A New-Age Concept from the Old Economy Yvonne DiVita, WMEBooks.com October 2005 Recommend this article

We can all agree it’s a new world. But I take umbrage with the idea that business is new and different in 2005. Yes, we have new acronyms—CRM: Customer Relationship Management, which used to be customer service; IM, Instant Messaging, which used to be telecommunications; AE for Account Executive, who used to be your salesperson; and B2B, which is still Business-to-Business.

Regardless of the acronym, developing new terms for what we do doesn’t change the process of how we do it. The statistics at emarketer or Gartner will tell you that B2B is more popular than B2C (Business-to-Consumer), and this may affect how you promote your product or service online, yet I caution you to remember the core values our parents and grandparents taught us. Business is the exchange of goods and services between people. Consumers and business colleagues are both people. Let’s not forget that many consumers are also business professionals. It’s time to realize that many of the time honored business concepts of yesteryear are still applicable today.

A good place to get a head start in learning business concepts is at http://www.dalecarnegietraining.com. Mr. Carnegie has perfected outstanding business methods to build success. Let’s note that I call him Mr. Carnegie; the common practice of using first names is friendly, but you immediately lose some of the respect associated with business partnerships when you fail to recognize a prospect or business partner by his or her proper title. Give your relationship time to mature before you revert to calling someone by his or her first name. Let’s look at five of Mr. Carnegie’s suggestions to building a successful business:

• Relationship Management
• Service Focus
• Use of Technology
• Teamwork
• Value in Goods

Relationship Management: This is not a new concept. Your mother helped your practice it when you were a mere child. Mom is the one who made sure we all went to church on Sunday, and to coffee hour afterwards. For those of us that did not attend church, Mom was most often the one who drove us to gymnastics, or dance, or hockey, or chess or computer group. These were gatherings of our peers, sponsoring any number of activities where we learned to be polite, to wait our turn to speak, and to respect other’s opinions. We call this: relationship management.

One of the most important relationship management tools you can have is the ability to remember a name. When introduced to someone new, always shake his or her hand and Repeat the name Outloud, “Mr. Anderson, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” “Miss Westover, I’m pleased to meet you.” Saying the name out loud, while shaking the person’s hand, will help you remember it. When you part company, repeat the process. Your ears help your brain to remember.

Service: If you feel you’ve been getting hit over the head with this concept, get used to it. Service, specifically, Customer service is the most important part of your business. A post-holiday report following holiday shopping last year, showed that “customer service e-mails are still falling on deaf servers.” According to the eSpending Report from Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive and NetRatings, Inc. for 2005, “only 17 percent of online shoppers stated that their holiday shopping satisfaction was higher this season than last.”

While these reports are indicative of Christmas shopping, the information applies to all online sales. Complaints that fall on deaf servers—meaning You did not reply—you not only lose face, you lose customers. Excellent service allows you to make an occasional mistake. Your customers will forgive you if you explain, then offer them free shipping in return, or replace the item quickly and easily. If your service is lacking, your mistakes become your reputation, and your reputation will dictate your business.

Technology: Technology is here to stay. I don’t think it’s a brave new world, I think the world is merely asking us to adjust to progress. Which isn’t new, at all. If you don’t have a website, your business is already falling behind. If you have a website but no one can find it because you haven’t optimized it, you’re as good as invisible. If you have e-commerce but no privacy statement, well…I’m not buying from you.

Technology promises to make you more visible to more people. It also promises to make online sales more secure and easier to manage. You need to do the research to find the right technology for your business. There’s no time like the present to implement an easy, secure, manageable application that will help your customers buy from you online. If you have failed to do this by now, you’re already behind for this year’s Christmas rush.

A prime technology that’s helping drive business for small to mid-sized businesses, is a blog. A blog is an interactive, personal website, where your clients, vendors, prospects, and/or service personnel can connect with you – in REAL time – at their leisure. It’s the best pull-marketing available today. If you haven’t discovered the power of blogging yet, visit http://www.technorati.com and do a blog search. Prepare to be astounded.

Teamwork: Now, didn’t your mother always tell you to play nicely with the neighbor children—even if you didn’t like them? What did she say? “Someday you may have to do business with Gary Swithers.” Was she right? You bet she was!

Today, the Internet has made the term worldwide applicable to everyone. It’s just as likely you will do business with customers from countries you can’t even spell, as you will do business locally. In order to service those customers, you need a good working relationship with your ISP (Internet Service Provider), your web hosting company, your Webmaster, and someone who knows the country you’re approaching. DON’T think that just because you read an article on China, or Italy, or Korea that you know how to market to the people there. Global business is tricky business. Get someone from the country you’re working in to help you prevent faux pas.

Making friends with your vendors has always been good business. In the world of Internet sales, it’s imperative that you know and trust the vendors who supply not only your Internet connection and web services but those who ship your goods, and the merchant bank that receives your customer’s payments and your own business payments. I am always amazed by CEOs who fall all over themselves to take care of Department Heads or other CEOs they do business with, but completely ignore the vendor who makes or delivers their product. Whether it’s the print shop that makes your letterhead, or the coffee service that fills your machine, treat your vendors with consideration and respect. They are as much a member of your team as every single customer you will get this year. Never forget that they deliver to your competition, too!

Value in Goods: Value is a subjective concept. What I perceive as valuable, you may ignore. What you perceive as valuable may make me roll my eyes. In business, the value of your product or service is determined by your customers, not by your mother, or your account executives, or your spouse. If you are attempting to build a better mousetrap, don’t put it on the market without testing it first. Testing, testing, testing, is the only way to determine quality, and the quality of your product will determine its value in the marketplace. A good way to show value is to have good customer service.

Consumers will purchase from you on a whim, after reading your ad copy and thinking your product or service is exactly what they need and want (want always drives need), but they will learn to trust you only if your customer service is prompt, polite, and knowledgeable. If they trust you, the value of your products and services goes up by 100%.

This is not achieved overnight and it doesn’t mean you can’t compete with the Fortune 500s. We all know and trust Coke and Pepsi, and they both manage to sell quite a bit of their product. We all know and trust Wal-Mart and Target, and neither one of them is suffering for sales. They compete, but they continue to make sales by offering customers the same products in a different way. The value is in their response to our comments and feedback, over time. You have the opportunity to shorten that time by virtue of the real-time operation of the Internet, but only if you have the proper technology in place.

We live in a shrinking world, brought together with clients and customers we may never see face to face, and that means the value of your team and your technology to provide the best customer service will make you a master of relationship management—to secure the foundation of your success. Now, there’s something to blog about!

Email: divita@windsormediaenterprises.com
Company Profile: WMEBooks.com
Company URL: http://www.wmebooks.com

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