A Breakthrough Marketing Strategy for 2011: Ethics!

May 9, 2011 - PRLog -- A group of suit-and-tie attired businessmen and ladies are clustered around a conference table, the proverbial sales chart with the downward aimed red arrow at one end, and the meeting leader saying: “Ethics? Johnson, we’ll talk about ethics as soon as we can afford to talk about ethics!”      

      Sadly this is all too often the actual attitude of business leaders and entrepreneurs and with the illusion of online anonymity it’s getting worse. Even worse, it is as a result of a very simple misunderstanding.
   
       In my business transformation groups, I’ll often ask participants to quickly make a list of the most important assets of business. “Think about getting ready to go to the bank.” I tell them, “to discuss loan extensions or other credit matters, then prepare your asset recap.” When they share their lists, just about everybody lists things like, real estate: equipment and technology, inventory, copyrights and trademarks... and most completely forget to include what I insist is the single most important asset of all – the customers!   
   
       Incidentally, insurance will replace most other assets, but the only insurance against loss of customers is exceptional service, which is practical application of a high ethical standard.

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   Most of the business owners I interact with are most eager for advice to stimulate and increase sales, and most see the ‘solution’ to that question as: new customers. They want to get more new customers.

   New customer acquisition is very expensive. For most businesses, it requires capital investment and risk. After all, advertising and marketing is only partly scientific: there is always risk of loss.

   But, most businesses can instead, at least double their sales without adding a single new customer. The increases are readily available within their own present and past customer base.

   I recently attended a marketing conference where it was revealed that the majority of UK businesses place their “customer service functions” under “operations” not under “marketing”, thus viewing it as a cost of operations, pure expense item, rather than an investment in marketing – and this is frankly dumb! Customer retention via customer service has to be seen as a profit centre in business. The savvy marketer, who will survive whatever impact the current recession has on his/her industry and/or locale and who will prosper in the future, places great importance on the asset ‘the customer’ and seeks to maximise their “Total Customer Value”.

   Consider that there can be three basic ‘categories’ of ethical standards in relationships between a business and its customers.

   1 – Minimum Ethics: we will do just enough to comply with all laws, stay out of jail, and deter lawsuits and refunds.
   Operating under this premise inevitably leads to diminishing profits, and ultimate doom.

   2 – Average Ethics: we will give the customer ‘fair exchange’ – reasonable value for their pounds, no less, but no more. Truthfully, most businesses are here. And, as a result, during good times, they’ll get average results, and will generally turn a profit and stay in business.

   3 – Maximum Ethics: simply “we ask not how we can get more sales, we ask how we can give more and better service!” This is the right question. The business owner who is constantly striving to better reward his customers for their patronage is taking the ethical high ground, and will be amply rewarded.

   This means many things. Truth in advertising and selling is one of those things. To many marketers’ surprise, it’s easier to sell and satisfy when you present an honest picture of the benefits and the drawbacks of a product or service than when you paint an overwhelmingly rosy picture! Why? Well, people are more sceptical than ever before and rightfully suspicious of anything that seems too good to be true. Most customers appreciate honesty. Sellers do a better job when they know they are behaving ethically. In fact, a major cause of retail salesperson apathy and ineffectiveness as well as of field sales people failure is their unhappiness being involved in what they feel is an unethical selling situation. Staff performance is always improved by a business’ leadership’s passionate commitment to maximum ethics.

   There is no mystery here. You and your staff need to brainstorm how you would like to be treated if you were your customer. Compile the longest, most detailed list you can of ideas about how you would most appreciate being treated and keep to this list.

   It’s worth noting too, that ethics employed in relationships between a business’ leaders and its employees find its way to the customer too. Grossly underpaid or otherwise abused employees, who cannot strike back at management, vent their resentments on the customers.

   There are many good reasons for ethical standards and behaviour in business. Peace of mind is one of them. Depending on your spiritual beliefs, your seating assignment in the afterlife might be another. If no other reason motivates you, you might consider its value as plain, simple, good business.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: HENRY BAKER is the Best-Selling author of THE book on online marketing for ‘offline’ business “How to Grow Your Business While You Sleep”. For 3 free chapters from the book and a host of other free insightful business building goodies head to: www.GrowYourBusinessWhileYouSleep.com

**Very occasionally, Henry's team are able to offer telephone strategy sessions to business owners who want to find out how to take their business to the next level. This opportunity is by application only and ONLY serious candidates need apply. Applicants should fill in the required information at http://www.GrowYourBusinessWhileYouSleep.com/freesession now.

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Best selling author Henry Baker and has over 10 years of sales and marketing experience with the World's leading corporate sales organizations, as an entrepreneur, business owner, real estate investor and internationally respected trainer and educator.