about where they work. Their sales have (suspiciously) started to increase.
And with no "sales and marketing" involved whatsoever.
Take a look around your office tomorrow morning. If it looks like it needs a good clearout, talk to your colleagues schedule in a late evening or a Saturday morning and get it done. It'll make a big difference to your working life. I promise you.
My workplace, however, is a very different story.
While it occasionally dips into chaos (more often than not following several coinciding print deliveries) it is, in the main, a bastion of tidiness and order in which we take great pride as a team.
We're currently working with some businesses who have let that pride slip. Battered down by the ravages of two years' recessionary sales, they've taken less and less care of their appearance and it's become a major problem for them.
Team members no longer really care about how things look, placing items here, there and everywhere. And as the level of clutter increases, the sales figures fall at a similar pace.
So we've suggested something revolutionary to help them kick start sales: tidy up.
Have a good clearout. Hire a skip. Dump it all. Un-deck the halls. Make some space.
We did the same thing ourselves a few months ago. I stopped procrastinating, hired a storage facility and we spent a weekend archiving and shifting boxes. Interestingly we seem to be busier with more client work than ever. A coincidence? I don't think so.
The impact on one business we're working with is equally positive. The business owner is beaming with pride. They have started making plans for the future. They are excited about where they work. Their sales have (suspiciously) started to increase.
And with no "sales and marketing" involved whatsoever.
Take a look around your office tomorrow morning. If it looks like it needs a good clearout, talk to your colleagues schedule in a late evening or a Saturday morning and get it done. It'll make a big difference to your working life. I promise you.
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