Are consumers "potential suckers to be exploited"?

The no-frills, low-margin online business model is pushing businesses into finding new ways of making money. But should all consumers be considered as “potential suckers to be exploited”?

A middle ground should be the place in a combination of service, quality and price.
The web allows reduced overheads and we can pass this along to our buyers and staff.

As the internet makes price comparisons even easier – and drives down prices – businesses that refuse to change will be in trouble. Any consumer sector that charges more than it needs to for basic services faces the threat of a cheaper entrant stealing a major market share.

Now a new scam is showing up with a simple 'bait & switch' tactic which means every customer is seen as someone who can and should be pushed into paying for additional things above the basic offer.


Being treated like a stranger in town so being taken around the houses in a taxi and the fare ramping up does not make us feel that good service is taking place! Would you tip the driver? NO! Will you refer others? NO! Will you get back in the same cab? NO! So why should we allow this in sales and that is online or off line.

It might be fine when we are talking about add-on luxuries that people choose to buy, but the problem comes when the goal is to exploit customers’ vulnerability to make a fast buck.”

Using the example of overpriced extended warranties on electrical goods I don’t suppose anyone wants to abandon the benefits of competitive markets, but something is lost in society when those who work in the service sector are encouraged to see customers not as people to please and help, but as punters to be exploited.

Easy Jet has helped transform the consumer market place for air travel. Its approach has brought flying within reach of millions more people and it has forced other airlines to be more competitive. As the internet makes price comparisons ever easier, any consumer sector that is charging more than it needs to for its basic services faces the threat of a cheaper entrant stealing a major market share. This is the good news. The bad is this: no frills, low margin models encourage businesses to explore other ways of making money from their customers. This is where all the hidden extras come in.

I hear every day similar experiences of trapped customers being fleeced when they need some assistance or make a mistake like going slightly overdrawn for a few days or the hard sell pressure put on people buying electrical goods with overpriced extended warranties.

In the end this is simply shifting profit from one activity – the basic service – to another – the add-ons and hidden charges.

Be a canny consumer avoid most of these ways that make you pay above the minimum.
If it is an add-say NO!!

DIY PR KIT

I have a new project to launch, new products coming to market, and need to tell the world. My plan is to communicate through PR but first off, I need a PR company!

When given an estimate of £20,000 for 6 months I thought I better find a plan and with the help of Emma Jones who sets out four steps to see us all through to success.... I thought it worth sharing

PR planning

If you're starting or growing a business from home, there's never been a better time to be heard as the media looks for interesting stories of start-up success. Here's how to go about achieving your column inches and headline quotes.

• Be clear on the message - any campaign needs a clear and strong message that preferably comes with figures to back it up, a quote from an influential figure and maybe a case study of someone within the release. For example, you are about to launch a new organic food product for toddlers. Your release announces the launch, states the rise in the number of people choosing organic food, quotes a top nutritionist on the benefits of your approach and tells (briefly) the story of a family enjoying your products. Add a picture of you/products/the case study and you've offered the journalist a number of 'press hooks' on which they can hang this story.
• Be clear on the audience - knowing your audience will help determine the channels through which you'd like to be covered. Taking the example of the above story; you are probably wanting parents of toddlers to be reading about your new product so find out the publications they read, the online forums they frequent and the programmes they watch. This becomes your target PR list; once you have the channels identified, find out the key editorial/production contacts and make a personal approach to each.
• Make life easy for the journalist - do be sure the journalist you're approaching does cover the kind of news you are about to send! Submit your press release as an attachment and in the body of the email, send low res images (in the first instance) so it's not too heavy to download, include contact details for you and for your case study and if you haven't heard anything in a week or so, follow up with a friendly prompt email or call to ask if the journalist is interested in covering your piece. Before calling, bear in mind reporting deadlines and avoid calling at these times eg for a Sunday paper, don't call on a Friday afternoon as you won't get much of a response!
• Make friends and make efficiencies - keep in touch with the journalists who do cover your story so the relationship develops in to one where they turn to you for comment on topics related to your industry. After a PR campaign, measure what's worked (spikes of traffic on the site on certain days that correspond with media activity/direct follow up from potential customers quoting they had spotted you in certain articles/features etc) Measuring the results will help determine if you approach the same channels for your next campaign, or focus on those displaying the best response, mixed with an experiment of new outlets.

