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[L635]Low Cost Leadership Strategy

by Darrell Berg-smith, Dar

Question: What am I? I am the best low cost marketing strategy in the world, I'm cheap, but few businesses use me.

Answer: Credibility!

Or for you real estate gurus, what are the 3 most important elements of low cost marketing:

1. Credibility
2. Credibility
3. Credibility

Credibility is being believed and trusted by your customers and potential customers. You can't buy it. No amount of advertising or promotion can hand it to you on a platter. Yet you can achieve credibility by trusting in and using your own product expertise.

Gaining credibility is the best marketing strategy in the world. And it is the cheapest. It can have an enormous impact on income, and it can achieve rapid results. You will be amazed at how easy it is and the difference it will make. You can start immediately.

‘Buy this because it's good'.

Most businesses sell their products and services just by talking about their features and benefits. They do not prove any particular expertise in their industry, or even in the product. They just basically say, ‘Buy this because it's good'. The more they say it and the better the message looks, the more they congratulate themselves on a successful marketing campaign.

Traditional advertising has had its day.

There is more evidence all the time that people avoid advertisements. They are looking for information instead. Many households turn down the sound during TV commercials. Paradoxically the more people resist advertising, the more companies spend on it. In desperation, some businesses now resort to ‘shot gun' methods such as newspaper advertising and direct mail.

Forget selling; prove your expertise.

Start to position yourself as the expert on your product or service. You don't do this by claiming to be the expert, or displaying your impressive CV.

You do it instead by sharing your knowledge and giving your customers helpful, relevant information, without a sales gimmick and for free.

Jackie's Opals

Jackie Henderson is an award winning jewelery designer, often working with Australian Opals. She employs a staff of 8. Jackie was keen to expand her business through establishing her credibility rather than traditional advertising. She wrote a series of information sheets, freely available at her outlets and on her website. The sheets give customers information about the valuation of opals, how they are cut for maximum light effects, the principles of using gold or silver settings, and design ideas for opals. ‘How to spot a bad opal' is particularly popular. There are photos of her jewelery to illustrate the point, but no direct sales pitch. Jackie is however, clearly the author. The sheets are a winner with customers, and the public generally. They have cost next to nothing and prompt many questions, including emailed questions from potential overseas buyers. Jackie believes the information sheets have been so successful she is finding other avenues for her ‘credibility drive'. She says, ‘I'm trying to establish my reputation as the expert opal jeweler. It guarantees me sales.'

Does your business pass the credibility test? Do your just try to sell your product or service? Or do you gain credibility and trust from your promotions, by sharing your specialized knowledge?

But if everyone knows the answer, why aren't more people doing it? Why aren't executives focused on motivating and inspiring their people?

The reality is that people put profits first. They focus on the short-term financial gain without realizing that there is a direct link between putting people first and building outrageous profits.

In one of the very few great books on this topic, 'The Human Equation', Jeffrey Pfeffer from Stanford Business School paints a simple and striking picture of how to build profits by putting people first. I don't have a lot of time here to recap the whole book, but if you want some bald statistics, if you need numbers to justify putting people first, then get this book.

Pfeffer tackles head-on some of the sacred cows of many CEOs today - he particularly challenges the view that downsizing, competing on price, and operating globally are really necessary. It's very thought provoking.

One of the most striking pieces of evidence Pfeffer cites is a study of one thousand large US companies. Pfeffer found that investors place a much higher value on companies that improved their bottom line through revenue growth, rather than cost cutting.

Why? Well, investors want growing companies not shrinking ones. You can only cut cost once, says Pfeffer, or only a limited number of times, before you bite into the muscle of the business. Cut too much and you lose the competitive edge that makes the company great.

You might be wondering at this point, though, isn't downsizing something that the US does a great deal? And isn't the US one of the most competitive and innovative countries in the world? You'd be right. So there's an apparent paradox here.

Not so, says Pfeffer. He reminds us not to confuse success that occurs IN SPITE OF what leaders do, with success that comes BECAUSE OF what leaders do.

I love this idea. That not everything you do leads to financial success. If you are successful enough - and profitable enough - that success will mask some of the mistakes you make.

Probably the most significant practical key of this story is for me captured by a quote from Sir Richard Branson, founder of the UK's Virgin Group. At Virgin, says Branson, the people come first, the customers second and the shareholders third.

In a speech to the London Institute of Directors, Branson said: 'In the end, the long-term interests of shareholders are actually damaged by giving them superficial short-term priority.'

And this is the key point, isn't it? Customer satisfaction generates recommendations and gets our clients back for more. That's what it's about, after all.

But to get great customer satisfaction you need great customer service. And to have excellent standards in customer service means having staff who are proud of the company they work for and who respect the managers of the business.

Pfeffer closes the book with a key quote from Sam Walton, who built the Wal-Mart empire. 'The more you share profits with your people, the more profit will accrue to the company. Why? Because the way management treats its people is exactly how its people will treat the customers.'

If you want some bald statistics, or if you need numbers to justify putting people first, you must get this book. Then convince everyone around you, who isn't already doing it, to read it too. Let's really try to put people first. It will be profitable.

Article Source : Pg. 6

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Both Darrell Berg-smith & Steven Sonsino are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Darrell Berg-smith has sinced written about articles on various topics from Advertising Guide, Marketing Strategies. . Darrell Berg-smith's top article generates over 2400 views. to your Favourites.

Steven Sonsino has sinced written about articles on various topics from Leadership, Marketing and Communications and Marketing Strategies. If you want the leadership success you deserve, get the you deserve. Download more free articles and leadership training videos from Steven Sons. Steven Sonsino's top article generates over 1600 views. to your Favourites.