Politeness costs little

This evening I went for a walk  with She Who Must be Obeyed At All Times and a friend in "our" woods, several square miles of Crown Estate land just outside Bracknell.  It's quite hectic on warm evenings because hulking great brutes on mountain bikes hurtle round it at about mach 1, but one can, if one tries very hard, ignore them.

To be fair, most are polite, sensible and ride with care.  But the idiots, they are quite another thing!

So there we were, the three of us, in conversation walking not unreasonably three abreast on a wide enough path when we heard the ominous semi-silent approach of the lycra clad stealth cyclist.  And he, bless him, in his natty white lycra top, wind tunnel designed crash hat and really silly dark glasses to keep the wind out of his little red piggy eyes, weaved through an impossible gap between us. 

Wordlessly.

"Thank you!" I said, loudly.

Stealth cyclist wobbled and stopped.  He seemed put out that he ought to have said thank you to us for getting out of his tubby lycra clad way.

We had a conversation.  He, bless him, maintained that cyclists have right of way!  We, the walkers, should keep an eye out for fat lycra clad jerks who career through the woods and churn the paths to a quagmire.

He got off his bike, so I asked him if he intended to hit me.  He was looking rather menacing.  I was careful to keep my hands on the end of my arms, and to have those folded so that, while I doubtless looked stocky, I could not be said to have threatened him at all.  I was merely asking politely to be thanked.

He chose to give me a lecture about the fact that he pays for a permit (note that means that he has permission, not a right) to cycle in the woods and that we, as walkers, both got in his way and paid nothing!

I found I was thinking that I would not like to be managed by him.  He seemed like an insubstantial middle manager.  I hope very much that he meets the recession head on.  Oh, and loses, of course.  

We discussed lycra clad idiots as we continued our walk.  It's not worth complaining to the Crown Estate, of course.  Been there, done that, but their chief person likes revenue, and cyclists pay money.  But we did discuss manners.

All one needs to do as a cyclist is to approach walkers with care and respect, make them aware politely of your presence, and ask, if necessary, if you might pass.  And then thank them.

But, in the same way that red traffic lights do not affect the unidentifiable loons, nor do manners.

At least this one will be physically fit when he is made redundant!  I do hope it happens soon.  He looked to be unemployable.

Social Media Marketing

I've been chatting with Segun Osu at Business Buyguide.  He's got one heck of a concept, especially for the recession.  Most folk want sales leads.  Segun's concept is to supply them with well qualified buyers who are ready to receive a quotation.  That's a terrific concept.

We were discussing more ways of reaching what he calls "Committed Buyers".  I like that term.  And we were exploring social media as a marketing concept.

I'm in two minds.  I know that places like Twitter are business oriented as well as consumer oriented.  I know that corporations like Dell are making money there.  But I also think one has to be very clever when breaking in to it.

Maybe I'm old-school, but I'm allergic to being sold to when socialising.  Having the AmWay presentation turn up when I went to a friend's house for a meal is not my idea of fun.  So how does marketing fit with, eg, Twitter?  How with Facebook?

And if you make a huge faux pas, does that follow you around for the rest of your life?  Any experts out there care to help me?

Recession Requires Risk, not Selling your Customer Base to Death

Most people's first reaction to a financial storm is to become wholly risk averse.  But the recession hits the risk averse really hard.  It's an unpleasant paradox, and it's fact.

Analyse it at any level and you'll see the truth.  Private money is "safe" in banks, but is currently earning nothing.

Keep your head below the parapet in your job and you won't achieve your goals.  Not achieving your goals puts your job on the line.  To achieve your goals you have to stretch.  That's what they're for.  And, unless those goals are to trade in securitised sub-prime mortgages, then you need to reach them.

But the first reaction in a recession is to batten down the hatches and to sell to your existing customers.  To "minimise business risk" and to reduce cost of sale.

I have bad news for all of you who think that selling to your existing customers is the best strategy.  You are going to be made redundant when your orgainsation goes to the wall.

That can't be right, can it?

How good's your foresight?  Let's see.

You have a sample base of 100 customers.  Doesn't matter if you're B2B or B2C, they'll react pretty similarly:

• Do we need a new widget?
• Can we get by on cheaper widgets?
• What if we delay buying a new set of widgets until we get some upturn in our own business?
• Do I need that service contract for my widgets any more?
• I'm only selling to my customers, so my widget needs are lower now
• Sorry, we're Woolworths, we went bust.

Ok, some of those are B2B only, but you get the drift.  And the drift is that those 100 customers, while cheap to sell to, suddenly are doing less business with you, and, because you are staffed up to handle 100 customers at full demand, you are overmanned, so your cost of sale and service actually rises.

What is your downturn in business from your customer base?  As little as 10%?  Or 50-60%?

Your risk averse strategy is the highest risk to your business that there is.  You're selling into a shrinking market.  I don't care even if you're gaining share of that market by outselling your competitors into your base, it's shrinking because it just contains your customers.

So, what can you do?

I'm tempted to suggest a knee jerk reaction of allowing those who prescribe a risk averse strategy to go and help you by working for your competition, but they aren't hiring right now!  be wise.  Retain these people, or as many as you can.  They tend to make great farmers of customer bases and excellent customer service agents and managers.

"Get a grip, Tim!  Didn't you say that farming was actually high risk?"

No.  I said that just farming was high risk.  We absolutely need our customers.  Deserting them now would be suicide.  And we do need to increase our own share of that declining market in order to provide the war chest to do what we always need to be doing:

Getting new customers.

When's the best time to cut a deal with a new customer?

When they need your product, your service the most.

And that's when they're already hurting.

Those folk who need to find cheaper widgets: Can you meet that need?  Can you supply a cheaper widget?  If you can, and if their credit checks out, then you have a new customer.

Those folk who really do want a widget service contract but can't afford it:  Can you put a bargain basement deal together and grab that business?

Is this really any different at all from trading in a normal market?

Of course it isn't.  So why have middle managers all taken leave of their senses and are hiding below the parapet and not creating excellent, low risk, high impact offers to get new customers?

If you can't get them when they really need a great deal, how on earth can you survive in more normal market conditions?

Are you still reading?  That's it!  No gems on how to do it.  You have to think of those.  So go out and get selling to new customers.  This is the time for new business.  Last man standing gets the prize!

Google Streetview - Stay out of my street!

Seriously, what's with Google and its current idea of driving up your street and taking pictures of your house, your car, your silhouette on the shade and posting it online for the whole prurient world to see?  Just how stupid do you have to be not to see that this is an invasion of privacy.

I've heard all the arguments.  Your street and house exist, and anyone can drive or walk down the street and see them.  The pictures aren't live.  You can get them deleted.

Yup, I've heard all of that, along with "We blur number plates on cars" and "We blur faces".  Well, Google fails to do that properly.  My late mother's neighbour has her late husband's car on her drive with the registration mark there for all to see.  Faces elsewhere are shown clearly.

It's an invasion of privacy.

And the only recourse you have is to get the picture removed after it has been published, unless, of course, you know different.

I've sent a pre-emptive email requiring Big G not to display pictures of my house.  I am certain that this will fail.

So, since this is an opinion piece, here's my opinion.

Google, this is a step too far.  This is a huge invasion of privacy.  Get real.  Give it up!  You just took a huge leap down the road of "We all hate Google".  Well done.  Now stay out of my street!

If you agree with me sign the petition to have it banned in the UK