Ben Kench

Increase Marketing Activity

Strangely enough, in a time of ‘slowing down’ or ‘recession’ many, many business

owners have as a first reaction that of ‘tightening the belt’. Almost instinctively they

become gripped by fear and look to ‘batten down the hatches’ and ‘ride out the

storm’. To me, that is wonderful because actually it leaves the market wide open for

those amongst us who are forward thinking. When everyone else goes quiet we can

storm ahead and capture market share. Slow downs are actually a time to step up!

Contrary to popular opinion the slowing down of a spending habit doesn’t stop people

spending as a total rule. Many for example even say to themselves “times are tough

and I don’t feel great so I’m spending to make myself feel better!” Holidays for some

are immediately scrapped as a luxury and yet some say “I need a holiday to keep me

going”. Because of this human variation it is suicidal to make generalisms and

assume that spending will stop. There will always be spending, so always be there for

them to choose you.

As a caveat though I shall clarify that when I talk to people about increasing

marketing activity I do not mean marketing activity that is advertising. Broadly

speaking, I do not recommend advertising and unless you can clearly show from

accurate measured return figures that an advert pays back, do not spend. If an

advertising person comes to you with a really good offer “last minute availability,

someone has cancelled” etc then my reply is always to question them a little. Try

throwing it back with questions like “Is this a truly excellent proposition? Can you

say that a lot of people will see it? Do you feel that it will generate a lot of

enquiries?”

When they say ‘Yes’ to those I simply say “well then you’ll be happy to have a back

end deal – if you’re confident that lots of people will respond then I‘ll pay double the

price that a normal advert would cost but payments made per response”. At this point

they usually go running…but if you can get a back end deal then take it.

What you should do is increase your activity.

Go to more and different network groups. Mix with a new and varied group of

people…not just business network groups but just groups of people who are in a

‘mover and shaker’ type of group for your particular business interest. It should be

the right peer group and it might well include entertainment activity where you will

be mixing with this group of people – whatever it is you need to ramp up the activity.

When it goes quiet make more noise!

Send more mail. Spend those hours into the evening instead of watching the TV and

write some creative email messages that demonstrate why you can solve their

problem. Illustrate and showcase. Set examples of case history down and send them

out to all those who might be in your arena. Never ever blame the lack of inward

response -make extra effort to go out and draw it into you.

Learn more intelligence about where your clients or prospect might be and increase

your activity in that direction. Sit down tonight and ask yourself “Ok, where might

my ideal clients spend their evenings?” What group might they be a part of? Who

might they also mix with?” Increase your thinking and questioning and then increase

activity in the appropriate area. Substitute spending money for spending time out in

new places or time spent learning writing and visiting.

It is a proven science that human beings feel safest when in a comfort zone…and

business owners or consumers that make up your target group feel safe and

comfortable when dealing with familiarity. Thus your obvious challenge is to make

them feel comfortable and familiar with you and your offer. You cannot expect this to

happen without activity as they simply will not know you, so a quiet time when many

businesses cut back, allows a greater exposure for you to step into. When it goes

quieter, and your prospect’s minds are less over-loaded with other competitor

choices, you can be forthcoming with a message that hits them frequently and well

constructed messages that appeal to their eyes and ears will see you grow and steal

market share. ‘Slowdowns’ are when other competitors slow down not when the

world does.

In addition think about the challenge from the perspective of a vendor such as an

exhibition organiser or a magazine publisher. As most people are sitting back and not

spending these two groups might be more ‘desperate’ than usual and a fabulous deal

can be had which makes you look far larger and more prosperous than you might

otherwise have been able to afford. These are exactly the times to systematically and

strategically do deals with exposure mediums and do deals with exhibition companies

etc and make a loud noise.

You’ll find that there is no such thing as a slow down for you…the spending might be

more thinly spread but as you become more widely spread the overall effect is

actually more to you! So, get busy and enjoy!

Ben Kench - time managment

1. Time Management Scrutiny

First and absolutely foremost our task is to efficiently use and spend the precious time

that we have. Time is the one commodity that you can never replace. Money can be

lost and regained and people can be lost and replaced but time cannot be re spent if

you discover later that it was ineffective. Where you spend it, on what and with

whom are supreme questions when the pressure is on to perform at a slightly higher

level.

You MUST question why you are doing what you are about to do and ensure that it

fits all of the immediate needs. If there is a tightening of people’s belts and a slowing

down in spending, it may well mean that you and your business need to meet with

more people before the required amount of them say Yes…and so fitting more people

in takes more time which needs to be ‘made’. Thus when it might previously have

been good enough to not question your activity, right now it is vital.

Also ask questions that direct your thoughts toward achieving an immediate return.

Yes, some strategic activity must be included in any ‘correct use of time’ overview,

but right now when the pressure is on try looking a little more immediate. Tackle

strategic, but tackle the strategic that is likely to also carry some immediate

advantage. So, for example, where you might have scheduled a meeting to discuss the

new computer system or the new website make-over maybe you might schedule

instead a call to 5 of your top clients to see if there might be add-on sales just begging

to be picked up. Or you might deliberately schedule some time on the telephone

making telephone calls to all of those people who you have met when networking and

promised to ring but then never got around to…and this time is taken from time that

was merely set to one side as ‘time in the office’.