Take these simple steps yourself or outsource part of it/all of it to a PR company. Maybe you need help with contacts? Need someone to proof-read the release? Find experts who can help. Dedicate some time to a media campaign and you will almost certainly benefit from the results! - Emma Jones

Grow in a Low or No-Growth Economy...

Officially the UK's worst ever recession is now over. Quite frankly I think we have a false bottom and I hope that my thoughts are wrong.

Should we be forced to increase bank base rates to 4 or 5% the result will be the same the early 90's when mortgage payments zoom up.

You say "yes but" 1993 saw rates of 15% and I agree... also we will feel the same as our mortgage payments double or triple and the house prices go in a free fall.

Let us all hope that I am wrong although if you're waiting for the boom to make a difference to your business - you could be in for a long wait.

I believe, more than ever, creating growth is down to you as a business operator.

Implement two or three things from the following in your business today, and you'll start to see the difference.

Implement them all, and 2010 is likely to be the best year you've ever had!

1. Talk to Your Customers - applying the BOR Rule

The people most likely to buy from you right now are the ones who've spent the BIG money (B) with you, the most often (O) and the most recently (R). And that means your existing customers. When was the last time you emailed, phoned, mailed or contacted your existing customers? You should be contacting your customers at least 5 to 20 times per year and looking for new products to sell them.

2. Increase Your Marketing Budget

When you see marketing as a cost, you spend less. Instead, calculate what profit your best marketing is generating, cancel the stuff that produces the least, do the same marketing that works in another region or country and suddenly you'll see it as an investment in your future success and growth!

3. Talk about the Benefits

Don't tell people about what you sell; tell them what it does for them. Selling dead rotting flesh that was mainly so fatty it was minced and put in a skin is never same as lighting a BBQ and setting fire to some charcoal placing on pork sausages and asking for a buyer to sell something that was firstly almost unsaleable. Selling the sizzle and not the sausage is not new. Look at your product or service then devise a sales pitch to show how it saves them time, saves them or makes them money, makes life easier or makes other people envy them, and they'll buy!

4. Apply the 80/20 Rule

20% of your customers generate 80% of your profit. 20% of your marketing generates 80% of your leads. Find out where your best 20% is, and make it your focus. Have a COTS programme (cut out the s***) and cull the moaning customer that makes little profit, takes all the time of you and your staff... Identify the customers in the 20% that make 80% and track down more of those from other regions or countries. Stick with the 20% of marketing that works and get rid of the 80% that does not work.... If you do not know which that is then you are a goon and should sell your business to someone in the 21st Century and go to Spain as it is cheap just now and you should leave business to those who can count.

5. Test Google AdWords

Google AdWords is one of the fastest, most cost-effective ways of driving high-quality, profitable traffic to your website (or your 'phone) and winning new customers. Set up an account today for £5 and a test campaign from just a couple of pounds per day. If you don't have the time, confidence or skills - don't mess around get a professional to help or run the Adwords on autopilot.

6. Ask for Referrals

When are your customers most delighted with you? Right at the point of purchase, after they've just committed to hand over their money. So ask them there and then to refer friends, family and colleagues to you. And make it easy – why not give them 5 business cards to hand out?

7. Reverse the Risk

Silence the nagging voice of doubt in your prospect's mind. For most products and services a free trial or a money-back guarantee shows confidence in your offering and can help to inspire a purchase.

8. Try a Special Offer

Adding the right special offer to a sales letter or email can increase response rates! What extra value can you offer your audience to make them take action today?

9. Abandon "Quotes" for Good!

A quote says "here's the cost now use these figures against whilst you shop around". Instead, issuing proposals, saying "for your investment, here's how we'll meet and exceed your objectives, and here's how we'll get started". If you quote for business, try this new proposal approach.

10. Cross Sell

Don't feel awkward cross selling and up selling. If you believe in what you're offering, you owe it to your customers to let them know how they can benefit. By the way, getting a repeat or additional order can be 10 times less costly than winning a new customer!

11. Test "Second Interest" Offers

If your competitors are slogging it out with 50% off" offers, try offering something different. A bottle of wine,day at the races, cinema tickets, gym membership, magazine subscription, high street vouchers, an iPod, a Radio Controlled Car, last week I saw sales triple the sale of Adria caravans by doing a show offer of holiday accomodation that cost almost nothing instead of big extra discount.The value depends on the sale you're courting, but think outside the normal money off.

