Breaking news about unemployment will remain in the forefront longer than expected. Businesses today are forced to restructure their entire operations. Unfortunately, this means a loss of jobs. Eventually, benefits and income will run dry.

This vicious economic cycle spirals out of control. The after effects leave us with empty store-fronts, vacant factories, and commercial buildings. No other company will occupy these sleeping giants, also known as the “White Elephants” of the industry, because they are a maintenance nightmare.

Workers who are fortunate to keep their job must face new challenges. Job positioning and worker experience becomes critical for survival. For example, the African Gazelle must wake up everyday on the run in order to stay alive. The Cheetah must wake up and run faster than the Gazelle if it wants to eat!

A stagnate enterprise of any size must develop new worker experience values among its workforce. It must wake up to the fact that company cheerleaders are no longer effective. Increased productivity within the current labor force will help define the new bottom line. Create better job training that’s easy to understand. One that clearly links objectives to strategies and is specific, but measurable.

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Market research doesn’t have to be sophisticated and expensive. While money can be spent to collect research data, there are many inexpensive ways to collect this data that are easily accessible to the small business owner.

Several of these methods are:

Employees

This is one of the best sources of information about customer likes and dislikes. Usually employees work more directly with customers and hear complaints that may not make it to the owner. They are also aware of the items customers request that the business doesn’t offer. They can probably also give a pretty good customer profile from their day-to-day contacts.

Customers

Talk to the customers to get a feel for your clientèle, and ask them where improvements can be made. Encouraging and collecting customer comments and suggestions is an effective form of research. By asking the customers to explain how the product could improve to fill their needs, constructive market research is done, as well as instilling customer confidence in the product.

Competition

Monitoring the competition can be a valuable source of information. Their activities may provide important information about customer demand that were overlooked, and they may be capturing part of the market by offering something unique. Likewise, small business owners can capitalize on unique points of their products that the competition does not offer.

Company records and files

Looking at company records and files can be very informative. Look at sales records, complaints, receipts, or any other records that can show you where your customers live or work or how and what they buy. One small business owner found that addresses on cash receipts allowed the pinpointing of customers in his market area. With this kind of information he/she could cross reference his/her customers’ address and the products they purchased. From this information he/she was able to check the effectiveness of their advertising placement. However, realize that this information represents the past. Present or future trends may mean that past information is too obsolete to be effective.

Your customers’ addresses alone can tell you a lot about them. You can pretty closely guess your customers’ life-style by knowing what the neighborhoods they live in are like. Knowing how they live can give you solid hints on what they can be expected to buy.

In addition, check returned items to see if there is a pattern. Check company files to determine which items sell best, and which sell poorly. Use creative methods to collect information. All market research doesn’t have to be done with numbers and surveys. It can be done with peanuts, as one creative discount merchandiser discovered.

During a three-day promotion the merchant gave away free to customers “…all the roasted peanuts you can eat while shopping our store.” By the end of the promotion the merchant had “litter trails” that provided information on the traffic pattern within the store. Trampled peanut hulls were littering the most heavily traveled store aisles and even heaping up in front of displays of merchandise of special interest to customers.

In short, the merchant learned how they acted in the store and what they wanted and observed their behavior. The key to effective marketing research is neither technique nor data – it’s useful information. Customers likes and dislikes are shifting constantly so this information must be timely. It’s much better to get there on time with a little than too late with a lot.

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Take a look around and you will probably see a logo. In fact, they are seen all over the world and on many different things. If you were to count how many times you see them everyday, the number would be in the hundreds. Simple advertisements for example, like Coca-Cola are being viewed over 200 times by a single person everyday. And you won’t even realize it.

Recently, I tried to count the number of times I saw a logo, and unfortunately, I lost count. I used a pencil and paper while watching TV, riding by a billboard, strolling through the supermarket, reading a magazine, or using a particular product. The results were amazing – a logo was on everything I saw.

What is a logo?

A logo is a name or trademark designed for easy and definite recognition, especially one borne on a single printing plate or piece of type. Whenever a logo is created, no matter what the size or content, it must be accomplished with patience.

Most people do not realize what goes into constructing a logo. Graphics must be carefully thought out, content must be concise, and the idea has to match the logo.

I’m sure you have heard of this before…

A FIRST IMPRESSION IS A LASTING ONE

Well, a logo does just that. it sends a Powerful message across to us all. Most of the time when we see any logo or banner, we instantly think advertisement. This is exactly what a logo represents, whether it’s on a letterhead, magazine, newspaper, or a Coca-Cola can!

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There are a variety of reasons and excuses behind poor sales lead management because the $10 to $2000 companies spend to generate each business to business inquiry largely go to waste. I call them Barriers To Sales success. Here are six of the most common which plague businesses today.

1. SENIOR MANAGEMENT DOES NOT CARE

Paid to lead the organization in the big picture issues of market strategy, quality and customer satisfaction, senior managers are tempted to dismiss operational fundamentals and assume all is well. They are not aware of the tactical need for complete lead follow up, rapid inquiry fulfillment, accurate qualification practices or actual measurement of communications and sales performance.

2. SALES PEOPLE REMAIN UNINFORMED

Unless they understand the potential value of qualified leads, salespeople (an independent minded breed) think they do not need help. Sales managers who fail to insist on follow up imply that leads are at best an option for slow days. Marketing departments that fail to qualify leads in advance will most likely contribute to the problem, giving leads a poor reputation.

3. POOR COORDINATION HOBBLES MARKETING AND SALES

Marketing and marketing communications people frequently have little idea of the quotas salespeople must meet, the timing of their sales contests, their need for seasonal boosts in lead volume, the products needing extra lead support and the geographical balance need to apportion leads sensibly among sales territories. Meanwhile, the sales force does not understand why lead follow up reports are essential if marketing is to fine tune its advertising, mail and other promotion tools.

4. THE COMPANY MISMANAGES ITS PROSPECT LIST

Inquiries become orphans in a netherworld between marketing and sales. As a result, the company sends wrong information to inquirers, sends it late and does not tailor it to inquirers’ specific interests. Marketing collects limited and uninformative data and updates them frequently. Marketing rarely compares separate databases – one for orders and one for inquiries, for example – and even more rarely merges them into a marketing information system.

5. MANAGEMENT DOES NOT HOLD SALESPEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE

Sales management does not insist on follow up and new prospect status reporting, even though it fusses and gripes over detailed expenses and call reporting.

6. MANAGEMENT DOES NOT HOLD MARKETING PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE

Chief marketing officers do not hold subordinates accountable for lead handling performance. They do not insist on program return on investment reports, for example, evidence that inquiry generation ties in with company sales goals or analyses of inquiry source productivity.

All six barriers are the product of poor communications, inattention, lack of knowledge, human frailties and the sublime dysfunctionalities that lurk within all organizations. None is the result of weak strategies, poorly designed products, sloppy manufacturing, competitive pressures, government regulations or inadequate capital the classic management issues that pre-occupy most companies in the world today.

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