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I feel like I keep saying the same thing but with different spins. Not necessarily a bad thing… so here I go again… more reasons why I believe Small is the New Big.

Landscape:

1. The power has shifted from the boardroom to the people. Don’t believe me? Ask me about: Dell, H&R block, Bernard Lachance, Facebook changing their policy, Digg.com and Hollywood layers, The Streisand Effect – I could seriously go on and on and on.

2. The people are now able to move mountains as big as or bigger than large corporations. They are leveraging each other to create a force to be reckoned with. When you mobilize a million men, you make history. Must I remind you of the million man march?

3. Big companies are not as powerful as they once were. Big companies tend to be hesitant to admit that their landscape has changed. That the playing field is no longer a one way street, that the consumer is flexing a mighty muscle when it comes to products, brands, services and more. 78% of consumers trust the recommendations of their network. Hello?!

4. When big companies make themselves small, they step into a world of ridiculous opportunity. They step into a world where they sqaure off with the consumer: brand to face. What you do at this point will determine whether you thrive or get ousted over the heads of millions of consumers rushing to the edge of a cliff, whereby, upon arrival, your big brand is chucked off to the sound of cheers and applause. <dramatic! I know!>

So what can a big brand get from this space? Great question, two lines of thought come to mind:

1. Built in R&D. Ridiculously more cost effective than what you have now. Find your consumers… go to them… listen to the conversation… what are they saying about you? What can you learn, leverage, apply or change as a result of this? Imagine you engage mr. consumer – thank him for telling you your website is shit and then ask him to keep talking… keep telling you what it is about your site that is shit. Then… wiat for it… you act on the suggestions and circle back wtih Mr. Consumer… thank him for his redderick, time and two cents and give him X, Y, Z for his effort. What do you think Mr. Consumer is going to do? He’s going to tweet, blog, fark, digg his friggin heart out about how kick ass you are. People! Acquisition and Retention are great… but I raise you a Fanatic!

2. The other train of thought is to offer incentives, promotions, rewards and reasons to turn your audience into your biggest fans. Give away 100 of your products in exhange for customer reviews on your blog… Hmmmm… interesting – non? Give them a reason to tell the world what you did for them and how their world can get in on the game too.

Meeting is imminent – I have to run, but I leave you with this! What would happen to your sales if you took 5% of your average customer base and turned them into fanatics?

<sigh> I love this space… it is so just and honest, and candid and transparent. The way it should be.

K – I gotta bolt!

2.

May 14th by Shannon

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Yikes! I saw this sign en route to a meeting … not kidding… word for word! I wanted to pull over and blog about it immediately – it irritated me that much.

People… you can’t penalize the customers you are trying to retain in order to acquire new ones or even be perceived as doing so. Yes, you do need an Acquisition program that is aligned but different to your Retention program that is aligned but different to your Fanatic program (see earlier blog re Fanatics) – but what you must not do is ( or be perceived to be ) penalize Peter while trying to lure Paul to partake in the same bloody thing. Honestly! Gyms are notorious for this… so is the Brick… and apparently so are tanning salons.

Nov 19th by Shannon

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How you acquire customers is somewhat different to how you retain customers which is somewhat different to how you create fanatics.

Acquisition or the art of acquiring customers involve a number of things:First you need a product or service that people want to pay for.Then it would be in your interest to identify who your customer is. Really get to know them… What age group are they in? Do they have children – how old? When are they likely to purchase your product or service? How do you leverage that moment? What are their needs? How can you meet those needs?

Position yourself as the expert, the leader in your category. (there will need to be a whole other posting on how to do this)

Give them something of value – and give it to them for free. This plays on the law of sewing and reaping. When you come to your customers as authentic, sincere and committed to being the best X, your customer will have a much harder time walking away from you to go to your greasy competitor who is there to make a quick buck. Why would you do this? Well, there are a lot of reasons. Your customers, that you now know really well, is looking for value. They are skeptical and jaded. They have time constraints. They want to do business with people they have something in common with. People they can trust. Well, you already identified their needs… you know what is important to them, you know what you can give them to meet one or more of their needs and you gave it to them without asking for business in return. Is this making sense?

Alright. You did it. You made the sale. Now what? This is just the beginning. Next steps – Retention! Why? It will cost you on average, 8x more to find a new customer than retain an existing one. What’s more, repeat business should be an objective for all of us. So how do you get it? Moments of Truth. Every time your customer engages with your business in ANY WAY, they are experiencing a moment of truth. Are you sure your company is delivering across all of those touch points? Phone, web, email, deliveries, return policies…. What is it about you, your product or service that is better than the next guy? I hope one of the things you say is that you know who your customer is. Knowing who your customer is tells you where to invest your research dollars, what products to develop, what services to offer with your products and when to reach out to your customer with a Seasons Greetings card.  Retaining your customer means this: continuously creating relevant and meaningful ways to ensure your customer’s loyalty. Note the use of the word continuous – your customer is evolving… Gen X soccer moms are being replaced with Gen Y soccer moms - a smart business mind follows the customer and your customer today, will likely have very different needs 3-5yrs from now.

Finally – Fanatics. You want them… you want lots of them. Why? Let’s first define a fanatic. A fanatic is a customer who is so smitten with you, your product or your business that they not only tell their world, but they insist that their world shop with you. They are recruiting customers for you. They are kind of like your sales force… and let’s face it, in our world, where word of mouth and word of mouse can do far far more to you in 30 seconds than a 7million dollar tv ad, you want to be damn sure, your word of mouth coverage is working for you.

Nov 18th by Shannon

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