New think offers work wonders, even with professional services and industrial business-to-business sales.

12. Create a Great First Impression

Every single time! Whether you're greeting customers face-to-face, on the phone, or in writing , make sure you show you're absolutely the best company to deal with and ask at the bottom for a referal.

13. Write to One Person

When you're writing sales letters, emails, web copy or any other marketing material, picture your ideal customer sitting down in front of you ... and write down what you'd say to make them buy what you're selling.

14. Form Special Alliances

Your loyal customers trust you, and will value other companies you recommend to them ... so form alliances with related but businesses and "cross refer" each other to open a new source of leads. This is low cost, high return marketing and could double the size of your potential customer base today.

15. Be Customer Focused Not Ego....

Buyers don't care that you've been in business since 1843, or that you're committed to providing excellent service, or the largest in your area. They want to know "what's in it for me". Make sure your marketing tells them how they'll benefit from dealing with you.

16. Show You Really Care

The biggest reason customers change loyalties is "perceived indifference" – they don't think you care whether they come back to buy from you or not. Make sure you show your customers that you really do value them and create a tribe or following with special existing customer events.

17. Package Your Products

Make it easy for customers to spend more, by showing them what's on offer. Offer spoons with eggs, window cleaner with windows, , prongs and aprons with barbecues ... create a product or service package and your average order value will increase by giving your clients better service.

18. Use Email Broadcast Software

If you're sending out sales emails via Microsoft Outlook or your standard email programme, you'll be staggered to see the "fail" rate. A relatively small investment in a "white listed" email company could see your success and delivery rates multiply by 500% or more. Email marketing is now very successful.

19. Be Specific with claims

People are sceptical of broad claims. "Bigger", "Better", "Faster", "Cheaper". Give them specifics that seem irrefutable to add credibility to your claims, and to give your prospects confidence in what you're offering. Rather than "over 20% more efficient", say "21.7% more efficient". Use the language of the scientist not the salesman.

20. Use "Bounce-back" Offers

A great way to get your customers back through the doors (or onto your website). When customers buy, give or send them an offer to get a free XYZ when they buy again in, or by, for example the third week of next month.

21. Go Back to the "No's" have a CSI

Converting 3 enquiries in 10? 2 in 5? Go back to the "No's" and find out what it will take to turn them into a "Yes". Ask them why they did not buy with a customer survey as called a CSI or customer satisfaction index. It won't take as much work as you think as the hard work is already done. Going from a 3 in 10 conversion rate to 3.3 in 10 will boost your new sales numbers by 10% in 2010.

Make more sales

Why Not Doing "Quotes" Wins You MORE business...

When you give a sales QUOTE, you are inviting them to "shop around" and use your figures against YOU!

A vastly better approach is to have a winning mindset, and assume that they are not going to go elsewhere, because you ARE delivering the best package

The person who does not commit controls the dealing process.

So present a 'Proposal', 'Action Plan' or 'Work Schedule' full of benefits (to them), reinforcing throughout why you are the best solution for them and never metion the words price quote or estimate.

This does NOT mean you should be thick and think that just because you believe you'll get the business, you will.

What I'm saying here is that you need to get out of the giving a price or quote mentality and do everything you can to build a case around WHY the prospect should deal with you.

And that means knowing as much as possible about what they want out of the transaction through overt qualification and a consultative approach.

The more you probe to find out what THEY want, the more they'll be psychologically involved in helping you get the solution and you can demonstrate your understanding through a long-comprehensive demonstration of your products or services

The secret to success in selling is obligation, this you can create with in-depth qualifaction and a long comprehensive presentation (deliver this off the back of asking questions).

Importantly too, when you submit your proposal, you should put your price UP FRONT so that the prospect doesn't spend the rest of the document wondering "what's all this going to cost me?".

Rather, they'll see it spelt out proudly up front, which means the rest of your plan can build more and more VALUE into that price.

Then simply ask the prospect 'do you like it'? 'Is the price affordable to you'? and 'Shall we get the paperwork out of the way'?

You can the set your goals and go get them

Good luck with your journey...ENJOY