As a possible ‘slow down effects the market confidence, and as this reduced

confidence leads some to reduce their spending, it might well be that you feel ‘the

pinch’ and the ripple effect is likely to impact your business significantly – thus

making those extra calls and deliberately using the time in a much more ‘direct sales

approach’ way becomes the difference between survival and death.

Asking really tough questions where you might not even like the answer is a powerful

skill.

Question yourself:

Is this going to generate me income now?

If I don’t do this, what will happen?

If I could guarantee income, what might I do?

Who could I contact right now that might lead to immediate (this month) business?

What might I produce or create that attracts business in now?

Where might be really useful to go so that I might ‘bump into’ warm leads or hot

prospects?

A really terrific idea as an exercise for you to do right now is to look at next weeks

diary (the next 5 working days from today) and simply question each and every

diarised activity. And then to look harshly at the space between diarised activity!!

(This is usually where the largest improvements can be found.) The time between

diarised activities is where the gap is, and this is the gap that swallows whole many

businesses.

Along the same lines as this discipline, I strongly suggest enforcing a more rigid

accountability for the time that you have spent or are planning to spend by using a

clear diary system. If you currently hardly use a diary because most of your time is

spent in one location, then I simply promise that using a diary will have a profound

improvement on your time consciousness and thus usage of time.. Even when you are

in the office and ‘doing the things that need to be done’ try making an appointment

with yourself to separate tasks into time frames and then allocate time in a block for a

certain task. Keep the task to that time as if it were actually physically a meeting. This

might at first sound a little crazy and be a little challenging…but I assure you it is a

most powerful habit. Accounting for your time makes you feel responsible for

it…and you will not like the feeling when you can clearly see to yourself that you are

wasting time and no one else is to blame for your position - especially when at the

end of the month your haven’t got the cash that you need!

Indeed to help you still further try making appointments with someone else to call

you at the time when you have agreed with yourself to finish. Ask a colleague to call

you and drag you out to another activity to keep the pressure on you whilst on your

appointment with yourself. I.E if you have allotted time for some organisation

internally and allowed yourself 2 hours between 1pm and 3pm then ask a colleague to

call you at 3.30pm and you will have to have been finished by that time.

Viewing time as simply the most precious commodity ever will also help you look at

the time spent when on the phone and in the car. Very, very often we see time

consumed over the telephone when frankly much of the call was just chat. Now I’m

not saying be miserable and never talk to friends or clients about anything other than

work, but I am saying that a discipline not to be distracted will help. Try saying things

to yourself and the person who you are calling such as “I can only speak for a few

moments as I have a lot to do and indeed I am sure that time too is challenging for

you…so I’d like to talk with you about xyz…”. This type of approach will make

certain that your call is brief and to the point and your client feels appreciative that

you also didn’t waste his time. As with so many things, the simple stuff is the most

profound.

Like, for example, when people come into your office and ask if you have a minute!

Never ever is it simply 1 minute long when they then download their problem or ask

your advice on something. So, try immediately telling them that “I do not believe

you!!! One Minute is never all that you want! If you have a challenge that you’d like

my input on, please firstly go away and consider what you might do to overcome this

challenge and then come back to me with two of your best solutions”.

This type of management approach is not new but rarely adopted. Sending the

enquirer away to figure out for themselves the challenge is the only way to break the

time drain in future months. The employee will most likely already have a good idea

as to what to do so when they tell you the two solutions you merely say “and which

one do you think is the best?” Again probably they will have a favourite and indeed

usually they will in fact have sorted out the challenge and come up with the best

solution. You can listen and quickly then confirm that they have made the right

choice…but this listening took a moment – probably actually the minute they first

asked for…and the employee has learned that they can find answers for themselves.

This type of technique is professional management and this type of discipline makes

you feel like you have more time…and as we‘ve said, more time to make more

money is what is needed when less people are buying.

Finally on the time consumption subject look carefully at your drive time. Today’s

traffic challenges are legendary! Even the simplest of journeys can become a hurdle

and any city based journey ridiculously draining. Personally I do not drive into a city

unless there really is no other choice or that the meeting is absolutely vital ‘face to

face’. My challenge to you is to challenge yourself along the same lines. Just because

you have always gone to a meeting and it is a comfortable habit to say “I’ll pop over

and we can talk it through” question whether that is in fat the best possible option. I

might suggest that much of what you can talk through can in fact can be talked

through…and a telephone is all that is needed to talk things through with! You might

even recognise that technology is amazing these days and visual telephone calls using

such wonders as Skype and a web cam are not only possible but excellent and really

do help you still make contact without the huge traffic drain. Honestly, most of the

time we are our own worst enemies as we stick rigidly to the ‘way we have always

done it’, the way we have always operated – it’s us that we don’t want to move

forward. Many, many times a Skype or similar video call can be actioned and no

impact lost.

So, consider please the resource of time and how it’s usage might be impacting our

potential for business success.

The No1 habit to be refined and focussed upon is managing you and your time. Along

with this, the habit of skilful questioning to ascertain quickly the exact situation and

then based on the correct information make a more informed choice as to what to do...

these will help you get more done in less or similar time frames. Especially when the

going gets a little tougher this will save your commercial life.